Lesson Two
On Sige, a human approaches an inlanlu tahori who is in her hamin skin.
English Translation
Human: “Hello.”
Inlanlu: “Hello. How are you?”
H: “I’m okay, thank you. And you?”
I: “I’m well. Are you from Sige?”
H: “Yes, I’m Sigian.”
I: “You speak Uhjayi well.”
H: “That’s kind of you. Thank you.”
Literal Translation
“Respectful greetings.”
“Friendly greetings. You-what-feel?”
“Respect, I-calm-feel. Yourself?”
“I-good-feel. Sige you-reside?”
“Yes, Sige-resident I-am.”
“Uhjayi you-speak-well.”
“Kindness to me you-give. To you gratitude.”
Uhjayi Conversation
“Jodh yidh.”
“Lih shehth. Du-omnara?”
“Jodh unmajhra. Duku na?”
“Unlidra. Sige duravri na?”
“Ki, Sigerav unhuri.”
“Uhjayi duyurite.”
“Yasku sag unku dulomri. Sag duku rujhku.”
Special Pronunciation
Sige is one of the few names pronounced the same in vocan as Uhjayi. SEE-gay
Notes
~ In referring to feelings, -ra is used to modify the emotion root (majh, “neutral” or “calm”) to mean “feel ___”. It’s not a standard -ri verb; you can say “I feel happy” as unlidra without any -ri.
~ Un means “I” when attached to a verb as its pronoun, but when a pronoun like un or du (“you”) stands alone with no modifiers, -ku is added. It’s similar to saying “you” versus “yourself”.
~ Notice that “Du-omnara?” did not end with na. In this case, na is part of omna, the word for “what.” Query words like what, which, who, and similar include -na, so any question phrased with these words does not need to end with na.
~ Asking “how are you” (“what do you feel?” when taken literally) is an easy way to determine the other person’s reason for initiating conversation. It’s not often used as humans use it, since tahori can gauge each other’s moods and well-being fairly accurately without words. (In this conversation, the human didn’t realize the tahori’s point in asking, answering her in a human fashion and leading into a short, somewhat pointless conversation.)
~ Written Uhjayi doesn’t use any form of hyphen. When writing Uhjayi in the English alphabet, hyphens are used to clarify separate vowels and cases of identical consonants being together. For example, dach-cho is not written as dachcho so that the speaker pronounces both CH sounds; likewise, du-omnara is not written duomnara to ensure the speaker pronounces both U and O separately. (You’ll see dach-cho in the next lesson.) Also, a word like guh-om will use a hyphen, since UH is considered a single vowel; this will help you distinguish H as part of a vowel from H as a consonant (as seen in kiham).
Extra Credit
~ Practice identifying -ra and -ri in the conversation. Make sure to distinguish them from one another. You never need to -ri a -ra.
~ If duyuri is “you speak,” what is the modifier indicating “well” or “good”? Refer to the conversation.
~ If yasku is “kindness” and “I feel ___” is phrased as un___ra, how would you say “I feel kindly”? Hint: lidku is “happiness.”
Lesson One
On Sige, a human approaches an inlanlu tahori who is in his hamin (humanoid) skin.
English Translation
Human: “Excuse me. Do you understand vocan?”
Inlanlu: “No, I don’t understand. Do you understand Uhjayi?”
H: “Yes, a little.”
I: “Are you from Sige?”
H: “Yes, I am Sigian.”
Literal Translation
“With-respect, you-payattention. Vocan you-understand?”
“No, I-no-understand. Uhjayi you-understand?”
“Yes, part-small.”
“Sige you-reside?”
“Yes, Sige-resident I-am.”
Uhjayi Conversation
“Jodh dukihchri. Vocan dumulri na?”
“Su, unurmulri. Uhjayi dumulri na?”
“Ki, fythkukit.”
“Sige duravri na?”
“Ki, Sigerav unhuri.”
Special Pronunciation
Sige is one of the few names pronounced the same in vocan as Uhjayi. SEE-gay
Vocan is not an Uhjayi word, but the name of the human language. VO-kuhn
Notes
~ Uhjayi is a language of roots and modifiers. The most important two roots are -ku, which makes a root into a noun, and -ri, which makes a root into a verb (present tense is assumed; it’s an infinitive if no pronoun is attached). Both -ri and -ku are always directly attached to the roots they modify; any descriptor modifiers come before the main root or after the -ri/-ku.
~ Uhjayi’s structure is OSV – object subject verb. The subject, if a pronoun, is directly attached to the verb. “You sing” is dugiri; du is “you,” gi is the root of “sing/song,” and -ri makes gi into a verb.
~ Uhjayi roots can be a single vowel, a consonant-vowel pair, or a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable. Any vowel paired with an H (IH, EH, UH) is considered a single vowel. Similarly, any consonant paired with H (CH, DH, JH, KH, RH, SH, TH) is considered a single consonant; H is only its own consonant when it stands alone, and it never ends a root. For example, guh is a consonant-vowel root, while hes is a consonant-vowel-consonant root, and ih is a single-vowel root. Only pronounce H when it stands alone.
~ Ur- is a prefix that negates a verb. In the conversation above, unurmulri means “I don’t understand” or “I-no-understand.” Ur- always comes between the pronoun (un) and the verb (mulri), since it modifies the verb and not the subject.
~ Na is a question indicator and comes at the end of a query, unless it is included in a word used earlier in the sentence. Na can also be used alone as “huh?” or “eh?” in casual conversation. If you can only say one thing in Uhjayi, na is a good choice to indicate your confusion if a tahori speaks to you.
Extra Credit
~ Practice identifying -ri and -ku in the conversation.
~ How would you say “yes” and “no”?
~ If gi is the root and giri is “sing,” how would you say “song” in Uhjayi? (Hint: look at the first note above.)
Welcome to Learning Uhjayi, First Edition!
Welcome! My name is Ty, and I’ll be your guide as you venture into the brambled wilderness of a brand new language that literally no one else on Earth can speak yet.
Uhjayi is a work of fiction, the native tongue of the inlanlu tahori, a species of tribal shapeshifters on a world known as Alasa Ka. Their universe is half-science and half-fantasy: magic and natural selection shape evolution, and a person must use both logic and spirit to thrive. Uhjayi itself is a conlang – a constructed language made to simulate the form of communication an alien culture might possibly use, given that one of their skins is remarkably similar to the one we humans wear all our lives.
Inspired by Pimsleur‘s audio learning method, which heavily emphasizes conversational language and repetition, I dreamed of one day writing and recording Uhjayi scripts in thirty-minute lessons. Like most languages that Pimsleur offers, there would be thirty lessons per level, and three levels to reach functionality/fluency in any given language. The novice is encouraged to reach about 80% proficiency with each lesson before progressing, which can often be done with only one listen-through of the recording.
On a lark, I figured out and jotted down the first would-be lesson on Uhjayi, using the Pimsleur conversation that is universal across the languages offered. My readers responded with startling enthusiasm and encouraged me to continue–and so this blog is born.
This is not my finished product; there are not thirty-minute audio recordings accompanying these texts. There are, instead, under-five-minutes recordings of myself reading through the conversation and then guiding the listener through pronunciation of individual words – and, yes, you do have to say them aloud if you hope to develop the accent and kinetic memory for this language.
Each lesson’s texts begin with a fairly plausible scenario with you-the-learner as the human speaking to the inlanlu, going through the English translation, the literal translation, and then the Uhjayi conversation itself. I provide about five points of interest (Notes) on concepts and important words in the lesson, then three do-it-yourself questions (Extra Credit) to help integrate the concepts shown and/or explained. You are strongly encouraged to post your answers as a reply to the post for review and encouragement.
After every five lessons, I will post a cumulative review, going into a little more detail on the concepts so far discussed and expanding the vocabulary that was glossed over in previous lessons. There will also be a small quiz to test your retention and comprehension; again, post your answers for feedback and gold stars!
You can do all of this at your own pace; I will respond to comments on every post, no matter how old the post may be when you reply to it. For myself, I don’t promise to be perfectly consistent on a posting schedule; I’m learning as I create and polish these lessons, and some of them will be a little slower in coming than others.
You’re always welcome to contact me however you’d like – ask questions, suggest tweaks, or share your own linguistic geekery. My email is ty@unorthodoxcreativity.com and my Twitter is @tybarbary. You can also just leave a note in reply to this page.
Let’s get started!