Ftn Calvin & Hobbes
I restarted Faetongue, it’s different now.
| coven | prefix | Eng name | domain |
|---|---|---|---|
| dina | jin- | Mix | biochemistry |
| nic | nic- | Yap | communication |
| ireks | reks- | Gem | structure |
| bunni | ani- | Hunt | predation |
| sol | soru- | Rot | death |
| relia | li- | Spawn | reproduction |
| benet | bet- | Bloom | growth |
| gally | gly- | Glow | particles |
Susie
“Boy, you look tired.”
“Wanana, glybipso na.”
wanana gly- bip -so na glow- sloth -you (emphasis) you look tired (emph)
You glow like a sloth. Sluggishness is radiating off you.
“I'll bet you were up late doing your leaf collection.”
“Jinkipio wanda kegege lifyatopo.”
jin- kipi -o wanda kegege li- fyato -po mix- magpie -you spawn- hoot owl -you you collecting maple leaf I bet stay up late
There's a fun structural ambiguity. I like to think this could be heard as 'As for your leaf collection, I bet you were up late' or 'I bet you were collecting leaves and up late.'
I used Spawn because the owl is a behavior comparison. Spawn includes family and family includes imitating behavior.
Calvin
“Maybe, but I've got the best collection of all!”
“Pathyo tetetet. Glydrigen jinkipiaca drididi!”
pathy -o tetetet parrot -you blahblah whatever
gly- drigen jin- kipi -aca drididi glow- mycelium mix- magpie -me awesome my collection (emph)
I like the idea that 'shut up you're babbling like a parrot' sounds really aggressive to us, but colloquially, it's super common between kids and no stronger than the original English line.
'Glydrigen' is their stock word for 'awesome' / 'cool'. Because mycelium networks are vast, and Glow here makes it a scale comparison. Why Glow is scale? Because of vibes I guess.
'Drigen' is a slang of 'ridrigen' which you would use to literally refer to mycelium. Also, the 'drididi' trill is derived from 'drigen'.
“My leaves are from another planet!”
“Aniobias maliali wandabatatataca!”
ani- obias maliali wanda -batatata -ca hunt- hawk maple leaf -ish -me faraway planet my leaves
'Planet' is 'haliali' because 'root' is 'hali' and a planet is the root of roots. The H turned into an M in this sentence cause of rendaku.
You can't just say 'leaf,' you have to say a certain species, so I thought it would be fun for Calvin to emphasize that these are not really maple leaves with the extended 'ish' part.
Susie
English: “What?!”
Faetongue: “Ham?!”
Literally: ‘Squirrel?!’
Calvin
“See how bizarre they are?”
“Glysmoker rekseni?”
gly- smoker reks- eni glow- anglerfish gem- flytrap clear irregularities
“The labels are even written in an alien language!”
“Aidodo nicchujin nicbaili!”
aidodo nic- chujin nic- baili yap- alien yap- beetle even alien language label
“Look at their cool alphabet!”
“Limily nicarthor glywacowonsy!”
li- mily nic- arthor gly- wac -o -wonsy spawn- kudzu yap- anteater glow- horse -you -need cool alphabet you need to see
Susie
“It looks like you took 50 maple leaves and cut them into weird shapes.”
“Nicolandelo rekseni liteparkero godalota yanda mabububuh.”
nico- landel -o reks- eni li- teparker -o yap- chameleon -you gem- flytrap spawn- spider -you you seem like weird shape you craft (verb)
go-dal-ota yanda mabububuh zero-three-one 54 maple leaf merely
Calvin
“Aliens now own the Earth and I told them girls make good zoo exhibits.”
“Chujin habitanibotsafus reksmaliali zaaa besong meechy zoo nicleyonn fofaaai nicfusca.”
chujin habit-ani-botsa-fus reks-maliali zaaa newly-hunt-bear-them gem-planet alien they now own Earth and
be-song meechy zoo nic-leyonn fofaaai nic-fus-ca yap-peacock say-them-me not-male fairy exhibit good I tell them
Gender is such a remote detail to fairies that you need two characters to refer to it. With female seen as the default, there is only a word for ‘male’.