Table of Contents
Neologisms, nonce words and names in Kendane͡ivash are typically created using certain standard approaches, although there is nothing mandating that anyone handle it that way. This page lists the common ways that words are created in the language.
Of course, as even the modes of thought of the progenitors of Kendane͡ivash (the galaxy-spanning Threadwielders) cannot travel faster than light, conflicts are possible, and generally treated in the following fashion:
- someone might define a word for a widget in one part of the universe and someone else might define a word for the same kind of widget in another part of the universe, in which case both words will be used
- someone might define a word for a widget in one part of the universe and someone else might define the (coincidentally) same word for a different kind of widget in another part of the universe, in which case standard practise is to use the word for both things if possible, either by respecting 'regional' meanings or by, should it be ambiguous in a given area, clarifying in some fashion.
New vocabulary is rarely added to the Commons, though, and Threadwielders are generally happy with Kendane͡ivash as-is.
Derivational
Adjectives
Nouns can be turned into adjectives with a simple suffix:
- -'is, meaning “having the attributes of -”, e.g. adaryr'is would be nightmarish.
- -'ei, meaning “not having the attributes of -”, e.g. aiit'ei would be optionless.
Nouns
Nouns can be turned into different, related nouns with some suffixes or prefixes:
- -'iij, meaning “a group that has (or is) -”1), e.g. valcee'iij might be used to describe a particular group of warriors (“a group that has strength”).
- iku'-, meaning “virtual -” in a sense of abstraction, simulation, anything electronic or digital, but without any connotation of non-existence, e.g. iku'preeth might be a blog.
- ji'-, describing connected space between two or more of the base noun, roughly equivalent to the English prefix inter-, ji'los̈a could be “interplanetary space”. To get only the adjective “interplanetary”, one would apply an adjective modifier: ji'los̈a'is.
Verbs can be turned into nouns with suffixes placed before their vowel-s ending:
- -em, meaning a person doing the action described by the verb, e.g. donas (to accuse) becomes donem (accuser)
Verbs
Verbs can be turned into different, related verbs with some suffixes or prefixes:
- passive negation, -'va, not doing something; sras̈as'va would be “not to plead”. Verb inflection happens before the 'va, e.g. ne͡ivat'va is third person form of ne͡ivas'va.
- active negation, ta'-, doing the opposite of something; ta'kas̈us might be “to wake up”.
- repetition, tsu'-, doing something again / once more, resuming something; tsu'qanos would be “to live again; to resurrect”.
Adverbs
Adverbs can be created from adjectives using the suffix -ma.
This does not usually stack with 'is (unless it's necessary to remove ambiguities). For example, szamhama is securely (from the noun szamha, security, synonymous with and reduced from szamha'isma), and khaleima is crazily (from the adjective khalei).
Combinatorial
Portmanteauing
In the Threadwielder tongue, new words are created chiefly by drastic portmanteauing of composite words. In so much as it's possible, pronounceable and not too outlandish, words are occasionally outright folded into each other, as long as the composite word can still strongly insinuate its base words.
An extreme example: The name “Evenatra” stems from evenatar, as the composite of evenar and venat, forming 'grace of the sky'. Most portmanteauing is not that extreme - names are more frequently reduced to this form as an aesthetic exercise more than a fundamental attempt at brevity.
Think of it like poetry.