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FeNeKeRe: the Language – Lesson 1

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In light of yesterday’s post, I thought I’d start sharing how to read and speak the language depicted there.

FeNeKeRe is the first language of the Dragon People, or The Children of the Great One, ‘e’uuKtleTaChaTe. These are the people of Fenmere, the Worm, who is The Poet. His name in this language is FeNeMeRe, which means “The Poet”.

To speak, think or write FeNeKeRe is FeNoKeRa. But there are words specific to speaking, thinking and writing. But, we’ll get to all that in a later lesson. First, we’ll do an overview of how the language works, and cover how to write the words in Romanized script (as exemplified in this post). We’ll get into the native script later, when I have the time to prep the art files. The writing script is called ‘eBiJeFe.

First of all, the capitalization of letters is unimportant. I do it here simply to help readers parse the words better. Each syllable effects the meaning of the word, so it’s good to be able to pick them out quickly.

We should also cover how to pronounce the vowels:

e = eh
a = ah
i = ee
o = oh
u = oo

If in the Romanized version of the language you see too vowels next to each other, they simply indicate an lengthened pronunciation of that sound. In FeNeKeRe, vowels do not interact with each other, and there are no other vowel phonemes than the ones shown above.

Now, FeNeKeRe is a language that does not require any specific word order for meaning. All of the grammar is encapsulated into the construction of each word. The consonants identify the root word. The vowel sounds are what change that meaning.

Most of the vocabulary of FeNeKeRe is derived from the names of the Dragon People. Each Dragon Person is an Artist, with a unique Art that he or she is better at than anyone else. For instance FeNeMeRe is the Poet, BeNeJeDe is the Story Teller (or historian), and BeNeJeDe is the Be-er (he is the best at being).

The first syllable of a four letter root word contains what we think of as the article associated with that word. But, it also tells us whether it is a concrete, physical object or an idea or feeling. The phonemes of the first syllable correspond to meaning thus:

e = (The)
a = (An)
i = (An idea of the Original Artist – a thought)
o = (An idea of an individual – a thought)
u = (An idea of many)

So, if you think of a poem it would be FoNoMeRa. If Fenmere thinks of a poem it would be FiNoMeRa.

The second syllable of a four letter root word tells us whether it is a noun, verb or descriptive word:

e = Proverbial Noun (the Artist)
a = plural noun
i = noun
o = verb
u = adjective or adverb

The third syllable tells us how the word relates to other words in the sentence:

e = the subject
a = the object
i = adverb of an adverb
o = adverb of a verb
u = adverb of an adjective

The fourth syllable either tells us the tense or how close to the original Art it is (depending on if it is a verb or noun or adjective):

e = future tense (of the Artist or of the Subject)
a = present tense (of the Art or of the Object)
i = future perfect (of an imitation of the Art)
o = past tense (of an effect of the Art)
u = past perfect (of an effect of the Art once removed)

There are 31 consonantal phonemes that are combined in four syllables to create over 900,000 root words. More than enough to name each Dragon Person and their Art, even though many of them have yet to discover their Arts!

There are also several words that are one to three syllables long. As well as some prefixes that act as prepositions or conjunctions. And some prefixes can stand alone, acting as sort of a prefix to the whole sentence.

Finally, there are a few pronouns. They are officially four syllable words, but they are often reduced to one to three syllables, since everyone tends to assume what you mean by their use. Though, the speaker or writer should be careful occasionally to include enough syllables to at least let everyone know if the pronoun is plural or the object or subject of the sentence, when there might be confusion.

‘e’e'e’e or ‘e = The Great One (She)
FeFeFeFe or Fe = Me
GeGeGeGe or Ge = You
KeKeKeKe or Ke = Them (She, Him, It, Them)
NeNeNeNe or Ne = This

And that’s probably more than enough for the first lesson! We’ll get into the list of consonants and a list of prepositional prefixes in the next lesson.

For now, you can already construct a sentence:

Fe FeNoKeRa

Or:

FeNoKeRa Fe

Either way, it means “I use The Language”

You could even be so bold as to claim:

Fe FeNoMeRa FeNeKaRe

But you’d probably be wrong.

FeNeKeRe: the Language – Lesson 1 originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2014/03/22.


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