Wenja Grammar: wayda 'find; know'

In today's grammar post we'll be looking at a verb that's super common in Wenja, but one that behaves a bit unexpectedly.

Depending on where the pronouns are added in the sentence, the verb wayda can either mean ‘to find’ or ‘to know / seem’.  Let's begin with the meaning that behaves in the normal fashion, 'to find'. You'll note that the pronouns are added directly to the verb, as you see with pretty much all verbs.

1. Shash waydam, waydata, wayda, etc.        I/You/He, She, It find(s) a rock.
2. Aysh sa waydarsh.                                           They might find him.
3. U mash-apashkanti brashtar wayda.         Find our lost brothers.

So far so good.  However, if you use stand-alone pronouns at the beginning of the sentence or pronoun suffixes attached to a sentence starter, wayda now means 'to know'.

1. Mu / Ta / Sa wayda.                                    I / You / He, She, It know(s).
2. Nam wayda.                                                    I don't know.
3. U-ta wayda!                                                    Know!
4. Aysharsh wayda.                                            They should know.

Strange, huh? The basic idea is that 'to know something' is for 'something to find you'. Of course, this distinction wasn't created randomly, it in fact is based off a well-known contrast we find in PIE.  Let's look at some forms:

• Latin vīdī, Vedic Sanskrit ávidat 'he found', Avestan vīdaṯ 'finds', Armenian egit 'found', Greek eĩdon 'I saw'
• Vedic Sanskrit véda 'I / he knows', Avestan vaēdā 'knows', Greek oĩda 'I know', Old Irish ro-fetar 'I knew', German weiß 'know(s)'

You can see that in PIE there was a distinction between 'see, find' & 'know', with the first given in one type of tense and the other in a tense called the perfect. Since tense doesn't exist in Wenja, we had to be a little creative in how to creation this distinction.

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QuakeExpo2016 16-30th of July, register your virtual booth now!

Seem like some people want to revive the old QuakeExpo tradition this year, which is after all the 20th anniversary of Quake1:

https://qexpo2016.com/

Booth pre-registration started on the 18th of June, and the for those that wonder what it is all about:

If you are a qexpo old-timer:  The format is virtual ‘booths’ set up for a limited number of days just like the past.  But unlike the past, this site has a built-in comment and messaging system.  The site-wide stream of discussion is available on the ‘Activity’ tab.  However, any booth owner may disable comments on their particular booth page by checking the ‘Comments Disabled’ category.

We also have a fancy event calendar to be populated.  Events occurring prior to the Expo days may be posted, but it is requested that there be an event coverage booth, news, or other tie-in available during the Expo itself.

If you’re a new-timer wondering what the heck this is:  The Quake Expo concept is based on virtual ‘booths’ where people show off projects, provide tutorials, or share nostalgia.  See the links at the bottom of the site for previous years.  The idea is a bit retro given all the possible online outlets for creativity now.  But that’s one of the reasons to have it-  with so many islands of forums, social media groups, and code repositories, it might be nice to come together for a few days and see what everyone else is doing.  The time limitation is key.  Booths will only be open for two weeks and afterwards the entire site is closed and archived.

Focus is mainly on Quake1 engine derived projects (Darkplaces Engine for example), but in the past there were usually also a few Quake2/3 engine projects in it. Fully FOSS is not a strict requirement, but quite common, and the engine is of course GPL licensed.

Personally I hope we will see some projects picking up the quite awesome mobileVR port of Darkplaces: http://quakevr.com/ 

P.S.: Slightly OT, but the Inside3D forums (all about Quake1 engine programming) have a new home at http://www.insideqc.com/

Wenja Language: Winja waychasu "In the Wenja village", Part 1

Today we begin a five-part series about life in the Wenja village, examining words that would be used in a Wenja's daily life.  This first post focuses on words related to buildings & construction and will be followed by discussions of (2) social relationships; (3) religion & health; (4) daily life; (5) animals around the village. Enjoy!

Buildings & Construction

1. damsha "build", "hut; house", from PIE *demh₂- 'to build', seen in English dom-esticate and dom-icile; cf. Latin domus 'house', Sanskrit dama, Greek dómos, etc.
2. nasa "return home", from PIE *nes- "return home", as in English nos-talgia, literally "the pains of coming home"; cf. Greek néomai "return home", German genesen "recover"
3. rahi "possessions; stash; stuff", from PIE *reh₁i-, seen in Latin rēs "affair, matter, thing", Sanskrit rayiH
4. damsha-rahi "building supplies", compound of damsha + rahi
5. fapi "wealth; riches; resources, materials", from PIE *h₃op-, as in English op-ulence, from Latin ops "wealth, power, resources"
6. damshi "hut", i-stem noun to the root damsha "build"
7. saja-damshi "storage hut", compouns of saja "hold" (PIE *seǵʰ- "hold" > Greek ékʰō "have, hold", German Sieg "victory")
8. kawha "shelter", from PIE *skeuhᵪ- 'cover', source of English shadow, hide, Latin ob-scUrus "covered", and Greek skũtos "hide, leather"
9. kata "tent", from PIE *kóto-, source of Old English heaðor 'prison, enclosure', Russian kotéc "fishweir", Avestan kata "chamber"
10. tagas "roof; ceiling", from PIE tégos, source of English thatch, and stego-saurus "roof-lizard" (< Greek stégos), toga (< Latin "a covering")
11. shanshta "threshold; doorframe", from PIE *h₂anhᵪtah₂, continued by Armenian dr-and "door-posts", Latin antae "pillars framing a door", Old Norse ǫnd "foreroom"
12. shazda "branch, stick", from PIE *h2ózdos, seen in German Ast, Greek ózdos, etc. Etymologically the one that "sits next to" the tree (*-zd- = reduced form of *sed- "sit" [Wenja sada])
13. warba "twig", from PIE *wr̥b- "branch, spring, twig'. Continued by Latin verbēna "leaves & saplings for sacrificial use", Lithuanian vir̃bas "twig, switch", Greek. rhábdos "twig, rod"
14. shash "rock", from PIE *h₂aḱmon- "stone, rock", seen in Lithuanian akmuō, Old Church Slavonic kamy, Hittite aku-, Avestan asman-, Sanskrit áśman-, all "stone".  Avestan asman- can also mean "heaven" -- believe it or not, English heaven is from this word as well, originally "the stony vault of heaven". Following normal sound laws, Wenja shash should be shashman, but was shortened due to high frequency of usage. 
15. hashman "flint", PIE *h₂aḱmon- "stone, rock", this is a borrowing from Izila.
16. parku "hardwood; oak", from PIE *perk(ʷ)u- "hardwood, oak", source of English fir, Latin quercus, Gaulish érkos "oak forest", and Punjabi pargāī "holly oak"
17. nada "reed", from PIE *nedós "reed", seen in Lithuanian néndrė, Armenian net, Sanskrit nadá-, and Luvian nātatta-, all "reed"
18. piki "tar; pitch", from PIE *pik- "pitch", continued by Latin pix "pitch" (> English pitch), Old Church Slavonic picŭlŭ "pitch", and Greek píssa "tar, resin".
19. taticha "craft, create, fashion, forge, build", from PIE *tetḱ- "fashion"; Greek tiktō "fashion", Sanskrit tā́ṣṭi "fashions". Likely a reduplicated formation to *teḱ- "to birth, produce" (Greek étekon, etc.)
20. tashtan "craftsman, crafter", from PIE *teḱton- "builder", found in Greek téktōn 'id.' (as in English tecton-ic "of or relating to building or construction")
21. warja "work", from PIE *werǵ- "work", continued by English work, Greek ergo- (ergo-nomics), etc.
22. warjan "worker", agentive noun to warja
23. kwarwi "tool", from PIE *k(ʷ)r̥wi- "tool", found in Lithuanian kir̃vis "axe", Russian cervĭ "sickle", Sanskrit kr̥vi- "weaving instrument". (ʷ) in parentheses since only continued by "satem" languages.
24. dwaray "door; gate", from PIE *dʰwer- "door", source of English door, Latin forum "the place outside", Sanskrit dhvar-, etc. Note the suffix -ay was originally the plural suffix in Wenja, but was lost to shorten the language. -ay also seen in pronouns: sa "he, she, it" vs. say "they"
25. sula "pillar", from PIE *ḱsúlom "shaped wood; post, stake", continued by Greek ksúlon "plank, bench", Old English sȳl "pillar", Lithuanian šùlas "stave"
26. tashta "stand; pedestal", from PIE *stəh₂tó- "propped up", with connections to English status (< Latin), Greek statós, and Sanskrit sthitá- "stood".
27. kwayman "pile; heap; lump", -man noun formed to PIE *kʷey- "pile up"; Vedic cinóti "gathers", Greek poiéō "make, do".
28. waycha "village", from PIE *woiḱo- "village; household", found throughout Indo-European -- Old Church Slavonic vĭsĭ "village", Avestan vīs- "court, village", Sanskrit viś- "dwelling, tribe, clan", Greek oiko- "household" (> English eco-nomics), Latin vīcus "village" (> English vic-inity)
29. chawha "cave, cavern; tunnel", from PIE *ḱewhᵪ- "hollow", source of Latin cavea "a hollow place" (> English cave), built to cavus "hollow", Middle Irish cúa "hollow"; related to Greek kúar "eye of the needle", Armenian sor "hole", Avestan sūra- "hole, gap"
30. jarta "camp", from PIE *ǵʰorto- "enclosure", related to English gard-en, yard (both Germanic) and horti-culture (from Latin hortus "garden")
31. dushna "garrison, fort", from PIE *dʰuhᵪno- "fort", continued by Old Irish dún "fort", Old English dūn "down, moor, height, hill, mountain". Seen today in English in both down and town.
32. praspaka "outpost" (borrowed from Izila prospokom), from PIE *pro-spoḱo- "a place to look forth". Preposition pro- seen in Wenja pra "earlier; forth; in the morning" (= English [to and] fro, pro [< Latin]). Root is PIE  *speḱ- "look at; spy", continued by English spy, Latin speciō (> English spec-tacle), and Greek sképtō (> English scep-tic)
33. shashka "campfire, bonfire; hearth", from PIE *h₂əhᵪsko- "ash", source of Old Norse aska, English ash, Armenian ačiwn; related to Hittite ḫās "ashes", from PIE *h₂ahᵪ- "to burn" (= Wenja shaha)
34. kanhi "dust; ash", from PIE *kénhᵪi- "ash", seen in Greek kónis and Tocharian B kentse
35. pur "fire", reduced form of PIE *pah₂wr̥ "fire", source of English fire, pyro- (< Greek pũr), Armenian hur, Hittite paḫḫur, etc.
36. dushma "smoke; steam", from PIE *dʰuh₂mo-, continued by Sanskrit dhuma-, Old Church Slavonic dymu, Greek thymos, Latin fūmus (> English fume)
37. hajma "hole, trench, ditch", borrowed from Izila hogmom, from PIE *h₂oǵmo-, Greek ogmos "furrow".  Derived from root *h₂aǵ- "drive" (Latin agō, etc.)