Here's the opening sentence of #WhiteNights by #Dostoevsky, translated to Ru̇u̇ťalis as I promised!
...
Ze ne Nahť ďeehlis, ne Nahť szvaalik vo, vėn vir hunlis, maaglis eenťlis, o Loker lu̇u̇flis.
DUMP ART.M.INDEF night-ABS delightful-ABS , ART.M.INDEF night-ABS such REL , when 1P young-ABS , possible only , VOC reader lovely .
It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader.
I wanted to begin working on a new translation project for the Ru̇u̇ťalis language, so after much deliberation, I chose to translate one of my favourite stories: White Nights by Fyodor #Dostoevsky.
I'll post excerpts regularly (check #lang_ruut and #ruutalis), and the whole thing when I'm done!
#ruutalis #WhiteNights #Literature #conlang #conlanging #conlangs
Perfect tense is the default tense to recall past events in Ru̇u̇ťalis, unlike English, where simple past is typically used for this purpose.
To put a phrase into perfect tense, the verb is replaced by hefa (to have) + the perfect participle infinitive form of the original verb.
Compare this present-tense sentence...
Di Maavie na Zup bru̇u̇fet.ART.F.DEF maid-ERG ART.N.INDEF soup-ABS brew-3S
The maid cooks a soup.
... to this perfect-tense sentence:
Di Maavie na Zup heft gebru̇u̇fa.ART.F.DEF maid-ERG ART.N.INDEF soup-ABS have-3S PPART-brew-PPART
The maid cooked a soup.
#lang_ruut #ruutalis #linguistics #conlang #conlanging #conlangs
Dit Dėliie Komuniszte na SZkaaduszpolaťii looft nėt!
/dɪt dæ'li:.ʔə kɵ.mʊ'nɪ.stə nɐ 'ska:.dʊs.pɵ.lɐ.t͡si: lo:ft næt/
ART.N.DEF party-ERG communist-ERG ART.F.INDEF shadow_police-ABS allow-3S NEG
"The Communist Party does not tolerate a secret police!"
I'm wondering whether I should work on a custom writing system for Ru̇u̇ťalis.
Since it's a Germanic-inspired fantasy language, there's probably some a-posteriori inspiration I could take from various historical writing systems.
On the other hand, I like its Latin orthography.
Maybe something like an additional system, like a liturgical script?
In Ru̇u̇ťalis, the common way to write text smileys appears reversed from the Western standard; with the colon representing eyes on the right side.
As Ru̇u̇ťalis' orthography features quite a few uncommon variations on Latin letters (namely: U̇u̇, Ėė, Ťť, Šš, Žž), some unique smiley variants emerged when a language community first emerged on the internet, including:
Been working on a new conlang project as of late!
It's called Ru̇u̇ťalis ( /'ɾy:.t͡sɐ.lɪʃ/ ), derived from Proto-Germanic raþjǭ (reasoning).
It's loosely inspired by the Germanic languages, but I take plenty of creative freedoms; it's not meant to be naturalistic. Ergative-nominative alignment, zero copula, three-gender system (m/f/n), batshit but consistent orthography.
It's mostly just meant to be a fun hobby diversion! Not up to my academic standards. :P
I'll use the hashtag #lang_ruut for posts in the language, and #ruutalis for meta-posts about the language like this one.
Now, look at a very simple sample sentence in the reply:
anna