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Wenja's Roots: Dwani (Sounds), Part 1

Over a series of posts we'll discuss exactly what we, the creators of Wenja, do each time we create - or rather derive - a new word for the primary language of Oros. How do PIE words like *bʰere- 'to carry' and *h₂odyo 'today' become Wenja bara and shaja, respectively?

Our first post will begin with the largest class of consonants in PIE -- stops (aka occlusives). Stops are found in all of the world's languages.  When you make a stop, the air is stopped in the mouth in the initial production of the sound, and then the air is released. For this reason you can't hold a stop out like an s or an m; try holding out a p -- you'll find that it's impossible!

There are six stops in English:

	Voiceless	Voiced
Bilabial	p	b
Alveolar	t	d
Velar	k	g

English stops are organized according to place of articulation and voicing. Stops can either be voiced or voiceless. Voiced sounds require vibration of the vocal folds (in your throat); voiceless sounds do not. The terms bilabial, alveolar, and velar refer to the place of articulation, or where in the mouth a sound is articulated. You can see in the diagram to the left that bilabial sounds are made with the lips, alveolars just behind the top front teeth, and velars towards the back of the mouth.

(Click here for an interactive overview of English phonetics)

While there are only six basic stops in English, it's very likely that PIE had fifteen. That's a lot compared to most languages of the world!  The majority of Indo-Europeanists assume five places of articulation (bilabial, dental, palatal, velar, and labiovelar (velar consonant with lip rounding)) and three different ways to make stops (voiceless, voiced, and voiced aspirated). The voiced aspirated stops, which are perhaps better described as breathy, are characterized by a voiced puff of air following the stop in question.

	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiced Aspirated
Bilabial	p	b	bʰ
Alveolar	t	d	dʰ
Palatal	ḱ	ǵ	ǵʰ
Velar	k	g	gʰ
Labiovelar	kʷ	gʷ	gʷʰ

Now let's see how all of this plays out in Wenja. In the lists below, we first give you an example of a PIE word beginning with the reconstructed stops in question (marked in bold), followed by descendant words in actual Indo-European languages. We then conclude with the Wenja derivative (marked in red).

• Labials: 
• PIE *ped/pod- 'foot' > Luvian pāta-, Sanskrit pad-, Greek pod-, Latin ped-, English foot, Armenian otn, Wenja padi 'foot'
• PIE *bel- 'strong' > Sanskrit bála- ‘strength’, Greek beltíōn ‘better’, Latin dē-bilis ‘lacking strength’, Old Church Slavonic bolĭjĭ ‘bigger’, Wenja bala 'strong'
• PIE *bʰer- 'carry' > Sanskrit b^hárāmi ‘I carry’, Greek p^hérō, Latin ferō, Armenian berem, English bear, Old Church Slavonic berǫ ‘I take’, Old Irish ·beir, Wenja bara 'carry'
• Dentals: 
• PIE *ters- 'be dry, thirst' > Sanskrit tarṣáyati ‘makes thirsty’, Greek térsetai ‘becomes dry’, Latin terra ‘(dry) land’, English thirst, Albanian ter ‘I dry’, Wenja tarsa 'become dry'
• PIE *doru '(oak) tree' > Hittite tāru ‘wood, tree’, Sanskrit dā́ru, Greek dóru, Old Irish daur, Old Church Slavonic drěvo, Albanian dru, English tree, Wenja daru 'wood'
• PIE *dʰeh₁- 'put, do' > Sanskrit d^hā- ‘put, do’, Greek t^hē- ‘put’, Latin faciō, English do, Old Russian dě, Wenja daha 'do, make, put'

• Palatals:
• PIE *ḱerd- 'heart' > Sanskrit śrad-, Old Church Slavonic srĭdĭce, Lithuanian širdìs, Hittite kard-, Greek kardíā, Latin cord- [kord], English heart, Wenja charda 'heart'
• PIE *ǵónu 'knee' > Sanskrit jā́nu, Avestan žnum, Hittite gēnu, Greek gónu, Latin genū, Eng. knee, Wenja janwa 'knee'
• PIE *ǵʰeu- 'pour' > Sanskrit hūyáte ‘is poured’, Avestan zaotar- ‘priest’, Greek k^he(w)ō ‘I pour’, Tocharian B kewu ‘I will pour’, German giessen, Wenja jawa 'pour'
• Velars:
•  PIE *kes- 'hair' > Old Church Slavonic kosa ‘hair’, Lithuanian kasà ‘braid’, Hittite kiss-, Greek késkeon, Old English heord ‘hair’, Wenja kasa 'braid, weave'
• PIE *gras- 'grass' > Sanskrit grásate ‘eats’, Greek grástis ‘grass’, Latin grāmen ‘grass’, Wenja grasti 'straw'
• PIE *gʰrebʰ(hᵪ)- 'grab' > Sanskrit /g^hrab^h-/, Av. grab-, OCS grabiti, Eng. grab, Wenja grabasha 'grab, catch'

• Labiovelars:
• PIE *kʷis 'who' > Sanskrit kás ‘who’, Old Church Slavonic kŭ-to ‘who, Lithuanian kàs, Hittite kuis ([k^wis]), Latin quis ([k^wis]), Old English hwæt, Wenja kway 'who, what'
• PIE *gʷen- 'woman' > Sanskrit jáni-, Old Church Slavonic žena, Old Prussian genna, Hittite kuinnas ([k^winnas]), Greek gunḗ, English queen, Wenja gwani 'woman'
• PIE *gʷʰen- 'kill' > Sanskrit hánti ‘slays’, Avestan jaiṇti, Old Church Slavonic ženǫ ‘I hunt’, Hittite kuenzi ([k^wentsi]) ‘slays’, Greek -p^honos ‘slayer’, Latin dē-fen-dit, English bane, Wenja gwana 'kill'

If you've made it this far and have looked closely at the PIE & Wenja examples, you'll note two basic changes in the Wenja stop system.

1. Voiced aspirates are pronounced as normal voiced stops in Wenja: *bʰ, dʰ, ǵʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ > b, d, j, g, gw, respectively
2. Palatal stops are pronounced as (alveopalatal) affricates in Wenja: *ḱ, ǵ, ǵ > ch, j, j, respectively. Recall that ch  = < ch > (cheese) & j = < j > (juice).

Though there are some modifications here and there (we'll get to those), it's pretty much that simple! This leaves us with the following stop inventory for Wenja:

	Voiceless	Voiced
Bilabial	padi	bala
Alveolar	tarsa	daha
Palatal (Alveopalatal)	charda	jawa
Velar	kasa	grabash
Labiovelar	kway	gwana

Next time we'll talk about the fricatives - the hissy sounds - of Wenja: s, z, h, sh, and f.

Nemucod ransomware information

This is a quick post on the recent Nemucod ransomware. Nemucod is (normally) a downloader which uses JavaScript  JScript (thanks Katja) to enter an unsuspecting user's machine and download additional malware (depends on campaign usually).

There's a blog post by Fortinet which explains Nemucod ransomware, so I'm not going to repeat much here: Nemucod Adds Ransomware Routine

It came to our attention that a new, rather peculiar version of Nemucod has been recently landing on users. Nemucod is a well-known JavaScript malware family that arrives via spam email and downloads additional malware to PCs.

This particular campaign is using the lure of a court appeal to spread:

The mail reads:

Notice to Appear,
You have to appear in the Court on the April 22.Please, prepare all the documents relating to the case and bring them to Court on the specified date.Note: If you do not come, the case will be heard in your absence.
The Court Notice is attached to this email.
Yours faithfully,Brian Snider,District Clerk.

It seems Nemucod ransomware got another update, as it now uses 7-zip to actually encrypt the files.

Another change is the slight drop in price. Whereas before it was 0.60358 bitcoins ($267.14 or €236.43), it's now 0.49731 bitcoins ($220.11 or €194.80).

New message reads:

Nemucod ransomware message

Nemucod encrypting a whole plethora of filetypes, appending the .crypted extension

Disinfection

If you have opened a .JS file (JScript file) from an unknown sender, open Task Manager immediately and stop all the following processes (at least in this version of Nemucod):

a0.exe (actually 7-zip disguised)
a1.exe
a2.exe
cmd.exe
wscript.exe


The faster you do this, the less files will be encrypted. Run a scan with your antivirus program and a scan with another antivirus program to verify the malware has been removed.

Note: It's always useful to keep a copy of the ransomware note handy, as it's easier to identify the ransomware and if it can be decrypted.


Decryption

I'm only briefly reporting on this for those in need, but currently, the known decryptors are suited for this version. However, Fabian from Emsisoft is already working hard to make a decryptor available, so please have patience!

If you have an older version of Nemucod, you can try one of either decryptors:
Emsisoft Decrypter for Nemucod 
nemucod_decrypter (you will need to install Python for this)

You can also try restoring files with Shadow Explorer. (alternate link)

For more information, please visit the following Bleeping Computer topic
.crypted Ransomware (Nemucod) - Decrypt.txt Support and Help Topic



Prevention

In particular for Nemucod, don't open any JScript/JavaScript files from unknown senders.

For more tips on ransomware prevention, be sure to check out this page I've set up:
Ransomware Prevention


Conclusion

Same as with all malware: don't open attachments from unknown senders!

Please find below IOCs and additional resources.



Resources

.crypted Ransomware (Nemucod) - Decrypt.txt Support and Help Topic
ID ransomware
JavaScript-toting spam emails: What should you know and how to avoid them?
JScript
Nemucod ransomware IOCs
Ransomware overview
Ransomware Prevention
TrojanDownloader: JS/Nemucod

Wenja Grammar: Plurals & Animacy

In languages like English, there is usually a way to differentiate singular nouns from plural nouns.

Wenja, Wenjas

bear, bears 

leaf, leaves 

BUT fish, fish

In Wenja, plural nouns look exactly the same as singulars.

Winja = Wenja, Wenjas 

hars = bear, bears 

balya =  leaf, leaves 

payska = fish, fish

However, if a plural noun is the subject of a verb, in special circumstance you'll see the plural marked on the verbs. To understand when, you must first understand animacy.

Wenja speakers view the things within their world as either living (animate) or non-living (inanimate). For the Wenja, anything animate has a soul.  Animate nouns are people, spirits, gods, and animals. Inanimate nouns are objects, such as rocks, weapons, and food.

The key point is that Wenja only use endings on their verbs when the subject is animate. The only things that can be inanimate would be in the 3^rdperson. For the 3rd singular, since there is no verbal ending in the paradigm for animate subjects, the verb will look the same whether the subject is animate or inanimate. So, the only difference you would need to worry about would be for the 3^rd person plural subjects:

3^rd person plural subjects:

Mara harha.                        The apples rest.                  (Inanimate) 

Chwan harharsh.              The dogs rest.                      (Animate)

3^rd person singular subjects:

Mara harha.                          The apple rests.                (Inanimate) 

Chwan harha.                       The dog rests.                    (Animate)

Wenja Language: frashta, frashni, fraja, shrash

Smarkaka, sakush! Tan-ra nakway kraybay bidam, ma Primal "Gwayfa Santaha" lijam. Say-saywa, ma taw-tawsam! Palhu sashwal pa, "nati"s hu-warhamas.  Ya si-gwar sahi, Takkar sa warha. Cha Takkar alya warshta warha: frashta. Shaja sis traya brashtar-warshtas-kwa warhamas: shrash, fraja, frashni-kwa.

Hello, friends! I apologize for not writing anything, but I've been playing Primal on "Survival Mode".  It's super hard, but I'm loving it! A couple weeks back we spoke about nati "no longer". It's what Takkar saying releasing his beast. Takkar says another word: frashta "right, correct". Today we'll talk about it & three related words: shrash "yes", fraja "to target; guide", and frashni "queen".

Let's start with the less common, but more straightforward words. The words frashta and frashni are taken from the verb fraja "to target, aim at; direct, guide, rule". Both show the common alternation of -j- to -sh- (fraj-ta- --> frashta, fraj-ni --> frashni). The original meaning of frashta is "upright, guided" and the frashni is the "one who rules".  Of course, in the context of Far Cry Primal, we're talking about Batari here.

So how is shrash connected to all of this?  Well, originally shrash WAS frashta, just spoken so many times it got slightly modified. The strong "sh" sound took over the less-audible "f" sound, and the final syllable was lopped off. This was all done on purpose; more common words tend to undergo more changes than less common words.  Just think of the English word "and".  You usually pronounce this word as simple "n" (In n' Out, fish n' chips, etc.)  But the same reduction isn't seen in words like "sand", "hand", "band", etc.  They cannot be reduced to sn', hn', bn', etc. That's because "and", as a common word, doesn't play by the rules.  The same is true of shrash.

And where does this come from in PIE?  A very common root: *h₃reǵ-, which had the same meaning as Wenja fraja. We still have this word in words dealing with royalty (regal, royal, etc.) as well as direction (the board of regents, registration, etc.).  Those words are borrowed from Latin, however.  Do we have any direct descendants in English? Yes, indeed! In fact, our word right is from the same source as frashta.