X Part 1 (old)
Classical Yäwurenyi
I decided to totally revamp Yäwurenyi, from the ground up. All old info (such as your Yäwu names) will stay as a ceremonial/religious language and minimal lingua franca. Names and numbers will be in it still because names are and should be as powerful as incantations. Officially nothing is coming to the new Yäwu language, with any similarities or cognates being exceptions or loans.
Here is the new family tree, X denotes extinct languages with no further decendents and the pencil denotes ones that have a native orthography. The arrow denotes a substrate influence.
Edit: ignore the gray on high common, it is a fluke selection in freemind
To begin with, here are some handy words in Classical Yäwurenyi so you can get a feel for it. I do not have a set phonology yet.
speak -- madob
tree -- nigi
mountain -- pesh
man -- kewanta
woman -- temeshi
And here is the one word I have run through all the different languages, "yes." Please tell me if this is plausible. I don't know the time scale. Extinct languages with no decendents are marked with a * and written ones are marked with a +
Classical /hEta/
- Early Alpine /heta/
-- Middle Alpine /heda/
--- Forest Alpine /hje:da/
---- Late Forest /h_je:d/
--- Lost Alpine * /ed{/
--- Late Alpine + /he?a/
---- Modern Alpine + /e?a:/
- Early Common /hEtsa/
-- East Mountain /ets@/
---- Late Eastern * /ets/
-- Middle Common /hE:tsa:/
--- High Common /e:tsa:/
---- North Slope * /idza:/
---- West Forest * /{:sa:/
--- Low Common /We:tSa/
---- Early Mountain /we:tsa/
----- Late Mountain /wE:sa/
------ Modern Mountain + /wESa/
---- Early Valley /hesa:/
----- Middle Valley + /EIsa:/
------ Late Valley + /Isa:/
------- Modern Valley + /sa:/
Oh, and pictures of the Yäwu
http://quanafi.googlepages.com/yawurenyi
Fun with noun classes and a couple cases!
life 0-
(examples kewanta man, temeshi woman, includes all living things)
water ni-, n- before vowels
fire du-, d- before vowels
earth la-, l- before vowels
air pe-, p- before vowels
note that living things can have an ascribed element, but no lexical one, but you never combine a gendered adjective with an elemented noun.
cases
nominative -0-
accusative -od-
genitive -met-
so if we have the root -pesh (mountain) which is naturally in the earth class, it's lapesh. if you sell the mountain you sell lodpesh, a mountain('s) man is lametpesh kewanta.
-ashed is a fall, so lashed is a landslide or rockfall, and nashed is a waterfall. nashed, nodashed, nimetashed. lashed, lodashed, lametashed.
I don't have verbs yet but you have the option of dropping to be where it's clear...
kewanta lametpesh nodashed. The man is at the mountain waterfall.
Adjectives take one of 4 natural genders based on the noun they modify
masculine ke-/k-
fem te-/t-
mixed (such as plants which have masculine and feminine reproductive organs) hu-/h-
neuter/unknown (quanafi, objects, and anything you can't remember the gender of except adult yawu or human men and women) 0-
new adj yugat brave
Here is a good example of how to use assigned noun classes, ceremonial lang names, and not mixing natural gendered adjectives and elemented nouns
Ranranfouwushaa (nuntar) lakewanta nuntar is an earth-man (see my naming and fortunes thread)
Ranranfouwushaa keyugat nuntar is brave-male
Ranranfouwushaa yugat lakewanta nuntar is a brave earth-man
Ranranfouwushaa keyugat lahimet (earth's) Nuntar is earth's brave-male.
Hüwryaasûr (me!) petemeshi Dazi is an air-woman
Hüwryaasûr teyugat Dazi is brave-fem
Hüwryaasûr yugat petemeshi Dazi is a brave air-woman
Hüwryaasûr teyugat petmet Dazi is air's brave-fem.
note that lahi, dua, pet, and ni are irregular in that they are element names, have no prefix and take cases as suffixes. they are the only four
On verbs:
I was thinking of a 4-way sorta "transtivity" based system
fu-/f- intransitive
ge-/g- stative (state of being)
ba-/b- transitive tangible
zi-/z- transitive intangible
-yer- 1p
-yov- 2p
-yash- 3p
-tu- plural
And verbs take gender in all persons, based on the subject, as with adjectives
Yovtu becomes /joftu/ because otherwise it's hard to say, so there is a little consonantal harmony
Examples!
"to be" = -d, gyovked = stative you male be = you_m are
to speak = -madob, fyashtutemadob = intrans 3p pl fem speak = they (female) speak
to speak = -madob, zyertemadob "hi" = trans_intang I_fem say "hi"... I say hi.
to throw = -deshal, byertuhudeshal lapesh = trans_tangi I_pl mixed throw earth-mountain = we throw mountains.
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Translation Challenge #1 (because it was a good length and sounded cool)
English (translation of a saying of Baha'u'llah):
Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you.
Classical Yawurenyi:
Qezyovmutan, shen pimetagak lamedgwent, adshen zyashtugen byashtugen qodgyovbel humeganil, shen nimetash pemetashel muan podagak dalzyovgen.
Literal:
Not-transitive_intangible-you-despair, and fire-genitive-day earth-genitive-plane, if-and t_i-they-become trans_tang-they-become not-accusative-stative-you-want mixed_gender-hegemons, and water-gen-joy air-gen-joy-happy because_for fire-acc-day future-t_i-you-become.
Retranslation:
Do not despair, of days and earthy planes, if the Hegemons ordain and manifest what you do not want, because you will gain days of blissful joy and heavenly delight.
Note that this is a bit rough because I don't know who I am speaking to so it is genderless and elementless mostly.
The hegemons are water, fire, earth, air, the 4 traditional elements which are seen to be both the components and the agents of change in the world of the Yawu. A loan from the human languages would be anachronistic with classical yawu, but a good back form of "God" would be Senyor Chos or just Chos. Then take out "tu" (the plural marker) in ordain and manifest.
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Another translation, this time of normal speech:
Tsiasuk-Pron wrote:
A very excellent poem, very evocative. Also your language is very beautiful sounding. As the Itlani say: "It flows like water on stone."
Itlani:
Dralunit pashni chadalafit gadanlír. Prundji bashit shol banadjinit djatyira. Kiinizhe ruvyaren ta Itlantanú: "Kiinizhe dozh pe chendjan prevyara."
Classical yawu:
Tsiasuk-piaron zyashmadob: Asitet denala gyashd, asiselamnat gyashd. Shen'l lasatmadob zyovd asisensakmetqesan. Ziyashtumadob Itlanise "Fyashluu nise lal'gumat"
Tsiasuk-pron says: very-top_good fire-song stat-it-be, very-heart-pull stat-it-be. And-more language(earth-share-speak) trans_intang-you-be very-sound_gen-beautiful. Tran_intang_they_say Itlani-as "intr-It_flows water-as earth-above-stone.
(note that shen'l is a contraction of shen-shel "and more," it is pronounced /SEn.l=/...lalagumat is often shortened to lal'gumat, as here)
Sound file please download if possible! (note that for some reason the speaker of this one pronounces <q> as /q/ [k] not as /k_w/ as is common in the cities)