Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Time particle: ni


trum ni nari



ni nari gim ni wen cum
from night to day


Kalev vu kwam mem ni oren yulen
I haven't seen you in a thousand years!

Saturday, 21 July 2012


IPA: [mar]
n. blood. The red fluid that flows through the human veins.

A pretty simple word today. Its use is mainly in medicine, but some ancient Tulvan poetry hints to a very dark past and usage for this most sacred fluid. Some other derivates may also include utimmar meaning 'sap', although this is a more "poetical" resource for naming it.

Example: Cur goiven umar crumen gim.
The gods desire the blood of men.
(From a very ancient codex)

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

The Conditional construction

In previous posts we learnt the conditional conjugation of the verb. This conjugation is used primarily to form the conditional construction, the kind of construction in such English sentences as "If I were you I wouldn't do that". Tulvan construction is very similar to that of English, albeit with some few differences.

Conditional I

This is the predictive conditional, indicating that it is possible to fulfil a condition which is given in the if-clause. To introduce the if-clause Tulvan employs the particle "ti" which has to come before and after the clause. So we have;

ti tulv kwam ti kuëvud kem.
If I think, I will know.

ti ëv kem ipoilu ti kuprim kwam urëlik ikem.
If I'm logical, I will protect my mind.

Conditional II

This would be the speculative conditional, implying it is theoretically possible to fulfil a condition which is given in the if-clause. In this case we use the subjunctive coupled with the conditional tense.

ti ëvpuaki meme ukem ti kyatumil mem.
If you listened, you would learn.

This is the same that you could use in the construction "If I were you".

ti ävi kem mem ti kyasut vu kwam.
If I were you, I wouldn't do it.

More about the Conditional constructions for coming posts.

Friday, 18 May 2012


IPA: [kʰep]
vb. to speak, to talk, to say.

In people so fond of talking as are the Tulvans this word has a lot of uses, derivations and combinations. The word in itself is quite regular, but can undergo several changes and affixations.  So for instance we have ikkep 'to converse' (ik, between), which means to maintain a dialogue. You also have cikep 'to speak on behalf of' (ci, for, by), cumkep 'to speak for someone, on his defense or to speak well of someone' (cum, for), sivkep 'to speak thoroughly, to speak from beginning to end, to give a dissertation' (siv, through), and also migkep 'to speak at a party' (mig, around). This last one is the most interesting to my mind, it means that at social gatherings it is expected that you speak to all guests around you and partake in their conversations. One of many Tulvan codes of etiquette.

Another derivation is cnarakep (cnara, black) which means 'to curse', it is akin to the idea of a 'foulmouth' or, in this case, a 'blackmouth'. So for example a common warning to children is cnarakepi vu! 'Don't curse!'.

Example: Caur kep tote utimu, mas ikkep utimen usim vithi.
He wanted to talk to a tree, and trees only speak with each other.

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Tulvan is 2 years old!

Today Tulvan celebrates its second anniversary! A humble project has now began its third year of existence and I hope it continues to grow and endure for a long time yet.

Here's to Tulvan! Cheers! Trum Tulvan cum!

Thursday, 10 May 2012


IPA: [trum]
n. goodness, thing that is good or beneficial.

This word has a trick. In the Tulvan language there is no actual word for 'good' as an adjective, you only have this noun which represents a similar concept. To use it in sentences you would normally use an adjective you have to use the attributive i- prefix, as has been seen before. So for example the word koimutrum 'goodness-of-earth' actually is a metaphor for vegetables, the goods that the Earth has to offer. If you want to use it as an adjective you would get; itrum crum 'the good man', itrum roth 'the good woman'.

Example: Ëvpak itrum crum, tumil ipoilu crum.
A good man listens, a logical man learns.

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Enunciation of verbs

This question just occurred to me once. How would you enunciate verbs in the Tulvan language? For example, if you had a Tulvan language dictionary, how would verbs appear there? As it happens I do have a Tulvan language dictionary, hehe, which I use for myself and I thought this would be something interesting to post, since it refreshes the notion of verbal morphology in Tulvan.

So how do you do it? First of all there are 4 paradigms to have in mind when talking about Tulvan verbs. The first one is the normal present tense paradigm, the form of the verb with no changes at all. The second one is the past tense, with the infixation seen in past posts. The third is the infixed perfective participle as explained above. And finally we have the infinitive with the defusing.

So for instance a verb like lev, should be included in the dictionary in this way:

lev. luev, leyv, leu. [leʋ] vb. to see, to look.

Some other examples of how to enunciate verbs are:

tulv. taulv, tuylv, tulu. [tulʋ] vb. to think, to ponder.
cur. caur, cuyr, cur. [kur] vb. to want.
thark. thuark, thayrk, tharz. [θarkʰ] vb. to use, to employ.

Finally we have an irregular verb, the verb ëv 'to be':

ëv. äv, ëü, eu. [jeʋ] vb. to be, to exist.

This last verb uses an irregular contraction to form the past and perfective paradigms. This verb further changes when weak tense prefixes are applied. So, for instance, you get këv, käv, kaëv, kuëv, kyav, for the different weak tenses and their prefixes.

From these forms the different tenses can be easily made out. So, to make the Strong Tenses: The Present Tense is the basic form, then the past is also part of the paradigms, the perfective participle as well, finally the imperative uses the basic form plus an -i suffix and the subjunctive does the same from the form of the Past Tense. The Weak Tenses use the prefix ki- plus the present and past tense forms, and then we have the Perfect, Future and Conditional that each use a prefix, namely; ka-, ku- and kya- respectively.

For further information see the post for Strong Tenses and Weak Tenses.