#salmonic language

[nintendoteuthis]

I should note that, the way I'm picturing it in my head, Salmonid language doesn't consist solely of words. There's a repertoire of various barks, chirps, snarls, and hisses they make as well. These mostly convey interjections, commands, and short sentences. Things like "this way", "back off", contact and alarm calls, "I'm hungry", etc. Words usually come in when they need to convey something more complex, i.e. an actual sentence.

Salmonid vocals vary based on what type of Salmonid you are. Roughly, the larger the Salmonid is, the deeper and snarlier its voice gets. A Smallfry's babbling sounds relatively normal to the Inkling or Octoling ear. The average Chum or Cohock is capable of talking, but commonly use other vocalizations as well. Maws and Steelheads basically sound like orcs. Goldies are overall the most articulate and talkative; they're the ones that lead trade negotiations with Octarians. All the Cohozuna ever does is roar.

[nintendoteuthis]

Random Salmonid language tidbit: the Flipper-Flopper is known as Zashkadlashka (which is also the onomatopeia for "splish splash")

[nintendoteuthis]

Ikdziryachazgartsazh Skiakhazgu... siinyatl...

[nintendoteuthis]

Tlandugaradzuk Skiakhazgujuan, ikaraxaatlaksukciadz

[nintendoteuthis]

A few species name translations in my Splatlangs:

Inklish: Inkling, Octoling, Octarian, Salmonid

Octolingo: Warinka, Muka, Polanqo, Ulaska

Salmonic: Haki, Taagaki, Uktaria, Skiak

[nintendoteuthis]

A few linguistic details about my Splat Conlangs that nobody cares about:

Octolingo

g and ng are considered the same sound. It’s pronounced g at the beginning of a word (this is only present in loanwords) and ng everywhere else. The two are interchangeable in spelling

If the letter q appears at the end of a syllable, it can be dropped in favor of the glottal stop [ʔ]

There are two “to be” suffixes (somewhat comparable to Japanese -desu): -pa and -satu. -pa means “it is”; -satu is more along the lines of “there is”

“The ink weapons are in the house” -> Ma-torako towhan-visqa-pa

“There are ink weapons in the house” -> Ma-torako towhan-visqa-satu

There’s no marking of the subject and the object of a sentence. The subject always comes before the object, and if both are present both must be specified.

Example: La mi dasuna -> “I like it”. La dasuna would just be interpreted as “I like”; Mi dasuna would be interpreted as “it likes”

However, in quick casual speech, common phrases like that can be shortened, if the context makes it clear what you’re talking about

Example: “thank you” is formally la ni piskuna (”I thank you”), but in casual speech it can be shortened to just piska (roughly “thanks”)

Salmonic

The Salmonic word for salmonid is skiak. I like the sound of it

There are three grammatical genders: Greater, Lesser, and Neuter.

Greater nouns are generally large and/or important things, and have u as the last vowel

Lesser nouns are generally small and or/ insignificant things, and have i as the last vowel

Neuter nouns have a as the last vowel and don’t necessarily have either connotation

Some nouns have Greater and Lesser forms, which may mean slightly different things. In this case, there may also be a difference in consonants (voiced in Greater, unvoiced in Lesser)

Example: meals. A snack (Lesser) is jatsi. A full meal (Greater) is jadzu

Nouns are made plural with the suffix -c or -ca (whichever flows better). Multiple lesser salmonids are skiak-tic, multiple greater salmonids are skiak-ukca

However, if you are referring to multiple types of something, you use the suffix -zar. Many different types of food would be shaakzar

There are many personal pronouns, which translate to “me (Greater)”, “me (Lesser)”, “you”, “you (if I don’t like you)”, “he/she/they”, “we”, “we (just me and you)”, “we (excluding you)”, “we (speaking on behalf of all Salmonids)”, “you (plural)”, “you (plural, but I’m only speaking to one of you)”, “they (plural)”, and “they (if they’re the enemy)”

[nintendoteuthis]

I’m going to make the Salmonid conlang polysynthetic. So words are made of many different parts and can be compounded and strung together to make very long words. A single word can form a whole sentence in some cases. For example, the phrase “there are many intruders here” would translate as something like ikarlaguahiica.

I’m doing this for three reasons. One, so it contrasts with the grammar of the other Splat Languages I have going (Octolingo, Inklish, and Splatino). Two, some very obscure artbook Salmonid lore apparently says Salmonids can have long names with complex meanings (thank you @rassicas); this could go well with that. Three, I think it fits Salmonids; I can see them barking out lone words that carry the meaning of an entire sentence.

[nintendoteuthis]

I have very few thoughts about the Salmonid conlang yet, but I have the basic phonology down:

There are three basic vowels: a, i, and u. Each has long forms aa, ii, and uu. There are 21 consonants: c [the ch sound], d, dz, g, h, j, k, l, ll [same sound as in Welsh], n, ny [same as Spanish ñ], r [rolled if possible], s, sh, t, tl [same sound as in Nahuatl], ts, x [the back-of-the-throat fricative], y, z, and zh. Note no labial sounds; I figured that’d be hard to do if you’re a fish with a long snout.

I’ve also decided that it’s gonna be in verb-subject-object order, to contrast it Inklish and Splatino, which are subject-verb-object, and Octolingo, which is subject-object-verb. It makes sense that the fish language would be arranged differently than the cephalopod languages.