#swira

I have been avoiding working on the story of Qom while / by organizing the lexicon (reorganizing, really) of Classical Swira … and not finishing that, either. While that goes on, it seems that it doesn’t matter that I prune every single protolanguage etymon that I no longer use, and that is a waste of time for now, at least. So I’m focusing on cleaning up particular semantic domains. This time, it’s the kinship terms.

(Of course, having done so, mewling central beat me to it & made a prettier chart.)

You may remember from a while ago, the kinship terms for the protolanguage.

Swira terms are mostly an update of this. This gives us:

In the traditional anthropological six-type typology of kinship systems, it seems to be somewhere between “Inuit” (because it doesn’t distinguish cousins much) and Sudanese (because it does distinguish different types of uncles). In addition, it distinguishes relative age within generations – both ego’s generation and the parents.

Many kinship systems will merge particular relationships in one term. I considered giving Swira a different set of kinship term mergers – all relatives of one’s own and one’s parent’s generation are referred to by the same term IF they are younger than the parent but older than you. Additionally, all people in ego’s generation, younger than ego, are ‘younger sibling’ regardless of whether they’re a biological sibling or cousin. (I don’t know if any earthly society does so, but why not? It does at least fit one rule of kinship which I do observe, which is that more distinctions are made in older ages / generations than younger ones. However, I did not do this for the chart.)

Many of these have multiple forms. I have shown one form, the “free” form, which is unbound, usually used in a direct address, sometimes in place of a name – and in some cases is found as a generic noun, for example, lara is also a typical word for just ‘old man.’ It is common to extend kinship terms to some people to whom one is not really related. For example, it is polite to address strange old men and women as “grandfather / grandmother,” and the terms without a personal prefix generally mean just “old man / old woman.”These words also have conjugated forms with a personal possessive prefix, which form may differ from the unbound form. For example, muku has the bound form just -mu as in kʷemu ‘my son.’

One thing I wanted to do is to have terms resemble each other in a “family-resemblance” way that is not entirely regular. Many of the words have broad regularities going back to the protolanguage, but altered by sound changes – visible in the o- on parternal relatives and the na- on maternal ones. That said, having all the words be etymologically / morphologically-derived / related isn’t super real. One thing I thing I’ve noticed while looking at kinship terms, is that (like names for sexes and ages of animals), when a language distinguishes numerous different words for different relationships, they’re often different roots, rather than transparently derived from some kind of ‘mother’s side’ / ‘father’s side’ / ‘in-law’ prefix as seen here. But I kind of like it, and don’t see any reason why it CAN’T be.

Swiric languages

Abbreviated family tree-type thing with stages of the Swira language plus major lexical input sources at each stage, coordinated chronological with eras of history (defined by Tepat)

‘25 Lex #13 etc. - Nēkke et al. / Horse Tack

Returning to the theme of #2 iltō - horse tack (equipment) in Swira is nēkke [ne:k:e]. Derived from *nēkuke < a Towic language *neqekuˀke, *neˀkuˀke or *neˀekuˀke. Either way, the word comes ultimately from the protolanguage, Proto-Nastowic *niqi-kɯg-ʔi (BENEFACTIVE-put-NOMINALIZATION) ‘[which is] put for [someone] - i.e., something that is prepared for something: equipment. Subsequently narrowed in meaning to horse equipment. There is partial assimilation of the first element neqe- to the Swiric equivalent nē- The alternative forms nēkī and nēkui are loan-translations into the equivalent Swira morphemes, and sometimes nekke is heard with a shorted /e/ to avoid an over-heavy syllable. Some words for tack are borrowed from cousin languages of Swira, but ultimately from derive from the same protolanguage.

On the horse’s head:

mitsiriki - ‘bridle, 'ropework' around a horse's head' - general term for headgear. From mitsi ‘rope’ + -riki suffix indicating patterns.

iltō - ‘halter, bridle’ - see Lexember #2.

iwake - ‘lead rope.’ From Towic source *iwaʔke < Proto-Nastowic *gɯbakʔi ‘[which] leads’ < *gɯbag ‘to lead, guide’

kamki - ‘bit’ - ‘small piece [that is] bitten, a bite’ < from kamu ‘to bite’

nēmi - ‘reins’ - obscure origin

On the back:

erakʷī - ‘(in general) gear on the back’ - < *endakʷii < probably a Para-Towic source and ultimately from Proto-Nastowic *em ‘animal’s back’ + *takʷi ‘to cover.’ Perhaps a saddle cloth, extended to everything on a horse’s back.

ilkope - ‘saddle cloth.’ Via Towic from a presumed protolanguage etymology of *li-hos-pi ‘thing that [one] sits on’ - but the presence of /k/ is hard to explain

otsi - ‘saddle’ - < ossi < osesi < protolanguage *hos-es-ʔi ‘[which] is sat [on].’

ottai - ‘stirrup’ < *ororai < *ododai < *ondondai < *ontǝntaˀi < *ontǝ-ǝnda-ʔi < *ontǝ- 'climb' + ǝnda- 'help': ‘get-up helper’

kʷīte ‘girth strap (also belt)’ - < Towic *kʷuiʔte < *kʷu-ʔid-ʔi ‘[that] by which [one] wraps’ < Proto-Nastowic *-ʔid- 'wrap'

Other gear:

silui - ‘hobble’ - *siloʔi < *silo- ‘to hinder, hamper,’ < *sil- ‘lame.’

tā - ‘horseshoe’ - obscure origin

kopi - ‘whip’ - from Towic *qoˀpe < *qub-bi < *qub- ‘to beat.’

Above, top: Qôyûn, Bottom: Qôntoq

Fake Barbarians

Qôntoq is one of the more amusing errors of Tepatic history.

Among the barbarians of the north, people commonly called themselves ‘the people’ or ‘our people’ or ‘real people’ or something like that. What do they call people outside the tribe? Often just ‘those other people’ or ‘strangers.’ Since most are Nastowic languages, they tend to resemble each other. In Proto-Nastowic, the root *qigɯ for ‘other, the other, another, something else (not the self).’ With *tab ‘people’ (redundant plural: *tabud) you get *qigɯ(n)tab(ud).

There are a variety of derivates, derived from this, ranging from qeyuntawoʔ to qeintawiʔ to qe:nto:ʔ to keyundau etc. - but as you can see, there is a certain resemblance among all of them.

When Tepat had relations with neighboring barbarians, they when they encountered new tribes, or merely heard about the existence of ones further out, they would often ask the adjacent tribes with which they had more contact “Who are they?” And the near tribes would just say, “They’re other people.” At least once the answer must have been something like *qeyuntoʔ, which Yuk Tepat borrowed to refer to the still unmet Qôyûntoq tribe.

Tribal and national boundaries were long in a flux; some nomads would displace others, and Tepat would encounter them, and hear about still more tribes out there, and so the aforementioned conversation would repeat itself many times. Another time the answer was *qe:nto:ʔ, which gave Tepat Qôntoq. Each time, the answer would be slightly different. Soon they pieced together that Qôyûntoq and Qôntoq were the same, but not much else. All they could gather was that the Qôntoq were still further out there, all the other barbarians were talking about them, many of them didn’t like them, and the tribe must be huge.

Finding out about the Qôntoq and preparing for an encounter with them became a priority of Tepatic geopolitics, as they had surmised this poorly understood nation could potentially be the most threatening northern tribe.

Klamen, the military officer who led several expeditions up the river deep into the prairie, reported that he never encountered them either, but still found people talking about them elsewhere, at the furthest extent of his journey.

Less scrupulous adventurers sometimes claimed to have encountered the tribe or even been captured by them, and wrote fantastical, contradictory travelogues of bullshit. Tepatic imagination went wild with them. They became a staple of Tepatic lang fiction, a standin for basically whatever the author wanted to put.

But they had already met the Qôntoq, many times. They were every other tribe that they had met.

Some scholars, reviewing the history, and noticing that no matter where they went, the Qôntoq were always just past them, became suspicious that they were legendary and they were talking about the ethnic equivalent of Bigfoot.

It took until a Tepatic scholar of barbarian heritage to realize that Qôntoq was a corruption of the word “other people,” and simply meant any other tribe, and not any group in particular. That was it.

‘25 Lex #4,5,6: Weka, Ipeke, Sare

A beautiful accident

Weka ‘antelope; wild cervid on the prairies’ comes from Proto-Nastowic *biqa. The plains from which the barbarians expanded were originally home to countless free-roaming, grazing animals like antelopes. Proto-Nastowic also happens to have the word *gʷiqa ‘wind,’ which also become weka and a homophone of antelope in every Western Nastowic language. I think this would be interesting for a conceptual association to occur – antelopes are folk-etymologized as ‘running like the wind,’ the winds are imagined as four herds of celestial cervids running across the sky. Maybe the spirits of heaven ride antelopes. But in eastern languages, such as Nasic languages  or Wepum (with *pexha and *kwexha) this mythology never develops. (I mean, unless I write some cultural transmission in.)

Other words: ipeke ‘antelope; male antelope’ from Proto-Swiric *iʔpeqeʔ < Proto-Nastowic *-ipʔiq- ‘swift’ + g. (Many words for animals come from their salient attributes, such as speed: The Indo-European default word for ‘horse’ *h1ekʲwos is possibly related to *h1okʲu- ‘fast,’ although the derivation is disputed). The slender, graceful female antelope is known as *sare (<*salǝ-g) ‘lovely (one),’ - compare Arabic ġazāl ‘gazelle’, from ‘slender, delicate, etc.’ and supposed to be a standard against which fair ladies are compared.

For young animals, the term should be from Proto-Nastowic *xɯg, which originally referred to deer fawn and was extended to deer-like animals; but as this would evolve to just /i/ in Swira, I think I ought to replace it.

I wasn’t expecting to make up words for birches this Lexember, but making them was interesting enough. In Proto-Nastowic, the ancestor of Swira, there is no reconstructed word for ‘birch.’ There is one word, *hɨnɨt, in Proto-Taknic, a neighboring language in the more forested region to the north. There is a pattern already of certain environmental words being traceable back to Proto-Taknic. *Hɨnɨt could be borrowed (through Eastern Taknic) as *hinid, which would evolve into Swira *inil- or simply ini. Now the inherited word for ‘tree’ generally is *nix which would become ni and is very similar to ini. (As an aside, ini is also homophonous with ini ‘older sister.’) So there’s a real possibility they could be confused, and drive creation of more distinctive words for ‘tree’ or birch.’  Some possibilities are:

*hasti ‘bright, light’ + hinid / nix > Proto-Swira *hastihini / hastini ‘shining birch / tree’ > asti(:)ni > Swira atsini - because birches are typically white or light-colored

*mosi ‘strip, stripe, banded’ > mosin hinid / nix ‘striped (birch) tree’ > mosini / mosindi - because birches generally have horizontal bands on the trunk

*iʔimu ‘eye’ > *iʔimun hinid / nix ‘eyed tree’ > *iimunini > i:muni, i:mundi - because many birch bands have lenticules that look like eyes to me

*iʔimu mosi-xpu-ʔi > *i:mu mosipui > i:mosipui - ‘that which is striped with eyes again and again’

Ear > Money

Today’s weird etymology is “ear” > “money” in Swira.

To make things more interesting, this is not exactly the Swira word for “ear,” but the word from a related language, borrowed into Old Swira as a doublet, because there are numerous tribes interacting on the plains, with shifting dominance. So in a Towic language *a-kiŋku-we > *akunkuwe > *akunkō or something like that which is cognate with Swira tigu-i.

The reasoning is the evolution of currency systems in Tiptum. Many cultures have used gold and silver as money, such as Tepat, before it switched to paper. Not all though - Muqali, which is in mountains far from the sea but has valuable mines, traded metals to the east coast for seashells, and an east coast word for “shell” entered Muqali as ilsak ‘money.’ Many different kinds of currency are possible, alongside or instead of metals. In the northern regions wealth was counted in animals, and hides or pelts were common trade items. Anyway, as usual the barbarians were ahead of civilization in certain practices, including paper money, or rather leather money.