#hhohultse

[conalnghing]

New updates on the conlang!!

In thisnpost i'm going to talk about the name of the language and fauna and flora vocabulary so you have a good idea of what the culture surrounding this language is, and also how im evolving a syllable block writing system and adding determanitives, but here are some boring clarifications of the previous post:

Phonology

A minor change about the sound /ʎ/, as i didnt know it was a different sound from the voiceless palatal lateral fricative (the ipa glyph of which doesnt render on my device💔💔💔). So if you see a /ʎ/ anywhere in posts about this conlang, just remember that it represents the voiceless palatal lateral fricative instead of /ʎ/ :)

Second thing is about the romanization, which i totally forgot to tell you guys about. Heres a list, ipa will be on the left and the romanized form will be on the right:(it has both digraphs and diacritics, so i apologize if its a bit messy and wierd)

Vowels

a - a

ɛ - e

i - i

y - î

ɯ -û

u - u

ə - ê

Consonants

t - t

d - d

k - k

g - g

q - q

ɸ - h

f - f

v - v

ɬ - lh

ʒ - zh

χ - hh

h - ħ

l - l

ʎ - ç

t͡s - ts

t͡ʃ - c

d͡z - dz

end of clarifications!!!

Name of the language

(Image is in the alphabetic syllabary: more on it later)

So far you may have noticed that i havent mentioned the name of this language so far, as i didnt have a name for it yet. But now, i finally have one!! It is:

Hhohulçna (IPA:χɔɸulʎna)

Gloss: air-breathe-AUG (literally "the great language/the powerful language")

I originally went with "Hhohuldzêlhê" (our language) but i felt like it would be a bit too common for a language name and too long for my tastes (even though most of the words in this language are long).

Flora and fauna vocabulary

For starters, Hhohuldzêlhê is from a culture heavily inspired by the Mayans, so of course i had to pick a new-world pre-columbian ecosystem. Some fauna words include:

cê (IPA: t͡ʃə) n.

snake (and also a homophone of "give")

dzlla (IPA: d͡zlːa) n.

fish, swimmer

tsêçtsîlla (IPA: t͡səʎt͡sylːa) n.

Gloss: hair-sharp.pointy (from "tsêç", "hair", and "tsîlla", "sharp, like a needle")

hagê (IPA: ɸagə) n.

squirrel

du (IPA: du) n.

jaguar, riddle, puzzle

qahhu (IPA: qaχu) n.

tapir (from the sound of a tapir)

Some flora words include:

hêlla (IPA: ɸəlːa) n.

vanilla, seed pod

kû (IPA: kɯ) n.

guava, rind

te (IPA: tɛ) n.

sweet potato

dê (IPA: də) n.

red chili, chili

tolla (IPA: tɔlːa) n.

green chili

tovê (IPA: tɔvə) n.

corn

These words are mainly concerned with food sources (turkey, armadillo, peccary, tapir, all the edible plants) and jaguar, which evolved to mean something that is considered dangerous or unpredictable, and later confusing. It's because of this that "jaguar" also means "puzzle, riddle", and later for problems (as in something to be answered) and rarely, an affix for words to make them dangerous or confusing (sort of like the augumentative affix but only for these two uses)

A lot of the animal words are derived from their sounds (or as close as i could match their sounds with the pheonemes i had and fitting the CV syllable structure), and the plant names are mostly random.

Script evolution

The language is now currently seperated into 3 stages: Proto Hhohulçna, Old Hhohulçna (which i have been using so far) and Classical Hhohulçna (the current language in my world, but i havent evolved most of the vocabulary to this point yet). Starting from here, i'll refer to them as PH, OH and CH respectively. I'll talk more about each of them in a later post, but right now ill focus on OH spelling rules.

In OH, if a consonant does not have a vowel after it, it takes on the dummy vowel "ê" in writing. Long consonants are written by either duplicating a character or adding the lenghthening mark (𠃍) below the character itself.

In between OH and CH, people started to add syllables belonging to dummy vowels above the block if the consonant was an onset, and after if it was a coda. In the above image is written "qê.lî-f.llo-cc", with "-f" and "-cc" written as stretched characters to the right of the main character.

Again, to save space, people lopped off the tops and bottoms of the consonant characters, creating an alphabetic syllabary.

An optional reading aid is for long consonants to add on an extra consonant to the syllable block before it, if it does not already have a coda:

As in "dzênnelho" (earn pay or a reward, gain food), it can be written as either "dzê.nne.lho" or as "dzên.nne.lho".

In the time of CH, word dividing has still remained basically the same out of tradition, even as paper became more easily mass-produced. Words with spaces are commonly seen on monuments for greater visiblity, or on official documents and work documents due to it's past connotation with royalty and formality. Words with dividing marks in the character itself remain the writing method of choice, due to higher information per amount of area and used on casual writings.

Both of these writing methods may appear on inscriptions, depending on aesthetics and the amount of space. For example, a lintel above a small doorway may use the spaceless "informal" text, while an inscription carved onto the walls may use the spaced "formal" text.

Besides different ways to seperate words from one another, this script is also unique in the fact that it uses determanitives. These determinatives reuse the original meanings of the syllable blocks, so the writer may add marks (commonly four strokes on the top, bottom or side of the determinative, indicating the bottom of the syllable "dzê", the first syllable of the word "dzlhê", meaning "to be like") to indicate that its not supposed to be read, or the reader may need to assume if the word has a determinative attached to it.

The determinatives appeared to solve one very annoying problem: as the language evolved into OH, some words became identical or almost identical, requiring determinatives to tell them apart.

The appearance of determinatives also changed the writing system a lot. Instead of writing the full word out (for example, hhoqûtsêqol, meaning bridge or solution. Written out as "hho.qû.tsê.qo.lê" in OH), the writer could write the start and end of a word, plus any other identifying syllable and a related determinative.

So instead of writing out all 5 complicated syllable blocks of "hhoqûtsêqol", one could instead write "hho.qo.lê" and add the determinative for "water" or for "stream".

Very long and complicated post today!! Hope it wasn't too confusing. I'll talk about some basic name derivation next time!!!

[conalnghing]

Hhohultsê vocab and some worldbuilding to go with it!!!

Now the conlang has enough roots (exactly 110 roots) to start creating more compound words and more specialized concepts, I've started some worldbuilding for the world that speaks this language, starting with the clothing and a simple social rank system.

Class system

In this world, there are three ranks of people:

-Commoners, the lowest rank. This rank is consists of the generic fantasy peasant class (farmers and servants), but craftspeople, musicians, merchants and foreigners (anyone who is not from the same cultural region as the place they are visiting) are also lumped into the peasant class.

-Nobles, the rank in the middle of the system. It consists of the extended family of a ruler, wether dead or alive. (the extended family of the extended family can also be nobles, but the line is fuzzy at this point)

-Royals, the nuclear family, grandparents and grandchildren of the current ruler. If the current ruler dies, their family all become nobles.

Upward movement through the classes is basically impossible, except by means of marriage or through a job. If you marry the child of the current ruler, you (and your nuclear family, grandparents and grandchildren) can become nobles: however the ruler would almost certainly forbid their children from marrying a commoner.

Upward movement through a job is also similarly hard: if your work gets influential enough (either by improving the area greatly, or if your art becomes favoured by the royals), you can become a noble. However, the most rulers don't easily hand out chances to become nobles.

Downward mobility, on the other hand, is much easier. The most obvious option is by death: your connection to a ruler is severed when the relative married to the ruler dies, so nobles become peasants and royals become nobles if this happens. Another way to fall through the ranks is by murdering another noble or royal, although this is easily solved by bribery.

Onto clothing!!!

Clothing

As the people live in a humid, subtropical-tropical area, clothing tends to lean towards the arier side. Cotton is the dominant fabric, while byssus is used to make small items (such as veils to cover body parts from mosquitoes) and is mostly used by rich nobles and the royal family. Animal pelts are only used ceremonially or during colder than usual winters.

Common fabric dyes here are:

Green: coneflower, sagebrush

Red: ochre, iron, cochineal, narra wood, achiote

Yellow: ochre, mushroom, marigold, pericon

Dark blue-purple: indigo, logwood

Black: cephalopod ink

Brown: galls, pecan leaves and hulls, acacia

Some body paint is also used in both formal and casual settings. (Some more on this later)

Most people have two outfits, a casual one and a formal one (used for important events and also for trips further away from home). This time, i'll focus on the formal outfit, footwear and some jewelry options as theres more to talk about (and also bc i only have art of the formal one rn)

Vocab in the image, from bottom to top. They are written out as english definition, hhohultsê romanization, spelling:

sandal/point of contact, tsiyya, ce.yyê.qa

sandal bead/semicircle (especially a semicircular prism), hunnûyutsilo, hu.nnû.yo.ce.lo

sandal (archaic)/mat/topsoil, gûyutsilo, kû.yo.ce.lo

feleçvilhço (finger paint),/ring of protection,/guards (group), feleçvilhço, fa.la.çhê.llo

tsênne (clothing)/bandage (inf.), tsênne, dzê.dznnê

dznêtse (bracelet), dznêtse, dznê.tse

zhotsaç (undershirt), zhotsaç, zho.tsaç

septum piercing/arc, ccêhh, cchhê

piercing/thing that is within the body, hhoqo, hho.qo

piercing hole/river mouth/opening, hhutohov, hhu.to.ho.vi

This is the typical formal outfit of a commoner. Iron jewelry is common, and one or two pieces of small gold jewelry might appear.

The formal outfit consists of a zhotsaç (gloss: cloth-DIM) that reaches below the thighs. It is a flowy undershirt comparable to a skirt with less hem support. This undershirt can be worn on it's own, but most people layer on one extra piece of clothing. The most common one is a tsênne (from, zhê dininê, "I wrap around"). This is long rectangular piece of fabric, made to be as thin as possible.

The middle is placed onto the back and the two sides are held out in front of the wearer. The longer side is then wrapped all the way around the body, with the top and bottom getting pinched with every wrap. The end of the longer side is then tucked through one of the folds made from wrapping it around and a knot is tied at the bottom. Finally, a belt is added to secure the tsênne.

Tsênnes and zhotsaçes often have simple patterns. Here, the zhotsaç is colored red from the chest down, while the tsênne is dyed with another pattern, made by dipping one end of the tsênne into dye or using a brush to color one end. This makes a gradient, so the bottommost fold is darkest and vice versa. Sometimes, the bottom of the tsênne is pleated, or designs can be dyed, embroidered or woven into the bottom of the fabric, making a stripe pattern.

Footwear here is made out of woven grass, as is with most places. An animal hide or leather strap is used to secure the foot. Pieces of woven grass or rope is then connected from the strap closer to the ankle to the strap closer to the toes. Decorative beads called hunnûyutsilo (gloss: wood-walk-CAUS. walk-CAUS is the word for sandal, "gûyutsilo") are tied to these strings. Commonly made in a semicircular prism instead of a circular prism to prevent too much friction or movement, hunnûyustilo can be made of wood, metal, glass, pearl and almost any material that can be carved.

Onto accesories!!

Ear and septum piercings are the most popular types of piercings. (hhoqo) The word for septum piercing, ccèhh (gloss: nose-LOC), can also mean an arc.

Piercings are made from one thin strip of metal (commonly iron, but more malleable metals like gold tend to be more popular as a status symbol), which are inserted through the piercing hole (hhutohov, gloss: wound-beautiful). A common type of earring is one with three interlocking rings, which you can see in the image.

Bracelets (dznêtse, gloss: hand-rim.container) , also made from metal, are also popular. The bracelet in the image is made of iron with a wave pattern on it, which makes the hand look like a pot filled with water. This design is popular among people who handle lots of sharp things, as it's supposed to prevent too much blood from "overflowing" out of their hand if they cut themselves by making the water level stay at the same place permanently.

Finger paint (feleçvilhço, gloss: finger-dog-VBZ. dog-VBZ is also the word for "to protect out of love", halhhêllo) is an easier to remove way of protection. Chalk or ash pigments are painted in a ring around a finger to protect them from infection (and by extension cuts) as they look kinda like tourniquets. A few other colors have their own meanings when painted on different areas of the body. Red (made with ochre, cochineal or achiote) is to never be painted on any major veins, as it is said to increase the chance of bleeding out. However, red painted on the cheeks or neck is said to bring love. (because of blushing) Another example is yellow (made with ochre, marigold, pericon), which if you paint in a wave pattern on your stomach of throat, is said to help with nausea or stomachache. (as it keeps the bile down, like with the wave bracelet)

[conalnghing]

toungetwister sentence demonstration time!!!!

Im back from a short while of worldbuilding and i did an example sentence+toungetwister for this conlang:

Ççlhêçê cê ççna chêçlhêdztan ccllocci clho dzlhê çqê.

IPA: /ʎːɬəʎə t͡ʃə ʎːna t͡ʃɸəʎɬəd͡ztan t͡ʃːlːɔt͡ʃi t͡ʃɬɔ d͡zɬə ʎqə/

Meaning: Near the avocado, tongues were making pieces of the big snake (become) cold.

GLOSS: tongue-PL snake big fragment-PL-GEN cause-PINDEF cold be.like avocado-LOC

The sentence is in Old Hhohultsê, so you won't see any determinatives or syllable blocks. Even though this doesnt represent the Classical Hhohultsê script much, it stil demonstrates lots of basic grammar.

Firstly, you can see some of the noun cases and modifiers in action: the plural marker, "lhê" (or çê if the attatched word ends in "lhê"), the genetive marker (dztan, attatched to the thing being belonged) and the locative marker (qè).

For the tenses, this sentence just uses the past indefinite, to indicate that it happened sometime in the past, like in English. Another past tense in this language is the past imperfect, which also becomes a habitual tense in Classical Hhohultsê.

The locative marker tends to eat up previous syllables, as in "avocado", "çto". The obvious conjugation should be "çtoqê", but after the loss of vowels between obstruents and loss of plosives neighboring q, it turns into "çqê".

The locative marker, when used on a place (such as "tutsê", open area or plaza), means that the action after it takes place inside the area. However, when used on a "weird" noun (such as avocado in this case), it can be taken to mean it happens in the general vicinity of it, or a place where a clear sightline of it exists.

The last thing shown here is that Old Huohultsê uses the SOV word order, which influences many of the adjective and modifier postitions to be after the noun, except in rare cases where the modifier evolved out of exclamations. (for example, the vocative "ha", which comes before the noun. It comes from a short scream to catch someones attention.)

Lastly, i want to talk about an important distinction for adjectives in Hhohultsê. If the subject is becoming more like the adjective, the adjective is used as the object and the verb "dzlhê", to be like, is put after it. If the subject is already like the adjective, no verb will be used and the adjective will be used normally

For example,

dzeqo ccllo zhê clho dzlhê.

Gloss: water cause 1ps cold be.like

Water makes me cold.

vs

zhê clho.

Gloss: 1ps cold

I am cold.

This was a short post, but i've done one piece of art to worldbuild clothing in this word and i'll introduce some clothing vocabulary along with it next time, and maybe also a verb irregularity demonstrations!!!