Kânik (Cénárol dialect)

From Langmaker

Conlang	Cénárol
Author	Jeff Shanley
Year Began	2002
Language Type	fictional diachronic language
Lexicon Size	350
Etymologies	in development
Grammar	yes
Sample Texts	yes
Primer	no

Cénárol is a fictional diachronic language created by Jeff Shanley.

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Description

Kânik was originally the language of the Werewolves on the fictional continent of Émae. However, a group of men called the Wolven have adapted it into their own dialect called Cénárol. Cénárol had a much smoother sound and more complex grammar than the harsher northern tongue. It was first written in the runic Etháre of Paliro, but was then adapted into the less runic Etháre of Akathos.

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Uniqueness

The use of a VSO word order is not commonly found in constructed languages. Also, the language has extensive declension and conjugation systems. Also, the Cénárol dialect had three major "grammatical" accents, as well as differences in speech, though all were mututally intelligible.

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Design principles

Kânik, specifically the Cénárol dialect, has a system that should allow it to appear as a natural language without too many irregular verbs (though there are a few). Also, there are different systems of word order change when using the language, depending on which accent you're using (see above).

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Language sources

The Kânik vocabulary was not directly influenced by any language, created or natural. The only word that was directly influenced by an existing language was areo, "yes", which was influenced by the Armenian aro. Besides this, the grammar was slightly influenced by German and Middle English. Old English also contributed to the addition of a dual pronoun (enka). It is also slighty fusional, similar to German.

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Interest of others

Currently, I am writing a book which features this language heavily, so I hope that many people will become interested in it. However, a few of my friends are interested in it.

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Sample translation

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Langmaker.com Motto

En’pelave u néno' siro kya’i. Bé-en’gânive e ithare! Share the secret vice - Invent a language!

For the sake of the language, I will give a breakdown of the translation. En'pelave comes from the verb pelim, which means "to give", and is in the plural second person form, present tense. Kya'i is the allative case (motion towards) of kya, which is "them". Nénos is the adjectival form of nénu, "secret", which could also mean "hidden", and siro is the accusative form of sira "desire", which I used in place of "vice". Because nénos ends in "s" and siro begins in "s", the Wolven usually silence the last letter, if the following word begins in the same letter. This allows for better and clearer pronunciation. Bé-en’gânive is second person plural present of gânej, "to devise". The Bé- is an imperative prefix. Ithare is the accusative form of ithi, "tongue". If the pronoun was used after the verbs, it would have been úven. So what you would be saying is "Give the hidden desire to them. Devise a tongue!" If this interested you, click the link at the bottom of the page to learn more about the language. There is a longer piece of text on the website, the first paragraph of the Valaxor Manuscript, if anybody is interested in taking a look.