An Occasional Word: Taknok

Da tí yodin taknok-se, She has one child.

Taknok means child. When counting children the language uses 'to be' rather than 'to have' and counts the children as a reflexive. The plural of taknok is a different word: Deti. Taknok has a derived plural, takneta. I think this is a diminative plural and is used to mean 'lads'. Initially I thought that this was a gender-inclusive word. Now I'm not so sure. Takneta might be a group noun for the Boys, the Lads, as a social group. I think the female equivalent might be Kalketa, the Girls, the Lassies.

The stem is also used in an abstract noun takniost, childhood, childishness

An Occasional Word: Liudí

Liudí, people, persons, human beings

Liudí tent maluk, Human beings are hurting.

This is true in Christchurch, New Zealand, tonight. While this loss doesn't affect my immediate whanau that I know of, I am moved by the loss to so many in my country, the restraint that so many have shown in the face of adversity, and the generosity of so many in our islands and across the ocean.

In Maori cosmogony Ruaumoko is the unborn child of Papatuanuku, Broad Mother Earth. When he turns in his mother's womb he causes earthquakes and eruptions. Well that's a big baby's kick that he provided this week and the city of Christchurch came tumbling down.

Liudí is used as the plural of dunianin which means human beings regardless of gender.

An Occasional Word: Dunianin

Dunianin: man, person, human being

Bodú mí yodin dunianin, shim yodin nome, I am a human being, not a number.

The first of the people words: human being, without reference to gender. Ignore that reference to man coming first. Man as a male human will come later. The Shente could argue that this is humanity when they first came out of the earth. The first doctrine says: The human creature is a noble creature.

This may also be human as contrasted to other talking races. The lexicon makes no mention of them.

An Occasional Word: Shente

Shente: people, a people, folk, members of an ethnic group

Bodúta dien yodní shente, We become a people.

While I'm battling with deciding where to go next with Pronouns I will post some words. This seemed a good one with which to start. It is the only word that I have listed under Groupings of People. So I will use it as a working name for the Eclectic Language People. They are the Shente.

The word comes from French gens. The ending -te comes from a list of weak plural endings in Gaelic. As a rule it goes on the end of any noun that ends in an non-obstruent, especially n, l, (r) and s. It is the same morpheme at the end of boduúta, so it wonders around a bit; and obviously plays around with a rough rule of vowel harmonisation. -Te if the word is made of front vowels; -ta if the word is made of back vowels. Originally bodú, I, your servant, was written as boduh. I decided that the word-final h was fricative enough to allow the weak plural ending. As the word shifted with use the weak ending has remained.

Note that descriptive words with shente also have to be in the plural, like yodní.

The sentence comes from a creation myth and is the first statement about human beings after they came out of the ground into the world of light. It is an important statement.