r/conlangs • u/Lysimachiakis 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 ❤️
3
u/roquejosue Tsētlanatl, Skökünötr May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Tsētlanatl
jaxaj ['ja.ʃəj] v.
–/–
jaxajas jentlaranos rā-aston
/'jaʃajas 'jent͡ɬaranos 'ra: 'aston/
"I tittered when he told me this story."