Monday 5 May 2014

Reverse Conlanging

As regular readers will be aware, I like Doctor Who and conlanging.
Unfortunately, these don't intersect much, as the TARDIS has telepathic circuits that can translate any language. However, here's an exception

Venusian lullaby

The Curse of Peladon was written in the days when, if you wanted an alien language, you made up some gibberish and hoped for the best. However, this is coherent enough to make some sense of it. Using the Doctor's translation Close your eyes my darling, well three of them at least! I've worked out the following so far

klid
child
kloklid
diminutive, used to express affection
klida
1st person posessed form, used to express kinship
kloklida
My dear child
pɹaθ
eye
paɹθa
paucal, used for more than two, but not necessarily a complete set, for which the plural would be used
men
you
mennin
your
klatʃ
close (hortative)

One thing that might be harder to explain though, is why it's sung to a slowed-down version of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.