LangTime Studio

Creating a language one day at a time! A YouTube Series with hosts Jessie Sams and David Peterson.

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Our last Sovála Lexember word of the season comes from our rabbit language Engála. Building on yesterday's post, the blood water first emerged in the old days and soon dissipated. It's reemerged years and years later in the middle of Lake Sovála, so named for its shape (sovála means "great heart" in Engála), and now the animal kingdoms are once again fighting with one another in attempt to control it.

Thanks for reading along and learning a bit about the languages of LangTime Studio and Sovála: The Battle of the Blood Water! If you want to follow along as we create our brand new bat language, you can find us on YouTube every Thursday at 2:00 p.m. Pacific!

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our cat language Sarkezhe. All the animals of Savála evolved bipedal, humanoid qualities after human beings were wiped out via a substance that emerged in the waters of eastern Canada. What the cats call yikwi, also known as the blood water (so called by the rabbits), gave small mammals the power of speech and sentience. It emerged once in the old days, and what followed were the first wars of the animals, after which they reached a somewhat stable peace. Though they remained separate societies, they established regular contact with one another and got on well together—until the day the blood water emerged again.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our dog language Haughòf. For the last three days of Lexember we'll be translating the title of relevant word for the game's title: Sovála: The Battle of the Blood Water. We're using Haughòf to illustrate a word for "battle". In this case, a battle in Haughòf is a thing where you gather and growl, thus a battle is amùghù: a gather-n'-growl.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our fox language Loh Akish. Foxes are naturally sneaky and possess the ability to pass through traps and rough terrain unhindered. The Loh Akish verb for "to sneak" is shäs.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our beaver language Nulisü. Carpenters have the ability to build battlements on the battlefield that assist their teammates, hinder enemies, or serve as generic terrain improvements that can be used by anyone (e.g. a hand ladder that crosses over water). The modern Nulisü word for "to build" is a reduplication of the old word for "to build" dhãdhã.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our dog language Haughòf. The most basic form of attack is a melee attack, and the word for this from Haughòf is a compound of the verbs "to scratch" and "to bite". The result is uaghḅae.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our cat language Sarkezhe. Spellcasters cast spells, of course, but cats specifically swipe spells at other animals. The verb for "to swipe" in Sarkezhes is pretty basic, as you might imagine, thus the verb that means "to swipe" or "to cast a spell" is khi.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our mouse language Wokuthízhű. The bards of Sovála play songs to strengthen their allies and weaken their enemies. Bards usually sing to accompany their playing, and the Wokuthízhű word for "to sing" is zhálá.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our opossum language Tpaalha. When attacked with a basic attack, a unit may actively defend the attack. In Tpaalha, the word for "to defend" is tshiet.

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Today's Lexember word from Sovála comes from our rabbit language Engála. This week we'll be focusing on gameplay mechanics. The special kingdom ability for the rabbits is hopping. Rabbits can hop over stuff in addition to their base movement. The word for "hop" in Engála is ahe.

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our fox language Loh Akish. One of my favorite units in the entire game is the four star archer Meghus. An archer's primary weapon in Loh Akish is the minkhüm "bow" or "pull stick".

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our beaver language Nulisü. Being carpenters, a natural weapon for the beavers is the thakipak "axe", or the "hammer tooth".

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our dog language Haughòf. Their main fighting class tends to use some sort of club to bonk other critters with, and Haughòf has a really good word for a bonker: gankò. It derives from "bash stick".

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our cat language Sarkezhe. This particular cat is a solimancer—light magic user—and the solimancer's weapon of choice is the ikhtezhe "staff" (a.k.a. claw stick).

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our mouse language Wokuthízhű. Another bard instrument is the drum, and the Wokuthízhű word for "drum" is popo. The character banging out the tunes here is named Nílípe, in honor of our dear little rat friend who banged out the tunes for us on April 13, 2006.

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our opossum language Tpaalha. Defenders use a shield to block attacks and bash their enemies, and the Tpaalha word for shield is dzhaak. Ultimately it derives from the old Tpaalha word for "shell".

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Today's Lexember glyph from Sovála comes from our rabbit language Engála. This week we'll e taking a look at animal weaponry. Bards use instruments to play magical songs, and this particular rabbit bard uses a stringed instrument called a membédza, which ultimately derives from the phrase "whisker box".