THE ANGURPIAQ LANGUAGE
Any student of their language will quickly discover how few terminal sounds there are. Because of this it may appear superficially simple at first, but greater study will reveal its richness and complexities.
The difficulty for Marbak speakers is that the k sound must be distinguished from the q sound. The latter is made with the tongue much further back than the k. The closest approximation that a non-native speaker might make would be -rk.
There are also two distinct forms of l, one voiced, the other unvoiced. The unvoiced form is transcribed here as -dl or -tl to note this important difference.
Linguistic difficulty is not a one-way street. The Angurpiaq have problems with some of the Marbak sounds, finding them virtually unsayable. For example, Armun emerges as “Arramun” and Harl as “Harral” and so forth.
One of the most interesting things about the structure of this language is that it consists only of nouns and verbs. One of these begins every word. However this root term is open to scores of affixes which then can combine with even more affixes. In this way sentence-long words are built up. For example;
qingik a house
qingirssuak a large house
qingiliorpoq he builds a house
qubgirssualiorpoq he build a large house
qingirssualiorfilik a man can build a large house, and so on, apparently without end.
It is very important that the right-branching nature of this be noted. We are all used to left-branching constructions, such as;
house
a house
a large house
Once one system is used by a native speaker it becomes ‘natural’ to speak that way and organize language in this manner, making learning a new order particularly difficult.
In addition to affixes, nouns and verbs also have suffixes. These are used to mark case, person or mood. Verbs can be in the Indicative mood, or Interrogative, Subjunctive, Optative, Conjunctive, Infinitive. As an example of how this functions let us take “like” which in the infinitive is alutora.
alutoroq he likes
alutorut she likes
alutorauk does he like?
salutorassuk do they like?
alutorliuk may he like (Optative)
alutorlissuk may they like
alutorpagit he may like (Subjunctive)
alutorpatigik they may like
Although Marbak and Angurpiaq are not linguistically related, they are structurally related, even if in a mirror-image fashion. If Armun, for instance was to use alutora for “like”, then point to herself and then to some object that she likes it would be comprehensible. The Angurpiaq might consider her stupid for getting the ending wrong, but they would understand what she was trying to say. This is opposed to Yilanè where nothing would be understood at all that wasn’t expressed within specific and precise narrow bounds.
One thing that is very imprecise in Angurpiaq is the sense of time, for they are indifferent time-keepers at the best. There is a vague form of future tense, but it is rarely used. The term most often heard is tamnagok which can mean once upon a time, or it can also mean then or now—or even in a bit. The only other time-related term is eetchuk which signifies a long long time ago. This is so unspecific that it could mean forty or even two-thousand years.
As is to be expected their language reflects their physical existence. They mark many distinctions that do not exist in Marbak, yet completely ignore others. For obvious reasons there are a number of terms for snow. They refer to packed snow, powder snow, frozen snow, wet snow, snow that you can cut blocks from and even snow that balls underfoot. Yet on the other hand green and blue are not distinguished as separate colors. And while red can be told from yellow there is no separate designation for orange. Since the terms for these colors are only affixes, never used as words of their own, there is really no clear sense of their exact meaning.
It has been theorized that their strong feeling for affixes and innumerable connections and cross-connections may have some relationship with the Angurpiaq deftness and ability to see how mechanical parts fit together. Though it is certainly true that their assembled and tied boat frameworks, their navigational charts, reflect this it must be emphasized that this is a theory only.
DICTIONARIES
YILANÈ–ENGLISH
(Note: this list includes both single elements and some commonly repeated gestalts.)
aa: in
aga: departure
aglè: passage
aka: disgust
akas: growing land
akel: goodness
akse: stone
alak: succession
Alakas-aksehent: Florida Keys
alè: cage
alpè: beauty
ambei: height
ambesed: central meeting place
anat: bodily extremity
ankanaal: land-surrounded ocean
ankè: presence
apen: demand
asak: beach
ast: tooth
asto: movement
awa: pain
ban*: home
buru: circumambience
dee: this
ee: out
eede: that
eesen: flatness
efen: life
efenburu: group formed in childhood
efeneleiaa: spirit of life
efenselè: member of an efenburu
eisek: mud
eisekol: dredging animal
eiset: responsibility
eistaa: city leader
eksei: caution
elin: small
elininyil: pre-fargi stage of development
elinou: small saurian carnivore
embo: pressure
empè: commendation
end: vision
enet: lake
ènè: suppleness
enge: love
enteesenat: plesiosaur
ento: each single
Entoban*<: Africa
epetruk: tyrannosaurus rex
erek: speed
esek: top
esekasak: birth-beach guardian
esik: south
espei: posture
estekel*: pterodactyl
eto<: shoot
fafn: catch
far<: inquiry
fargi: one learning to speak
gen: new
Genaglè: Straits of Gibraltar
Gendasi*: North America
gul: hearing
gulawatsan: scream creature
hais: mind
han: maleness
hanalè: male residence
has: female
has: yellowness
N.B. These two concepts are always distinguished by voice of controller
hè: numeral 1
hen: male/female
hent: revolution
hèsotsan: dart-firing weapon
hornsopa: genetic shape
huruksast: monoclonius
igi: entry
ihei: sense of smell/touch/feel
ineg: old
inlè: large size
intè: hunt
ipol: rub, buff
Isegnet: Mediterranean
isek: north
ka<: cessation
kain: line of sight
kakh: salt
kal: poison
kalkasi: thornbush
kasei: thorn
kem: light
khets: convexity
kiyis: east
kru: short
lan<: copulation
leibe: difficulty
lek: badness
mal: absence of worry
man<: last
Maninlè: Cuba
masinduu: optical projector
melik: dark
melikkasei: poison-thorn vines
natè: friend
nefmakel: bandage-creature
neni: skull
nenitesk: triceratops
nin: absence
nins
è: the unresponsive
nu*: adequacy
okhalakx: herbivore
okol: gut
onetsensast: stegosaurus
pelei: discovery
rubu: weightlessness
ruud: cessation
ruutsa: ankylosaurus
sanduu: microscope
sas<: speed
sat: equality
selè: bondage
sèsè: motion
sete: purpose-oriented group
shak: change
shan: volition
shei: cold
sokèi: cleared land
son*: element
stal: prey
takh: clean
tarakast: mount for riding
tesk: concavity
top: run
tsan: animal
tso: excrement
trumal: a joint attack
tuup: fat, torpid
ugunkshaa: recording device
umnun: treated meat
unut: crawl
unutakh: hair-eating slug
uruketo: mutated icthyosaur
uruktop: eight-legged beast of burden
urukub: brontosaurus
ustu: blood
uu: increase
ustuzou: mammalia
yil: speech
yiliebe: incapable of speech
MARBAK–ENGLISH
allas: path
alladjex: shaman
amaratan: immortal ones (divine creatures)
arnwheet: hawk
as: how
atta: father (dim.)
bana: son (dim.)
beka: to knot
benseel: sphagnum moss
bleit: cold
dalas: soup
dalasstar: strong soup
dia: to be
drija: bleed
eghoman: the vowed ones
ekkotaz: nuts & berry paste
elka: to light
erman: sky
Ermanpadar: sky-father, a spirit
es: if
ey: always
fa: to look
falla: to wait
faldar: fire
gentinaz: leader
grunnan: misery
ham, hammar: to be able to (sing., pl.)
hannas: man
hannasan: men
hans: war party
hardalt: squid
harian: joyful ones
hault: twenty (count of a man)
himin: mountain
hoatil: everyone
istak: path
Kargu: mountain people
katisk: cheerful
kell: wedge
kurmar: river
kurro: boss
las: down
levrelag: camping ground
Levrewasan: the black tent people
ley: (burnt) clearing
linga: woman
lingai: women
lissa: to know
madrap: moccasin
mal: good
man: must
margalus: murgu counsellor
mar: hair
marag: cold-blooded animal
marin: star
markiz: winter
marsk: icthyosaur
mensa: to arrange
modia: maybe
mo trig: my child
murgu: plural of marag
nat: killer
naudinz: hunter
nenitesk: triceratops
nep: long
parad: ford
Paramutan: raw-meat-eaters, northern people
rath: hot
sammad: mixed male/female band
sammadar: elected head of the sammad
sassi: few
sia: to go
skerm: period of time
so: as, that, who
stakkiz: summer
stessi: beach
tais: grain
tanu: people
tarril: brother
ter: person
terredar: leader of a terred
tharm: spirit of soul
tina: to bear
to: at
torsk: ichthyosaur
torskan: ichthyosaurs
torskanat: ichthyosaur’s bone
ulfadan: long-beards
veigil: heavy, important
wedam: island
SESEK–ENGLISH
bansemnilla: marsupial carnivore
charadis: flax
Deifoben: place of the golden beaches
Kadair: sky god
Karognis: god of evil
mandukto: priest
porro: beer
tagaso: maize corn
waliskis: mastodon
ANGURPIAQ–ENGLISH
NOUNS
angurpiaq: real people
erqigdlit: fantasy people
etat: forest
ikkergak: large boat
imaq: open sea
inge: vulva
munga: small fish, codling
nangeq: destination
paukarut: tent
qingik: house, shelter
qivio: path
qunguleq: arctic seaweed
ularuaq: large squatic mammal
VERBS
alutora: like
ardlerpa: hunt
ikagput: be many
liorpa: build
misugpa: eat
muluva: be absent
nagsoqipa: be equal, make no distinction
nakoyoark: be excellent
siagpai: be important
takugu: see
tingava: intercouse
AFFIXES
-adluinar: completely
-eetchuk: long ago
-guaq: inferior
-kaq: small
-luarpoq: too much
-qaq: quick
-taq: new-caught
-tamnagok: then, now, soon
ZOOLOGY
* * *
BANSEMNILLA
(Metatheria: Didelphys dimidiata)
A reddish-gray marsupial with three deep black bands down its back. It has a prehensile tail and opposable toes on its hind feet. It is carnivorous, favoring rats and mice, and is bred by the Sasku to eliminate these vermin from their corncribs.
BOAT
(Cephalopoda: Archeololigo olcostephanus mutatus)
Yilanè surface water transport. Propulsion is obtained by a strong jet of water expelled to the stern. The creatures have only rudimentary intelligence like their ancestral squids, but can be trained to follow certain simple commands.
CLOAK
(Selachii: Elasmobranchus kappe mutatus)
Used by the Yilanè for warmth during the night or inclement weather. These creatures have absolutely no intelligence, but if they are well fed they will maintain a body temperature of approximately 102 degrees F.
DEER
(Eutheria: Cervus mazama mazama)
A small deer with antlers as unbranched spikes. It is found in great numbers in the North Temperate Zone. The Tanu value these creatures both for their meat and their skins. The hides are tanned to make clothing and small leather articles (e.g. moccasins [madrap] and bags).
EISEKOL
(Eutheria: Trichecbus latirostris mutatus)
An herbivorous aquatic mammal which dredges for underwater plants in its original unaltered state. Gene manipulation has greatly increased the animal’s size so that it can be utilized for underwater channel clearing, as well as dredging.
ELINOU
(Saurischia: Coelurosaurus compsognathus)
A small and agile dinosaur, much appreciated by the Yilanè for its pursuit and destruction of small mammalian vermin. Because of its colorful markings and complaisant nature it is often given the status of a pet.
ENTEESENAT
(Sauropterygia: Elasmosaurus plesiosaurus)
A predaceous marine reptile well adapted to pelagic life and relatively unchanged since the Cretaceous period. They have small short
heads and long snake-like necks. The paddle-like flippers are similar to those of the marine turtle. Newer varieties have been developed with greater cranial capacity that enable them to be trained to supply food for the larger uruketo (Ichthyosaurus monstrosus mutatus).
EPETRUK
(Saurischia: Tyrannosaurus rex)
The largest and most powerfully armed of the great carnosaurs. Over forty feet long, the males weigh up to seven tons. The forearms are small but strong. Because of its great weight it is quite slow, therefore attacks only the largest animals. A large amount of its diet is obtained by driving smaller carnivores from their kill.
ESTEKEL*
(Pterosauria: Pterodactylus Quetzalcoatlus)
The largest of the flying reptiles with a wingspan of over thirty feet. The bones are very light and strong, while the weight of the immense toothed beak is balanced by the bony outcrop on the back of the skull. They are found solely at the mouths of large rivers since they can only become airborne in locations such as this where large waves run counter to the prevailing winds.