THE TORCH

FOR ZEWEI

(2025 Conlang Relay)

graphic design is my        passion.

Okay, Z-Star, here’s the deal. I got a text in Plumlang for you, also known as [ǁʊ́wʘ͡!æ̀ːnɪ́jɑ́ːt͡ʃ æ̰phɪ́j], the language of the Lemonade Boys. I’ve also got a lore description of the language, and all the grammar and vocab you’re gonna need. Get hyped.

I stayed up all night to finish this. This time two days ago, I was at work already. Alas, such is the life of Rhea the Clanging Clonger. I’m gonna go to bed soon after you read this. Nanight.

THE LORE

Plumlang is spoken by Lemonade Boys from a far-flung, seldom-contacted dimension. The Lemonade Boys are powerful but no longer technologically advanced, themselves living in a post-apocalyptic Earth-like planet where most of their old civilisation’s technology has been lost. They are a society concerned primarily with warfare. Oh yeah, and they all look and sound exactly like Michael Rosen did about a decade and a half ago. They’ve all got six fingers. There are no other visible differences, although their gastric anatomy is notably different to that of humans.

Although there are no Gods in Lemonade Boy superstition, there is a strong reverence for nature and a high degree of ancestor worship, to the extent that it is very common for older people to be extremely rude to younger people, who will never retaliate or show displeasure at it. This, uhh, comes through in the text.

THE LANGUAGE

Plumlang is a split-ergative language with 49-64 phonemic tones and one personal pronoun. The phonology is comprised entirely of Michael Rosen voice clips, and the morphology is almost entirely based on tone with minimal affixes and particles.

PHONOLOGY

PRACTICAL ORTHOGRAPHY

Ambiguity (e.g. <px> = /ʘ↑͡ɕʷ/ or /pʰʀ̥/) is resolved with an intermediate <.> (e.g. <p.x> = /pʰʀ̥/)

TONE

Tones are the basis of Plumlang’s morphology. Only certain nouns have an inherent Tone, and for all words except for particles it is morphologically variable.

As I said before, there are 64 phonemic tones in Plumlang (I think…I mighta done my maths wrong). In the attached ExCel spreadsheet, you will find the 49 tones which I could be bothered to name (all tones used in the text are depicted in that spreadsheet, don’t stress).

All tones in Plumlang possess a Nucleus, a repeating sequence of phonetic tones. For example, the Nucleus of Tone 1 is [M]. This means that in a word of any length with Tone 1, every vowel will be mid tone.

Meanwhile, the Nucleus of Tone 39 is [CMLH]. This means that in a trisyllabic word with Tone 39, the phonetic tones of the vowels will be Creaky, Mid, then Low. In a nine-syllable word with Tone 39, the tonal melody of the word will be Creaky; Mid; Low; High; Creaky; Mid; Low; High; and Creaky.

Words which consist of only a Nucleus are called Sequential Tones. Only Sequential Tones may have Nuclei with multiple phonetic tones in them.

The other 48 Tones are Non-Sequential. These Tones may only possess one phonetic tone in their Nucleus. However, they also have a Periphery, which is a phonetic tone which appears in another position relative to the Nucleus.

The 48 Non-Sequential Tones can be best understood on a three-dimensional chart (which I cannot make in MS Word), where one axis is the position of the Nucleus relative to the Periphery (this is called the Contour), another is the tone of the Nucleus, and the other is the tone of the Periphery.

For example, Tone 5 has a Final Contour, a Low Nucleus, and a High Periphery. This means that the Periphery (a phonetic high tone) appears only in the first syllable before the repeating Nucleus (a phonetic low tone), which occupies every subsequent syllable. In a Tone with Initial Contour, the Nucleus occupies every syllable except for the final syllable, which is occupied by the Periphery. In a Tone with Medial Contour, the Periphery occupies the first and last syllable, with the Nucleus occupying the medial syllable(s).

All of this means, for example: if you see a disyllabic noun with the tonal melody “HL”, and you see that the noun’s Contour is Final, then the noun must have a Low Nucleus and a High Periphery. Therefore, it possesses Tone 5.

PHONOTACTICS

Permitted consonant clusters are indicated in the second attached ExCel spreadsheet. Some suffixes will cause illegal clusters, which are resolved in a manner indicated on that sheet in the red cells.

Some tones (as indicated in the spreadsheet) are only able to occur in words of a certain number of syllables. If the tone is morphologically obliged but the word is too short to contain it, then the root is extended by one of two methods:

1. The first vowel is extended.
2. A semivowel is syllabified.

THE TEXT

Wongga olíjój jèeèf wíìj ʘúæ̃fálf, “Rræ̃k’ ʘérri !wáa ǀxùaà fo twĩgĩ m̥utcén ẽeèm, !òo bàdhàǁi roùi. !uũrl !wàã! !o thiítl'i !imri !waà! Fiìnc pxùǁhwá k'ũrdæ̃ gwæ̀ǽzlì yúlngu íĩǽ ñùrráng. Fìinc mùldax kx'rõú !wáa ur!óbalf kob p’ii debi !wáã. Rèya wòngga wíìj !waà kìiì ǀiíǁi kòoòb k'ũcen gwǽǽz èepxùd íĩǽ ñg̃ãà.”

Kií oorrẽ gwæ̃æ̃z úõnúm fo oorrẽ lĩ mẽrd…

Wongga kæǽlan wíìj ʘúæ̃fálf, “Zãwæy tlǽnya ẽèdhãlf dhùthrré !wáa fo yãrá.”

Wongga ʘúæ̀fálf wíìj, “Muldax p’ii dhũthrre m̃i!óshalf! Xõc xedzép.x !wáaá whuk húxa !wáì óórrè ñg̃ãà héẽthrrí yáãpʘá méèrd !oòo bádhà kùĩjrì. Æ̀ǽrnzè m̃í!õshálf adlír !waá; ngæ̀rlajà gàbĩ !waá! 

Wongga kæǽlan wíìj: “Dhùuth càlar dhùthrrẽ ñg̃ãà íæ wíĩj ǀiíǁi kòoòb eédhalf. Ñg̃ãà kì !wáì àashì ææ̀ærng m̃i!óshalf, bãdha ki k'ũcen gwǽǽz.”

NOTE: Whenever an exclamation mark appears bolded in italics, it is pure punctuation. Elsewhere, it is a phoneme. Sorry about this.

THE LEXICON

!imri – adj. Important.

!o – v. To have. Irregular.

!wa – prn. Personal pronoun.

!wurl – v. To listen.

ǀiǁi – n.(medial Contour) Cord.

ǀxwa – n.m. Cloaca.

-ǁi – Privative suffix.

Aashi – n.m. Year.

Adlir – n.(final) Supplies.

Ærng – v. To grow.

-alf – Adjectival nominaliser.

Badha – prn. Distal demonstrative.

Calar – adv. With the intention of returning.

-cen – Nominal plural suffix.

Debi – adj. Everlasting.

Dhuth – v. To bring.

Edh – V. To rejuvenate. rejuvenate {edh}

Em – n.(Sequential) Woman

Epxud – adj. Deep.

Finc – v. To go on a trip for a goal, e.g. to go on a quest, run an errand, go on holiday, etc.

Fo – coord. And.

Gabi – n.s. Water.

Gwææz – adj. Six.

Gwæzli – adj. Nine.

Heth – adj. Hot.

Huxa – v. To move.

-i – Pronominal plural suffix.

Iæ – n.f. Tail.

Iæ – n.m. Lake.

-ja – Reflexive voice suffix.

Jef – adj. Wise

K’uc – n.f. Unit of length equivalent to the forearm of a Lemonade Boy.

K’urdæ – n.s. River.

Kælan – n.m. Mentor.

Ki – v. Copular verb. Irregular.

Kob – adj. Mighty.

Kwid – adj. Still.

Kx’row – n.(initial) Trail.

Li – adj. Three.

Merd – n.s. Sun.

M̃i!osh – adj. Little.

Muldax – v. To make.

M̥ush – n.f. Egg.

Nga – Prn. Interrogative pronoun.

Ngærla – v. To fill with liquid.

Ñurrang – adj. Arid (of a place).

Olijoj – n.f. Old person.

Oorre – n.i. Moment.

P’ii – Contra-expectational particle.

Pxuǁhwa – n.s. Umbilical cord.

-re – Agentive nominaliser. For your purposes, this creates nouns with Initial Contour.

Reya – v. To persist.

-ri – Inchoative verbaliser.

Rowi – v. To starve.

Rræk’ – v. To remove something from inside something else.

Thitl’i – n.m. Errand.

Tlænya – n.i. Bag.

Twigi – v. To sell.

Ur!ob – v. To recount a story, whether fictional or historical.

Whuk – coord. While.

Wij – prn. Proximal demonstrative.

Wongga – v. To say.

Wonum – n.m. Moon.

Xedzep.x – n.f. Apparel

Xoc – v. To remove something from the outside of something else.

Yang – adj. Big.

Yara – v. To go.

Yulngu – n.f. North.

Zawæy – v. To fill with non-liquid(s).

-ze – Causative voice suffix.

-ʘa – Adverbial suffix.

ʘerri – n.i. Nose.

ʘhwæf – adj. Immature.

MORPHOLOGY

I’m only gonna list the cases relevant to the text.

NOUNS

Some nouns related to the giving of life possess an inherent Sequential Tone. These nouns will have various tones in the nominative/absolutive (combined in tables as direct). All other nouns only have an inherent Contour. Different cases will apply different combinations of Nucleus and Periphery.

Nouns of all Contours will have a High Nucleus and Mid Periphery in the nominative/absolutive; and a Creaky Nucleus and Low Periphery in the instrumental. For example, a noun with Final Contour in the nominative will take the tonal melody M[H], while one with Medial Contour would take M[H]M, and one with Initial will give [H]M.

The applications of Nucleus and Periphery will here be presented in the format of +NP, e.g. high Nucleus and low Periphery would be +HL regardless of Contour.

Again, only relevant inflections are included.

Plumlang has a split-ergative system, where pronouns and animates are given nominative/accusative, but inanimates and nouns which are the products of derivational morphology always take ergative/absolutive.

PRONOUNS

There is one interrogative pronoun: nga.

In the locative, it is ñg̃ãà.

The demonstrative pronouns take the following tonal melodies:

        In accusative, HL

        In dative, LM

        In genitive, HC

        In ablative, CM

There is one personal pronoun: “!wa”.

1st person imposes initial Contour

2nd person imposes final Nucleus

3rd person imposes medial Nucleus

Nominative gives +HL

Accusative gives +LC

Dative gives +LM

Genitive gives +MH

Locative gives +CH

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives agree for case and definiteness with the modified noun.

VERBS

Verbs are inflected for person, tense/aspect, and mood.

ADVERBS

Adverbs match the tone of the verb they are modifying.

PARTICLES

Particles and coordinators and the such always take Tone 1.