Species File: S'ruba

Started by Jubal, May 23, 2013, 05:05:22 PM

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Jubal

The S'ruba: Species File

Biology
Spoiler

Basic factfile






Average Height4'9"
Average Mass50kg
Average Lifespan (In Earth terms)115 years
Native habitatMostly wet forest and swampland
Skin colourOrange/light green/yellow

Reproductive Cycle
S'ruba are not gendered, and there is no sperm/egg distinction in the gametes, both of which are the same size and merge into one another. They spawn gametes into protected, still pools, usually collectively; the baby s'ruba form in the pool, which is cared for and given high nutrient levels by the family group that use it (S'ruba are able to secrete a sort of syrup that raises the nutrient levels in the pool). The babies are effectively aquatic until the age of eight months, when they are usually about a foot long and will be taken out of the pool and cared for by the family group (an eight month spawn baby can be considered equivalent to a human child of perhaps seven months' old, making the early stages of S'ruba development roughly twice as fast).

S'ruba can, in Earth terms, live around 115 years on average, though ages in excess of a hundred and forty are not entirely unknown. They will usually spawn regularly from the ages of (again, on average) twenty-three to ninety.

Culture
Spoiler



Cultural Syncretism
If using a gendered language, S'ruba tend to all get given female pronouns.

The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

#1
The Language
Spoiler
The S'ruba construct most of their nouns from a preceding element indicating where the noun fits in a certain structure of groupings followed by verbs and modifiers, though there are exceptional "unconstructed" nouns (these are usually still subject to modifiers though).

Sentence Construction
S'ruba sentences always end with the verb or verbs. Nouns form the rest of the sentence and are always capitalised and in order of valency.

Valency is an important concept when constructing S'ruba sentences. The item with no valency modifier is always the subject of the sentence. The first valency is given to the object. So in the sentence "I ran down the field" "I" has the first valency and "field" the second. Third valency is used when the main verb needs a third argument. "I gave him the key" would be an example. The first valency is again given to I, the second to the key as that's what the verb is acting upon. The third valency is given to "him", the noun that clarifies how I am doing the action.

Verbs are categorised by their valency, the importance of this is that only one verb with a valency of over one can be used in each sentence, though many first-valency verbs can be used as descriptors. So "The huge flying red dragon burned the village" would have four verbs in; one second valency (to burn), and three first valency (to be huge, to fly, to be red). Where the sentence is all first valency verbs they assume equal action, so "The singing minstrel danced" and "The dancing minstrel sang" would be the same sentence. There are non-enumerated valencies, the causal and permissive valencies; this is used when a single object or some objects are being given as a cause or source of authority (more complicated causes are dealt with by pattern indicators). So "I did it for love" would have I as first, it as second, and love as causal. "Love let me find you" would be the same sort of structure but would use the permissive valency.

The concept of compound sentences is not applicable to the language. "I went down the road, then shot him" Would have to be rendered as "I went down the road. I shot him."

In description, adjectives and adverbs do not exist in the sense they do in many other languages. The adjective is a verb - "to be green" and "to be happy" do not rely on the same verb, they are different actions in their own right. Adverbs simply do not exist (though there is a vastly larger range of verbs in partial compensation).

Paragraph Construction
Paragraph construction is done with a number of "pattern indicators" that give the flow of the passage ahead. These can give a large amount of important information, including the chronological flow of a passage of text and how an argument or discussion is laid out.

Dictionary

Pattern indicators
hya - an informative on a noun in the preceding sentence
kla - succeeding
kra - and/also
ksi - preceding
thi - a cause/because
tsha - but
tyi - a permission/allowing aspect

Example use:
"The S'ruba went to the door, then ran down the path, because his friend had promised to give him the key."
This then renders to the following sentences:
"T'rubata T'hunihi losh" -> The S'ruba went to the door
"T'rubata T'jushi klosh" -> The S'ruba ran on the path
"T'rakta T'rubahi ylia" -> His friend had made a promise
"T'rakka T'ribahi T'rubashi ospa" -> His friend was planning to give him the key

These then need the pattern indicators to give the shape of the thing:
> kla'thi'hya | T'rubata T'hunihi losh/ T'rubata T'jushi klosh/ T'rakta T'rubahi ylia/ T'rakka T'ribahi T'rubashi ospa.
Thus the first boundary is an event after the first event, the second boundary is a reason for the preceding event or two, the third boundary is a sentence giving some information about the previous sentence.

Noun Group indicators (almost all verbs start with one of these)
Bh' -> Indicates a "group"
T' -> Indicates an individual element in a group
Ch' -> Indicates an element without a group, used esp. for abstractions
S' -> Indicates a group where the elements are themselves groups

Verbs:
ana -> To die
ardis -> To heal
ayas -> To be spawned
bana -> To be birthed
bha -> To be high up
caga -> To worship
cha -> To be low down
egga -> To be big
eika -> To communicate
eila -> To be small
eina -> To breathe
esha -> To be wet
eya -> To choose
hacaga -> To worship (derogatory, implies blind subservience)
halya -> To work
hini -> To protect
hulan -> To act/to do
huni -> To guard (a path or passage)
hunali -> To guard (an object)
huya -> To have the right of use of
jasa -> To have jurisdiction over
jisi -> To be mad
jus -> To allow (movement, passage, etc)
juyas -> To permit
kalin -> To know
kara -> To live
kan -> To organise
kelan -> To be blue
kelsaa -> To be ultraviolet
kelya -> To be purple
kiba -> To lock
kitya -> To fear
klosa -> To die
klosh -> To run from A to B*1
laa -> To be bright (in the sense of a light)
lann -> To be dim (in the sense of a light)
losnya -> To make/create
losh -> To move from A to B*1
lyna -> To throw
lya -> To shoot (implies long distance)
lyna -> To shoot (implies short distance)
nani -> To defend (eg oneself, one's family)
naga -> To fight
naha -> To break/go back on (eg one's word, a promise, etc)
nina -> To sense (used often instead of to see/hear/smell etc)
nini -> To live/be alive
ospa -> To give
olba -> To exist/to be*2
oha -> To search
rak -> Approximately, "to be together" or "to coexist"
rall -> To make peace
riba -> To unlock
ruba -> To think
runye -> To command
rurtarn-> To be green
rurtin -> To be red
rurtris-> To be yellow
sasi -> To be sane
sassa -> To be dry
sikaa -> To break (eg an item)
skisa -> To take
ssara -> To fly
syan -> To make war
ylia -> To undertake/promise
yka -> To be first
ynalla -> To smell
ynia -> To feel (in the sense of touching)
ysa -> To be last

*1 these are unusual in that it is possible to validly use it with only a first and third valency noun. The second valency is always point B, the third point A, so "He's coming from over there" would have "over there" as third valency and "He" as first.
*2 given the lack of adjectives olba is usually applied as a valency two verb aka "The Silmarillion1 is a book2". Where it is used with valency one it translates to "exist" more.

Person, tense, and other modifiers (in constructions these must come at the end, usually with person-tense-numerator-other modifier order though this is subject to a lot of dialect variation):
Persons:
la: the verb is reflected (aka me, us)
ra: the verb is addressed directly (aka you)
NB with no modifier the third person is assumed

Tenses:
ta: past tense
ka: the "planning" tense (for intentions, or the far future)
NB the near future tense is assumed. The present tense is non existent, or at least indistinguishable from the near future tense.

Numerators:
1 - aka
2 - akra
3 - aren
4 - arn
5 - ata
6 - ana
Order of magnitude - anla (places it into a sixfold order of magnitude without giving anything more exact)
Columnal - ki (effectively multiplies the preceding number by six)
Greater columnal - kli (effectively multiplies the preceding number by 216)

Thus, twenty-seven T'ruba are not searching for the two T'ruba because of their promise - T'rubaarnkiarenrho T'rubaakrahi Ch'yliathi oha
Equally, 144 T'ruba are searching - T'rubaarnkiki oha, 145 - T'rubaarnkikiaka oha, A lot (where a lot is, say, 2500ish) T'rubaanlakliki

Other:
rho: the negative modifier
bo: the stress modifier, imparts anger, urgency, grief
hi: makes the noun the second valency object
shi: makes the noun the third valency object
thi: makes the noun causal valency
tyi: makes the noun permissive valency

Constructed nouns

WordLiteralMeaningEtymology & Notes
Bh'hiniThe Group That ProtectsA villageThe dwellings of one Bh'rak.
Bh'laModifier (reflective, individual element)Us (my immediate group)
Bh'rakThe Group that CoexistsThe Bh'rakThe basic "super-family" unit in S'ruba society.
Ch'yliaThe One that ChoosesA choice
Ch'yliaThe One that PromisesA promise
Ch'ykaThe One that was FirstThe home planet of the S'ruba.
S'hiniThe Groups That ProtectA cityThought of as a collection of villages
S'kloshThe Groups That RunLand animal/s
S'laModifier (reflective, individual element)Us (my species/nation/super-group)
S'ninaThe groups that senseAirOriginally conceived of as a concept of stuff through which sensory information travelled.
S'rubaThe Groups That ThinkThe S'ruba!
S'ssaraThe Groups that FlyFlying creature/sInitially a specific group on Ch'yka, but often applied by non-scientists elsewhere.
T'ardisThe Item That HealsA Doctor
T'halyaThe Item That WorksA labourer, builder, or other unskilled worker
T'hiniThe Item That ProtectsA building
T'huniThe item that guards the wayA door or gate
T'jusThe item that permits the wayA path
T'laModifier (reflective, individual element)Me
T'laaThe item that's brightA sun/starThe S'ruba never distinguished; primitive S'ruba thought that at night there were lots of tiny lights, in the day one big one, but that they were basically the same thing.
T'losnyaThe Item That CreatesAn artisan, craftsman, or architect
T'ninaThe Item That SensesA scout
T'olbaThe Item That Exists/IsA name
T'rakThe Item that CoexistsA friend
T'ribaThe Item That UnlocksA key/keycard
T'rubaThe Item That ThinksAn individual S'ruba
T'rurtrisThe Item That Is YellowA native creatureA large, blotchy yellow coloured, semi-aquatic animal. Relatively docile but with a painful bite.
T'runyeThe Item That CommandsAn S'ruba military Captain
T'syanThe Item That Makes WarA sword Placing a sword on the border of your opponent's territory was a traditional declaration of war.
T'ynallaThe Item That SmellsA native creatureA graceful herd creature with an extremely large nose (think giant elephant shrew). One of the few Homeworld animals to have structures similar to fur, though in most types it's short growing..

Example sentences









Phrase/SentenceLiteralEnglish rendering
T'la rurtarnI will be greenI am green
T'laka rurtarnI am planning to be greenI am going to be green (with implication of not being so currently)
S'ruba rurtarnThe S'ruba will be greenThe S'ruba are green
S'rubarabo rurtarn(Addressing the S'ruba, with emphasis) The S'ruba will be green!The S'ruba must be green!
T'ra oskaYou giveGive it.
T'ra T'ribahi oskaYou give the keyGive the key.
T'ra T'ribahi T'lashi oskaYou give me the keyGive me the key.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...