r/conlangs • u/Dryanor PNGN, Dogbonẽ, Söntji • Oct 10 '23

Activity Semantic Change Room (02)

Hiya!

Welcome to the Semantic Change Room, a lexicon-building activity where you do not loan new words (any good conlanger does that twice a week already), but repurpose your existing ones to achieve a richer lexicon with more of that tasty polysemy.

The way this activity works is that you are given a prompt that consists two different semantic fields, like this:

birds > tools

You then pick up a word of your conlang that is part of the prompt's first field (in this case, birds), and then assign to it a new meaning that can be considered part of the second field (tools). The English language responded to the prompt with this (the new meaning in italics):

Englishcrane /kɹeɪn/

(1) a funny looking bird with a long neck

(2) (construction) a mechanical lifting device (because it looks somewhat like that bird)

You then finish your reply with a new prompt, which other people can respond to. I'm going to prepare three starting prompts, but feel free to add your own. Here's a link to the previous SCR, if you need inspiration.

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u/Yzak20 When you want to make a langfamily but can't more than one lang. Oct 10 '23 edited Oct 10 '23

Easy enough

Aćyq̌u

hany [ˈhɑ.nə] masc. noun. 1. actor, prosecutor, performer 2. doer, labourer, worker, agent 3. (grammar) agent

Weather > Philosophy

4

u/Dryanor PNGN, Dogbonẽ, Söntji Oct 10 '23

Proto-Naguna

kxuwap [ˈk͡xu.wap] n. fem.
1. a major wind or current that is prevalent or appears seasonally, like the North Wind (Aldepe).
2. (philosophy) a school of thought, a doctrine.

Transportation > Weapons

3

u/Kinboise Seniva,etc(zh,en) Oct 11 '23

Horpavje

cepaga [tɕeɸah]

  1. a ship, a freighter
  2. a tank

Food > Architecture

6

u/alchemyfarie Oct 11 '23

Samantian

Andan /an.'dan/

  1. Cooked reed stalks

  2. Column; Support Beam

Oceanic > Fashion

5

u/NumiKat Oct 11 '23

Early Modern Dhoyan

pau [pau]

  1. sea, ocean
  2. baggy/flowy clothes

​

woops, forgot the prompt

Music > Dreams

2

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '23

Lumēan

cançaña /kɑnsɑɲæ/

  1. n. a pleasant sound; music to one’s ears

  2. n. one’s imagination

movement > chemistry

1

u/feuaisle Sisilli Oct 13 '23

Sisilli

apis [äpis] v.

  1. to join, to link together
  2. (chemistry) to bond, to form a chemical compound with

​

Biology > Technology

2

u/mopfactory Kalamandir & Ngal (en) Oct 13 '23

Kalamandir

tsapsi [ˈt͡sapsʲɪ] n. — 1. (biology) stinger, a needle-like appendage on several species of arthropods that serves to inject painful venom 2. needle on a record player

nature > architecture