Storytime, week 8; invented languages

Today was our Halloween Sunday. Dawn read some poems from a Halloween book by Jack Prelutsky, after which we decorated small gourds as witches' heads. (The yellow-orange gourds with white stripes and green bottoms are really cute when dressed up with yarn and cloth-scrap scarves on their 'heads,' and the gourd necks can be either a long nose or a neck.) Snack was pretzel sticks and apple juice.

It was a small class today, only four kids, and I think the service must have ended early because we were all done and out of the room at 11:45 rather than noon or later.

I left my gourd as a companion to the example gourd, though in retrospect I could have taken it to work and let it sit on the counter for atmosphere. I made a vampire witch with red eyes, blue hair, and a purple scarf, who somehow managed to look more like a Goth fashion model than a scary witch. Ah well. Next time I may try a different esthetic when drawing the nose and mouth, and possibly add a big wart on the chin. :-)

---------------

In other walks of life, I spent a couple hours last night transfering some old files from disk to hard drive, and fiddling around with scraps of an invented language. I do like playing with grammar systems, and this one is particularly fun because I started by creating a bunch of words and a couple phrases and then had to retrofit grammar onto those beginnings. Also, I was loose about the 'sound' of the language at the beginning, so I think I may have avoided my tendency to make all my imaginary words and place-names sound like they come from the same ethnic background.

Kéda génayar ias guyar bé'gen stungwai iyuthakin. Reverse the halves of the subject: Kéda guyar ias génayar bé'gen stungwai iyuthakin. No change.

But! Add a possessive, and you get El génayar ajal guyar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis, and Né guyar omor génayar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis. Or, for variant emphasis, El génayar ajal né guyar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis, and Né guyar omor el génayar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis.

Heh.

Amaga Mierana, el yinté yo'ech nwadha shemko, avar sho'in umbatha nwadhosi ikraya, éya tan niweh ilavar ukréyis.

Storytime, week 8; invented languages

Today was our Halloween Sunday. Dawn read some poems from a Halloween book by Jack Prelutsky, after which we decorated small gourds as witches' heads. (The yellow-orange gourds with white stripes and green bottoms are really cute when dressed up with yarn and cloth-scrap scarves on their 'heads,' and the gourd necks can be either a long nose or a neck.) Snack was pretzel sticks and apple juice.

It was a small class today, only four kids, and I think the service must have ended early because we were all done and out of the room at 11:45 rather than noon or later.

I left my gourd as a companion to the example gourd, though in retrospect I could have taken it to work and let it sit on the counter for atmosphere. I made a vampire witch with red eyes, blue hair, and a purple scarf, who somehow managed to look more like a Goth fashion model than a scary witch. Ah well. Next time I may try a different esthetic when drawing the nose and mouth, and possibly add a big wart on the chin. :-)

---------------

In other walks of life, I spent a couple hours last night transfering some old files from disk to hard drive, and fiddling around with scraps of an invented language. I do like playing with grammar systems, and this one is particularly fun because I started by creating a bunch of words and a couple phrases and then had to retrofit grammar onto those beginnings. Also, I was loose about the 'sound' of the language at the beginning, so I think I may have avoided my tendency to make all my imaginary words and place-names sound like they come from the same ethnic background.

Kéda génayar ias guyar bé'gen stungwai iyuthakin. Reverse the halves of the subject: Kéda guyar ias génayar bé'gen stungwai iyuthakin. No change.

But! Add a possessive, and you get El génayar ajal guyar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis, and Né guyar omor génayar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis. Or, for variant emphasis, El génayar ajal né guyar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis, and Né guyar omor el génayar bé'gen stungwai uthakinis.

Heh.

Amaga Mierana, el yinté yo'ech nwadha shemko, avar sho'in umbatha nwadhosi ikraya, éya tan niweh ilavar ukréyis.