1/3/2017 06:18

kao:ic and nao:ic

The language is highly dependent on combining forms as a device for combining ideas. This can be illustrated with the two common words "kao:ic" and "nao:ic", respectively a forest glade and the village council chamber.

The core root "-o:ic" carries the sense of an opening, an open space within a less open, more structured environment. ("-o:ic" would not be used in reference to the open ocean, for example.) This root is combined with the fore elements "ka-" and "na-". The element "ka-" connotes the wild, or the earth at large, while "na-" refers to the village or home environment. Etymologically, then, "nao:ic" can be interpretted as "a village opening". In the same way, "kao:ic" will be understood as "a forest opening".

These forms are a living part of the language and native speakers commonly build new words on the same pattern. For example, there is the word "naix", meaning the cooking fire or hearth. No word kaix exists in the established language, but expatriots sometimes use it and it is immediately recognizable as "wild fire". One can surmise that "kaix" doesn't exist as a standard term precisely because no wildfires burn in the misty damp of the native forest.

Incidentally, "naix" is pronounced nah ISH with a rather hard sh close to, but never quite reaching, tsh. The accent is always on the harder syllable, "x" being considered harder than "n". This is why "nao:ic" is pronouced nah OAK but "kao:ic" is KAH oak; the "c" is a softer version of "k" (which is only used in fore elements) but harder than "n".

In actual reality of course anybody can make up elements of a new language. Language is built into human brains. The difficulty lies in extending the concepts to encompass all of your experience. That is where you need an extended family sitting and sharing around the naix.


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