Vreleksá

achemel · Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 556 Location: up for debate

Hellcat: ÄaÄagg

I would love to post sound recordings of this at some point, but the language is such that I can't correctly pronounce most of it without scaring everyone in earshot.

Phonology:
e [ˀɛˀ] - really short, tense sound with your face kind of smiling but not really
a [ˀʌˀ] - same as /e/ only with your face slack
o - /a/ with your tongue sticking out
u - /e/ with your tongue sticking out
A – an open-mouthed scream
U – closed scream, through the nose
Ä - /A/ but really rough
Ü - /U/ but really rough
H – high-pitched hissing shriek, kinda like a Nazgûl
Q – high-pitched inhaling shriek
x [ʔʔ] – pulsing of the throat with the back of the tongue tapping the uvula, like rapid gulping

Coughs:
l – open and high-pitched, used with a/e/u/o
j – open and low-pitched, used with a/e/u/o
b – closed and high-pitched, used with e
m – closed and low-pitched, used with e
h [ˀhhhh]– silent and long, like the annoyed sigh you might give your mother when she asks you to do chores, used with a/e/u/o
x[ˀh] – silent and short, used with a/e/u/o

Growls:
g – low, used with a/e/u/o
q – high, used with a/e/u/o

Groans:
bb – closed and high-falling, used with e
mm – closed and low-rising, used with e
bg – closed, rough, and high-falling, used with e
mg – closed, rough, and low-rising, used with e

Scream Tones:
Aa – high-falling
Aaa – low-falling
aA – high-rising
aaA – low-rising
An – high and level

Grammar (sort of)
Pronouns:
I – el
You – ej
Other – go

Reflexive pronouns:
Myself – eh
Yourself – AnAn
Otherself – ÄnÄg

Intensive pronouns:
Myself/ME – aÄ
Yourself/YOU – Äx
Otherself/OTHER – hoho

Self-genitive:
My/mine – al
Your – aj
Other’s – oj

Genders:
Black (associated with things recognized as male in other languages)
I – ug
You – ag
Other – og

White (associated with things recognized as female in other languages, or the gods)
I – U
You – Ü
Other – emm

Red (associated with things female)
I – Äl
You – Ä
Other – Ub

Tan (associated with things male)
I – Üb
You – ax
Other – uhuh

God
I – HH
You – QQ
Other – axaxaxaxax (sounds like cackling)

Animate (moving things, not necessarily alive by default)
I – ugugug (prolonged growl)
You – gege (growl-bark)
Other – Änel

Inanimate (could be animate at one point, but at the moment isn’t; does not imply death)
I – meme
You – bebe
Other – ÜnÜn

Dead (as implied)
I – HHbbe
You – qu
Other – oqoq

Use the above genders in combination with the pronoun forms, in whatever order you feel emphasizes your intended meaning best.

Nouns:
There is a massive amount of homonyms due to the sort of phonemes available. Thus, the falling groan /bbe/ accounts for nearly all basic nouns: rock, tree, sky, squirrel, beer, UFO, noisy neighbor, macaroni. All other basic nouns not found under /bbe/ are made with the various forms of “other,” which also serves as he/she/it/they/we/everything-else-in-the-pronoun-category, and as the adjective “other”: other rock (inanimate) – bbe ÜnÜn

Adjectives:
They seem to follow their nouns, but sometimes the hellcats get confused and just throw an adjective in when they realize they’ve forgotten something important, which often causes more confusion due to the homonymity.

Particles:
Sound a lot like nouns, and adjectives, and kind of work the same way, plus they often have multiple meanings, sometimes simultaneously - for example, /Aahhhhhhh/ (a really long sigh after a falling scream, not rough) is the locative, ablative, allative, accusative, and conditional marker, employing one or all of those meanings with a given word.

Example: at my (god, animate) rock (inanimate, black) - HHalugugug bbeogÜnÜn Aahhhhhhh

Sentences in general:
Declaratives are a falling pitch throughout, regardless of any pitches or tones within the sentence; so, should /aA/ begin a sentence, it should rise and fall simultaneously to mark declarativeness.
There is a “HAHAHA that sucks for you” mood wherein the speaker grammatically points a finger and sniggers at your fail. It involves inserting /x/ (sometimes repeatedly) between every word in the sentence, and in fact sounds like the mocking cackle you may throw at the poor soul trying to tie the laces of his Velcro sandals, or at the guy who faceplants on a sidewalk with no cracks to trip on.
The hellcats, being the unfortunate race that they are, have the mild problem of being hated by all their neighbors and currently are being slaughtered from all sides. As a result, a lot of them are dead, and more are dying – however, their dying screams sound remarkably like the exclamation “I’m just SO fine and dandy! Very Happy

” none of the hellcats within earshot ever go to help those under attack. This exclamation is also used in the context of “Everything’s fine, nothing to see here,” in, perhaps, the case that a hellcat youngster’s mom knocks on his bedroom door while said youngster is surfing the net for hell-dog porn. Upon being caught the youngster seems to repeat the phrase, only this time it means neither of the above sentences, but is actually the reaction to his mom’s clawing him to death in a moral rage, much like how the cat in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUys0W7yawM goes after its owner.

As a side note, if a hellcat were to attempt to speak English, it would come out similar to the incomprehensible snarling of a death metal vocalist.

Writing:
There was a half-assed attempt at making a written language way back in the depths of time, which consisted of childishly-drawn screaming faces much like these emoticons - Surprised

- but after an hour or so of such activity, the hellcats decided that it required too much effort and artistic talent and left the scribbles for the hell-dogs they’d captured to tear up and digest, much like a middle-schooler blaming his dog for eating his homework except the hell-dogs did actually eat it. What the hellcats didn’t know is that later the hell-dogs pooped out a boustrephodon abudiga perfectly suited to the hellcat language, and instead of making this great discovery the particular group that had actually put forth the writing attempt were, sadly, attacked, captured, and eaten alive, all the while screaming how wonderfully they were doing to try and get some help from their unresponsive brethren (a number of which also were caught and ingested in a similar manner).

*Note, I'm not saying Vreleksa's emoticons are childish in any way, shape, or form; I'm just saying the hellcats' equivalent of writing looked like the emoticons shown, except as terrible as if drawn by a two-year-old with his foot while it's immobilized in a cast. Or at least, I would imagine that drawing would be pretty unrecognizable. Razz

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Ideas? I wanted to post this before I go on vacation. (^_^) Let me know if T_F can't see it because I have "ass" in there. Twice now.
_________________
I have some small knowledge of:
English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French
I would like to learn:
Italian, Norwegian, Gaelic
Main conlangs:
ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah

Kiri · Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 471 Location: Latvia/Italy

Find a moment, when there is no one in the earshot and record something! I want to hear it SO much! It's just too interesting! Very Happy

Baldash · Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 86 Location: Sweden

Whenever I see "hellcat" I think of this and this. Razz

achemel · Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 556 Location: up for debate

@Kiri - I would love to find a moment for you. Wink

If ever I do, I'll be SuRE to make a recording or three and put 'em on here.

Tolkien_Freak · Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:43 am Post subject:

I also would like to hear a sample.