Pinned
"Wherever You Are" from Steven Universe
Daan pa taba bete kubakubaam? [Isn't the night beautiful?] Mubuut yi-heha ti dahe'em kura [We're under shining thousands] Daan pa taba kuma puruum daka? [Isn't this new place better?] Mahume li deme seyaam dumala riba [Let's just rest gently together here]
Sabita riba, samabi babaat [See here, notice yourself]Babaat mahehu sadahe kede'em [Your energy shines more] Daan pa taba kuma puruum daka? [Isn't this new place better?] Mahume li deme seyaam dumala riba [Let's just rest gently together here]
Sabita riba, samabi babaat [See here, notice yourself] Baat saruhehu taba beteeng ka [You reflect this night sky] Daan pa taba kuma puruum daka? [Isn't this new place better?] Mahume li deme seyaam dumala riba [Let's just rest gently together here]
Mahume deme kebi kuma dakaam [Let's rest in this better place] Maberu babaat samana dahe riba [Experiencing you sharing light here]
Isn't this such a beautiful night? Whoa We're underneath a thousand shining stars Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different? Whoa Why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?
Look at this place, look at your faces I've never seen you look like this before Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different? Whoa Why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?
Look at this place, look at your faces They're shining like a thousand shining stars Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different? Whoa Why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?
Why don't you let yourself just be somewhere different? Whoa Why don't you let yourself just be whoever you are?
getting paralyzed with fear after i hit send on that ask. very silly. but yes dahul is already very cool. absolutely love the use of "carry" in that sense. and your interesting posts blog is also frankly incredible. we need more central places to see all the cool stuff everyone else is doing. thank you so much for spinning up and running that.
I overthought my response for like three hours, silly anxious times for everyone
I'm delighted that anyone is enjoying either conlang blog! I'm open to suggestions too, if anyone knows more conlang blogs I could follow for the interesting conlang blog!
So - on that note of questions (i.e, why the IPA was invented and why i'd def def recommend it as an area of focus rn), i've got two:
- your "R" sound. is it the english one? the french one? or a more general rolled r?
- when you say the suffixes are (v)C, does that mean they're pronounced, if unwritten? i.e, is the (a) in RA-ha-(a)ng pronounced, making a double-length "a" sound? or is it unpronounced?
Well, don't get completely caught up in IPA. it's a common pitfall to get really into a language's sound system and leave the grammar kind of hanging high and dry.
For not being given in IPA, your sound chart is honestly really solid! but cracks like this will always show up should the exact sounds be left vague.
Even then, you don't actually need to memorize the IPA. A working familiarity with it is enough to get by. You always have the actual chart to reference if you want exact usages, and honestly a lot of linguistics can get fuzzy once you get into the weeds and details. i referenced the chart when making the image below, even!
and speaking of the image, it's a quick IPA chart I threw together based on your post. You'll notice that there are two "r" sounds, due to the ambiguity of which one you were referring to. The upside-down "alveolar approximant" is the english "r," since I'm assuming you're an english speaker.
However! the trilled /r/ is way way more common in languages (the english "r" is famously weird, only like 2 major languages on earth have it). /r/ in a vacuum thus tends to refer to that one. hence. the confusion.
(also, we don't know your exact english accent! i went with the broadest interpretations i could, but those are still really messy, esp. for vowels)
i'm so sorry about the post & ask spam I'm just really very excited to see someone who's taken up the hobby. You do not have to listen to anything i say none of this is like "you suck and your language sucks" it does not please do not take it as such. that's not even the scale that we're operating on, here: conlanging is an art. it is impossible to do it "wrong" or "poorly."
Thank you so much for that quick IPA chart, it eliminated my IPA intimidation enough for me to actually approach it.
I found an interactive IPA chart to check, and you nailed it! Exactly what I intended.
As for the R, the approximate alveolar ษน is the one I intended! I had wondered why I saw r so often and so rarely ษน, I didn't know ษน was so unusual! Fascinating. I do think it's what I want to stick with.
[when you say the suffixes are (v)C, does that mean they're pronounced, if unwritten? i.e, is the (a) in RA-ha-(a)ng pronounced, making a double-length "a" sound? or is it unpronounced?]
Yes on the double-length "a" sound! I'll update that post to be more clear.
All my appreciation for this ask and all the input!
Rabe-ti mamat samada! ("Moons carry you", casual parting phrase)
"Takul bat ku miteng bamina, dan mat sepaki babat samada?"
"If I am worm, [question] you still me carry?"
"Would you still love me if I was a worm?"
Notes:
- The Dahulum name for worm is "miteng bamina", literally "soil's tongue"
- Questions begin with "Dan"
- "Bat" and "mat" are respectively the 1st and 2nd pronoun. The initial syllable is doubled when the pronoun refers to the object of the sentence, hence "babat" in the second half
- "Sa" is the verb prefix. "Samada" is pronounced "sa-MA-da", as "mada" ("arm") is the base word. The literal translation of samada would be "do arm"
I seem to be running into the eternal problem of "aw shucks now I've seen a bunch of really cool people do the thing I'm doing, and I recognize I'm not doing the thing on the same level that they're doing it" and getting Stage Fright
Heccin' Spooked by everyone documenting their conlangs and translations Properly when I just,,,don't know how to do that yet
Dahul Overview
Phonemes - 14 consonants and 4 vowels
Every phoneme is pronounced the same in every context. IPA chart below.
- "M" as in "Map"
- "P" as in "Pig"
- "B" as in "Bat"
- "D" as in "Dog"
- "T" as in "Tag"
- "N" as in "Nod"
- "L" as in "Leg"
- "S" as in "Soy"
- "Y" as in "Yawn"
- "R" as in "Red"
- "K" as in "Kite"
- "H" as in "Hat"
- "i" as "ee", as in "studio" and in "beet"
- "u" as "oo", as in "blue" and in "boot"
- "a" as "awh", as in "car" and not "bat"
- "e" as "eh" (not "ay"), as in "bed"
- "Sh" as in "Gosh""
- "Ng" as in "King"
Note: "Sh" and "Ng" only appear at the end of words, with the exception of loan words.
Phonotactics
Emphasis is always on the first syllable of the base word. Prefixes are not emphasized. - Example: "KA-ri-ne" (meaning shout, yell) with the prefix "sa" is "sa-KA-ri-ne".
Syllables are constructed CV (consonant-vowel).
Suffixes may be either CV or (v)C, where (v) is an invisible/unwritten copy of the preceding vowel. (v) is pronounced double-length. - Example: The suffix "Ng" in the word "Rahang", meaning "friend's" or "belonging to a friend", is pronounced "RA-ha-(a)ng", with a double-length (a).
If a word has multiple end-consonant (v)C suffixes, the last vowel is carried over. - Example: When the suffix "-ng" is added to "Rahash" ("enemy"), the "a" from the syllable "ha" is carried over the "-sh" suffix to become "Rahashang", pronounced "RA-ha-(a)sh-ang".
The consonants "Sh" and "Ng" are exclusively suffixes. Loan words are the only exception.
Word Order
The word order is SOV.
Adjectives and adverbs come before the respective nouns and verbs. Adjectives and adverbs are marked with the suffix '"-m". Numbers, when adjectives/adverbs, do not have the "-m" suffix.
[Will be updated as things change, or I think of things I missed]
Casual and Formal Number Systems
There are two Dahulum number systems, the "Casual" and the "Formal".
Both are base-12, as opposed to English's base-10. Both systems call 0 "Sh".
In either system, numbers are indicated by the prefix "Yi-" when counting, and "Yin" (Pronounced "Yeen") when the number is an adjective or adverb. - Example: "Yi-Mi bare" means "One dog", "Yin-Mi bare" means "First dog".
Casual
The casual system is more typically used in conversation, and is almost always used when naming things.
0 = Sh 1 = Mida 2 = Muta 3 = Maru 4 = Mede 5 = Mume 6 = Mati 7 = Mimu 8 = Mure 9 = Mitu 10 = Mere 11 = Male (Mah-leh) 12 = Made (Mah-deh)
Past 12, Dahulum people tend to default back to the Formal system, but may continue with the Casual.
If continuing with Casual, the numbers proceed similarly to English.
13 = Mida-mida 14= Mida-muta And so on.
The number after 144 (Made-made) is mida-mida-mida.
Formal
The formal system is typically used in situations such as when discussing math, scientific conversations, or when clarity is required.
From 1-144, formal numbers are two syllables. The second syllable comes from the base numbers. These are not used to count, except by young children:
0 = Sh (represented by the thumb) 1 = Mi 2 = Pe 3 = Bu 4 = Da 5 = Te 6 = Nu 7 = Li 8 = Sa 9 = Yu 10 = Re 11 = Ke 12 = Hu The first syllable denotes the dozen the base number falls in. (If this is confusing, I apologize, I can't find a better way to describe it.)
1-12 = Mi 13-24 = Pi 14-36 = Bi 37-48 = Du 49-60 = Tu 61-72 = Nu 73-84 = La 85-96 = Sa 97-108 = Ya 109-120 = Re 121-132 = Ke 133-144 = He
In the same way that the base numbers are marked on the right hand, this dozen-counting system is marked on the left hand. The consonant of each syllable follows the same Dahulum alphabet as the base numbers do, with each left hand finger assigned a vowel.
Left hand dozen counting
Right hand base counting
In this manner, a selection of examples:
1 = Mimi 2 = Mipe 3 = Mibu
16 = Pida 17 = Pite 18 = Pinu
31 = Bili 32 = Bisa 33 = Biyu 45 = Dure 46 = Duke 47 = Duhu
144 = Hehu
I have not yet decided how the formal system proceeds past 144.
Alphabet and the Formal Number System
The Dahulum alphabet only represents the main 12 consonants, excluding "Sh" and "Ng". The vowels are represented as pairs with the 12 main consonants.
Dahul has two number systems, both base-12: the "Casual" number system, and the "Formal" number system. Both Casual and Formal number systems will be explained later.
Both the alphabet and the base formal numbers 1-12 are expressed by the same syllables.
Alphabet and Base Formal Numbers
Mi, Pe, Bu, Da, Te, Nu, Li, Sa, Yu, Re, Ke, Hu
When Dahulum children are taught this sequence, they are taught on their right hand, counting the finger segments with their thumb.
Introduction
Conlang: A constructed language
Dahul is a conlang I've been working on since February 2024. As of writing this post, that hasn't been very long!
My intention with this conlang was to have a simple phonology and set of phonemes.
This is my first conlang, and I'm learning as I go. Mistakes and holes in my understanding are abundant.