Vreleksá

Silvanus315 · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 13

This is my third conlang, and it is still a work in progress. Tell me what you think!

This is a ceremonial “dancing” language, where speech combined with full-body movement creates sentences. There are five “songs” within the language, the Worker, the Maiden, the Warrior, the Ruler, and the Priest. These correspond to a rigid caste system within the society that uses it. Each song’s phonology and movements correspond exactly to each other, so if one knows the letter for letter and movement for movement correspondences, one can understand the other songs. Every member of the caste is taught only their own song and those below it. Therefore, a member of the worker caste will know only his own song, while a member of the priest caste will know all of them.

Note: The maiden caste historically consisted only of the noblewomen, while noblemen belonged to the ruler caste, but at one point the king chose to monopolize the ruler caste for his family alone, and noblemen became members of the maiden caste. Officially, it is still called the maiden caste, but most have taken to calling it the aristocrat caste.

Spoken phonology:
Worker: / p t k d N r\ g / p t k d ng ř g
Maiden (Aristocrat): / l\ f J\ J b h\ c / rl f lg b h c
Warrior: / q x G\ B K M\ k / q kh ĝ v shl ngw k
Ruler: / p d n s z 4 g / p d n s z r g
Priest: / ?\ r m t’ d’ J ? / c rr m t’ d’ ñ ‘

All songs share the same vowels: / a A u i @ e o / aa a uu i u e o
The movements have four elements: arms, legs, hands, and head. For example, there is a warrior position with arm bent 90 degrees, with fist in front of face palm inward, down on right knee, head looking down. Here, we can see we have arm, legs, hands, and head. As this language has no native orthography, I will represent positions as numbers within brackets. First number will be arms, then legs, then hands, then head.

Word order is SOV.

In between each word, the speaker stomps alternatively with the right and left foots, beginning with the left before the first word (women will often make it more of a touch than a stomp).

/A/ is added after all but the final word. Movement like rotation and stepping is governed by the ceremony (eg. Marriage ceremonies have the speaker step forward, forward back, forward, forward, back, etc., while the partner follows with arms around the speaker’s stomach.).

Nouns:
Arms -> Case (14 cases)
Legs -> Number (5 numbers)
Hands -> Gender (4 genders)
Head and face -> Class (4 classes)

Verbs:
Arms -> mood (14 moods)
Legs -> person (6 persons)
Hands -> tense (9 tenses)
Head and face -> voice (2 voices)

Adjectives and Adverbs:
Arms -> case (14 cases)
Legs -> number (5 numbers) default position if modifying verb
Hands -> person (6 persons) default position if modifying noun
Head and face -> indicates whether it modifies noun or verb

Noun cases:
Nominative, Accusative, Genitive (possesion), Genitive (material), Instrumental, Dative, Vocative, Comitative, Locative, Ablative, Lative, Superessive, Subessive, Causal

Numbers:
Singular, Plural, Lone, Dual, Infinite

Noun genders:
Feminine, Masculine, Epicene, Neuter

Noun classes:
Animate, Inanimate, Abstract, Metaphysical

Verb moods:
Indicative, Generic, Cohortative, Conditional, Dubitative, Hypothetical, Imperative, Interrogative, Jussive, Negative, Potential, Presumptive, Energetic, Subjunctive

Verb tenses:
Present simple, Present perfect, Present continuous, Aorist, Imperfect, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future, Future perfect

Verb voices:
Active, Passive

And here are the positions from the Worker song, as an example:

Arms have 14 positions.
1=hands on hips
2=wrists crossed above head
3=both arms outstretched forward and up
4=right hand outstretched forward and up, left hand on hip palm up elbow back
5=opposite of 4
6=right hand one fist away from left breast palm down, left on hip palm up elbow back
7=opposite of 6
8=right hand outstretched forward and up, left one fist away from right breast palm down
9=opposite of 8
10=right arm slack against side, left outstretched
11=opposite of 10
12=right arm slack against side, left bent to breast
13=opposite of 12
14= both arms slack

Legs have 6 positions:
1=both legs shoulder width apart
2=legs shoulder width apart, right in front of the other by about one foot
3=opposite of 2
4=both legs two shoulder widths apart
5=down on both knees
6=down on right knee only

Hands have 9 positions:
1=left fist, right open with fingers together
2=opposite of 1
3=both fists
4=both open with fingers together
5=left fist, right closed but with first two fingers outstretched
6=opposite of 5
7=left open but with fingers together, right closed but with first two fingers outstretched
8=opposite of 7
9=both closed but with first two fingers outstretched

Head has 4 positions:
1=face pointing perpendicular to neck
2=face pointing down
3=face pointing to the left
4=face pointing to the right

I apologize if this post is too long. Please, tell me what you think! Has anyone encountered a "dancing" language like this before?

Tolkien_Freak · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:33 am Post subject:

I've never seen a dancing conlang before.
I'd like to see an example - though you'd have to post it on youtube.

Silvanus315 · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 13

That's true! Or maybe I could give a reeeeeally detailed description and let you act it out.

yssida · Joined: 16 Sep 2007 Posts: 253 Location: sa jaan lang

we'd love to see a video. Even without sound (what's the point in sound eh?)!
Anyway, is this some sort of auxiliary language, kind of like a Silbo Gomero only done without voice and with body movement? Or sort of like an extended sign language?

Very nice ideas you got there. . .samples would be nice eh?
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dusepo · Joined: 12 Feb 2008 Posts: 129

i think this'd be a great starting place for a conscript.
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Serali · Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:19 am Post subject:

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

I really want to seeeeeee thiiiiiiisssss!!!! XD *squeeeeeeeee* Either that or meet you in person and LEARN IT FROM YOU. Shocked

Amazingly enough, I actually am working on a sort of dance communication for Hemnälg - I planned on having the people use it for sending messages along city walls and stuff. Smile

If you catch me somehow using your ideas please correct me!
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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