6th Lexember Word

remuríp [ɾe̞mʊˈɾiˑp], alienably possessed noun: “lightning, flash of lightning“

Originally posted by lexienalley

Well, it’s either lightning or an alien attack…

Since we had thunder yesterday, it was logical to follow with thunder’s older brother, lightning. Notice, however, that the word remuríp does not refer to the lightning strike itself, but rather to the bright flash of light caused by a lightning strike. To refer to lightning actually striking, we’ll need a few more words, which will come in the next few days.

This time, to make up for the lack of examples in the last 3 Lexember entries, here’s a more complicated example sentence:

Iwté remuríp ricán no tu, ortáse ponop kanná irát sinwa so as: “I can see lightning in the distance, but can’t hear thunder yet.“ (literally: “I see lightning that is far away, and even then the god still isn’t here.”)

5th Lexember Word

ortáse hón [o̞ɾˈtäˑʑə̆ ˈvo̞ˑn], noun phrase: “thunder“

Originally posted by hellish-b0y

I know this is lightning rather than thunder, but try finding a GIF for a strictly auditory phenomenon!

In keeping with the weather theme we have had going on since the beginning, today’s word also refers to a weather phenomenon. However, the word itself is rather different from the previous ones, in that it’s not actually a word but an idiom, composed of already known Haotyétpi words whose combination means more than the sum of its parts. Literally, this phrase means “voice of spirits”, although a more accurate translation might be “god’s voice”. It is composed of the inalienably possessed noun honé: “(one’s) voice“, possessed by the inalienably possessed noun ortáse: “(one’s) soul, spirit, god”.

This does not mean, however, that the speakers of Haotyétpi still literally believe that thunder is gods shouting at them or at each other (although it is part of their animistic beliefs). It’s just how they usually refer to it in normal conversation.

Once again, no example this time around, but I’ll try to make it up to you tomorrow.

4th Lexember Word

wakkumárpi [ʋäkːʊˈmäˑɾpɪ̆], nominalisation: “rainstorm“

Originally posted by poppy-finch

This word refers to a storm that is characterised by heavy rainfall. Thunder, lightning and strong winds may also be involved here, but rain is what the speaker is focussing on.

Morphologically speaking, this word is a transparent nominalisation of the sentence wakkú már: “it’s raining a lot“ (literally “the rain is violent“), and still behaves somewhat verbally in some circumstances.

No example for this one either.

3rd Lexember Word

markó [mäɾˈko̞ˑ], alienably possessed noun: “storm, windstorm“

Originally posted by cheetahswolf

This is the most basic word for storm. It usually refers to storms without precipitation but with strong gusts of wind, although other types of storms can be referred to that way if one does not want to be precise.

In terms of morphology, this word is actually the nominalisation of yesterday’s már: “to be violent“, with the nominalising suffix -ko. It’s identical in structure to the noun askó: “truth, reality”, a nominalisation of ás: “to exist“.

No example this time. This is not a complicated word, it just means “storm”.

Issues with Lexember posts

So, as you may have noticed with the last two posts, things have been a bit messed up here on this blog. As I mentioned in this post, I make my Lexember posts on Tumblr (my main blog these days, sorry about that), and they should automatically be copied over here for my readers and the readers of the Conlang Aggregator. I have a special IFTTT applet set up specifically for that.

Unfortunately, it seems IFTTT is throwing a fit with my Lexember posts, and cannot copy their contents over to Blogger. The result being the empty post you may have seen appear yesterday (before I filled it by hand when I discovered the issue). I tried to solve the issue with IFTTT, but quite simply failed (I can't seem to find what is wrong with IFTTT. It should work, but it clearly doesn't), so today's Lexember post ended up as an empty post here again. This time I immediately set out to fill it by hand, but I did so using the mobile Blogger app, and it messed things up too (I need to check how to make it accept HTML input). I've now cleaned up the post contents so it shows up correctly, though.

Basically, this has been a train wreck, and to prevent further damage, I have disabled the misbehaving IFTTT applet. I'll simply copy my Lexember posts over by hand (and will do so on my computer only, at least until I can figure out how to make the Blogger app work correctly). I am not abandoning this blog, don't worry about it. However, being unable to count on automation means the Lexember updates may not always appear on time here. If you really want to read my Lexember updates as soon as they are available, I advice you check out my Twitter stream instead, or to follow my Tumblr blog directly (but I hope you don't mind pictures of cute animals, especially dogs!).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

2nd Lexember Word

már [ˈmäˑɾ], intransitive verb: “to be violent, to be intense; to be strong“

Originally posted by seagloss

Yes, that kind of violence.

As a reminder, Haotyétpi does not have adjectives as a separate part of speech. It has stative, intransitive verbs with such meanings instead.

Here, már marks extreme force, not necessarily physical conflict (although it can refer to extreme force being used in a physical conflict). One of its most common uses is with weather phenomena, where it is used instead of nák to indicate that they happen at a stronger level than usual. In particular, it is very commonly used with yesterday’s word sohé: “wind“, as people usually only remark on the wind when it’s blowing harder than usual.

As with nák, nouns that refer to weather phenomena usually incorporate with már to form closed (no-valent) verbs.

Yenná ponop sohemár pise re: “It’s really blowing a gale right now, isn’t it?”

1st Lexember Word

sohé [so̞ˈʝe̞ˑ], alienably possessed noun: “wind, breeze“

Originally posted by teapotsandroses

To start with, here’s a word that is not too complicated to understand. Sohé simply refers to the weather phenomenon that is wind in general.

As with other weather phenomena, It is common to use the verb nák: “to stand up“ to refer to the wind blowing, although see tomorrow for a more common verb used with sohé.

Kaam ké, sohenák marese: “It’s windy today.“