Queranaran (The World)
| Queranaran | |
| Spoken in: | Dar Irenalliê, Harathalliê, Withwandiê, Ontumun & other Daine countries of Eosphora |
| Timeline/Universe: | The World |
| Total speakers: | More than 15 million |
| Genealogical classification: | Daine |
| Basic word order: | OSV |
| Morphological type: | inflecting |
| Created by: | |
| Elemtilas | late 1980s, revisited in 2010s |
Queranaran is the Common Language spoken by very many Daine of the Eastlands of The World. It is spoken in a broad swath from the lands to the west of Darenalliê, up the Canasawack and over to Withwandiê and down into Auntimoany and the hinterlands beyond and in the Marches to the south and west. It is well understood and used as an interlanguage by the Daine of the small realms along the Great Road and even as far west as Alna, where the Road goes up into the high passes of the Spine of the World. The Daine of Auntimoany also speak a dialect of the Teyorish natively and as a high language, and Avantimannish as an interlanguage and increasingly as a common tongue. The Daine of Westmarche natively speak a kind of creole midway between Avantimannish and Queranaran, being mostly words of Thietish extraction set upon the native Queranaran grammar. Younger Daine of that queendom are more likely to prefer a purer Queranaran, however.
Queranaran is preposing, typically OSV though SOV is allowable in ordinary sentences when the subject is emphasised. Verbs are inflected for aspect; nouns are inflected for tense, case and number. Verbal person and number are taken from the context of the nouns or pronouns in the sentence. Evidentiality markers are placed before the main clause(s) of the sentence in order to provide temporal and certainty context. Usual sentence order is OSV; commands and questions are OVS; a contrastive sentence has the first clause in OSV, the contrast in SOV.
Here, we'll take a look at some snippets of Queranaran. First a Koan of Truth. Then, a part of a humorous Turgun story. One thing even Daine and Men share in common is this basic dynamic of female-male relations. Then we'll learn to count in the manner of Daine and then take a look at some sentences from the 2015 Lexember exercise.
crhruacanyu : dampasyama saranayes andwecuruwestesharow banneches!
EVID-deeply felt : DAT-ADPOS.from.above.to.below-1PL.us-INCL lifting.spirits-ACC PRES-ERG-rising.sun put-IMPF
(I feel in my heart : from above to below, to us all the happiness of cold rain's oppression lifted the now rising sun put!)
It's so true, the rising Sun lifts our spirits after a long spell of cold rain!
eiyem an ossetiyas : amanou racasawatimnemiye damoman sjaereerenyest : nico : manadiradiralyost Here the girl is asking her fellow: "I know this already, but I'm asking anyway : my new raca, do you think it's pretty, love? It's so very blue!"
eiyem an ossetiyas: evidential markers, the first meaning "surety" the second indicating insecurity of information, but a thing desired; putting the two together makes for an idiomatic expression seeking confirmation of opinion. (Reverse the order and the meaning changes to something like "I'm not entirely sure, but I'm going to go ahead anyway."
amanou: 1st singular feminine possessive particle
raca-sawati-menem-iye: a raca is an animal hide or woven cloth, generally wrapped around the waist; raca-sawati can mean an article of clothing, and in specific a nicely tailored sarong / kilt / kirtle-like piece of clothing; menem is an infixed adjective meaning "new"; racasawati is an -i class Teyorish noun and -ye is the nominative singular suffix of that class
damo-man: damo is the Native dative prefix; while man is the 2nd singular masculine pronoun
sja-ere-erenye-st: sja- is a preverb meaning "from within towards without" / "from inside out"; erenye- is the verb root "to be beautiful" while -st is the durative aspect marker. Reduplication of verb roots yields a kind of moderate emphasis best rendered by "truly" or "so very"
nico: can mean 'male Daine' and can also serve as a term of affection or even a proper name (Nico & Enca are the names of very ancient culture heroes among the Daine of many lands)
mana-dira-diralyost: mana is a preverb meaning "within the entire extent" / "thoroughly"; diralyo- is the verb meaning "to be blue", again reduplicated to denote moderate emphasis.
ha : manaerenyest : eiyem : sjahuuryost: enca And he responds: "Sure, tis pretty. But I'm sure it's grey, love."
ha: a discourse indicative of divided attention; an affirmative marker of some ambivalence. It is often used where a polite agreement might be in order or where the opinion sought might not be coming from the surest of sources or where the listener hasn't been paying close attention to the speaker.
mana-erenyest: mana preverb as above; erenye- verb as above, noting that it is not here reduplicated, indicating a less than enthused agreement
eiyem: evidential marker as above, indicating surety
sja-huuryost: sja- preverb as above; huuryo- verbal adjective meaning "to be grey"; with durative aspect marking
enca: can mean 'female Daine', or be a term of affection or a personal name
liyieram : sjadiradiralyost : nico She says: "No, let's make this clear: it is indeed very blue, love!" And he replies: ya : eiyem : nahuuryo ateh tinnengast which means "Myeh. Anyway, I know what grey is."
liyieram: evidential marker of the highest factual importance, it brooks no contradiction and allows no argument; anyone who disagrees is asking for trouble!
sja-diradiralyo-st: as above
nico: as above
sjuu This is a mark of slight exasperation.
sjuu: a discourse particle of sorts, a kind of spoken rolling of the eyes
asuy : tesarave Exasperated by the contradiction, she says "huh! boys!" while equally exasperated, he says asuy : nimarave "huh! girls!"
asuy: a discourse particle indicating exasperation, most likely at the lack of understanding
tesarave: tesa is another word meaning 'male Daine' & nima as above. -arave is the vocative plural, here used generically and invocationally.
Queranaran sentences are basically OSV in structure and are prefaced by one or more pre-sentential evidential markers which help set the mood of what follows. Verbs in Queranaran conjugate primarily for aspect and mood; nouns decline for number and case and also conjugate for tense. In the exchange above, none of the nouns are conjugated for tense because the context of the conversation determines that it is a present tense raca being discussed. (A raca is an article of clothing, a long piece of cloth wrapped around the waist and tied up with a cord or fixed with a belt.)
Here it will help to understand that Daine (and Turgun) males can see the world with a kind of palette of sepia to grey tones with some darker reds. Females can see many hues and shades of color, so her obviously blue raca will bee seen by him as kind of dark grey.
Let's Learn to Count!
Daine count by twenties, according to their own lore because they count on all their fingers and toes. Starting with the little finger of the left hand, and going over to the little finger of the right hand, that's 1 through 10. Then, continuing with the little toe of the left foot and continuing over to the little toe of the right foot, that's 11 through 20. Even little children learn to "count on fingers and toes" in this way. You can see in the picture below a dapper fellow teaching a child a counting game -- you can just see that he's got his left thumb pointing to the youngster's left big toe -- which is querenos, or fifteen in the elementary counting system. But he's teaching the youngster how to count by fives: starting with his right hand, he's showing how to count "by hands", or fives. Beginning with the right thumb and ending with the left are 5 through 50; then continuing with the right big toe and ending with the left big toe, he'll count 55 to 100. He's pressing the child's toe in order to demonstrate the equivalence between the two systems. He'll say querenos maoa! and the child will repeat back the number to him.
1. minnos; 2. eryon; 3. nellon; 4. embro; 5. pancon; 6. cantos; 7. yacuen; 8. lindo; 9. sendlos 10. boadhos; 11. tolcyen; 12. rondo; 13. ereson; 14. forestos; 15. querenos; 16. dromo; 17. endron; 18. calcas; 19. orson; 20. vaseryo
Beyond twenty, an additive principle comes into play: 21. vas minnos, "twenty & one"; 22. vas eryon, "twenty & two"; 30. vas boadhos, "twenty & ten"; 31. vas tolcyen, "twenty & eleven"
Multiples of twenty run thus: 40. eryovas, "twice twenty"; 60. nellovas, "thrice twenty"; 80. embrovas, "quadrice twenty"; 100. pancovas "quince twenty"
Daine numerals are positional in nature, much like the Sandhian numerals in use by the Men of the region. Rather than ones, tens, hundreds, thousands and myriades of the usual Auntimoanian system, in Queranaran, the positions are ones, twenties, four hundreds, eight thousands and so forth. These higher numbers follow the same basic patterns the lower ones follow: 400. lemayas; 800. eryomayas, "twice four hundred"; 1,200. nellomayas, "thrice four hundred"; 1,600. embromayas, "quadrice four hundred"; 8,000. quepillio; 16,000. eryopillio, "twice sixteen thousand"; 24,000. nellopillio, "thrice sixteen thousand"; 32,000. embropillio, "quadrice sixteen thousand"; 160,000. lachanio; 320,000. eryolach, "twice one hundred sixty thousand"; 3,200,000. quinsistio; 6,400,000. eryosistio, "twice three millions two hundred thousand".
Here are the Lexember entries for 2015, most of which contain example sentences so you can see the words in action.
- 1.LEX.2015
curuwestein: in gen., to begin some natural process (flowers budding, seedlings sprouting); to begin a story In the Accustomed Manner; of persons, to begin some noble endeavour; of queens, to begin their reign
lestaroam : elesasipara a-curullemiluw versen-nimanya rinccas : apasesingara mandorrom-mulmaliyel ronu-derrí salambas : ray-ray, na-tqanam and-yiriellem curuwestam.
EVID : from-there-to-here-towards-from-outside-to-inside LOC-queenly.house RECENT.PAST-girl-ERG arrive-PERF : from.above.to.below.towards.and.upon oaken.log-NAME RECENT.PRESENT-she sit-PERF : surely INSTR-REL-PRON.thus PRES-queen-ABS begin.to.reign-IMPF
I know because I saw it! The girl arrived at the Queen's House from outside away; then she sat down upon the Oaken Stool; surely in this way the Queen begins her reign!
Note: in the Westmarche, a Daine queendom, there is no fancy throne, no crown or jewels. Once a Great Queen is elected, acclaimed and passes the Test of the Mace, she enters the Queen's House and, in the main hall, sits down upon a very simple oaken stool. Once seated, she is now considered Queen of the realm and will now assume the traditional posture (sitting up straight, ankles crossed (left before right), hands on knees, wings spread elegantly behind her) and get on with the queening already.
- 2.LEX.2015
mwalal'araqasain: a verb meaning to play the "fast-word game"; or to sing or recite the syllabary / alphabet.
eseilesa tugano nicoris pwemara! ayyá! na-tqanam cwestecwestenil yan-salem mwalal'araqasang!
towards.here-to-there DEM.them-on-our-right boy-LOC-PL listen-IMPER! hark! INSTR-REL-that.way quick-quick-ADV PRES-they-M-EXCL play.the.fast.word.game-CONTIN
Listen to those boys over there, will you! Huy! How very quickly they're rattling off the fast word game!
The quick word game is popular among Daine children and involves coming up with and saying words that begin with each kind of syllable in their natural order. Usually two play, and they try to go as fast as they can.
The word itself is composed of a nonsense word with something of a complicated history "mwalal'araqa", which contains syllables of the five basic lingual points of articulation as spoken by a kind of Daine that have a rather long jaw and thus a couple extra POAs; but the word was borrowed (and somewhat mangled) by ordinary Daine who lack a couple of those POAs. In addition, there is the word gasain, which means simply to play.
- 3.LEX.2015
saranaya: feeling of oppression lifted on a sunny day after a spell of cold & dreary rain & drizzle
cruacanyu : dampasyama saranayes andwecuruwestesharrow banneches!
EVID-deeply felt : DAT-ADPOS.from.above.to.below-1PL.us-INCL lifting.spirits-ACC PRES-ERG-rising.sun put-IMPF
(I feel in my heart : from above to below, to us all the happiness of cold rain's oppression lifted the now rising sun put!)
It's so true, the rising Sun lifts our spirits after a long spell of cold rain!
NOTE: Saranay is a girl's name one meets with from time to time. I'm now happy to know what the name means!
- 4 & 5.LEX.2015
eic: and (when used with nouns & adjectives)
canil: and (adverbial when used with verbs & adverbs)
mandallawin: to experience a fleeting sense of recollection akin to dejavu but stronger & more sensual in nature
eiyem : paramara wauccanihurryoris ateh laharrombyavars calcaliyawevars canil : damo-ateh a-hoouwe nang crhruanye pwe-asacanyang nang hannandrrondestarave eic neriois nang omundennandrrondestarave mandallawar!
EVID-a.thing.known : ADPOS-from.without.to.within.and.along.sunwise narrow.LIAS.paved.street-LOC.PL PRON.1s.MASC wander.aimlessly-PRES.PPL.MASC observe.closely-PRES.PPL.MASC and.ADV : DAT-PRON.1s.MASC LOC-place.of.heart ERG-open.flame.for.cooking-PL.of.fowl.house-VOC.PL and enclosed.flame.for.cooking-ERG.PL of bread.house-VOC.PL recall-ITER
Me walking along the narrow lanes and seeing what is to be seen; the pit fires of the chicken popinas and the hearth fires of the bakeries always remind me so much of home!
- 6.LEX.2015
harachanwin: w. acc. wrap, enshroud, ensorcel through story; w. dat. hide, bury
liyieram! : damoyama shinnanntannena suuraraunima rinccevehers : ayya! damo anel tavanow tamacanyehwarena carmanyehwarena canil melleateh leyepowes : urcanil damoateh en anel talgho nang raccanye melleateh hancuonepasiharachanwes anel estarecalcariyeste hancuowauccas canil! Quoyocembronom ateh woytun derí pando melleateh salambas nev amanou arau na elam harharachanwevehereth canil!
EVID-high.importance : DAT-1pl-INCL enweave.a.story-INFIN.OF.PURPOSE FUT-story.telling.girl arrive-PR.PPL.F : huy! DAT 1s-POS-PRON younger.brother comb.for.the.hair.do-INFIN.OF.PURPOSE comb.for.the.feathers.do-INFIN.OF.PURPOSE and NEAR.FUT-1s.MASC compel.PERF : CONJ.so DAT-1s.MASC ACC-1s-POS-PRON best/formal-LIAS-sarong NEAR-FUT-1s-MASC ADPOS-all.around.from.below.to.above-enwrap-PERF 1s-POS-PRON silver.arm.ring.ACC.PL around-slip-PERF and. LOC.SING-Four.Feathers 1s-M DEMON-close.on.the.left 3s-F DEMON-close.on.the.right FUT-1s-M sit-PERF INSTR 3s-F-POS story ABS-1pl EMPHAT-enchant-PRES.PPL.C and
This is so important! To us for enweaving a story the tale-enchanter is coming. Uy! To my younger brother the combing of the hair the preening of the feathers and soon-I command : so that to me my best sarong soon-I around and from below to above wrap my silver arm rings around slip and! At Quoyocembro I close on her left she close on my right soon-I sit by means of her story we truly enchanting and!
This is what I'll do! The story-enchanter's coming to weave us a tale. Uy! I'll tell my little brother to comb out my hair and preen my feathers, so then I'll do on my best sarong and slip on my silver bracelets! I shall sit close to Four-Feathers, me on her left, she on my right and we shall be truly enchanted by her story!
- 7.LEX.2015
Apropos of today's history, we'll put some participles to good use! This, the opening line of the Greatqueen's Speech (Westmarche) for 1797:
dueduehestio: infamy; ill reputation brought about by acts of great violence & brutality; the acts themselves (Note that in Queranaran, there is not a sense of "evil" in the concept of infamy as there is in many Mannish tongues; this is because not all acts of great brutality & violence are directed by a living-spirit being capable of choosing evil over good.)
sana woytun ruyama duas , sana pando ruyama duas : le primayacuennama duas nang le primayacuennama emunas nang le yavieris pancovas mulucceyyat : ysparanyanem eik staraquadadunyanem : and hwado tana gadalenyavaharet ; ya hwado tana gadalenyacueretus ; sandan hwado tana gadalenyacuecueeretus canaweng : ayya! : fadost dueduehestia!
ACC this.close.by.on.the.left POS-us day , ACC this.close.by.on.the.right POS-us day : LOC within.seven-PRES.MID.PPL day LINK LOC within.seven-PRES.MID.PPL month LINK LOC Fall/Autumn-LOC.PL five.score walk-PAST.PASS.PPL : beginning.of.our.journey-LOC and ADPOS-overflowing.all.boundaries.of end.of.our.journey-LOC : PRES-every.person live-PRES.ACT.PPL ; FUT-every.person live-FUT.ACT.PPL ; REMOTE.FUT-every.person live-VERY.FUT.ACT.PPL be.burdened.with.deep.emotion : alas! : say-PRES.PASS.PPL such.great.brutality-VOC
This very day, so near to us it is here upon our left wing and upon our right wing; upon the sevening day and upon the sevening month and Falls five-score having been journeyed : at the beginning of our journey together and overflowing even the very end of our journey together : each person now living ; each person soon to be living ; each person remotely to be living recalls with deep emotion , alas!, it being said "such great brutality! such shocking violence!"
- 8, 9, 10 & 11.LEX.2015
hawallacu: a kind of burden-bearing elephant - the ends of their trunks have a bifurcated tip, allowing them to more delicately grasp & manipulate objects, tools, etc.
gaoanacu: a kind of milch cow - shaggy & black and not too large, produces lots of milk
cruacu: a kind of nashorn beast used for ploughing & tilling soil - fairly docile beast, for all its got a great broad curved horn an ell and a half long along its head and nose
orang: conj. meaning "while" (derived from some long forgotten verbal root)
sarnueste wehawallacu canaweng : orang yancundardans calamurang!
quelendaryana wegaoancu vorseheng : orang yangatallaiodehers le-olong lusterang!
suereyun farandalles wecoruancu cruhang : orang yancruhandans ener tugan farandallenem cruhang!
Rocks the olifant is bearing : while the stonecutter is sleeping!
To milk the cow is standing ready : while the milk-bucket girl is tussling in the hay!
This field the hornbeast is ploughing : while the plough-boy is ploughing a rather different field!
On the left is the hwallacu, kind of a strange little olifant!, and behind him the mighty cruacu. It looks like he's only got one horn, but in fact there are two, but they meet below his forehead and fuse into one mass of thick horn that is quite capable of digging into even rather hard soil. Behind, you can see the barn and its decorative bronze window frames. On the right is the gaoanacu and her milking girl inside the barn. It's not unusual to get a couple pails of milk from these milch cows in a day -- some will be drunk as is, but most will be sent to the creamery where it will be churned into butter or else made into cheese, two favorite foods of the Daine of the Eastlands!
- 12 - 15.LEX.2015
When Synonyms Take Control...
All these words have the basic meaning of "walk":
sarnuwandrondalcarhrtein: said of boys; lit. "to caress earth & stone with the toes"
drodrogondein: said of heavy beasts; to plod or tread heavily
muluccein: said of smaller animals & children; lit. to "make footprints"
marsarnuwandrollelandrahein: said of girls; lit. "to dance lightly among stones & earth"
One might think one could also say sarnuwandrondaroscarhrtein of boys, "to walk on one's hands". Literally, "to caress earth & stone with the fingers"; but really this applies to gardening. Weeding, pruning, talking to the plants & so forth.
- 16-18.LEX.2015
quelendarian: milk (from any kind of (mammalian) animal or person)
tilicueria: butter
maharasso: cheese
(Add in some omundenne or bread, and you've got the four food groups right there!)
- 19-21.LEX.2015
darmahac: sludge; oily, greasy mess of any kind
drusaruin: feel jumpy & a little anxious
crayasarduin: feel really anxious, like you want to cry out and run away
- 22-24.LEX.2015
hrostayare: blond-red hair
ashayare: medium-red hair
drayaste: dark-red hair
lusereyas : humarongara le anel macdanow vo endi hrostayarevehereth humarongara le anel mitanow vo endi ashayarevehereth canil : sem humarongara le endí vo endí drayastevehereth : masaymasay le oahazhay le lusteradehers lelanerioste eik en asacanyang pwe shandus le ammayanye thoronderiassungam.
I always wondered : uppermost-upon-the-surface-of LOC my elder-brother VBL-PREP him blond-red-hair-PRES.ACT.PPL uppermost-upon-the-surface-of LOC my elder-sister VBL-PREP her medium-red-hair-PRES.ACT.PPL CONJ-and : CONJ-yet uppermost-upon-the-surface-of LOC me VBL-PREP me dark-red-hair-PRES.ACT.PPL : perhaps LOC-making.us.children LOC-the.tussling flames-ACC and ACC-fires ERG-our-PL.SIBL. DIST.PAST-mam dreaming-about.
It always made me curious: my elder brother has light red hair and my sister medium red hair while I have dark red hair. Maybe our Mam was dreaming about flames and fires when she was making us kids, when she was at the tussling.
- 25-27.LEX.2015
yaowomein: swell, engorge
elessarein: fill, load up
yarillilas: any kindred of tiny fish
damo-houwele-n-elenaleya en-hannye elessaranama :
na-suelden-n-yarillilashai suondele yaowomoste :
ne-drogurunducanye endomele drodrogondoste.
The realms of sky by birds are filled
by shoals of fish the oceans swell
by ponderous beasts the ground is trod
- 28 & 29.LEX.2015
pancu: a very small greenish-greyish squirrel having tufted ears and tail and darker brown-black-grey bands of striping along its body and a characteristic V or arrowhead pattern of darker fur on its forehead. Docile creatures, children sometimes keep these as pets.
drunduncu: a largeish light brown, almost almond coloured squirrel with dark brown stripes along its back; rounded ears & typically sciurine tail. You do nòt want your child bringing one of these nasty little bastards into the house!
- 30 & 31.LEX.2015
swarilein: to scamper about (< swarain, to disappear and reappear < swas, ephemeral, fleeting)
wicuerilein: to scramble up, climb haphazardly (< wiccain, to climb)
primalesa ata-callowung and-we-susueld-an-i-pancu swarilengar
throughout-here-to-there LOC-branch-PL PRES-ERG-cute-LIAIS-DIMIN-green.squirrel scamper-CONTIN-ITER
The adorable ickle green-squirrel scampered about among the branches.
nepasi le anel raccanye surya-we-lostun-shashay-nang-i-drunducu questi-wicueriles damo anel bodani-nang-twesterior mantharguas canil!
from-below-to-above LOC my-MASC sarong RECENT-PAST-ERG-THAT-ON-THE-LEFT-wretched.bastard-the-DIMIN-brown.squirrel quick.as.a.lick-scramble-PERF DAT my-MASC thumb-LIAIS-left.hand-DAT bit-PERF CONJ-and
That wretched little bastard of a brown squirrel scrambled right up my sarong and bit my left thumb!
A writing sample:
Queranaran utilises an extended abugida of approximately seventy-five letter symbols and combining forms. The writing can behave alphabetically, with all consonants and vowels written in full, or it can behave abugidically, with only or primarily consonants written in full but with vowel diacritics applied as needed. The abugida also includes many chancery signs, often indicating grammatical terminations or common syllable forms. Only a dozen or so are in so common use that they are included in a typical abugidary.
This is a common saying among Daine, and applies equally, I am sure!, to Turghun, Men and Dhargh alike! masaymasay woytun-an-nicos damo-locuala melle-yram sushanarcuerilar : ayya! yung tqa’at en-woytun murhrcuandesalteriyerilares wegtinena, en-dramo melle-yram sattvowar. Literally it reads: Perhaps this boy to the water you will lead by the nose : huy! but surely his scrubbing himself with a cloth to force, that you can not do.
Entries for Lexember 2016 can be found here and here.
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