In spite of being an island that is isolated from the rest of the Eindasquing megacontinent, it never the less adopted loanwords from outside sources, though not enough to compose of a large percentage of the lexicon.
Loanwords From World-Empires And Trading Routes
Plenty of the loanwords were adopted from previous world-empires prior to the Umbsquodsen World-Empire. Specifically, these were the world-empires who managed to plant a flag on some part of coastal Pimzarblan, but never ventured far. They would either leave or establish trade or their own suzerainty in whatever part of the island they landed on. Due to the close proximity of Northern Pimzarblan towards the rich, fertile lands of the Raijir, and Western Pimzarblan towards the desert-caravansery of Central Eindasquing, most of the loanwords landed up in the Northern and Western half of Pimzarblan–along with the prosperity as they were considered trading routes.
One group of people who established routes with Pimzarblan were the farmer-kingships of the Asengir, who live in the lands north of Pimzarblan and in north-central Eindasquing. When the Asengir weren\’t setting up crops during the foraging seasons, they would trade with people as far as the Turfanat jungle-islands off Western Eindasquing\’s coast. It would be from the Asengir that they would adopt loanwords of animals imported to them such as:
- dahil: camel [derived from dakhil]
- yalngi: lion [derived from yaligi]
- zata: monkey [derived from Turfanat zacha]
Another group of people who traded with the Pimzarblan came from the Raijir, who live in fertile lands just north of them. They brought with them trading goods such as fruits, spices, and units of measurement.
One of the most important elements of a language is the number system, but one that is overlooked is specifically the units of measurement. It is by this mathematical system that allows the speakers to determine the right proportions of any mass, either solid or liquid.
As it can be imagined, the field of mathematics is particularly useful in the business world when approximating the economic value of the mass, but also it is crucial for determining how much food is transported to distant locations. Units of measurement are also important to construction and architecture, since the right length, width, and height would be needed for every specific part.
For those who want to develop their conlangs, units of measurement are quite literally the building blocks. Though in order to be able to use this system, it needs to be seen in real-world languages if it is to be used in conlangs.
As for etymologies are concerned, terms can derive from body parts, like in the English language\’s case, the term foot comes from the body part.
- kibar: an inch [derived from kibar meaning \”that finger\”]
- kijong: a pound [derived from kijon meaning \”that rock\”]
- jajib: a foot [derived from jajiv menaing \”with sword\”]
- psnu: money/coin [derived from pasnu meaning \”because of a field\”]
- jaihudsnu: golden coin [derived from jaiha\’ud pasnu meaning \”coin with gold\”]
- rios: apricot [derived from Raij. riyos]
Of course, there were also plenty of words introduced by the World-Empires, which are empires that claimed territory in both megacontinents. The ones that had the most impact were the Ijen World-Empire of the Mzàshābárt Ocean-Jungles and the Laƚiker World-Empire of the Falithifel Dragon-Mountains, among others.
- bam: tiger [derived from Mza. bim]
- basubang: gun [derived from Mza. mbashebulabang>Fali. basulabang>Pimz. basubang meaning \”fire-powder-bow\”]
- kspankarmang: kalidah [derived from Mza. sebimkremeng>Mid. Pimz. sabankramang/s\’bankarmang>Pimz. kspankarmang meaning \”tiger-head bear]
- jujung: chocolate [derived from Mza. jrujrung meaning \”very brown\”]
How Loanwords Are Adopted
As you can see, Pimzarblan does not have the alveo-palatal affricate [ch] or the guttural [kh], so instead, it simply replaced them with the alveolar stop [t] and the glottal fricative [h] respectively. As with the case of loanword adoption in real-world languages, they often have to make due with their own phonological limits by replacing the sound with their own sounds.
This is especially seen with the English language, which often replaces any sound English-speakers deem too obscure with their own phonology. Examples include:
- Loch: pronounced as \”lock\” rather than with the Scottish Gaelic guttural ch.
- Snoqualmie: the Coast Salish tribe of Washington State is traditionally spelled in their language as S·dukʷalbixʷ, but English phonology permits the kʷ sound to be replaced by a qu. The xʷ is concerned silent, whereas in Salish languages, it has a blowing sound. Also, since there are no English words starting with the sd consonantal cluster, so it had to be replaced by the sn consonantal cluster, which does exist in English.
There is also the phenomenon of metathesis, where certain letters are rearranged in order to convey a commonly spoken consonantal cluster. This was seen with the word for a kalidah, which was originally sebimkremeng, but eventually became kspankarmang. The reason for this is because the Vrm is a common consonantal cluster in Pimzarblan.
Sources
- Curzan, Anne and Michael Adams. \”How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction.\” 3rd Edition. Pearson. 2012.
- Wikipedia
- Snoqualmie Indian Tribe