Naa Vodo

[fuzzyred]

I'm stuck at work on a Saturday and fighting terminal boredom, so I figured I would do something quasi-useful. Sometimes I have a hard time keeping track of things and I'm actually enjoying noodling around with what might be a Conlang so I figured I would make this post, for myself if nothing else, to give me a reference if I forget certain things I decided.

First, the name of the post: "Naa Vodo". This is what I decided to call my language. The rough translation is "Non Verbal" because it really isn't a lot of words and it's what happens when my brain can't English. It has some words with meanings but it also has a lot of rambling sounds that really have no translation. I think I actually sort of split it in two; the bit with translatable words and the bit that isn't translatable. I decided to call the non-translatable part "Saa Vodo" or sub-verbal, because I needed something less than non-verbal lol. Naa Vodo is still the name of the language as a whole, but it also refers to the part with actual words and meanings. Saa Vodo is what happens when I get frustrated or irritated and am feeling a little less than fully adult. You get a string of sounds that could be words but have no individual meaning. Together, the convey frustration, irritation or even outrage, depending on the situation. They can also be used to indicate positive emotions, though tone and choice of sounds will differ.

Naa Vodo is a language of feeling, meant to express emotion more than make small talk or discuss philosophy. I do have a few pronouns, because I wamtes to say "me" and "you" but I don't have many more than that. I also don't have a lot of verbs, and no conjugation system that I have figured out yet. I also don't know if I can do past or future tense; everything has been in the present so far. It also doesn't really have a set word order yet, mostly because I don't have very many words. Now that I've covered most of the structure I can think of, let's get to the fun part, the words!

The very first word that had meaning, even before this started becoming a Conlang was "naga". At it's most basic, it means "no", but it can be used as pretty much any negative. It is also frequently used to mean "I don't want to" especially when repeated multiple times. On the flip side "taga" means "yes" and can be used as a confirmation of something.

The next three words all kind of go together and happened because I needed then to describe my language. "Oonu" means same, or self-consistent. Naa Vodo is "naga oonu" because it isn't very self-consistent and word meanings are likely to change, if I forget what they are. Maybe this post will help with that. "Shaika" means "teach" or "teachable". Naa Vodo is only marginally teachable because a few words have meanings but most don't and since it is naga oonu, that makes it even harder. I'm not entitely sure I could teach to someone else and have them be able to speak it, because it is based largely on how I feel when upset or happy. This is probably different for everyone so sounds that are soothing and cathartic for me might not be for others. Last of the three is "laita" which means "translatable". Saa Vodo is naga laita because there is no meaning to it. I might say thirty "words" and the best I could do is "I don't know, the whole set means something irritated me". In that case, the individual words have no meaning, it is simply a collection of sounds that express how I feel in that moment, without the challenge of having to use English words with actual meaning.

Some filler words: "ya" - "that/this/it"; "megu" - "me" or "my"; "moogu" - "mine"; "yougu" - "you" or "your". This about the extent of my pronouns and extras right now. I may add more as needed.

Additional words: "vodo" - "word/verbal"; "raga" - "really" or "a lot"; "nigi" - "noise/sounds"; "yaga" - "yuck"; "smi" - "smile"; "codo" - "cold"

I am actually having a lot of fun with this and it helps to know that I'm not crazy for putting effort into this, even if I never use it to communicate with anyone. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know down below :)

Comments

Yay!!

[mdlbear]

What fun! I ought to write another post in my series, Understanding Ursine.

Ursine is almost completely different from Naa Vodo: it's almost all English words, and almost entirely for communicating (if you can call it that!) with other people. (My self-talk is also in English words, but those almost always have their standard meanings unless they're related to a project I'm working on or something I'm obsessing about. (Those are often the same thing.))

Re: Yay!!

[fuzzyred]

That sounds incredibly interesting. I love language and how the brain works. I like to know the whys of things and understand the reasoning behind the things that happen. I'm currently trying to improve my French and learn Polish, but busy life means not much time and slow going. If I had all the time in the world, I would spend a lot of it reading and trying to learn new languages.

Naa Vodo is more about expression than communication. It gives me a better way to say how I feel than English does, mostly because I don't have to worry about complicated thoughts or sentences; I can just speak how I feel. Now, whether anyone else would understand me is a different thing entirely. :p

Edit: I checked out your Ursine Introduction and man, you have way more figured out than me. Ursine seems extremely useful though with a totally different purpose than Naa Vodo. Why can't English do this?

Re: Yay!!

[mdlbear]

I'm actually writing the series for the benefit of those people who have to put up with me, especially my long-suffering wife.

>>you have way more figured out than me.<<

I suspect I've been doing it longer. I'd been thinking of writing Understanding Ursine for at least a decade before I actually got started.

Re: Yay!!

[fuzzyred]

It's a useful reference to have, if it is a language you speak often and there are others that may need to understand you. My posts are currently just for my own reference; I doubt I will be using Naa Vodo in front of anyone else. No need to hand them easy reasons to judge me.

Ya, this is a relatively recent thing for me, though I have been using Naa Vodo for a few years without it being anything this formal. I just suddenly had a lot of time to do nothing but think lol.