The Láadan Language Community

Not sure if I'm missing something here - am I right in thinking the only way to tell if you're dealing with a plural object is if there's an adjective involved? 

e.g. Bíi yod le yuth wa = I eat the fruit or fruits
but Bíi yod le woliyen woyuth wa = I eat the green fruit.  cf. Bíi yod le mewoliyen woyuth wa - I eat the green fruits.

Is this right?  It seems odd to have no plural noun form (though I know of other languages where that's the case), but more odd to have the plural indicated at some times and not others.  Or is there some other way of marking it that I haven't got to in the lessons yet...?

Wil sha, everyone!

I'm sorry I've been absent so long. (The holidays, then I took a short course in Mandarin Chinese.) I finally finished Native Tongue (and checked out The Judas Rose to start tomorrow) and there was one line I really loved from it. One of the women makes a statement and then asks Nazareth, isn't that true? And Nazareth replies,

"As true as water. As true as light."

I admit I haven't even tried the grammar for this one yet. I'm still on Amberwind's Lesson #2, trying to get the vocabulary in my head. Does anyone have a translation? I love this line so much.

Wil sha.

My given name is Amy, but I transliterated it to Emi on the Láadan Language site. Here, though, I transliterated (and altered a little because I like the sound better) my Japanese name, Sanae, into Zhanáhe. It means "early seedling." I love different names and have collected a lot of them for myself over the years. Please feel free to call me by any of these names!

I hope I can keep up with this. I hope you all join me too and share your experiences!

I, like many of us, have suffered olob (trauma) in my life. If-- I should say, when-- I discuss it, I will put it behind a cut with a trigger warning. I sincerely do not want to add to anyone's pain more than I add to her harmony...

I might also pitch Encodings, or ask if anyone knows words for certain concepts. I hope together we can keep Láadan alive and growing!

The one sentence that keeps coming into my mind from Amberwind's lesson #2 is:

Bíi áya hena wa.
(The sibling is beautiful.)

I don't have any hena (siblings by blood). But I hope you will all become my héena (siblings of the heart) in Láadan. And you are all áya.

And for those who celebrate or mark the turning of the year, my attempts at a wish for you:
Wil othel minararoth.
or maybe
Wil othel shiniledaleweman.

wil = let there be
othel = to be blessed, holy
minararoth = mina (move) + ra (not) + roth (sun)
shiniledaleweman = shiniledal (middle) + [e] + weman (winter)

Are there words for the solstice that I'm not finding? Do I have the order wrong on any of these? I couldn't find a word for "long" to make "longest night," and I couldn't find a word for "stand still" as in solstice, just "still, calm" as in a quiet pond-- or even "pause." Do any of you have creative seasonal greetings?

Wil sha, everyone.

I'm drawn to Láadan. I read about it several years ago, but just rediscovered it through a mention in a recent New York Times article about conlangs. I feel that the time is right for me to learn it, now, and I want to give it a go.

I have the Láadan Lessons for Beginners and other resources at laadanlanguage.org, Amberwind's lessons, and what appears to be a vintage copy of Native Tongue from my local library. I signed up at laadanlanguge.org (I'm Emi there). But I wanted a community, a lol.

I spoke with Amberwind and she suggested I look here, at this Livejournal community. Is it alright with you all if I post my experiences and thoughts about learning Láadan here, and maybe you can all help me learn?

Thank you-- áala.

So sorry to have to be the bearer of ill tidings. However, Suzette has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. She is too weak and disoriented to answer correspondence of any kind, so we're likely on our own insofar as Láadan is concerned.

Wil Sha!

While learning Láadan it occured to me, that in Germany there might have been a time that Láadan was all the rage in a certain region in Germany that I live next to.

In Germany in the region I live in the sentences often end with a "ne" or "ne?" as a sort of reinforcement what just has been said. For example I say something and another person agrees wholeheartedly s/he might say: "Ja, ne". This region here also prefers to have a "t" in place of a "s" for the "das"(that) and "was" (what), resulting in the use of dat and wat in daily conversations and German-teachers that  with all their might try to get it out of the systems, if those pupils want to go to university at one point.

This "wat" and "dat" use has gotten us in some other regions of Germany the nickname: The Datwat´s

And in the "Ruhrgebiet" there are also "Datwat´s" but instead of "ne" they use: "wa". So as you perceive they might have adopted Láadan already but maybe have not gotten further than the "wa". Which in my opinion is still a nice thing to have: being able to indicate that one perceives the statement as true. Every language can use this, I think.

Hopefully you forgive me for the cheeky title - maybe in your region there is also some part of Láadan that is already "alive"?

Wil sha dear all!
Would it be completely rude to ask of you now and again how something is expressed? I still haven´t gotten around to ask for/order the grammar on Láadan and have not yet gotten into a routine language session with Láadan.

So here is my question already ;-) - how can I say give to? I´d like to express that I would like to donate some change to a cause next week and would like to make a note of this.

I haven´t found donation but there is "give" - "ban". Where can I find to express to "give to"?

Please forgive also my grammar, as you probably know I´m not a native speaker of the English language.

Thank you!!

Will sha!
For some reason or other I always think, that if someone just pushes something long enough it will roll.

Of course for Sisyphos that means the rolling will be downhill but still there might be other kinds of rolling – like for Buzz Lighyear from the Toy Story whose falling is almost flying.

So is it correct? Pushing long enough results in gaining momentum?

Do you have a similar experience, especially with Láadan?

Hi!
At the moment I´m sidetracked to learn French becaus we will be visiting Marocco for a few days (yes, Arabic or Persian would be more logic and I thought more difficult to achieve some level of understanding in a few weeks) - still sometimes I wonder about Láadan and words that I might incorporate into my life.

Recently I tought if there might be a word for Empire in Láadan - begin a zero in the language thus far I found "lol" which doesn´t imply the Empire structure, so I thought maybe rulol to start with.

So, for the Lol of Láadan, what would be interesting topics here?

Wil sha
As stated before I´m currently a not so good student of LaAdan - and because I thought I might passively learn more about this language I wondered if there are more texts available to look at and to learn from. So far my searches has let me only back to this forum and I was reminded on how I tried to improve my Dutch a while ago: there was a Dutch-German forum whose members posted their comments in both languages as good as they could.

Would that be a good idea here?

So even if the following will raise your hair an hackles and everything:

BAa thal shub?

And yes, corrections are warmly welcomed