Completely normal things that you end up looking up when your dragons can see colors you can't imagine. #conlang #worldbuilding #dnd #ttrpg
Conlangery
@conlangery.com
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Podcast and videos about constructed languages. conlangery.com www.youtube.com/channel/UCsD-lSLGYn…
![a’a Ndăkaga [aʔa] n
egg
Putting together some simple words to catch up.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreicrukwwjf563rmnamdv3zetbv2acjp5eqmlaxiqwdg24ezf3ynwhq)
![a’a Ndăkaga [aʔa] n
spruce tree
I had an interesting thought for this word. I happened to have in my list two Proto-Draconic roots, əʔa and aʔa, both of which would resolve to Ndăkaga a’a. The first I used for the previous word, meaning “egg”, and I wanted its homophone to be something unlikely to be confused.
So, I went to Wiktionary and clicked “Random word” several times until I landed on “spruce” and figured “Why not?”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreicq7h7qafxsvyharop6a4tlxmcuneol6guywdpyc5wl6ldtexdk6y)
![ñubeu Ndăkaga [ɳɯpeɯ] n
humanoid
This is taken from the prefix ñu(g)- (from ñugi “two”) plus beu “foot”. I initially shied away from what is essentially a calque of biped, but I realized that by using the word beu, I made it clear enough. Birds are bipeds, but they would not be ñubeu, because beu is only for the inflexible feet of land animals that can’t grasp (as I mentioned under egre “talon, hand”). They might jokingly confuse humanoids with kangaroos, though, which is kind of funny.
This isn’t going to be the only word for humanoids. I already have a pejorative (and threatening) secondary sense of badaf “meat”, and I’ll probably end up with several words with varying degrees of politeness/rudeness, since dragons have to deal with humanoids (and maybe some more neutral terms that humanoid wizards themselves coined).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreig44bo7e7hf2sqspck5fc5igj3unqnyqml55d6fciijbmy42hjgya)
![iju Ndăkaga [itʃɯ] n
eye
I decided to return to body parts. I looked at a few colexifications with eye, but I didn’t see anything that jumped out to me as particularly good, so have a simple word that just mean “eye” (for now).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreichvzvbzpbwjidqvig423hft7cfsnyswfe5tc4ve7jlu322j5pppe)
![tagid Ndăkaga [tʰakit] n
ear
If you’ve been following along, you might recognize the –id suffix on this word. Some depictions of dragons have strange fin-like earlobes, but D&D art seems to shy away from that. As such, I expect that their ears are either small holes or an exposed tympanic membrane somewhere under their bony faceplates.
Human words for ears are often related to the earlobe, and a few languages relate it to “leaf” due to that shape, but without visible earlobes, I have doubts that dragons would think in terms of shape at all, and might not really understand their ears as organs until they ascertain their function. Hence, tagid is derived from tak “to hear“.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreih2gzsvbjoexwhdjv2pjg2pb3apllafua55zlfhy2kbf6o7owf7qe)
![adĭ Ndăkaga [atɪ] n
horn
Putting together some simple words to catch up.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreifcc4nsmtki4vfzj2h4qtnpy7a3kmwogem34zdf4yg3v7dhlqg7qu)
![iga Ndăkaga [ika] n
tooth
Putting together some simple words to catch up.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreif47xawlrqquqbbhgzrkw27d4oy4n4mhnm4fcsy4ce66olznt7ev4)
![afagĭ Ndăkaga [aɸakɪ] n 1. softness 2. weakness 3. youth; Softness is very interesting. It seems very common to associate “soft” with “weak”, and that felt like a very Draconic thing to do. But at the same time, I didn’t merely want the same association every warrior race on TV spouts (“You humans are too softǃ”), so I added in a third meaning of “youth” (attested in CLICS) to complicate things a bit.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreig3gz2x7rzbehtdfltfbkvq5ai6q5czdcytppizmf6qvsefi7btae)
![abegi Ndăkaga [apeki] n smoothness; Keeping on with my sensations. I considered expanding the meaning on this word, but sometimes you just need your words to be simple.This word represents another new derivational suffix. I created the adjective abe “smooth” and then the suffix –gi/-gĭ for the “-ness” nominalizer. I didn’t come up with an etymology for –gi/-gĭ because I didn’t feel that I needed to in this case. Its source is forgotten in the mists of time.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreifl6n63icze7kalzscgekxvad3eipmghwbsaxczswdao2w5ox33na)
![ufid Ndăkaga [ɯɸit] n 1. itch 2. unshed skin 3. an unpleasant sensation; In honor of the second Cursed Conlang Circus premiering today, I thought something about a feeling of discomfort was in order. I did make the root ufi “itchy” for this root, but because I don’t yet have inflections sorted for adjectives, I decided to make a noun of it using the –id suffix.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreietop2uw7fdbqlujo3wldaq5swfdt2olc2vsn3jtuan2rowwes5hy)
![uja Ndăkaga [ɯtʃa] vi 1. swim 2. bathe; Picking another odd relationship. I’m not really sure about the hygeine habits of dragons, but they can range widely and find large bodies of water, so I expect they might take a dip once in a while.So whether they get clean by taking a dip in a pond (or a lake, or the ocean, cause dragons get big) or they just observe other animals in water and don’t see the difference, I think this one works well.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreibvmrwdjnubyzgmjulp4psntov43dejr7lbmgkg34mmumsyvfozee)
![abu Ndăkaga [apɯ] vi 1. hop, skip 2. run; CLICS lists a handful of languages where JUMP and RUN are linked, so I thought perhaps “hop” and “run” can work together. Thinking from a dragon’s perspecive tracking prey from the air, how different is a kangaroo hopping away from a deer running? Running gait is characterized by a point where all of the animal’s feet are off the ground, so you are kind of hopping when you run anyway.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreiam6mow5utewvpc5ibvmpvj3yxjjqdshkele2sarllkjuhpuenahq)
![ăpĕ Ndăkaga [əpʰɛ] vi 1. jump, leap 2. launch, take off by leaping from the ground; Continuing with locomotion. I actually already had a way of saying “take off” by using the perfective and the “up” directional with the verb chi’a “to fly” (e.g. găchĭchĭ’a “I take off”), however, when thinking about “jump” and “leap“, I felt a synonym would be useful. To keep it from being completely synonymous, uses of chĭ’a for “take off” are more general, and includes gentler launch techniques like dropping off a cliff or gliding off a mountainside, but ăpĕ is specifically for “launching” by leaping into the air from the ground.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreigft7emy6vmxz5i6ofou2rnnyz6xfupcg6ghacmeg35hqnut7ofni)
![afi Ndăkaga [aɸi] vi 1. slither 2. crawl 3. scurry; This word covers slithering and crawling, but also scurrying like a rat, basically covering most locomotion of smaller creatures. I felt it good to group these together because a dragon is large enough that there wouldn’t make much difference, except maybe if they encounter giant serpents.Consider that, technically, the locomotion of an ant is actually pretty similar to that of a human or a horse – they have both walking and running gaits – but we humans call it crawling because they’re insects and insects crawl. To a large dragon, there’s not that much difference between a mouse and an insect. Heck, they might describe particularly small sheep as crawling!As a bonus, I usually don’t think that much about phonaesthetics, but I found this word does kind of imitate the sound of a snake slithering through grass.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreigt5nivxmtqphu5ivssn3thc6rg7gdm5hn2qfubo3g5p4ovq6z54u)
![bre Ndăkaga [pre] vi 1. to walk 2. (with up or down directional) to climb; Having made a couple words for flying, I thought I’d continue on the theme of locomotion. I had initially thought of bre being specific to “walk on all fours” and also have the sense of “crawl” in addition to “climb” (inspired by Chinese 爬 pá), but I thought that two- or four-legged locomotion wouldn’t make as much of a difference to dragons as the difference between walking and crawling or slithering, so I decided against that. I do like having “climb” in the semantics, though. It suggests that creatures capable of flight don’t really have a need to contemplate the extra effort involved in climbing versus walking.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreidiglaeytkj2pptiptwpox6xn53m7z2e7dikqhojjvjoodvjqcn3i)
![andĕ Ndăkaga [antɛ] vt 1. to soar, glide 2. to float, levitate 3. (on water) to sail; After my last stream creating the directional/associated motion markers and needing a word for “fly”, I was inspired to create another word for a kind of flying. All of these associations are attested in human languages, but I particularly focused on the idea that soaring takes little effort, as that seems the most important part for flying creatures. Hence “float” and “levitate” are covered here. Some languages also group “hover” with “soar”, but if dragons can hover, it would take a lot of effort to maintain. Some bats can hover, and from videos it takes quite a lot of effort to stay still in the air, with some impressive wing flexibility to bend backwards on the upstroke.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreifokegxhr6jkgbiqa3yogy2wmsrfjxd2n5ti3tsisstlz6yyjm3ja)
![apĭ Ndăkaga [apʰɪ] vt 1. to vomit 2. to spit 3. to discharge as a breath weapon 4. to expel; When working on the semantics of this verb, I reasoned that dragons could just as easily associate breath weapons with spitting or vomiting, as many D&D breath weapons are not exactly gaseous (such as poison or acid), and dragons may also have an understanding of them coming from organs other than the lungs.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreie3r2rxwqn6a7xib7uvtbsysztchkcfywduszczqb2ghit6wkkowi)
![eki Ndăkaga [ekʰi] n 1. scale 2. scute; I didn’t really do any research on this one. I just thought that perhaps “scale“ and “scute” (hard plates such as the ones that make up a turtle’s shell) would be similar enough to share a word. I’d expect a lot of dragons would have some scutes as well, for extra armor, so it would be relevant for them to discuss them. Perhaps there will be some difference between “soft eki” and “hard eki”?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreiaxb5p4p6ya24glcxtk4ri2xcg4q3wxax25vfiujqxnon5rlux77i)
![idu Ndăkaga [itɯ] n skin, hide; I don’t have anything particularly interesting about the semantics of this word. I considered making it also mean “scales”, but I feel a scale is more of an individual object. I suppose you could take a mass noun for scales. However, interestingly, in the accusative plural, this word becomes homophonous with ide “item, thing, word”, which could cause some interesting wordplay.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreibp4n5uyf3v7j4fcqbfolu5chthwrqngqc7dky7ruj75t6zjsgbvm)
![unggru Ndăkaga [ɯŋkrɯ] n 1. brain 2. marrow 3.something hidden and sought for; I struggled with brains. It’s another organ I haven’t eaten myself. But there are actually a number of human languages that relate it to marrow, which makes a kind of sense. Both are things that you have to crack bones in order to access, which helped me come up with a nice figurative sense.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreie47k4fcgvoasc56d6i7lwya2dwz7shb2itst4rtbhruucynvk55i)
![ndad Ndăkaga [ntat] n stomach; I don’t have much to say on stomach. I may extend the senses of it in the future, but for now, I think I will say I’m closing out major organs and moving on with some other potential ideas.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreigibdpbkoc3zwbdmdy3umfb2lurl5ifvnjh7jxgdqodmia44pgvdi)
![mbre Ndăkaga [mpre] n bone; Moving on from organs into more... Body materials, I guess. I had thought of deriving a word for skeleton, but that may have to wait until later on.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreid62i2rjs4woy6p7yowuyfs647z54iwy6y5p6sltavgn26lvjx2sm)
![khigi Ndăkaga [xiki] n 1. feather 2. hair, fur, wool 3. clothing; It’s pretty common for the same word as hair or fur, and I presumed it would be even more common for scaly dragons. From there, I reasoned they might see them as similar to clothing as well, stuff that covers certain animals.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreigwihg3fmtffh7jp6kh5ofgcohxdt3jx5q2uzr33od7udpjee6edq)
![băf
Ndăkaga
[pəɸ] n
lung
Another internal organ today. I’ve decided to continue with thinking about dragon’s relationship with the meat as a food item. I’ve never eaten lung (and it’s illegal to sell in the United States), so I had to rely on descriptions found online. Sources I found describe it as having a somewhat lighter flavor than liver and a spongy texture.
But rather than deriving a word for lung from that texture or flavor, I decided to make it a reference point for sponginess or foaminess. Thus, I created an adjectivizing suffix –kĭ somewhat similar to English –y or –ly and thus the term băfkĭ “spongy, foamy”.
I’m going to have to get into how adjectives work soon, so it’ll be useful to have one ready.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreif63rwm6o4c777t4hxj7abpjcxdzdkvywzmxmchcx5c4lphtsj3tu)
![uchid
Ndăkaga
[ɯtʃit] n
intestines
the worst of something; the undesirable part of something
Continuing with internal organs now, I took a little time coming up with the word for intestine. Checking Wiktionary, I found that the Nahuatl word (cuitlaxcolli) is derived from a word meaning “excrement”. That struck me as particularly relevant for predatory dragons, who might still eat intestines, but would have to take care that they cleaned them properly.
So, I created a word for “feces, excrement, poop” (ucha) and my first derivational suffix: -id (derived from ide “item thing”) which is sort of a generic derivation of “something related to that thing.
Once derivation gets started, lexicon building starts to get very fun. I’m just starting to see the first connections form in my dictionary, and I’m going to love to see how that grows.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreibodbjdi4lyoiebgxzrjovhw2wgghviayrj4rxhvlkh4y2gzmzq6i)
![ñepa
Ndăkaga
[ɲepʰa] n
1. heart
2. liver
I decided to move on to some internal organs after naming major external body parts. I found out through CLICS that “heart” can share a term with “liver”, and that struck me as particularly interesting for a predatory animal like a dragon. Having consumed both heart and liver (pork), I know that they are fairly similar in texture, so it makes some sense to put them together. I’ll have to think of ways they will be disambiguated.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreihsotwnueiwsosysrq2haemtdo2crtamxicljhviud3ni3bqbw544)
![pĕpa
Ndăkaga
[pʰɛpʰa] n
1. snout
2. (of a humanoid) nose
3. (of a river) mouth
Had some fun with the extensions again. Dragons relating their snout to the mouth of a river seems a good mirror to our own “mouth” metaphor.
If you’ve been following, you might notice that I’ve changed the romanization. I’ve been getting a bit tired of copy-pasting some charcacters and generally wanted to adjust some things to be more intuitive. This should be the final form of the romanization.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreicpy7kliesj7jpj2zgjqrpyhez43mk2p7v6gncxybeigjmbj6oy3y)
![khagî Ndəkaga [xakɪ] n 1. head 2. front 3. leader - I wanted to do a little bit more work on metaphorical extensions. On CLiCs, there are some links between “head” and “top”, but I feel dragons would be more likely to associate it with “front” on account of being quadrupeds. Not sure if I will rework tail with reflections of these meanings or go in a different direction.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreidjslkp2iaf4r4ogadd34f27cqntutzo75acsquoo6xy7khsgw35q)
![amba
[ampa]
*n*
1. tail
I’m continuing here with my emerging theme of creating body parts. This will default to a dragon’s tail. I will probably add some figurative uses of this word in the future, depending on the needs of incantations, etc.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreiespbjxvzmunokij6zp3qv45ey6fl5f4b6p3fxubd766xgkplgdfa)
![[ekre] n
talon
hand
Dragons view humanoid hands as analogous to their talons, of which all four can grasp things fairly well. However non-talon-like feet use a separate word, beu, as the distinction can be important when relating to food.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreidnp2yffgcroy77cmeqytw6d64xygjky33crzy2qecybwaxzb3pqi)
![i‘us Ndəkaga [iʔɯs] n limb (of an animal), arm, leg. Dragons do not differentiate between arms and legs, as they often walk on all fours, and their limbs are quite similar in form. However, they may at times use phrases to differentiate them, such as ___ and ___, terms that have much more frequent use among humanoid spellcasters.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ke5lhqdiqw4y7zrbnqavwqko/bafkreidjzjgyae6qm6athw37ruxjv4gbwpiieuhkihxznipxref54enp54)