Qagun Maruhe (48-hour-challenge lang) (now much weirder and more implausible)

[Risla]

Like a lot of people, I'm breaking some of my own norms for my 48 hour challenge language (challang?). It's not going to be the most unique conlang in the world (and it doesn't need to be!) but I'm at least going to break out of my own mold in the following ways:

• Significant nominal case morphology (almost none of my languages mark case!)
• More than 2 noun classes
• Noun classes are arbitrary, not based on animacy
• No lateral consonants
• No affricates
• Simple prosody, with stress based on neither syllable weight nor stress

I've still got about 7 hours to go, but here we go:

Qagun Maruhe phonology:

/m n ɲ/ <m n j> (N)
/p t c k ʔ/ <p d q k t> (T)
/f s ç h/ <f s c h> (S)
/ʋ j/ <v y> (Y)
/ɾ/ <r>

i y ə a u ỹ ã ũ <i u e a o ug ag og>

Maximal syllable structure is CVC.

A bit of allophony (not complete yet)

V→Ṽ / _Nσ
ɾ→l / _σ
ɾɾ→tt
T→ʔ / _N

Stress is trochaic and primary stress falls on the penult. Stress is primarily indicated through pitch.

Nasal vowels were historically a sequence of back vowels and /ŋ/. Historical /ŋ/ has merged with /ɲ/ before front vowels and has been deleted otherwise.

Still hammering out the sound changes, but they're necessary for the noun classes so I should have them done soon.

[Risla]

A little worldbuilding, verbs of motion, and deixis:

This is the only part where I'm letting myself get too creative at this point, so just dumping it here to get it out of my brain:

Qagun Maruhe is spoken by the Maruhe people on a volcanic island at about 60°N. A map of the island is below, with the four volcanoes (all stratovolcanoes) on the island marked:



If you can't read their names, they are (from largest to smallest):

1. Qepder (2221 meters)
2. Yagfi (1390 meters)
3. Misoat (972 meters)
4. Kev (868 meters)

As you've probably already predicted, navigation is done based on the volcanoes. Motion verbs are all direction-based, with both path and manner being marked via adverbials.

Qepder, being by far the the biggest and most prominent feature in the landscape, is the primary landmark used for navigation. The important verbs used here are as follows:

maddu = go towards the caldera of Qepder (etymologically derived from "face go")

jimaddu = go away from the caldera of Qepder, especially (though not exclusively) towards the northeast (etymologically derived from "turn" + maddu)
sugkaru = go away from the caldera of Qepder towards the southwest (etymologically derived from "night go," based on the direction in which the sun sets)
vataru = go away from the caldera of Qepder towards the southeast (etymologically derived from "sun go," based on the direction in which the sun rises)
kogrkaddu = go towards the cliffs of Kogrka on the northwest side of Qepder (although in practice, people rarely go here!)

hicdaru = move with the left ear towards the caldera of Qepder (counterclockwise)
nundaru = move with the right ear towards the caldera of Qepder (clockwise)

The other volcanoes on the island are also used for navigating more locally, and fortunately have largely more transparent etymologies:

yagfiru = move towards the caldera of Yagfi
jiyagfiru = move away from the caldera of Yagfi
misoatru = move towards the caldera of Misoat
jimisoatru = move away from the caldera of Misoat
kevru = move towards the caldera of Kev
jikevru = move away from the caldera of Kev

The circular directional verbs hicdaru and nundaru can also be compounded with the other volcano names to mean similar meanings for the others:

misoat-hicdaru = move with the left ear towards the caldera of Misoat (counterclockwise)

These verbs can be compounded to refer to moving in quite specific directions. Generally this is done with one Qepder-oriented verb and one other verb:

jimadduri yagfi-nundaruri = move away from the caldera of Qepder to the south, so that your right ear is facing Yagfi

However, it is not always necessary to navigate with respect to Qepder

misoat-hicdaruri kev-nundaruri = move with the left ear to Misoat and the right ear to Kev; pass between Misoat and Kev to the southeast

Do note that the grammar for compounding verbs is likely to change…

There are also directional verbs for up and down:

nahparu = move up in the air towards the sky
doneddu = move down in the air towards the earth
koraseru = move up in the water towards the surface
atahru = move down in the water towards the bottom
detundu = move down into the earth, such as into a hole
qagesru = move up from the earth to a higher place, such as into a tree or to the top of a house

[Pedant]

An excellent start!
Say, would you like me to make you a map of the island in full colour? I can do elevation as well. You can see some examples of my work on the Icemannic and Ankoseiwas threads.

[Risla]

An excellent start!
Say, would you like me to make you a map of the island in full colour? I can do elevation as well. You can see some examples of my work on the Icemannic and Ankoseiwas threads.

Thanks!

It's really nice of you to offer to make a map! If you want to, that would be awesome. I'm thinking that there's an area of hills and raised elevation in the northeastern part (roughly around where you can see the T I drew with correction tape…), whereas the area in the southwest between Qepder and Yagfi is lower—maybe even including a lake. Feel free to add those (again, if you want). I'm not too picky about exact shapes.

[Pedant]

An excellent start!
Say, would you like me to make you a map of the island in full colour? I can do elevation as well. You can see some examples of my work on the Icemannic and Ankoseiwas threads.

Thanks!

It's really nice of you to offer to make a map! If you want to, that would be awesome. I'm thinking that there's an area of hills and raised elevation in the northeastern part (roughly around where you can see the T I drew with correction tape…), whereas the area in the southwest between Qepder and Yagfi is lower—maybe even including a lake. Feel free to add those (again, if you want). I'm not too picky about exact shapes.

No worries! How do you feel about rivers? Actually, how large is the island to begin with? Is it surrounded completely by sea or is there a landmass close by? It’s close enough to the North Pole; is said North Pole covered by water or land?

[Pedant]

How's this to start with? What improvements might you like?

EDIT: the layers on the map correspond to, respectively, heights of: 0-249m ASL, 250-499m, 500-999m, 1,000-1,499m, 1,500-1,999m, and 2,000-2,499m. The hills on the northeastern portion probably need a bit of work, but there's a nice deep valley between Qepder and Yagfi at least. I can also remove the smaller islands if you like.

[Risla]

Thanks, this is cool!

The one change I'd make is to lower the northeast side of Qepder a bit. I'm envisioning it as quite a classic conical stratovolcano; actually, this island is heavily inspired by Unimak Island, which includes an extremely conical volcano (Mt Shishaldin). Otherwise, looks great, thanks!

[Pedant]

How's about this one, then?


(Also: https://i.imgur.com/7FVRISe.png)

I adjusted the length of Qepder a little and made the valleys a little more prominent (likely you're going to have a fair bit of lava flow at some point in history, after all), and also added another elevation layer: one running from 0-199m ASL. (The old base layer is now for 200-249m ASL.)