Nivukti Progress Update: Words, Winter Traditions, and the Thummok Kin

The leaf sorter and acorn gatherer traded their tools for these lanterns to officially join my nivuktiverse

My Nivukti conlang project continues to grow, one word and one little piece of worldbuilding at a time. Whew! Somehow this conlang or artlang language is now developing its own identity: itsown vocabulary, grammar, cultural expressions, calendar, traditions, and the everyday lives of the kin who speak it. The goal is to build something that feels like a real language rather than simply a collection of invented gibberish words. Hmmm

Today's progress: Giving Vunvälia its own greetings. By the way Vunvalia is the winter festival associated with light in the window, warmth, refuge, shared food, and the return of those who went out in the deep freeze to do their own business so that is like saying safe trip going back home. Coining this word took time because there is nothing that could sound like a festival ish word for me until this one happened. I was initially thinking of bundled up as my idea for that cozy feeling but bun-dle became vun I don't remember how the rest took shape really difficult debating with the usability and sound and form of just one word knowing that there is ton to be coined. That's overwhelming and time consuming.

Anyway there is now a set of greetings with different levels of formality, that's how I want it like a real life language. I even tried erosion or shortening some phrases for fast speech or maybe slang 😁 see below

• Nuuria Kiyemür Hurkanda — the ancient fuller form.
• Nuuriyemurkhanda — the intermediate, naturally contracted form.
• Nurkhanda — the shorter, everyday form.

How or what would be the etymology? Nuuria is light that's it and did you notice the gemination there that's one of the distinction I prefer for my conlang to have. Then Hurka means home + a dative ending -nda which means towards or to your. This suffix -nda is going to be productive meaning I can use it on other words too. I almost forgot Kiyemür is from kiye which means you all + mür a possessive form suffix. Literal translation is light to you that's how a greeting is

This progression is especially satisfying for me because it gives the greeting a little history. Rather than inventing three unrelated expressions I explored how a longer phrase might gradually wear down through generations of everyday speech. I want this language to appear like it has been spoken for a hundred years or so. Lol.

I also have the new word Gulinkar, a noun associated with merriment, revelry, and the lively feeling of cheer and togetherness. It gives another way to express the festive spirit of Vunvälia. During my research I learned that you can lexicalize a word meaning if you can't find the productive roots you don't have to just lexicalize the word like it's inherited and no one knows the roots that's how it is😜

For greetings, I explored:

• Gulinkar Vunvälia! — Merry Vunvälia! Although that's not the literal translation of merry or happy maybe next time I would coin a word for it or not
• Gulinkar! — a standalone festive exclamation. But still debating that part of me wants an etymology and part of me says that sounds good

Whoa hope that doesn't sound too gibberish that is a total failure in my opinion. now investigating how to derive a natural adjective from Gulinkar. I remember I have something prepared but given my ton of notes I can't locate it at the moment This part remains under investigation; I want the grammar to justify a word rather than simply making a form sound appealing. It's another suffix I can add to make it an adjective I believe that was - iri so it kinda sound like gulinkiri or something

Very important part of this process is every new word should fit the language's sound, shape, and existing vocabulary. It gets complicated and demanding as I make progress there is always something new being discovered and something that needs to be resolved.

Now that the challenging part is done let's talk about my drawing

I bring together two of my most recent original characters that I designed for the charactober character design challenge. The acorn gatherer and the leaf sorter they look like they could fit in my world so here they are being utilizd as new addition to my snow dwelling cute characters. They would fit in the Thummok kin, the weasel-like kin of the Nivukti world.

On the left, we have a cheerful, golden furred character dressed in a red coat with a generous yellow fur collar, a green apron, and a decorated dark hat. The outfit is warm, practical, and most of all festive, with a little bit of woodland charm. I wish I gave him a big fluffy squirrel tail.

On the right, the second Thummok has a plump and distinct silhouette: a long muzzle, expressive eyes, a dark outfit, and an oversized leaf-like mane. A seasonal fruit sits on top of the headwear, while it holds a warm glowing lantern like the other. The combination of autumn foliage, and the lantern gives this character a playful seasonal personality without losing the cozy atmosphere of the snowy setting.

Behind them are tall, snow-covered dwellings with glowing windows. I already posted about this house before with Guvru the very first Thummok I designed. The muted blue-grey landscape contrasts beautifully with the reds, ochres, greens, and browns of the characters' clothing. The whole scene gives you an idea about the deep long freeze they need to endure year long.

I enjoyed creating these two and I thought I would make them not only forest folks but creatures of my nivukti world. Their clothing, silhouettes, and accessories suggest different personalities and roles or jobs, leaving more room to further their stories to grow around them in the future.

Despite the big challenge of making my own conlang, I feel great every time a new word is about to be listed and hopefully posted here on Hive. Each word or grammar rule figured adds another piece to the foundation. I can also create a supplementary illustration just like this one to see my world materialize and the conlang flesh out despite the odds. Every drawing gives the vocabulary or the ideas some visual representation isn't that cool?

There is still plenty to work on, from productive word formation and number systems to calendar terminology and everyday conversation. But the world is gradually becoming more coherent, and that is what makes this project so rewarding.

One word at a time. One lore one tradition at a time. One little corner of the Nivukti world at a time.

Showing the stage when I was choosing what background colors to work with the lore and the characters

I added snow falling because the topic is about Vunvalia, lit candle and returning home safely from the freezing world

This drawing is supposed to look like a greeting card with big conspicuous words but I could not make the words pop, result is a small text with white font what color should I use to make that word stand out? Let me know in the comments