#phonology is fine

[i-miss-music-247]

If this week doesn't kill me, next week just might.

[deadpoet117]

I’m currently working on a grammar for Old Dwarven in my ttrpg world and have the phonology, morphology, alphabet, and syntax down. I’m filling out the lexicon now.

On a scale of 1-10, how interested would yall be in seeing it?

[mewling-central]

Introduction to Collective Seraphic

Now that Seraphic's at a stable place, I think I'm gonna take some time to delve into the basics of how it operates. For this post I'll only be going into the language itself and not the writing system, as that's going to need a post of its own to elaborate on. I'll try to keep this as concise as possible, but I may make separate posts expanding on topics discussed in this one. So, without further ado, onto the infodump!

Background

Collective Seraphic (which I'll be referring to as "Seraphic") is an artlang that I've created for a comic that as of this post I have not began yet, but am still developing. The majority of the comic will take place on the Seraph Homeworld, an alien planet some 3,000 lightyears from Earth populated by the seraph species (pictured below):

Within the story, Seraphic acts as the lingua franca of the Seraph Homeworld and the many colonized planets under Seraph control. It's used in the government, and among speakers of differing languages. As such, this language was the first one that I knew I would need to make as it will play a vital role in both the storytelling and narrative structure.

Syntax

Seraphic is largely a fusional language, employing affixes to modify the semantic role and meaning of morphemes. Seraphic does not, in the traditional sense, have verbs, so the sentence structure is strictly subject-object (will expand upon later). Nouns decline for number and tense, and are grouped into seven noun classes. Adjectives agree with nouns in number, except if derived from nouns themselves, in which case they'll also agree in class. Seraphic is very head-initial; with demonstratives, numerals, possesives, adjectives, genitives, and relative clauses following the noun the modify; and prepositions preceeding the nouns they modify. Auxiliaries preceed procedurals (again, will expand upon later).

Phonology

Here is the phonological chart for Seraphic:

It has a syllable structure of (CC)V(CC). Plosives cannot exist word finally, clusters of consonants of the same manner are illegal, and vowel clusters are also not permitted. Syllabic consonants are grouped with vowels and behave much like them, carrying tone and stress, so they together are grouped and referred to as vocalics. Seraphic is a tonal language, employing the use of four tones: rising (á), falling (à), high (ā), and low (a). Low tones remained unmarked in both the Seraphic script and in romanization. Stress is syllable-independant. It will take either the ultimate, penultimate, or rarely the antepenultimate. Stress always falls on the syllable with a voiceless initial obstruent nearest to the end of the word. If none are available, it will fall on the syllable with an initial sonorant within the same parameters. Stress will never fall on a voiced obstruent. For clarity, I'll provide a key describing the pronunciation of the romanization.

Sounds that are similarly pronounced as they're read in American English:

m, n, p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, z, y, w, l

Sounds that have special pronunciations:

ŋ, like the ng in English "sing"

p', like the ጴ in Amharic "ጴጥሮስ"

t', like the t' in Navajo "yá'át'ééh"

k', like the კ in Georgian "კაბა"

', like the the space within English "uh-oh"

c, like the sh in English "sharp"

j, like the s in English "measure"

x, like the gh in English "ugh"

ğ, like the γ in Greek "γάλα"

pf, like the pf in German "Pfirsiche"

ts, like the z in Italian "grazia"

tc, like the ch in English "chain"

kx, like the kh in Lakota "lakhóta"

r, like the rr in Spanish "perro", although occasionally like the r in Spanish "amarillo"

i, like the ee in English "meet"

į, like the ы in Russian "ты"

u, like the oo in English "boot"

e, like the é in French "beauté"

œ, like the a in English "Tina"

o, like the o in Classical Latin "sol"

a, like the a in English "bra" although this can change to be more forward or more backward.

Another letter that might trip people up is ł, which is meant to represent the high tone syllabic 'l'. Otherwise, syllabics are written the same as their pulmonic counterparts, with tone markers written when applicable.

Nouns

Nouns make up the bulk of the Seraphic lexicon. Every noun is grouped into one of seven classes:

Solar class: nouns related to seraphim or seraph-like beings, and seraph body parts. Prefix appears as zā-, zō-, zē-, s-, or ts-.

sēr = "person"

Astral class: nouns related to non-seraph animate lifeforms (their equivalent to "animals"). Prefix appears as ğr-, x, or kx-.

xuc = "cherub"

Vital class: nouns related to inanimate lifeforms (their equivalent to "plants"). Prefix appears as wā-, wō, w-, ū-, wē-, or wī-.

wējlux = "tree"

Terranean class: nouns related to landscapes, locations, and natural phenomena. Prefix appears as va-, vo-, vu-, f-, and pf-.

voxāl = "sun"

Metallic class: nouns related to inanimate objects, both natural and artificial. Prefix appears as ja-, jo-, c-, or tc-.

jağrú = "rock"

Lunar class: nouns related to abstract concepts, and terms related to time. Prefix appears as la-, lo-, le-, li-, y-, or l/ł-.

levren = "job"

Oceanic class: nouns related to general words, tangible concepts, numbers, all adjectives, and non-incorporated loanwords. Prefix appears as a/ā-, o/ō-, or aw-.

awuf = "group"

Adjectives do not agree in class, due to the fact that nouns originally are derived from adjectives, and noun classes acted as a way to differentiate between nouns and adjectives.

fa = "warm, hot"

jafa = "fire" (lit. "a hot thing")

When adjectives are used as predicatives, they decline into the oceanic class in order to take the procedurals (once more, will expand upon later).

Nouns also decline for four numbers: singular (one thing, usually unmarked), dual (two things, both things; suffixes as -ac, -oc, -œc, or -c), plural (things, many thing; suffixes as -n, -an, or -in), and collective (every thing, all things; suffixes as -āf/ōf, -áf/-óf, or -'ōf).

Seraphic doesn't use pronouns. Everything and everyone is referred to by name, including yourself. From our perspective, the Seraphic language constantly speaks in the third person. However, it can be repetitive to use the same name over and over again in a sentence, and sometimes you don't know the name of things, so they'll apply what I've called pro-forms. They consist of the demonstrative adjectives fl "this", sl "that", and xl "yon" declined into the Solar class and taking the place of the first, second, and third person respectively. For ease of reference, I'll provide the forms and their declensions below.

zāfl (I/me), zāflc (both of us), zāvlin (we/us), zāfláf (all of us)

zāsl (you), zāslc (both of you), zāzlin (you guys), zāsláf (all of you)

zōxl (they), zōxlc (both of them), zōğlin (many of them), zōxláf (all of them)

Seraphic makes no distinction in the gender of the speaker, in this regard. Although these resemble pronouns, they're not meant to be used as often as regular pronouns, and whenever possible it's much preferred that you refer to someone or something by name.

Adjectives and Prepositions

Adjectives are fairly straightforward. Adjectives follow the noun they modify (e.g. sēr tan "big person"), and agree with them in number (e.g. sēr tan "big person" vs sērn t'aŋon "big people"). Adjectives agree in the singular form with singular and collective nouns, and they agree in the plural form with dual and plural nouns.

There are three main types of adjectives: native adjectives (e.g. cna "good"), borrowed adjectives (e.g. anzn "nice"), and noun-derived adjectives (e.g. arfi/ofi "new"). Native and borrowed adjectives don't agree with noun classes, but noun-derived adjectives do. It originated from the animacy-based adjective agreement system in Proto-Seraphic, which has been lost in all other adjective instances. When you want to make a noun into an adjective you'll affix one of two prefixes to it: ar- (if agreeing with Solar, Astral, and Vital nouns) and o- (if agreeing with Terranean, Metallic, Lunar, and Oceanic nouns). There are specific rules on the forms each prefix takes based on the noun they're attached to:

"ār-" when preceeding high or falling vocalic syllables (e.g. sēr ārzājna "popular person")

"ar-" when preceeding low or rising vocalic syllables (e.g. wēn arfe "local fruit")

"ó-" when preceeding high or falling vocalic syllables (e.g. lalel ówē "grassy flavor")

"o-" when preceeding low or falling vocalic syllables (e.g. lesar olvulvren "economic problem")

"ōw-" when preceeding words that start with a vocalic (e.g. lnin ōwāsāvbas "momentary event")

Prepositions occur before the nouns they modify, and don't change form in any circumstance. There are currently 19 prepositions in the modern language, and they are usually connected to nouns via a hyphen (e.g. e-fe "at (the) place"):

cu = of; indicates possession

pr̄ = indicates the indirect object, equivalent to "to" in the phrase "The man sends the letter to me."

in/īn = as or like; indicates similarity or resemblance. Will either be low or high tone depending on the tone of the following syllable.

e/ē = at or on; indicates location.

tsa = near or for; indicates relative distance from a location or an action performed for the sake of the referent.

cni = without; indicates a lack of possession or company.

wa = in or inside of; indicates interior position.

tn = on top of, above, or before; indicates superior position or a prior instance in time.

pux = under, beneath, or after; indicates inferior position or a following instance in time.

pi = with, together with; indicates being in company of or making use of the referent.

fān = from or away from; indicates the motion of leaving the referent.

ku = out of; indicates motion from within the referent towards the exterior.

tun = into or through; indicates motion from outside the referent towards the interior.

xel = to or towards; indicates the motion of approaching the referent.

kxun = across; indicates motion from one location to another

pn̄ = around; indicates location surrounding the referrent.

cāza = between; indicates location in the middle of the referrent.

tē = after, behind; indicates posterior position.

fr = during; indicates a moment in time

Prepositions aren't combined in Collective Seraphic, but may be in certain instances in colloquial speech.

Procedurals

Okay, this is probably the most complicated part of Seraphic, so I'm going to need to get into things individually. First, I'll start with defining a procedural itself. Procedurals are the term I use for the prefixes used to describe the relationship or process of and between the agent noun and the patient noun. These are what act as the equivalent to "verbs" in earth languages. There are three in use:

Existential: used to denote a state of being or equivalence between agent and patient, or to the patient and itself. Equivalent to English "to be" (e.g. A is B, there is B). Usually prefixes as some variant of n-, m-, or ŋ-.

Actional: used to denote an action or process between the agent and patient, or with the patient and itself. Equivalent to English "to do" or "to act upon" (e.g. A acts upon B). Carries a connotation of agency and intent. Usually prefixes as some variant of re-, ra-, or r-.

Resultative: used to denote an occurence or change in state between agent and patient, or patient and itself. Equivalent to English "to become", "to happen", or "to change into" (e.g. A becomes B, B happens to A). Carries a connotation of passiveness or motion. Usually prefixes as some varient of ed- or ez-.

The procedural will change its form slightly depending on the class and declension pattern of the noun it modifies. It always affixes to the patient noun, demonstrating a relationship of an action and what is being acted upon. In this way, the patient can be clearly identified. In transitive or causative clauses, the word order is always S(P)O, with the agent acting as the subject and the patient as the object. In intransitive and passive clauses, the word order is always (P)S, with the patient acting as the subject and the agent demoted to the indirect object or omitted entirely.

Although seemingly limiting, using these three procedural, as well as prepositions, nouns, and adjectives, altogether can be used to make all sorts of verb equivalents that are called "procedural phrases". I'll demonstrate how to build a sentence now. First thing we need to know is the subject and object:

Sāx ... jafa (The child ... the fire)

Next, I'll add the actional procedural in the present tense to this.

Sāx rejafa (The child acts upon the fire)

By itself this is technically grammatically correct, but it doesn't really mean anything. It's too broad. So we add a prepositional phrase to specify exactly what action the child is taking towards the fire.

Sāx pi-sīman rejafa (The childs acts upon the fire with (their) eyes)

Now we know that the child is performing an action involving the use of their eyes. Now of course this could mean many different things in English, but in Seraphic the first thing that comes to mind would be fairly obvious: to see! Thus, "Sāx pi-sīman rejafa" would be the same as saying "The child sees the fire" in English! There are a lot of set phrases that equate to verbs, and remain consistent in their arrangement. Often differing phrases are a useful way to ascertain where someone is from or what their first language is.

Tense and Aspect

Seraphic has six main tenses: two pasts, two presents, and two futures. The two pasts consist of the recent past (happening recently) and the remote past (happening a long time ago), and they prefix and/or combine with the procedural.

Sāx pi-sīman ğrejafa (The child just saw the fire)

Sāx pi-sīman eğrejafa (The child saw the fire a while ago)

Similarly, the future tenses consist of the near future (will happen soon) and the distant future (will happen eventually).

Sāx pi-sīman drejafa (The child will soon see the fire)

Sāx pi-sīman izrejafa (The child will eventually see the fire)

The present tenses consist of a general present tense (happens) and the infinitive (to happen) which is used with auxiliaries and copulae and carries no presence in time.

Sāx pi-sīman rejafa (The child sees the fire)

Pi-sīman ezrejafa (To see a fire)

Whether someone considers an event to be nearer or farther in time from them is completely up to their discretion. There's no set timeframe for when to use the recent vs. remote past, it's all fairly subjective. However, whether you decide to use the recent or remote can really indicate whether you believe something to be in the distant past or future, or just a few moments ago or soon.

Seraphic also makes use of two copulae, the perfective -r and the imperfective -l, helping clitics that expand on the aspect of the procedural, i.e. how the procedural happens over time instead of when in time. The copulae are separate from the procedural, being placed directly before it and conjugating on their own similarly to the lexical procedural. When the copulae are in use, they are conjugated instead of the lexical procedural, while the lexical will be put into the infinitive. The exception to this is if the point in time is considered necessary to be stated for the sake of clarity or emphasis, in which case the lexical verb will also conjugate (though this isn't considered to be the default). The two copulae each conjugate to six tenses, and give 12 individual aspects in total. They are as follows, starting with the perfective:

āgxōnr - Pluperfect: indicates that the action happened at a point before some time in the past either specified or implied (e.g. āgxōnr nidsl "that has happened")

xōnr - Preterite: indicates that the action happened in the past with no reference to if it was completed recently or remotely. A general past (e.g. xōnr nidsl "that happened")

nar - Relative: indicates relative clauses, i.e. clauses that act to modify a noun similarly to an adjective. Equivalent to "that", "who", or "which" (e.g. lsl nar nidsl "the thing that happens")

ednr - Gnomic: indicates general truths, common knowledge, and aphorisms (e.g. ednr nezłsl "things happen")

t'enr - Future Simple: indicates the action will happen in the future with no regard to how near or far it is from the present (e.g. t'enr nidsl "that will happen")

āt'ēnr - Future Perfect: indicates that the action will happen before a time or event in the future (e.g. āt'ēnr nidsl "that will have happened")

And the imperfective:

ŋ̄xōzl - Discontinuous: indicates that an action was happening in the past, but is no longer happening in the present (e.g. ŋ̄xōzl nidsl "that used to happen")

xōzl - Habitual: indicates that an action is done often or out of habit (e.g. xōzl nidsl "that always happens")

��zl - Progressive: indicates that an action is happening at the very moment of conversation (e.g. īzl nidsl "that is happening")

nizl - Prospective: indicates that an action will be starting to, or is in the process of happening (e.g. nizl nidsl "that is about to happen")

t'ezl - Iterative: indicates that an action happens again, repeatedly, or more than one time based on context (e.g. t'ezl nidsl "that happens again" or "that happens again and again")

nt'ezl - Continuative: indicates that an action happens continuously and without end (e.g. nt'ezl nidsl "that still happens")

With both tense and aspects, this largely expands the capability of Seraphic in referring to time.

Moods

Seraphic makes use of seven modal particles to denote seven moods. They are always placed at the beginning of clauses, and no two modal particles can exist in the same clause. They are grouped into four categories: the declaritive (indicative and negative), the inferential (evidential and interrogative), the deontic (volitive and imperative), and the epistemic (subjunctive and conditional). They add extra clarity in the speakers mood or opinion concerning the clause they modify, and are as follows:

Indicative: base form of a clause. Indicates that the speaker is stating a fact or what exists, and is unmarked (e.g. idsl "that happens")

tu - Negative: indicates that the speaker is stating a fact that is untrue or what doesn't exist. Usually only appears in formal, official texts, as the first syllable of the procedural will chage tone to contrast as well and leaves the particle unneccesary in colloquial speech (e.g. tu īdsl "that doesn't happen")

cuc - Evidential: indicates that the speaker is stating a fact that they believe or understand to be true, regardless of having experienced it or not. (e.g. cuc idsl "apparently that happens") Direct evidentiality is denoted using a different method.

an/ān - Interrogative: indicates that the speaker is confirming whether a statement is or isn't true. Forms questions (e.g. an idsl? "does that happen?")

tcān - Volitive: indicates that the speaker desires for the statement to be true (e.g. tcān idsl "that wants to happen" or "that needs to happen" or "that should happen")

má - Imperative: indicates that the speaker is giving a command or suggestion, to themselves and/or to other referents. Functions additionally as a cohortative and a jussive (e.g. má idsl! "let that happen!")

tir - Subjunctive: indicates that the speaker believes the statement to be possible or likely (e.g. tir idsl "that could/would/might happen")

nun - Conditional: indicates that speaker believes the statement to be possible under specific circumstances or conditions (nun idsl "if/when that happens..."

Miscellaneous

That's about the basics of the Seraphic language outline. I'd like to eventually get into things like comparison, evidentiality, declension forms and the like, but those are all topics that definitely need their own individual posts. Real quick, I want to provide one more additional fact about Seraphic.

Seraphic uses base-16, meaning it groups numbers in sets of 16 instead of sets of 10 like we do. 1-16 would be written 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10. 10 would be read as 16, and equally 20 would be 32. They're still counting the same amount of things, they're just dividing it up differently!

Anyways that's about it, I hope to share more about Seraphic soon, and when the comic gets released I hope you'll all be able to read it and pick out the many many lines of Seraphic I've poured into it!

ŋKowīci cu-stux 'ōf tsa-levp'ā cu-zāsláf pi-lizt'n ğōdjasa! (Thank you all so much for reading!)

[bookwyrminspiration]

you realize there's functionally no difference between "or-AL-ee" and "oral-ee" right?

this is why "ora-lee" is superior

I can't, actually, as oral-ee isn't a complete syllabification. Since oral is kept together (instead of or-al with one capitalized to show the stress), you have to assume it's pronunciation and where the stress is. (putting the syllable in all caps shows the emphasis but I don't know the term for that, i don't think it's part of syllabification)

Since the word oral is pronounced OR-al, with the stress on the first syllable, I use that when I read oral-ee. But if you're reading it as or-AL in oral-ee, then I understand how you see functionally no difference. I see OR-al-ee, you see or-AL-ee. So you don't see a difference while I do! Seems small, but makes quite the impact!

I'd also say, for me at least, that ora-lee isn't much more helpful without clarity on where the emphasis should be, as when reading it I'm not sure if it's ORA-lee or ora-LEE. stressors really change it up!

then again these are character names so it's not super important, but nevertheless! that's my thought process on it

[mishkakagehishka]

Idc ab my battery life anymore i'm leaving after my next class actually

[isa-renee]

[awrkive]

[DRABBLE] COLD NIGHTS & BLURRED LINES (m) — JJK.

you were used to jungkook making the first move every single time but this particular night, you couldn't help but change things up a little bit.

PAIRING jungkook x (fem) reader

GENRE r18+ (minors dni pls)

WORD COUNT 4.1k (this is def not a drabble anymore but its like 70% smut anyway saur 🤷🏼‍♀️)

WARNINGS/MISC jk in grey tracksuit 😢 oc is not a procrastinator everybody booed. kinda domestic vibes everyone wants to have what they have including ms delusional me !! this is my literally me fic kinda (this is literally just oc thirsting over jungkook OEBDIDHSJEB) also imagine 3D jungkook guys.... 🙏🏼 smut warnings: oral s*x (m&f receiving, 69 position), penetrative s*x, multiple positions, overst*mulation, creampies, unprotected s*x (dont fls 🙏🏼)

NOTES heyyy so i reread cnbl last night and scrolled thru unanswered messages on my inbox and found these 2 (amongst many IEBDIDHSHD) drabble reqs for cnbl and decided to write it bcs i love and miss them!! unfortunately i lost my ao3 password and i have nowhere to post this so whatever im gonna start posting here again LMFAOOOO. anyway, i hope u guys enjoy this 💗 this is most esp dedicated to the second anon i hate college as well i hope this drabble brings you joy ☺️

‼️CN&BL FULL FIC CAN BE READ HERE

You missed who you were thirty minutes ago.

Before Jungkook arrived, you were extremely focused on the essay you've been stalling to get done since last week.

You were set on finishing the paper tonight, determined to submit it a day prior to the deadline – which is two days from now. You've never been a procrastinator and you wouldn't dare start now. But ever since Jungkook called, arriving a little over five minutes after your conversation on the phone and entering your dorm room, you have never been the same. Gone was your will to finish your essay; it yeeted out the window the moment he came in.

It wasn't that he was doing anything wrong, per se. He wasn't pestering you or doing anything to distract you from doing whatever it was you were doing. During the phone call, Jungkook told you he just wanted to hang around and you were in on it. "As long as I finish this essay without you doing anything funny" – that, was what you said. Joking, a little pointed, when he came barging in your door, socks on and hair still slightly wet from the shower he most probably had at his own apartment.

When you said those words, the goof just wiggled his brows, smirking with a look of mischief written all over his face, and then kissed you in such an unnecessarily passionate way that had you internally keening when he broke away. That gave you an initial idea that he would, indeed, do some funny business. If you were honest to yourself, you wouldn't have really minded that at all.

That was thirty minutes ago. Jungkook surprisingly hasn't tried to touch you at all for the past thirty minutes. In the present, he is just sprawled on your bed watching something on your stupid iPad, airpods plugged in both ears, letting you work in peace on your laptop.

Thirty minutes ago, that would've been fine. Because ultimately, you could focus on your essay and finish it then pass it way before the deadline but no, your problem right this moment does not lie on phonology, it lies on why does Jungkook have to lean his back on the headboard, thick eyebrows meeting each other every now and then as he watched his movies, and put that white t-shirt and grey sweatpants on himself?

You've been having an internal battle with yourself trying to fight the urge to look over your shoulders for him every three damn minutes, groaning quietly as you thought about how Jungkook looked so ridiculously hot doing the bare minimum. Literally nothing. He was doing absolutely nothing. And he was making you feel weird in your belly!

Wait. Is it your period? It ended two weeks ago, though, so that is definitely not that. Maybe you are ovulating? You'd have to check your flow app.

Absent-mindedly, you let out the begrudging moan you've been trying to hide.

"God."

As if alarmed, Jungkook suddenly shoots up and speaks after what felt like centuries.

"You okay? Am I bothering you here?" He said, voice dripping with honey and face full of concern. You got even hornier.

Oh my god. You wanted to cry.

You send him a tight-lipped smile. "I'm fine. And uh, no. You're good."

Jungkook doesn't pry further and goes back to his binge. Meanwhile, you force yourself to think of something.

Another long five minutes later, and you are still halfway done with your essay. The unfinished document only seems to taunt you. So, you let out another sigh, quite quiet this time so you don't make Jungkook think he was being an inconvenience. You made up your mind and just decided to give in to your urges.

You shut your laptop down instead of pressing sleep as you are sure there is no way you can do any more work tonight.

Standing up from your seat, you approach Jungkook on your bed.

He looks up at you the moment you hovered over him, taking his eyes off the iPad. When the mattress dips from your weight, Jungkook's lips stretch into a cute smile.

Your horniness dissipates a little over his adorable face.

"Done?" He asks, lifting a hand over your face to tuck a strand of hair away that you didn't even notice. You shake your head. Jungkook leans down to kiss your cheek. "So, tired?"

You scrunch your nose. "Kinda."

He kisses your mouth when a pout forms there.

"Eaten anything yet?" Jungkook scoots over to the side to make room on the bed for you. You fit yourself in the space, albeit tight (this was a dorm room, alright), and Jungkook is quick to slide his arm under your neck while he still holds the iPad on the other.

"Just reheated some leftover pasta from last night." You cringe over your last meal. It didn't taste good at all but you were way too hungry and delivery took forever to your dorm.

Jungkook seems to know that that pasta was shit, but he doesn't comment on that. Just hums and kisses the side of your head.

Ugh.

"Wanna order something in? Thai?" He suggests, looking at you.

But right now, eating Thai or whatever is the last thing on your mind. Though you would like to eat something else.

You tell him so. Except the last part, of course. Please. You have decorum.

"Uhm, no. I think I'll pass on that. Unless you haven't eaten." you say, playfully pointing a finger to his chest.

"Nah, Taehyung cooked dinner. I'm pretty full." Jungkook says, chuckling.

You had a smart remark on your tongue, something along the lines of, "Then why'd you offer to eat if you already have, weirdo" but to be honest with yourself, you already knew why. Jungkook liked seeing you eat. Dude practically buys most of your meals, now that you think about it.

But your still horny-adled brain went to go and tell your hand to search for his bare stomach under his shirt. And so it did. Forget about having decorum, shame is out the door when you press your palm to the flat surface of his stomach.

"Doesn't feel full at all." You commented, feeling the hard ridges of his abs. You hate them right now. But you would also really, really, like to see them.

Jungkook only chuckles at that. Before he can say anything, you ask him, "Hey, quick question."

"Hm?"

"Can I suck your dick?"

"Huh?" Jungkook, ever the man he is, put the iPad away for the first time since he's been here. Confused, but still, you could not have mistaken the look of pure interest in his face the moment you asked him that.

"I want to suck your dick, if you let me." You say, clearing yourself up. You are putting on a brave face, but internally, you are screaming.

So what if this thing between you has been happening for like… ten months now, almost a year? Jungkook was usually the one to always initiate sex and blowjobs were almost a rare occurrence in your sex life because you told him it hurt your knees but the real reason was because you didn't think you were very good at it. Jungkook never asks for it either, and sometimes you feel bad for only reciprocating handjobs during oral sex quickies but! He never says anything about it so maybe that was fine? Anyway, it's not like this is gonna be your first time sucking him. It's just the first time you initiated with your own words.

"Oh, you're serious?" Jungkook scoots over to his side and lays sideways to prop himself up. "Really?" He has an excited smile on, and you know that because of the way his eyes crinkle.

"Don't make me repeat it." You say pointedly, pushing him a little bit. Jungkook doesn't even budge at the slight attack, only holds your hands in his.

"No, I just… I thought you said no fooling around tonight." He says.

You shrug. "Yeah, well."

You don't expect him to tug you closer to him using his hold on you, and you were thankful you managed to suppress a loud squeal when he laid on his back and caught your whole body on top of his.

"I guess you can't resist my charm, after all." Jungkook says, grabbing a handful of your ass.

"Jungkook, please, you're scaring my lady boner off." You roll your eyes as you adjust yourself on top of him to get more comfortable.

"Take care of my gentleman boner then, baby." He counters and just because of that you avoid the kiss he was about to give you.

"Don't ever say gentleman boner ever again." You pinch his nipple and he let out a laugh at your petty retort. You knew he was sensitive there. But even then, you were starting to feel the growing need concealed under his sweats, and you were set on giving him the blowjob of his life tonight for some reason.

"I have a suggestion to make," Jungkook says suddenly, stopping you from crawling down to his body. You arch your brow at him, he continues, "I don't think we've ever tried sixty-nine, yet, haven't we? Because I also really want to eat you out right now."

"Oh, well, yeah…" you nod. You find yourself heating up at the way he casually tells you the last part.

"So…?"

You haven't really tried that either, and not just with him, but also with your other sex partners that only really summed up to less than four people, and that's including Jungkook. Anyway, the sixty-nine position sounded interesting.

"Okay, sure." You shrug.

"Fuck, you're the best."

This time, you give in to the kiss he gives you and pretty much after that it turns into a heavy make-out session with Jungkook fondling your boobs underneath your overused highschool PE shirt while you ground down against his erection that only kept growing harder as seconds passed.

You are panting when you break away, a string of saliva in between your lips, breathing for some air. Jungkook kisses his way down your neck, suckling on your skin and soothing it with his tongue.

"Take your shirt off," you say, already impatiently tugging at the hem of his clothing.

Without a word, Jungkook frees himself from the fabric. "You too, and your panties. Please."

You chuckle at the "please" but nonetheless straddle him to take your shirt off. Jungkook looks up at you with hooded eyes, massaging the bare skin of your waist as you wriggle your hair out of the neckline. He grips your waist as you lift your bum off his stomach, pulling your panties and shorts down in one go one leg to another.

"Shit," Jungkook hissed at the sight of your glistening pussy that has gotten wet overtime, hands roaming all over your body like he doesn't really know where to touch. Always fascinated and in awe with what you show him, always so eager, so touchy. And you always love his undivided attention. Makes you feel like a princess for some reason. Doesn't help that he calls you that sometimes, too.

"Oh, fuuck," he groaned when you sat on his stomach. You couldn't help but let out a quiet moan, too, feeling his hot skin and your cold pussy touching together. "Angel, fuck, come here, let me kiss you."

You lean down to kiss him and he quickly reciprocates, his tongue entering your parted mouth, swirling and licking inside, taking your breath away. You could feel yourself smearing your wet mess on his abs but you couldn't really care less, not when Jungkook looked like he couldn't, too, squeezing every inch of you he could get his hands on. And they were everywhere, alright. Your breasts, your waist, hips, ass, his thumb on the inside of your thighs, all the while kissing you like he was hungry for it.

Jungkook jostles you a little when he lifts himself up a little to slide down the grey sweatpants you have a love and hate relationship with, his dick shooting up his abdomen and touching your ass as a result.

He stops kissing you.

"Alright, one more minute of you grinding against me will make me nut. Sit on my face now, baby."

Blood shoots up your cheeks, making you feel hot. A little funny, given what you are doing right now. But he can't just be so casual about it! He was asking you to sit on his face like he was telling you the grass is green. Regardless, you kiss him one last time.

"Don't suffocate." You warned him, already reversing your position as easily as you can so that your back is facing him.

You hear Jungkook chuckling from behind. "Please, I'll die happily suffocating in this pussy."

"Please don't talk about dying." You deflect, already feeling so shy about the whole thing. Indeed it was your first time to try this position, and you quite didn't know how to act. You wonder if he's done this already in the past, but found yourself irritated at the thought of him doing this with anybody else. You'd have to assess what that feeling of irritation means later.

"Hmm," Jungkook hums, grabbing the globes of your ass and fondling them before you could even properly place your knees on both sides of his head. With his hold on the flesh, he pulls you closer to him until you feel his breath on your core. "Ah, shit, will never get tired of this pussy, baby. Fuck, you're so wet."

You try to focus your attention on his hard dick against his stomach, veiny and rigid, red at the tip and shining with pre-cum. Wrapping your fingers around the base, you lean down a little more so that you can begin teasing him.

But Jungkook beats you down to it as he licks a long stripe across your pussy. It has you keening and stumbling a little over, feeling so good at the contact of his tongue against your sex. You hear him hiss before he says, "Come on, pretty, sit on my face, don't hover."

You hesitate before giving in, and Jungkook is quick to continue the ministrations of his tongue on your pussy. The position was so new to you but you couldn't help but think it was so good, feeling him this way, albeit still a little conscious about cutting off his air supply. But as Jungkook starts licking and sucking, you remember his cock in your hand and it prompts you to stroke him up and down; slow, because your mind is cloudy from the way you could hear the slick of your pussy from Jungkook's licking.

Leaning down, you kiss the head of his cock, licking his pre-cum off the top. There was Jungkook's groan again, and you thought that was a good sign, then continued to suck his tip a little just to see it getting even redder.

Jungkook suddenly gets more aggressive in the ministrations of his tongue, from his slow yet precise strokes, he starts increasing speed, fingers getting tighter on your asscheeks, the tip of his tongue prodding at your entrance giving you a taste of being full.

It prompted you to whimper, Jungkook only humming, seemingly pleased with himself. Letting out a shaky breath, you resume stroking his cock, twisting your fingers around the base. Soon, you lean even closer so that you can wrap your lips around the head.

Jungkook's groan was a pure sinful sound of pleasure as you did so. Nevermind that he was having his own feast on your pussy, you were determined to make him cum. And to do that was to suck on the tip gently at first, swirling your tongue on the cum that's building up on it. You joined the motion of it with your hand stroking the shaft up and down, cheeks hollowed and sucking the air in your mouth to create a suction that has Jungkook slightly jolting in his position.

"Oh, fuck yeah, baby, that's it, you're so good at this… shit," He says behind you, moving his mouth off your pussy and replacing it with two fingers. Jungkook slides them in easily, the squelching sound so apparent it cannot be mistaken for anything else if there was anybody but you two in the room. "You like this, baby? Hm? You're taking my fingers and my cock so well."

You moaned around his cock, heat starting to spread all over your body as Jungkook began to join his digits with his own mouth, devouring your pussy like he always does when he goes down. You start losing your rhythm on his cock, choking on it a third time now as you haven't really managed to fit it all in your mouth. You've always tried to, but he's always been a little too big for you. If it was a skill issue, you didn't care, Jungkook enjoys it just as much as you do.

When Jungkook rubs your clit, that's when you start shaking on your knees, threatening to crumble down.

As if he knew what was coming, Jungkook suddenly says, "Don't come yet, baby, not now." and you swear you would have actually cried.

What you didn't expect is Jungkook suddenly sitting up, his hands gripping your hips so that you don't jostle on top of him. You let go of his dick as he slides you off his body, and you let him manhandle you into sitting on his cock that slides in too easily like your pussy was fine silk. You now sit on top of him in what seems to be like a reverse cowgirl position, except that you aren't the one in control of your own movements.

"Oh, K-kook – Jungkook!" you yelped as he bounced you on his rigid dick, your body melting against his.

"Shh, take my cock, angel. You can do that for me, right? You're so pretty right now, I wish you could see yourself." Jungkook whispers against your hair, and you pathetically nod, craning your neck up at him to seek for his mouth. He smiles at you, the gentle nature of it so contrasting to the way he was controlling your hips, bouncing you in and out of his cock. "My pretty little angel."

He kisses you passionately, and as seconds passed his hands began to travel upwards to cup your breast, fondling it in his hand and pinching your nipple. You also started to initiate your pwn movements, meeting Jungkook's thrusts from below you, all the whole moaning in his mouth at the pleasure of his cock touching every crevice of your pussy.

The feeling of this never gets old even if you've done it exclusively and quite constantly with each other for the past ten months. Sex with Jungkook is always just so intense it always keeps you on your toes.

"K-kook, I'm cumming," you gasped in his mouth, feeling that build up in your belly

"Hm," Jungkook leaves your boob in favor of your pussy. Kissing you one last time on the mouth, he leans against your shoulder to watch as he spreads your nether lips. You look down to his hand there, fingers spreading the lips apart witnessing your own hole getting split open by his engorged cock. The sight was so lewd and obscene you couldn't help your moan. Then, Jungkook begins rubbing your clit again, fast and with a purpose, this time to make you finish. And he finally gives you the green light to do so. "You can cum now, baby."

And as if prompted by his simple words, you came, feeling a gush of wetness coming out of your pussy. You watch the way Jungkook kept his fingers in there, massaging your hole and kissing your neck.

"Jungkook…" you bury your face into the crook of his neck as you come down from your high, pussy throbbing and spasming from the intense feeling of cumming. He did edge you from when he ate you out.

"Good girl."

And again, Jungkook changes your position. From sitting up, you are now laid against the bed again, with him switching your positions so now he's the one hovering and you underneath him. He grabs your hips up and enters your pussy once again, sliding his cock in and out to chase his own orgasm. Your moans only encourage him to go faster, his grunts filling the room.

"Oh, that's it, Kook, you come for me too." You say, reaching for his stomach with one hand and fondling your own boob with other for his own consumption. Jungkook always liked seeing you play with them.

"Yeah, you're so sexy like that," he says, even picking up his speed higher.

Soon, he was cumming with a pained groan, and you didn't expect to cum a second time the same time he did.

Another gush of slickness slides down your pussy while Jungkook pulled out completely. But he was putting it in again a second later, rubbing his dick against your core. You sigh, partly at the sensitivity but also how pleasurable it all still felt even though you've come twice now in the span of almost what? – thirty minutes? Maybe an hour?

"Pretty fucking pussy you've got here, baby," Jungkook says before pushing his cum back into you, making you cry out. "Never gonna get enough of this. Of you."

You whimpered, clinging to his forearms as he continued his actions.

"Cum for me one more time?" He asks, staring deeply into your eyes.

And you couldn't possibly do that. Coming twice was not at all what you envisioned your night to be, thrice was a heart attack. But at the same time, you couldn't really resist his pleading eyes and his deep voice and his still hard cock pushing his creampie deeper into you.

So you nod your head, and Jungkook leans down to swipe the strand of hairs that sprouted all over your face overtime, wet on the hairline from your sweat, just before he slides his cock all the way in again, repeating that in and out routine, the slamming and the bottoming out, the quickening oh his pace and your toes curling once again that impeded your orgasm for the third time that night.

When you finished, exhausted and spent the fuck out, Jungkook laid on your boobs and kissed all over, playing with one of your nipples in his other hand. You were flat on the bed, dead weight, looking up at the ceiling and closing your eyes to cool yourself from what had just happened.

"Okay, that's enough, Kook, we gotta clean up." You say, massaging the soft curls on the top of his head.

He only let out a non-committal hum.

"Jungkook."

"Yes, baby?"

"Enough sex. I'm fried." You say, pulling his hair slightly to make him look up at you. But that was a bad decision of course 'cause he only seemed to enjoy the teasing.

"Just saying hello to these amazing boobs of yours." You rolled your eyes at his retort, nonetheless accepting it.

"Thanks, I guess."

Eventually, Jungkook stopped being clingy and finally found the will to fetch a wet rag from the bathroom. He cleaned you up and and you didn't bother dressing up except the panties you asked him to get for you. Soon after that, you cuddle together in bed.

"Hey," Jungkook suddenly whispers behind you, fingers massaging your hip, mouth press to your head. You hum. "I think we should do that more."

You try to look over your shoulder. "What? The sex?" you say, chuckling.

Jungkook pinches your hip. "Yeah, I told you we should have sex everyday. But that's not the point, I meant the sixty-nine."

"Well, first of all, having sex everyday is physically not possible," you roll your eyes though he couldn't see. "Second, I enjoyed that position, too. A little bit distracting, but definitely really enjoyable."

Jungkook agrees. "I think you just gave me the best blowjob of my life, if you wanna know."

"Really?" you confirmed, smiling up at him.

"Almost nutted when you sucked my head."

You chuckle, slapping his chest and roll your eyes again for how many times now?

"No but seriously…" Jungkook suddenly turns, indeed, serious. But he's still smiling, though, just a little less playful with his tone. "What was with you tonight? Did you finish that essay?"

Oh god, your essay. Right.

You feel your cheeks heat up a little remembering how you were basically thirsting over him him a while ago. And for no reason too.

Despite cringing internally, you shrug. "No, not really, but submission's two days from now and I just wanted to kiss you, I guess."

That made Jungkook's smile even bigger. He doesn't say anything more but only scoots even closer to your neck, kissing your hair.

"Hm, I always wanna kiss you too, and I do. But I love it when you ask for it."

You think you'll start doing it more, too.

all rights reserved © AWRKIVE , 2023

[thepandalion]

update: recitation started with a vampire meme today

truly this is the place for me

So phonology terminology sounds. A lot like vampires?

If a rule ruins the environment for the rule after it it's called bleeding and if a rule builds the environment for another rule it's called feeding

Vampire ass subject ig

[max1461]

@raginrayguns You asked how measure words work in Japanese. Here is an explanation:

Measure words in Japanese do work somewhat differently than their Chinese counterparts. In Japanese they are not really independent words, and are better analyzed as suffixes that attach to numerals. Some measure words are commonly used as independent nouns (i.e. they can occur dislocated from a corresponding numeral, and behave syntactically/morphologically like ordinary Japanese nouns do), most prominently time words like 週間 shuukan "week", but many are either only used rarely as nouns or not at all. For instance, the measure word 枚 mai "sheets" does not occur as a noun. Measure words are phonologically bound to their preceding numerals, in the sense that

they form part of an intonational unit with the numeral, and

they often fuse with the numeral phonologically in irregular or semi-regular ways.

For instance, here are the numbers one through ten with a few common measure words:

Bare numerals:

一 二 三 四　 五 ichi ni san yon go 六　 七　 八　 九　 十 roku nana hachi kyuu juu

Counting people (using 人 nin):

一人 二人 三人 四人　 五人 hitori futari sannin yonin gonin 六人 七人　 八人　 九人　 十人 rokunin nananin hachinin kyuunin juunin

Counting small animals (using 匹 hiki):

一匹 二匹 三匹 四匹　 五匹 ippiki nihiki sanbiki yonhiki gohiki 六匹 七匹　 八匹　 九匹　 十匹 roppiki nanahiki happiki kyuuhiki juppiki

Counting books/volumes (using 冊 satsu):

一冊 二冊 三冊 四冊　 五冊 issatsu nisatsu sansatsu yonsatsu gosatsu 六冊 七冊　 八冊　 九冊　 十冊 rokusatsu nanasatsu hassatsu kyuusatsu jussatsu

Counting machines (using 台 dai):

一台 二台 三台 四台　 五台 ichidai nidai sandai yondai godai 六台 七台　 八台　 九台　 十台 rokudai nanadai hachidai kyuudai juudai

Counting small objects:

一つ 二つ 三つ 四つ　 五つ hitotsu futatsu mittsu yottsu itsutsu 六つ 七つ　 八つ　 九つ　 十 muttsu nanatsu yattsu kokonotsu tō

There's a lot going on here. For one you have phonological interaction, as I mentioned. This is how you get ippiki from ichi + hiki, and so on. These rules are mostly regular within the large stratum of Chinese loan vocabulary in Japanese, but in the case of these measure words they are somewhat unpredictable. Importantly, these phonological phenomenon are not things you would get from just putting two independant words next to each other in Japanese; they occur only at morpheme boundaries within a single word.

Other than that you have suppletion, where morphemes from different sources are mixed and matched to create a full paradigm. For instance, hitori "one person" and futari "two people" are sourced from native Japonic numerals (as are the "small object" numerals in -tsu), whereas the other numerals for counting people (all in -nin) are sourced from borrowed Chinese numerals.

Due to all the above, the picture that emerges is that Japanese numeral + counter pairs are in fact individual words, sometimes composed transparently out of a numeral prefix and a counter suffix, and sometimes composed opaquely or irregularly. I think it's completely fair to say issatsu is "a special form of the word 'one' used for counting books" and so on. Now, I'll admit that I don't think this has much philosophical importance at all. For example, English dogs could be called "a special form of the word 'dog' used when there is a group of them", indeed this is precisely what a plural is. But that doesn't really tell you anything important; Japanese (mostly) lacks plurals and it gets on fine. Sometimes a language just has a rule that says "use this special word (or form of a word) in the particular circumstance".

Uh, for instance, Tok Pisin (an English-based creole of Papua New Guinea) has this particle i, used in expressions with a third-person subject:

mi bin tok 1sg PST speak "I spoke"

vs.

praim minista i bin tok prime minister 3 PST speak "the prime minister spoke"

Here "3" is just the standard gloss for a third-person morpheme, nothing to do with the numeral 3. "1sg" means "first-person singular" and "PST" means "past tense". Anyway, you might ask... what sort of word is i? It's not a pronoun, you can't (to my knowledge) say "i bin tok" on its own, you have to say

em i bin tok 3sg 3 PST speak "he spoke"

What does it correspond to in English translation? Well, it doesn't correspond to anything in English translation, it's just a little thingy that Tok Pisin grammar says you have to put there. Far from being remarkable this is wholly ordinary. I think Quine is making a lot of this fact when it really doesn't mean anything at all.

[dramatic-dolphin]

Oh man, I am waaay on the other side of the "pronounce names correctly" debate. Not because I don't think you should, in general, attempt to pronounce names correctly, I do. But I'm trying to get people to stop trying to pronounce my name correctly.

I happen to have a name that's (for foreigners) Hungarian on Hard Mode. I'm talking umlauts, digraphs with y, just all the good phonemes that don't exist in most other languages. I've spent a lot of time abroad with people from various parts of the world, and I can tell you from hard empirical data: nobody can say it. And I'm cool with it! I just tell them the English equivalent and it's fine.

Mostly. Some people, especially those who are trying to be culturally sensitive, have a Really Hard Time™️ accepting that a) they are not getting it right b) continue to not get it right despite asking me to demonstrate over and over. And I appreciated it at first! How thoughtful, this attempt to engage with my culture. Cue several months of unsuccessful attempts, at the end of which they were (mostly jokingly) accusing me of faking it. Almost verbatim: "if we recorded you saying your own name and played it back to you, you would say it's incorrect".

(I get it though, the pop sci explanation that I've never bothered to fact check is that as you grow up, you're more attuned to characteristic frequencies of your mother tongue, so when another language comes along with different frequencies, you are quite literally incapable of distinguishing them. So their attempts may sound the same to them, but it sure doesn't to me. I tell them I have this with "bet" and "bat", and that sometimes puts an end to it.)

So yeah, attempt to pronounce everyone's name correctly. Unless they have asked you multiple times not to.

YES YES YES. sometimes you don't want to hear your name butchered over and over and again. like it can be funny when the entertainment is the hungarian gyöngyi and the czech přemysl trying to pronounce each other's name (actual thing that happened at an event my mom was at, everyone thought it was hilarious), but like. at some point it gets TIRING.

god do i hate those people who are like "well at the introduction i wouldn't stop trying until i could pronounce their name correctly!!" newsflash you were not pronouncing it correctly unless you also did a deepdive into the phonology of the language right there. what actually happened was that scene went on for so long and got so awkward they said "haha yeah that's correct!" to stop you from trying again. PLEASE stop. it is very awkward.

the pop sci explanation is sorrrrt of right, you're not really ever incapable of distinguishing phonemes, or phonologists would be out of a job! but your brain does become attuned to the subtleties that are important in your language and discards other phoneme differences that aren't used in your language because who even needs that. it's possible to learn to speak a language like a native and understand all the subtle differences so deeply that they come as instinct. it just takes a LOT of work.

(but- learning your native language took even more work. you're at an 8yr old's level of umderstanding in the language you're learning? well, how long do you think it took the 8yr old?)

also, relatedly, if someone - usually someone who's chinese in my experience - tells you their name, and then adds "but you can call me [english name/name in another language]!" it tends to be because they LIKE being called that name and possibly even prefer it to you butchering their name. they understand that you will butcher their name, because the language - which may or may not be chinese - is notoriously hard for outsiders.

[meichenxi]

so I'm learning japanese for the bit. and how's it going? update: hilariously. I love it. everything is backwards. I am not bothering to learn any of the readings just recognise the kanji. the only materials I have are a book of short stories at b2 level and I cannot read a single kataKana. most of the hiragana I learnt about three years ago and then forgot to do any actual japanese since but I can read chinese so it's fine. I can read a surprising chunk of the book but don't know what any of the verb forms are outside the basics. did he pick up the sword? when will he pick up the sword? is he doubtign that he picked up the sword? may he have possibly (politely, in the past) once picked up the sword? and why does that servant seem to have such an impressive looking swor- oh he's a samurai. that's the character for samurai. I have installed a writing keyboard on my phone and it perfectly interprets my chinese squiggles and makes them into kanji with bizarre fae-like almost-but-not-quite meanings. I'm doing phonology from middle chinese on the fly. h>k got it got it. -ng > u?? well I still have to gather data on that one. please don't spell 'amerika' and 'kamera' in katakana @the history of the japanese script I Still Can't Read It pls just write it in kanji. pleease. some kanji are weirdly simplified to me and so look like the love-child of traditional and simplified chinese. postpositions my beloved and those are fine because my brain can already work backwards because of hindi but relative CLAUSES backwards??? now that's fun. now that's something to sink my teeth into. I'm not writing down any vocabulary. I'm looking up random grammar points online. basically it's going really well

[ranahan]

Hot take:

Mando’a is often criticised as a conlang for being a “baby’s first conlang” kind of a work. And it is—but it’s actually not half bad for a first attempt. Traviss absolutely sucks at explaining what she has done and her explanations frequently contradict the actual product. And her documentation sucks. But the actual language? It’s better than her explanations would make it seem. Actually many of the criticism hold true for Traviss’s explanations (“English word order”), but not necessarily for what she’s written (even Traviss doesn’t do English word order).

Traviss clearly has a keen ear for how languages work, but no theoretical linguistics knowledge to explain what she’s done.

Mando’a does have first-attempt-bugs, but it’s not unsalvageable. The phonology and morphology work fine with some minor adjustments; syntax has been so poorly developed that there’s enough degrees of freedom to develop something workable there.

Plus! I think the best measure of success is that fans adore and use it. No better barometer than that.

[cellarspider]

Qunlat 3/12: Phonaesthetics and Phonotactics

⭅ Previous =⦾ Index ⦾= Next ⭆

“Shok ebasit hissra. Meraad astaarit, meraad itwasit, aban aqun. Maraas shokra. Anaan esaam Qun.”

Why does this feel different than English, or any other language you might know? phonaesthetics and orthography! The sound of a language and the way it’s written are your first introduction to it, so they’re logical places to start. Let’s dive in.

The above text is the first bit of Qunlat you ever hear, recited by Sten during his imprisonment in Lothering. It has a particular character to it: To an English-speaker, it feels like it can fit equally well with someone speaking forcefully, or gently. It also feels pretty pronounceable, coming from an English perspective. You might not know what to do with a word like “anaan”, but you can make a guess. The orthography, the way it’s written, seems relatively straightforward. And it gives you a sense of its phonaesthetics, the aesthetic qualities of how the language is spoken, including the phonology and phonotactics: what sounds are in the language, and what order you can put them in. These give a language its own identity, even when you don’t understand it.

For an English-speaker, Qunlat is an approachable constructed language. Maybe not as “pretty” as Elvhen, but it’s not giving you any tongue-twisters. I certainly liked it, when I first played DAO way back in the day. I liked it so much that I’m doing this, after all.

Outside of the fiction of the game, Qunlat essentially began as a written language, read aloud by pretty much just one dude: Mark Hildreth, the voice of Sten. These two sources set the template for the rest of the series, with caveats we’ll get to later. I’ll be starting with Qunlat as it’s presented to us in DAO and the main DA2 campaign (minus item names), because these two sources have the most agreement with each other. 

This took an ungodly amount of time to put together. I made the mistaken assumption that the wiki was comprehensive in its documentation of the two games, and that turned out to be wrong. I ended up having to dive into the Dragon Age Toolset to find more vocabulary, and I may still have missed some–I’m not particularly agile with that thing. And the more I found, the more inconsistencies I discovered, and the harder it became to structure this post. So this will only contain a relatively brief description of each source, which is backed up by a pile of data I’ve compiled here:

In DAO and DA2, spoken Qunlat never includes the letters C, F, J, X, Y or Z. The letter W only appears in the word itwa (“to fall”), and nowhere else. In DAO and DAI, Ps only appear at the start of a couple of set phrases: Panahedan (“goodbye”, “take refuge in safety”), and parshaara (“enough”, Sten’s favorite grumpy noise). Similarly in DAO and DAI, the letter U only appears in the name Koslun, and in the context of “QU”, except for one word that’s never been mentioned since DAO: Uukluk, which describes a Qunari architectural style the rest of the games seem to have turned away from. Unlike in English, Q doesn’t need to be accompanied by a U: Qabala and Qamek work just fine without it. 

Consonants follow certain phonotactic rules: This is the difference between “wing” and “ngiw”: one of them is permissible in English phonotactics, the other is not. Why? Because the start and end of a syllable are different roles that aren’t interchangeable. “Ngiw” is perfectly pronounceable, yet it would never arise within English as a result of the language’s internal rules. Vietnamese, though? Different phonotactics, and therefore that string of sounds is entirely possible. In fact, you might potentially use a word that sounds like that while describing the Qunari. Each language has its own phonotactics, and it’s a vital part of the language’s distinct feel.

When talking about individual syllables, we break them down into the onset, nucleus, and coda: the onset is the start of the syllable, the nucleus is its core, and the coda is anything that follows the nucleus. Because languages are hilarious, we have no good definition of what a syllable is, but generally you need a nucleus, and the onset and coda are optional. 

Qunlat in general is far more restrictive in its phonotactics than English is, and tends toward very simple syllables. most have one onset consonant, and one vowel: a “CV” syllable. “VC” is also allowed, but it’s rarer than “CV” or “CVC”. A very, very few are “CCVC” or “CVCC”, where two consonants sit together in the onset or coda. This theoretically means the maximum size of a Qunlat syllable is “CCVCC”, but there are currently no canon words that allow this.⁽¹⁾

Qunlat also has a number of dipthongs or vowel digraphs–Either two vowels placed next to each other, or two letters used to represent a single sound. It’s hard to tell what some of these are intended to be. These are AA, AH, AY, EE, EH, and OH. The dubious word Uukluuk contains UU, but it seems to be non-standard and never used again. The AA and EH vowels can appear anywhere in a word, while EE has only been used between two consonants, and the rest are only used if they’re at the end of a word: vah, toh, and say are valid and canonical words, while ahv, oht, and ays are not possible.

Unlike English, Qunlat isn’t fond of big consonant clusters. While English can give us words like “strengths”, which is a nine letter word spelled with eight consonants and pronounced with six, The most intense Qunlat gets in the first two games is “Ashkaari”: eight letters, four consonants, three consonant sounds.⁽²⁾ As a result, it may come across as less harsh and choppy than English does to many. The only valid consonant clusters that can stand on their own are ST (Sten, ast, etc.) and the rare BR (brak). No other consonant clusters can be placed at word boundaries.

There are four consonantal digraphs in DAO and DA2: DD, SH, SS, and TH. The double S appears to be a long S, while DD could be a geminate consonant, i.e. a doubled-up consonant sound (ex. English “midday”), though it isn’t often pronounced that way in the games. SH and TH sound the same as they do in English. DD is only found in the middle of words, TH and SS never found at the start of words, while SH can appear anywhere:

DD - Viddathari SH - Shok, ashkaari, ataash SS - Hissra, iss (see note) TH - Athlok, kith, dathrasi

note: there’s no words that end in -ss in DAO or DA2, only later material.

Then there are intervocalic consonant clusters, consonants that can sit together if they’re sandwiched between two vowels (ex. Ashkaari, hissra). There’s only a few of these attested in DAO and DA2, and a few more in later material.

The written language also features a favorite of many fantasy languages: hyphens. Hyphens are used to either stitch together words that are acting as a single unit, or to separate syllables that could produce ambiguous pronunciation. Tal-Vashoth has a hyphen because Tal (“true”) and Vashoth (“grey”) are forming a single conceptual unit, meaning one who’s left the Qun. The hyphen in “Asit tal-eb” helps make it clear to the reader that it’s tal and eb, not ta and leb.

To be honest, there’s no hard and fast rules on where to use these. DAO uses them sparingly, while DA2 uses them more often. It depends on whether you feel a word or phrase requires it, to match your intended reading or aesthetic.

Speaking of “no hard and fast rules”: speaking Qunlat.

As I intimated before, the voice actors appear to have been given very loose direction at best on how to pronounce Qunlat. Not everybody’s going to be getting the full Lord of the Rings or Avatar or Dune⁽³⁾ coaching. If they’re lucky, they get a written pronunciation guide, which may be entirely idiosyncratic to the writer. 

Mark Hildreth gave it a damn good try, but other voice actors like Rick Wasserman (the Arishok), Keith Ferguson (Arvaarad and various other qunari voices), and Felicia Day (Tallis) all give it their own damn good try. All of them have been native English-speakers, and so when confronted with an unfamiliar language, they… try to pronounce it like English.

This is a problem, because the English.

[A reading of The Chaos, a poem by the 19th century Dutch writer Gerard Nolst Trenité. Best listened to while reading a copy of the text, so you can really appreciate the level of understandable salt this man was working through over English.]

That’s why nobody can agree on how “Qunari” is pronounced. Is it with a hard K? A “kyu” sound? That’s supported by DAO as an intended pronunciation,⁽⁴⁾ but it’s not always followed. Sometimes it sounds like a “Kwu”, even. All of these are valid pronunciations in English, but English has a famously infuriating writing system that is composed of more exceptions than actual rules. 

Most languages actually aren’t like that. English-speaking kids have to spend years learning how to write, but Finnish kids just need to learn the alphabet. Once they’ve done that, they can pretty much write any word they want, because the alphabet is so consistent with how it’s actually spoken. Hangul not only has a similar one-to-one correlation, its letters even look like how you shape your mouth when you make the sound!

But hey, at least English isn’t Tibetan. My sincere condolences to those learning the language, you’ve got your work cut out for you.⁽⁵⁾

I have my own system worked out for pronouncing the language, which I’ll make explicit later. But with regards to canon: I’ll do my best to catalog things at a later date, but all pronunciations are going to be highly variable based on the source. My best advice on this is to listen to whichever performance you like best, and use that as your template. Canon is all over the place, and you can make of it what you want. 

Unfortunately, it becomes extremely all over the place in terms of spelling, as we get to everything outside of DAO and DA2’s dialog.

And my job becomes more complicated. So complicated, that I wrote an entire second post on this, then decided it was overkill. I can post it if desired, but the “Dictionary” and “Phonological Inventory” spreadsheet in the workbook of madness contains the raw facts of everything. It also provides notes on the weird differences between DA2’s spoken dialog and the item names.

Before we end this post–say you want to take what’s been presented here and run with it. You want to make new words for yourself. How would you do that?

It’s finally time to talk about one more aspect of phonaesthetics: certain sounds and sound combinations are rarer or more common than others. For example, “birtend” seems like a plausible English word, partly because it contains common English letters. “Zuquxay” doesn’t seem English, even though it’s easily pronounceable by English-speakers, because it has a bunch of rare letters in it, strung together in rare ways. Changing how frequently sounds are used in a conlang will heavily impact its overall feel.

Because I am not entirely sane, I’ve constructed a frequency chart for Qunlat. Actually, several, depending on whether you want a count of consonant clusters or just distinct sounds, and whether you want content that fits with DAO and DA2, or if you want every word ever called Qunlat.

Turns out, up to a quarter of the entire language is just the letter A. 

Next time, depending on what people desire: an examination of how Qunlat begins to vary more outside of DAO and DA2’s dialog, or we move ahead to phonology. Either way, we will be properly introduced to the works of my nemesis: Philliam, a Bard!.

⭅ Previous =⦾ Index ⦾= Next ⭆

Footnotes

(1) Some may wonder “but what about a word like Vashoth, where you could consider shoth as its own five-letter syllable?” Well, it’s five letters, but only three sounds. I get into that a little further down the main text, under the subject of “digraphs”. If you’re wondering about the word ashkost, though, good choice! I’m pretty sure the word is split as ash-kost though, so I’m still right. :P

(2) For anyone wondering why “strengths” and “ashkaari” contains fewer consonant sounds than consonant letters, it’s because “ng”, “th”, and “sh” are two-letter combinations that each produce a single sound: You don’t pronounce “sing” as “sin-g”, or “the” as “t-he”, or “shush” as “s-hus-h”. Or at least I don’t, you do you.

(3) Though I should of course note that while the actors in Dune received packets of information from linguist David J Peterson, he didn’t have any direct interaction with the actors. He also didn’t coach their pronunciation of Arabic stuff like Madhi or Lisan al-Gaib, and hooboy, some of those are wobbly.

(4) When you’re tracking down Sten’s sword, the man who looted it has a surprised response that’s phonetically written out: “We're looking for a qunari sword.” “Kyun-what? I'm sorry, I... ah... I don't know what that--”. That would seem fairly unambiguous, but when listening back through samples from the games, Sten and the Arishok pronounce the word /kunɔri/, and you’d hope both their actors were coached on this one. I’ve also heard /kʷu/ pronunciations, not just /kju/. In fact, the only place /kju/ seems to be the unambiguous pronunciation is for “Qun” as a standalone word. As a conlanger who likes unambiguous romanization schemes, this annoys me greatly. Side note, if any of this is unfamiliar, stick around for when I talk more about phonology! I promise, it’s fun! You get to listen to strange little mouth noises on wikipedia, including the funniest little “üü” sound I’ve ever heard in my life!

(5) While English spelling has been afflicted with the pronunciations that were most common several centuries ago, written Tibetan has been largely unchanged for eight hundred years. The spoken language, however, has continued changing. This has created some wide divergences between the written and spoken languages: while the name of one of the central Tibetan province might be pronounced something like “Ü-Tsang”, it’s written as དབུས་གཙང, which is more literally transcribed as “Dbus-Gtsang”. If you’re writing or reading Tibetan, you just have to know that ahead of time. 

But don’t worry! English might get like that one day too!

⭅ Previous =⦾ Index ⦾= Next ⭆

[strixcattus]

...And now I'm thinking about the time travel conlang and how I might want that to work.

I looked up the phrase just to see if I could get inspiration from other time travel–related languages and found Mpiua Tiostouea, the language of all time. It's got some neat concepts, though it was designed to have an... interesting... phonology and I'd definitely make some different choices—which is good! It means I won't be copying ideas when I make my own conlang.

A conlang for time travellers needs to be able to express some complex and seemingly self-contradictory tenses. For instance, I might tell you this sentence:

"After I go to my date with the time worm, I'll text you how it went."

Except today is Thursday, and my date with the time worm, which I'm going to tomorrow, is Wednesday (yesterday), and I plan on jumping again afterwards, but I'm not sure in which direction or how long it'll take me to get around to texting you, and at any rate you only experience time forwards and will certainly receive the text in the next few subjective and objective days.

...Also, while I, the person talking to you, am going to be going to the date and sending the text, I'm not dating the time worm—the date is between myself from three years into the future (as opposed to an alternate version of myself whom I never have been and never will be), I'm spying on it, and also the time worm experiences all of time simultaneously in every universe and thus has no time clones or past/future selves.

...And the groupchat has like three versions of you in it.

A properly time travel–inclusive language should encode all of these things efficiently through the use of creative agreements, pronouns, and tenses.

It should also be inclusive towards people who experience time in reverse. Not those who've lived backwards all their lives—they can learn any language just fine, the same way everyone else does—but people who've found themselves temporarily moving the wrong way through time, despite having learned the language forwards. I think this can be settled by having two acceptable word orderings—one the reflection of the other—and employing asymmetrical particles that indicate important things like proper nouns and sentences, and maybe having a necessarily asymmetrical syllable structure.

Like CV. Every syllable necessarily has one consonant followed by one vowel, unless you're experiencing time backwards relative to your conversation partner, in which case all their speech will sound to you like every syllable is VC, and the same from you to them. That ought to work and to be simple enough that anyone, with any native language from anywhere across time, can pick it up with relative ease.

Then we get to pronouns. Mpieua Tiostoeia has an impressive set of seven grammatical persons, numbered 1–7. I understand and respect the reasoning behind such a choice (and a dedicated grammatical person for antimemes is pretty darn cool), but I'd rather go in the opposite direction:

1st person: I, the one talking to you. 1.5th person: Me, but a different instance of me than the one talking to you. 2nd person: You, the one listening to me. 2.5th person: A different instance of you than the one listening to me. 3rd person: That guy, the one I'm pointing to. 3.5th person: That guy, but an instance of them that's not right here. 4th person: The time worm, which experiences all of time and the multiverse simultaneously.

...Which coincidentally is also seven grammatical persons.

Due to the need to stress subjective and objective time experience for multiple entities, basically everything that can take agreement will agree with the person and gender of whatever it can agree with—most crucially, verbs, which might include tense markings that have to agree with any number of people:

"I'm having a party with these guys last week, do you want to come?"

Where I'm going to the party in the future and inviting you to come along in your subjective future (while acknowledging you may have already been), but some of the people I'm gesturing to have already been to the party and others have yet to go. Also one of them is the time worm. I think this party might be where we met... will meet.. whichever. Both.

Now, when I say gender, I don't mean male vs. female. Time travellers can come from any timeline. Some of them have only one acknowledged gender. Others have three. A few have as many as sixteen, or even more. Some of them plot gender on a four-dimensional spectrum encoded in the phonology of their gender pronouns. The only way to please everyone's idea of what gender trappings deserve encodement is to encode them all equally—that is to say, not at all.

Besides, we're all time travellers here. I don't need to specify how you identify with each word. I want to know if this is you, or your future self, or your evil alternate universe self. That's the kind of gender I'm concerned with.

Which means you can have a mixed-gender group (the three versions of you in the groupchat) that needs to be referred to with... essentially, it'd be something like you (2sg) and you (2.5pl), where you (2.5pl) is gendered both for your past self and for your alternate universe self, which are two different genders.

I think this ought to be my next conlang project. It's been way too long since I really got into one—right now, Yvelse is my only conlang that's not either dead or been in cold storage for the past year+.

[japhugmafia]

I'm gonna be very blunt and say that the conlang community differs from other art communities with how much emphasis is put on 'cursed' languages. Like, it's fine in theory, there's nothing wrong with being silly and goofy about everything, but it seems that everyone who does it thinks that all there is to conlanging or linguistics is just phonetics. I'm just honestly disappointed with how much the internet conlang/linguistics community value phonetics (not even phonology) over everything else.

Of course, I'm not going to fault children for being children; but it's just—off, the way that people are so into phonetics and think that it is the only interesting thing about a language. I've dealt with a lot of people with such a Dunning-Kruger complex just because they know the IPA, and denounce everyone who doesn't know it as 'ignorant'. Furthermore, they are often ignorant about features of natural languages, but speak with authorship when it comes to judging what's 'naturalistic' and what's not.

Not every person has to learn from reading grammar books or scientific literature—nor should they be formally-trained in linguistics to make a good conlang, but everyone needs to come into the hobby with good faith and try to learn. The damage that 'mainstream' creators like Biblaridion, Agma Schwa, & Jan Misali have done to the conlang community need to be studied; especially when conveying straight up wrong information and/or stating personal opinions as if they were an objective truth.

[dedalvs]

Hello, maybe you have answered this before but, I got my degree in linguistics and I’d love to creat fictional languages like professionally, the thing is I’ve no idea from where to begin with (well maybe for save a postgrad in phonology and syntax), I feel so lost. How did you managed to find your way? Your work is really inspiring!

If you want to create languages professionally but you've never created languages non-professionally, then you have to create languages non-professionally first. If you don't want to create languages until you're paid to do so, there is no path forward for you. Sorry if I've made an assumption, but I encounter quite a few people who would love to be paid to create languages but literally can't even fathom creating one while not being paid. For that group, sorry! You're in line behind every single other conlanger on the planet. Once they've all turned the job down, then I'm fine with someone rolling the dice on an enthusiastic individual with no conlanging experience, professional or otherwise, whatsoever.

As a reminder to conlangers interested in doing professional work, the LCS Jobs Board will post jobs semi-frequently, and I often send interested parties directly to the Jobs Board to post their jobs there. You do have to be an LCS member to see jobs posted there (unless the job isn't filled after 10 days, but it always is), and it's intensely competitive, but it's something. I think the community is still waiting for the next big thing that will facilitate making conlanging pay, but the LCS is working on it. Fingers crossed.