[Proto-Ñyqy] Begin English translation

content/en/proto-nyqy.org

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+# -*- eval: (require 'org-ref) -*-
+#+title: The Proto-Ñyqy People
+#+subtitle: Their Culture, their Language, and what we know about it
+#+setupfile: ../headers
+#+html_head: <meta name="description" content="The Culture and the Language of the Proto-Ñyqy people" />
+#+html_head: <meta property="og:title" content="The Proto-Ñyqy people" />
+#+html_head: <meta property="og:description" content="The Culture and the Language of the Proto-Ñyqy People" />
+#+macro:     nyqy (eval (conlanging-proto-nyqy-to-org $1))
+#+options:   auto-id:t
+#+subject:   Proto-Ñyqy Culture and Language
+#+uid:       https://langue.phundrak.com/en/proto-nyqy
+#+latex_header: \linespread{1.15}
+#+latex_header: \makeglossaries
+#+latex: \printglossaries
+
+* Foreword
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-Foreword-d22hjv20e5j0
+:END:
+Redistribution or sell of this document is strictly prohibited. This
+document is protected by French law on copyright and is completely
+owned by its author[fn:3] (myself, Lucien “Phundrak” Cartier-Tilet).
+This document is released for free in various formats on the author’s
+website[fn:1] and is released under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence[fn:2].
+
+If you got this document by any other mean than a website on the
+~.phundrak.com~ domain, please report it as soon as possible. There is
+currently no agreement with the author to redistribute it by any mean
+possible. If you wish to redistribute it, please contact the author.
+
+This document is about a gls:conlang I created. However, it will be
+written as an in-universe document would be. Therefore, any reference
+to other works, documents or people will be completely fictional. If
+there is somewhere written that there “needs to be more research done
+on the subject” or any similar kind of expression, this simply means I
+haven’t written anything on this subject, and I may not plan to. As
+you might notice, the style of writing in this document will be
+inspired mainly by the book /Indo-European Language and Culture/ by
+Benjamin W. Forston. Go read this book if you haven’t already, it’s
+extremely interesting (except for the part with the Old Irish and
+Vedic people and what their kings and queens did with horses, I wish
+to unread that).
+
+This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead,
+to any real event, or any real people is purely coincidental.
+
+* Introduction
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-z8wgna40e5j0
+:END:
+** Language Evolution
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-Language-evolution-mpo10x50e5j0
+:END:
+We are not sure which was the first language ever spoken in our world.
+Was there even one primordial language, or were there several that
+spontaneously appeared around our world here and there? We cannot know
+for certain, this is too far back in our history. Some scientists
+estimate the firsts of our kind to be gifted the ability to speak
+lived some hundred of thousand of years back, maybe twice this period
+even. There is absolutely no way to know what happened at that time
+with non-physical activities, and we can only guess. We can better
+guess how they lived, and how they died, than how they interacted with
+each other, what was their social interaction like, and what were the
+first words ever spoken on our planet. Maybe they began as grunts of
+different pitches, with hand gestures, then two vowels became
+distinct, a couple of consonants, and the first languages sprung from
+that. This, we do not know, and this is not the subject of this book
+anyways.
+
+What we do know is, languages evolve as time passes. One language can
+morph in the way it is pronounced, in the way some words are used, in
+the way they are shaped by their position and role in the sentence, by
+how they are organized with each other. A language spoken two
+centuries back will sound like its decendent today, but with a
+noticeable difference. Jumping a couple of centuries back, and we lost
+some intelligibility, and some sentences sound alien to us. A
+millenium back, and while the language resonates, we cannot understand
+it anymore. Going the other way around, travelling to the future,
+would have the same effect, except that we would not necessarily
+follow only one language, but several, for in different places,
+different changes would take place. As time goes by, these differences
+become more and more proeminent, and what was once the same langage
+becomes several dialects that become less and less similar to one
+another, until we end up with several languages, sister between
+themselves, daughters to the initial language.
+
+** Relating Languages Between Themselves
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-Relating-languages-between-themselves-7qp10x50e5j0
+:END:
+We are not sure who first emited the theory of language evolution;
+this has been lost to time during the great collapse two thousand
+years back, and only a fraction of the knowledge from back then
+survived the flow of time. We’re lucky even to know about this. It’s
+the Professor Loqbrekh who, in 3489, first deciphered some books that
+were found two decades prior, written in Énanonn. They described the
+principle of language evolution, and how language families could be
+reconstructed, how we could know languages are related, and a hint on
+how mother languages we do not know could be reconstructed. The
+principle on how historical linguistics are the following:
+
+#+begin_quote
+If two languages share a great number of coincidentally similar
+features, especially in their grammar, so much so that it cannot be
+explained by chance only, then these two languages are surely related.
+#+end_quote
+
+By this process, we can recreate family trees of languages. Some are
+more closely related to one another than some other, which are more
+distant. Sometimes, it is even unsure if a language is related to a
+language tree; maybe the language simply borrowed a good amount of
+vocabulary from another language that we either now of, or died since.
+
+The best attested languages are the ones we have written record of. In
+a sense, we are lucky: while we do know a vast majority of the written
+documents prior to the great collapse were lost during this sad event,
+we still have a good amount of them left in various languages we can
+analyze, and we still find some that were lost before then and found
+back again. The earliest written record we ever found was from the
+Loho language, the oldest member of the Mojhal language tree attested;
+the Mojhal tree has been itself linked to the Ñyqy tree some fifty
+years ago by the Pr Khorlan (3598).
+
+** Principles of Historical Linguistics
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-Principles-of-historical-linguistics-woq10x50e5j0
+:END:
+So, how does historical linguistics work? How does one know what the
+mother language of a bunch of other languages is? In historical
+linguistics, we study the similarities between languages and their
+features. If a feature is obviously common, there is a good chance it
+is inherited from a common ancestor. The same goes for words, we
+generally take the average of several words, we estimate what their
+ancestor word was like, and we estimate what sound change made these
+words evolve the way they did. If this sound change consistently works
+almost always, we know we hit right: sound changes are very regular,
+and exceptions are very rare. And this is how we can reconstruct a
+mother language that was lost to time thanks to its existing daughter
+languages.
+
+But as we go back in time, it becomes harder and harder to get
+reliable data. Through evolution, some information is lost --- maybe
+there once was an inflectional system that was lost in all daughter
+languages, and reconstructing that is nigh impossible. And since no
+reconstruction can be attested, we need a way to distinguish these
+from attested forms of words. This is why attested words are simply
+written like “this”, while reconstructed words are written with a
+preceding star like “{{{recon(this)}}}”. Sometimes, to distinguish both from
+the text, you will see the word of interest be written either in *bold*
+or /italics/. This bears no difference in meaning.
+
+** On Proto-Languages
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-On-proto-languages-qtr10x50e5j0
+:END:
+As we go back in time, there is a point at which we have to stop: we
+no longer find any related language to our current family, or we can’t
+find enough evidence that one of them is part of the family and if
+they are related, they are very distantly related. This language we
+cannot go beyond is called a proto-language, and it is the mother
+language of the current language family tree. In our case, the
+Proto-Ñyqy language, spoken by the Ñyqy people, is the mother language
+of the Ñyqy language family tree and the ancestor of the more widely
+known Mojhal languages.
+
+There is something I want to insist on very clearly: a proto-language
+is not a “prototype” language as we might think at first --- it is not
+an imperfect, inferior language that still needs some iterations
+before becoming a full-fledged language. It has been proven multiple
+times multiple times around the world, despite the best efforts of the
+researchers of a certain empire, that all languages are equally
+complex regardless of ethnicity, education, time, and place. Languages
+that are often described as “primitive” are either called so as a way
+to indicate they are ancient, and therefore close to a proto-language,
+or they are described so by people trying to belittle people based on
+incorrect belief that some ethnicities are somehow greater or better
+than others. This as well has been proven multiple times that this is
+not true. A proto-language bore as much complexity as any of the
+languages currently spoken around the world, and a primitive language
+in linguistic terms is a language close in time to these
+proto-languages, such as the Proto-Mojhal language (which is also in
+turn the proto-language of the Mojhal tree). The only reason these
+languages might seem simpler is because we do not know them and cannot
+know them in their entierty, so of course some features are missing
+from it, but they were surely there.
+
+Note that “Proto-Ñyqy” is the usual and most widely accepted spelling
+of the name of the language and culture, but other spellings are
+accepted such as “Proto Ñy Qy”, “Proto Ñy Ȟy”, “Proto My Qy”, or
+“Proto My Ȟy”, each with their equivalent with one word only after the
+“Proto” part. As we’ll see below in
+§[[#Phonology-Consonants-crlb9nn0h5j0]], the actual pronunciation of
+consonants is extremely uncertain, and each one of these orthographies
+are based on one of the possible pronunciations of the term
+{{{recon(ñyqy)}}}. In this book, we’ll use the so called “coronal-only”
+orthography, unless mentionned otherwise. Some people also have the
+very bad habit of dubbing this language and culture as simply “Ñyqy”
+(or one of its variants), but this is very wrong, as the term “Ñyqy”
+designates the whole familiy of languages and cultures that come from
+the Proto-Ñyqy people. The Tiltinian languages are as much Tiltinian
+as they are Ñyqy languages, but that does not mean they are the same
+as the Proto-Ñyqy language, even if they are relatively close in terms
+of time. When speaking about something that is “Ñyqy”, we are
+generally speaking about daughter languages and cultures and not about
+the Proto-Ñyqy language and culture itself.
+
+Note also we usually write this language with groups of morphemes,
+such as a noun group, as one word like we do with {{{recon(ñyqy)}}}.
+However, when needed we might separate the morphemes by a dash, such
+as in {{{recon(ñy-qy)}}}.
+
+** Reconstructing the Culture Associated to the Language
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-On-the-culture-associated-to-the-language-oa3g5660e5j0
+:END:
+While the comparative method described in
+§[[#Introduction-Principles-of-historical-linguistics-woq10x50e5j0]] work
+on languages, we also have good reasons to believe they also work of
+culture: if elements of different cultures that share a language from
+the same family also share similar cultural elements, we have good
+reasons to believe these elements were inherited from an earlier stage
+of a common culture. This is an entire field of research in its own
+right, of course, but linguistics also come in handy when trying to
+figure out the culture of the Ñyqy people: the presence of certain
+words can indicate the presence of what they meant, while the
+impossibility of recreating a word at this stage of the language might
+indicate it only appeared in later stages of its evolution, and it
+only influenced parts of the decendents of the culture and language.
+For instance, the lack of word for “honey” in Proto-Ñyqy but the
+ability to reconstruct a separate word for both the northern and
+southern branches strongly suggests both branches discovered honey
+only after the Proto-Ñyqy language split up into different languages,
+and its people in different groups, while the easy reconstruction of
+{{{recon(mygú)}}} signifying /monkey/ strongly suggests both branches knew
+about this animal well before these two groups split up. More on the
+culture in §[[#Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-keflq2i0g5j0]] below.
+
+* Culture of the Proto-Ñyqy People
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-keflq2i0g5j0
+:END:
+While the Proto-Ñyqy is the most well attested cultural and linguistic
+family, the temporal distance between the Proto-Ñyqy people and us
+makes it extremely hard to reconstruct anything. The various branches
+of the Ñyqy family evolved over the past eight to twelve past
+millenia, and some changed pretty drastically compared to their
+ancestors. Therefore, do not expect an in-depth description of what
+their society was like, but rather what could be considered an
+overview compared to some other culture descriptions.
+
+** The Name of the Language
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-The-Name-of-the-Language-cknak9n0h5j0
+:END:
+First, it is important to know where the name of this language came
+from. Since it has such a wide spread in this world, giving it a name
+based on where its daughter branches went would give it a very long
+name, or with a shorter one we would have very boring or limited names
+--- the “Proto-Northern-Southern” language doesn’t sound very good,
+and the “Proto-Mojhal-Andelian” language leaves other major branches
+out, such as the Pritian branch which we cannot ommit, just as the
+Mojhal and Andelian branches. So, researchers went with the
+reconstructed word for the inclusive /we/: {{{recon(ñyqy)}}}. It itself is a
+coumpound word made up of {{{recon(ñy)}}}, which is the first person
+pronoun, and {{{recon(qy)}}} which is sometimes used as a grammatical
+morpheme indicating a plural --- it also means six, as we will later
+on, the number system of the Proto-Ñyqy people was a bit complex.
+
+** Geographical Location
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-Geographical-Location-fmfkumo0h5j0
+:END:
+It is often very hard to find the location of very old reconstructed
+languages, such as the Proto-Mojhal language itself which location is
+still not clearly known despite its name. But when it comes to the
+Proto-Ñyqy people, we have a surprisingly good idea of where they
+were: in the hot rainforests of the northern main continent, most
+probably near nowadays’ Rhesodia. We know this thanks to some of their
+reconstructed words which are typical for the other people that lived
+or still live in hot rainforests, and these terms are older than the
+split between the northern and southern groups. For instance, both
+groups have a common ancestor word for /bongo/, {{{recon(zebac)}}}, as well as
+for the /bonobo/, {{{recon(pawac)}}}, which are only found in these
+rainforests.
+
+** Society
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-Society-g29i52n0h5j0
+:END:
+
+** Religion and Beliefs
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-Religion-and-beliefs-31mj52n0h5j0
+:END:
+
+** Personal Names
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Culture-of-the-Proto-Ñyqy-People-Personal-names-8ymj52n0h5j0
+:END:
+
+* Phonology
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Phonology-imgb9nn0h5j0
+:END:
+** Vowels
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Phonology-Vowels-uvkb9nn0h5j0
+:END:
+** Consonants
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Phonology-Consonants-crlb9nn0h5j0
+:END:
+* Dictionary
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionary-y2icocp0h5j0
+:END:
+** B
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-B-ae79d268
+:END:
+
+** C
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-C-29dc766b
+:END:
+
+** E
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-E-54360434
+:END:
+
+** G
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-G-5a9af03c
+:END:
+
+** I
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-I-a81a4697
+:END:
+
+** J
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-J-88f57f6a
+:END:
+
+** M
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-M-cccfd958
+:END:
+
+** N
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-N-0ef6f2af
+:END:
+
+** Ñ
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-Ñ-ff7a574f
+:END:
+
+** O
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-O-cf8f0e3f
+:END:
+
+** Ø
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-8fcb6e1e
+:END:
+
+** Œ
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-Œ-0c780f53
+:END:
+
+** P
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-P-2b7ab301
+:END:
+- {{{recon(pawac)}}} :: {{{def}}}
+  1. (n) bonobo
+
+** Q
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-Q-b1ec8323
+:END:
+
+** S
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-S-e9e187ae
+:END:
+
+** U
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-U-fa109e34
+:END:
+
+** Ú
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-Ú-c35e6434
+:END:
+
+** W
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-W-ea0cd36f
+:END:
+
+** Y
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-Y-a217cb68
+:END:
+
+** Z
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Dictionnaire-Z-144a2853
+:END:
+- {{{recon(zebac)}}} :: {{{def}}}
+  1. (n) bongo
+
+* Private Data                                                     :noexport:
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Private-data-4kqa1530e5j0
+:END:
+#+name: glossary
+| label   | name    | description            |
+|---------+---------+------------------------|
+| conlang | conlang | A constructed language |
+
+* Footnotes
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: Footnotes-uybi3030e5j0
+:END:
+
+[fn:3] [[https://phundrak.com][phundrak.com]]
+
+[fn:2] [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/][creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/]]
+
+[fn:1] [[https://langue.phundrak.com][langue.phundrak.com]]

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