Sensory Infixes in rtemmu (was Mauve and a related conlang question)

On 4 June, Clint Jackson Baker asked how our conlangs deal with color.
I was just about to send this when the list froze. Hoping that it stays
open, I'll send it now.

    In my conlang, rtemmu, colors are named for processes in the
world which exhibit that color. This is done by putting the
infix  | -yai- | after the first vowel in the word describing
the colored process.
    For example, take the word | sdihs | ( = the process of fire,
burning, blazing ). Using the infix | -yai- |, one gets
| sdihyais | = the fire color, which, in rtemmu,  is considered
orange, not red. (Note: |ih| stands for the vowel /I/. )
Other colors are derived from other words. For example:

w'oduh  =  (the process of being) blood
w'oyaiduh = (the process of being)  red

kol = (the process of being) deep water
koyail = (the process of being) blue
             (the water is considered as being unpolluted
              under a blue unpolluted sky! )

xgor = (the process of being) overcast, cloudy
xgoyair = (the process of being) gray

and so on.

    There are, however, other infixes in rtemmu which denote
other sensory characteristics. For example, using the word
|aslr`| (= [the process of being] honey), one can derive:

a - yai - slr`  =  (the process of being) honey-colored

but also

a - lor - slr` = (the process of being) the sound of dripping honey
a - fuhf -slr` = (the process of being) the smell of  honey
a - go`g -slr` = (the process of being) the taste of honey
a - tun - slr` = (the process of being)  the sticky feel of honey

One can even use the infix | -klif- | which denotes
a multisensory characteristic. Exactly which
senses were involved in | aklifslr` | would have to
be understood by context. What is clear in the word
itself is that more than one sense is involved.


Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.

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