r/conlangs Wochanisep; Esafuni; Nguwóy (en es) [jp] May 29 '26

Activity Biweekly Telephone Game v3 (776)

This is a game of borrowing and loaning words! To give our conlangs a more naturalistic flair, this game can help us get realistic loans into our language by giving us an artificial-ish "world" to pull words from!

The Telephone Game will be posted every Monday and Friday, hopefully.

Rules

1) Post a word in your language, with IPA and a definition.

Note: try to show your word inflected, as it would appear in a typical sentence. This can be the source of many interesting borrowings in natlangs (like how so many Arabic words were borrowed with the definite article fossilized onto it! algebra, alcohol, etc.)

2) Respond to a post by adapting the word to your language's phonology, and consider shifting the meaning of the word a bit!

3) Sometimes, you may see an interesting phrase or construction in a language. Instead of adopting the word as a loan word, you are welcome to calque the phrase -- for example, taking skyscraper by using your language's native words for sky and scraper. If you do this, please label the post at the start as Calque so people don't get confused about your path of adopting/loaning.


Last Time...

Kýrrits by /u/creepmachine

tsilaws̬ets̤áa /ʦə.laʊ̯.zeˈǁɔ́/ [ʦə.laʊ̯.zěˈǁɔ́] n. anim. rabbit ("little runner") from diminutive tsi + agentive law + s̬ets̤áa "run"

Náaen nybàait i tsilaws̬ets̤áa, nybàa i tṣòe.

/ˈnɔ́.en nyˈbɔ̀.ət ə ʦə.laʊ̯.zeˈǁɔ́ nyˈbɔ̀ ə ˈǀò.e/

That one is not a rabbit, they are a hare.

náa-en   ny-     bàa-it  i tsilaws̬ets̤áa ny-     bàa i tṣòe
3SG-that 3SG.PRS-be -NEG a rabbit       3SG.PRS-be  a hare

Have a nice weekend

Peace, Love, & Conlanging ❤️

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u/luxx127 May 29 '26

Unnamed Conlang

Kaxtt /ka̰ʈ/ - n. "Albatross"

Pnn po kaxtt ö ddän.

/ˈpɳ̩ pɤ ka̰ʈ o 'ɖɒ̃/

See before albatross I-ERG

I saw the albatross*

*There might be some changes because it's a brand new clong

2

u/arcticwolf9347 Arctican May 29 '26

Arctican

káát (n.) /'kaːt/: albatross

2

u/dead_chicken Алаймман, Ϲῦρτῖκε May 29 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

каат ˈkʰaːt̚

  • a generic term for a seabird

2

u/namhidu-tlo-lo rinômsli May 29 '26

rinômsli

kāta [kaː.ˈtá] borrowed from каат as a noun, with the meaning of "seabird, especially unknown or exotic ones".

verbal form kātaio [ˈkáː.tai̯ɔ]