Lexember 2024

Lexember is here! Lexember is a month-long wordbuilding challenge designed to get your creative juices flowing. The goal is to create one new entry in your conlang's vocabulary every day, and to help, I will be cooking up prompts for each day. You can also follow along with the prompts from r/conlangs!

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Day 1: Beverages

Think of your favorite beverage, or ones enjoyed by the culture that would speak your conlang.

ETA: I'm gonna keep this up for day 2 as well, to give everyone more time to respond to the prompt.

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Days 2-3 Sports and games

Things like video games, card games and "weird" sports are allowed for this prompt, of course. :slight_smile:

(I forgot to mention this earlier but you can totally respond to multiple prompts in the same post or journal entry. Perhaps you had an extra idea for a word for a previous prompt or you had to skip a day for whatever reason. It's fine either way!)

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Day 4: Flowers

It got down to 9 degrees Fahrenheit today so I'm already thinking about/looking forward to spring. Think of some cool or beautiful flowers to name in your conlang. That's all. Happy Wordsmithing!

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Here go all my words so far!

Formatted as common word / explanatory word because Tsiəraqa has two registers with almost completely different lexicons and slightly different grammars.

Day 1:
tsikrə / vamris
Any drink which has frozen enough to form ice crystals, but not nearly enough to become solid.

Days 2-3:
vaiʃu
A board game played in a hexagonal board, played with pieces that represent the elements. The goal is to get the opponent to run out of any element.

Day 4:
əraqi / trirə
Orchid.

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The following words will be followed by a two-letter acronym:

  • VO - Vordynian
  • BN - Bargirian
    My words for Lexember 1-4 are as follows:

Day 1

  • Mï̄raŋŋoïke (VO) /miːrɐ̃ŋgʌi̯kɜ/ - Alcoholic drink made from the fermented and distilled extract of the Mïraŋŋĕ fruit, a blue, vaguely citrus-esque fruit almost similar to an orange. 75% ABV. Carried over to Earth, as the Mïraŋŋĕ has been preserved.
  • Kabagînkkra (BN) /kɑbɑginqʀɑ/ - The cool, sweet and carbonated sap of the Gînkkra tree. Popularly consumed by the Bargirians, as a vital part of their diet, due to it enhancing their bioluminescence.

Day 2 and 3

  • Ïakadïrõhlōgmïrar (VO) /iɑ̯kɐdirɤɬoːgmirɐr/ - A popular Vordynian aquatic sport involving the racing of Ïakadïrõn, a species of aquatic mammal commonly used for transport in Vordynian waters. This sport is extinct in its original form, but the Vordynian race is attempting to revive the sport on Earth by taming sharks in the Arctic Ocean's waters, to some merit.
  • Jakkarahıragîntalôîakk (BN) /ɟ͡ʝɑqɑrɑχɨrɑgintɑløjɑq/ - An airborne sport involving the construction of devices resembling hang-gliders, called hıragîntar, and then the launching of Bargirians into the sky, using a ballista, as they hold their hıragînta, to see how high they can glide upwards. It is so named as it is described an attempt to reach the Bargirian singular deity, Jakkarahın.

Day 4

  • Wïkarjā (VO) /wikɐrʝɑː/ - A beautiful green flower native to the destroyed planet of Vordynia, but replanted on the Vordynian-held territories of Earth, in Siberia. In the Vordynian Religion, this flower is said to be the representation of a Vordynian's soul. Vaguely resembles a green poppy.
  • Alhâmô (BN) /ɑlχæmø/ - The only species of flowering plant on the hiemal planet of Bargiria. This semi-sentient species initially germinates as a parasite that lives off of the Gînkkra, but then grows to develop a symbiotic relationship with the tree, as they both share nutrients with one another. It vaguely resembles a Rafflesia, but lacks the necrotic odor of a corpse that the Rafflesia flowers have. It also eats insects using the sticky spiked disk at its center, which closes the hole in which it is located once the flower senses an insect on it.
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Thank you to those who've responded!

Day 5: Jewelry :gem:

(This is also an excuse to make words about rocks, gems, and metals.)

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Day 5

  • X̄eïrōmmınÿ (VO) /χɜi̯roːmːinɘ/ - The obligatory award of "one's own weight in gold" awarded to Vordynian women upon successful childbirth. Gold, or x̄eïrōm, is viewed as a conduit of the energy of life by the Vordynians, who associate it with Ïantï /iːɑ̯nti/, their Goddess of the Sun and of Life, and being awarded one's own weight in gold is believed to strengthen the life force of the receiver, thus putting them closer to Ïantï.
  • Dôugombîtra (BN) /dɤɢombitrɑ/ - This is the name given by the Bargirians to the hyper-pure diamonds that grow in the caves near the ancient city of Ombîtra. Dôugombîtrar are renowned across the Andromeda Galaxy for their rarity and their purity, and it is said that they reflect the image of the Jakkarahın back upon those that gaze into the gem. Of course, something so precious would also become one of the single most expensive commodities in the Milky Way when the Bargirians mastered intergalactic travel.
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ʒarila / mlive
Any digital storage device being worn decoratively, usually containing data that is of spiritual or emotional significance to the wearer. In a ʒarila, the data is burnt into the device, contrast it with a trisəle/vraskere, which is the same, but with a writeable device.

A ʒarila and a trisəle are different in significance to the Tsiəra. The things that you put in a ʒarila are often not things you'd put in a trisəle, and the ways that they are worn are also different. It would be strange for a ʒarila to be worn near the chest or the forehead, for example. Trisəle are most often worn hanging from the horns.

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Day 6: Work

I don't have anything special to say about this prompt.

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likra / vruzi: v. To work.

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Day 6/Ïanmïba 6/6-Jaraga

Verbs shown here are in infinitive forms.

  • Sağaïar /sɐʀɑi̯ɑr/ (VO) - to Work
  • Kôngırakk /køŋgɨrɑq/ (BN) - to Work
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Day 7: Movement

Specific forms of movement, like the ways people walk, water flowing, or perhaps something unusual?

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Day 7/Ïanmïba 7/7-Jaraga

  • Harğïraxśa /ħɑʀirɐxɕɐ/ (VO) - The motion that waves make as they carry out the process of longshore drift. It features the onomatopœic term axśa, referring to the sound of a wave making contact with land.
  • Bîaugakkna /bi̯ɑu̯gɑqnɑ/ (BN) - The serpent-like motion of Bargirian hair as it prepares to expel a powerful superacid at the Bargirian's enemy.
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Day 8: Wishes, Luck and Good Feelings

Because yesterday was Friday the 13th.

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Ïanmiba 8/8-Jaraga

  • X̄ognarāŋŋ'ïanha! (VO) /χʌgnɐrɑ̃ːŋʔiɑ̯nħɐ/ - May the sun guide you!
  • Jakkarahın mâıromîttadwaîkkomînû! (BN) /ɟ͡ʝɑqɑrɑχɨn mæɪ̯romitːɑdwɑi̯qominy/- May Jakkarahın bless, honor and guide you!
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Day 8: Medicines and Healthy Activities
I was late with this today, sorry.

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Ïanmïba 9 (W̄ørrdÿnïjäm)

  • Ȫrdosıkkmĕn /øːrdosɪqmn̩/ - The Vordynian term for a meditation session, particularly a ritual and religious one intended to center the mind, and once seen as a form of psychological medicine. Nowadays, it is still practiced, but not as a medicine.
  • Üddjāroumy̆n /uɖʝɐːrʌwmɨ̆n/ - A medicinal tree from which the Vordynians are able to harvest an organic compound that mimics adrenaline, commonly used to resuscitate patients whose hearts have stopped.

9-Jaraga (Bâırgırou)

  • Alhâmôrangîta /ɑlχæmørɑŋgitɑ/ - A medication produced from the Alhâmô parasite-flower, that Bargirians use to treat all sorts of issues relating to their hair not being able to move on its own. Interestingly, the Śhîlawites report experiencing a hallucinogenic high upon ingesting even a trace quantity of this. A human would freeze to death from the inside upon ingesting this plant.

  • Sûrongıpâılatjakk /syroŋgɨpæɪ̯lɑtɟ͡ʝɑq/ - The Bargirian verb for "Taking a walk across the Sûrong ice lake". Self-explanatory. The health benefits of this come from the various minerals that diffuse into the air from the silicate-rich mists above the lake, which improve circulation of silicon dioxide to the Bargirian's organs, and allow for effective photosynthetic respiration.

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Day 10: Architecture

"But what even is a buttress?"