Lexicon Development : Ongoing Document

I usually keep the details of my WIPs safe from big spoilers, but the Ro’tehk Lexicon is going to be the exception to that rule. I’ll be making the grammar, structure, some vocabulary, and the general development of this language open to the public through this blog post. If you have any comments or critiques, I’d love to hear them!

Version 2.3 – Updated July 14th, 2022
Current Lexicon Word Count: 335

Conlang Goals:
1. Ro’tehk is not intended to be an extremely difficult language to learn or decode. It has its differences from English, but I want it to remain familiar enough that it can still be approached. This language will play a fairly large role in the story it’s being written for, so I want any readers that may be interested in it to actually be able to understand it. 
Besides, I already plan on building Vorisian after this, and that one will be a nightmare to read and speak for canonical reasons. No need to make two impossible languages, right?

2. I want this language to express the personality, history, and mindsets of its speakers. From the roots of their vocabulary to the written style of the script, it should be Ro’tehk through and through.

And that’s it. I want it to be tolerable to decipher, and true to the culture it’s built for.

Ro’tehk Phonemes:
1. The Transcription Substitutes are what English letters and symbols are used when transcribing Ro’tehk text into English text. This is also called “Romanization”. This is most notable when vowels come into play. Any vowel standing without an “H” to its right is to be pronounced as the sharp version of that sound without exception.

2. The Glyph Names are the names of each Ro’tehk letter.

3. The Phonetic Pronunciations will be listed as defined by the International Phonetic Association.

Transcription Substitute:	Glyph Name [pronounced]:	Phonetic Pronunciation:	Technical Classification:
A / a	Av [ave]	/eI/	Dipthong
Ah / ah	Ahn [ahn]	/ɑ/	Monothong
B / b	Bahts [bahts]	/b/	Pulmonic Consonant
K / k	Kahk [kahk]	/k/	Pulmonic Consonant
Ch / ch	Chi [chie]	/tʃ/	Pulmonic Consonant
D / d	Dob [dobe]	/d/	Pulmonic Consonant
E / e	Elul [ee-lool]	/i/	Monothong
Eh / eh	Ehn [ehn]	/ɛ/	Monothong
F / f	Fn [fn]	/f/	Pulmonic Consonant
G / g	Grahv [grahv]	/g/	Pulmonic Consonant
H / h	Hirah [hyrah]	/h/	Pulmonic Consonant
I / i	Ik [eye-k]	/aI/	Dipthong
Ih / ih	Ihn [in]	/I/	Monothong
J / j	Jahv [jahv]	/ʑ/	Pulmonic Consonant
L / l	Lek [leek]	/l/	Pulmonic Consonant
M / m	Mo [Moe]	/m/	Pulmonic Consonant
N / n	Nur* [nu-r*]	/n/	Pulmonic Consonant
O / o	Ol [ole]	/o̞/	Monothong
Oo / oo	Ool [ool]	/u/	Monothong
P / p	Pik [pike]	/p/	Pulmonic Consonant
R / r	Ret [reet]	/ɹ/	Pulmonic Consonant
R* / r*	R*ah [rolled ‘R’-ah]	/r/	Pulmonic Consonant
S / s	Sov [sove]	/s/	Pulmonic Consonant
Sh / sh	Shi [shy]	/ʒ/	Pulmonic Consonant
T / t	Tav [tave]	/t/	Pulmonic Consonant
Th / th	Thehk [thehk]	/θ/	Pulmonic Consonant
U / u	Um [oom]	/ʉ/	Monothong
Uh / uh	Uhn [uhn]	/ə/	Monothong
V / v	Vehrn [vehrn]	/v/	Pulmonic Consonant
W / w	Wehp [wehp]	/w/	Co-Articulated Consonant
Ts / ts	Tsahn [tsahn OR xahn/ksahn]	/ts/	Pulmonic Consonant
Y / y	Yihts [yihts]	/j/	Pulmonic Consonant
Z / z	Zihf [zihf]	/z/	Pulmonic Consonant
‘	Ze’klehf [zee-klef] (Guttural Stop)	/ʔ/	Pulmonic Consonant
…	Kthm [kthm] (“period”/neutral sentence mark)
!	Laha [lah-hay] (exclamation/high energy mark)
?	Mohr*e [moeh-r*-ee] (question mark)
-more coming soon-

Ro’tehk Glyph Appearance

Spacing:
Spaces are added when transcribing, but there are none in the Ro’tehk script. Instead, capital letters separate words, which ends up looking like this: LookingLikeThis.

Spelling:
Spelling is cannonically regulated through the Archivists in joint with the Archeological Society in the Ro’tehk setting, and this means that all words sound exactly as they are spelled. Though plenty of slang exists outside of these spheres, all archived documents are corrected to meet this standard. Technically, the language being built here isn’t Ro’tehk, it’s Archival Ro’tehk, but maybe one day I’ll branch out into other dialects.

Ze’klehf Rules:
Rule 1.
When a ze’klehf appears before the first letter of a word, that letter is repeated twice. The word ‘Emnu is pronounced with two e’s, as in: E’emnu.

Rule 2.
Similarly, when a ze’klehf appears after the last letter of a word, that letter is repeated twice. The word Ka’ is pronounced with two a’s, as in: Ka’a.

Rule 3.
A line is added to the bottom of the ze’klehf if it is at the end of a word, and added to the top of the ze’klehf if it is at the beginning of a word. This way, the mark is not mistakenly associated with the next or previous word. If two words adjacent to each other happen to both end and then begin with a ze’klehf, only one mark is written and no lines are drawn on either side of the ze’klehf.

[Example pictures coming soon]

Rule 4.
All spoken ze’klehfs are written, but not all written ones are spoken. This is because ze’klehfs are used to adjoin words into larger concepts as well as mark guttural stops. The difference between these words often comes down to memorization, but when vowels are separated by a stop, it’s safe to assume that the stop is pronounced. Words like Pa’ah, Keh’e, and Ze’ene are all pronounced with guttural stops. However, the word M’tan does not use a verbal ze’klehf, and this is because the mark is being used to indicate the merger of the words Umook and Tan.

This is one area where common slang still exists even within Archival Ro’tehk, causing somewhat unnecessary memorization.

Line Roots & Writing Direction:
Line roots indicate the direction the text is being written in, which sentence is next in line, and act as anchors for new sentences to begin from. Mood modifiers and markers like question marks are also joined to the line root.

[Example pictures coming soon]

Commas:
There are no commas in Ro’tehk, or at least, there isn’t a glyph for it. This encourages Ro’tehk to have run-on sentences, using words like “with”, “and”, “for”, etc to continue to flow of thought. When there is a significant break in thought, the line is stopped and begins again from the line root.

[Example pictures coming soon]

Descriptive Order:
For reference, this is the English descriptive order:
Quantity or Number, Quality or Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Proper Adjective, Purpose or Qualifier, and then the Noun to which these descriptors are applied.

When put into a sentence, it forms:
Three beautiful giant old boxy green Spanish garden trees. 

Now, that sentence is a little ridiculous since no one actually speaks utilizing every descriptor tag like that, but it’s the order all English speakers use without realizing that we’re using it. The Ro’tehk descriptive order is much different. It is based on the idea of stacking complexity and moving from objective measurements to subjective measurements:
Color, Quantity or Number, Size, Shape, Age, Noun, Proper Adjective, Purpose or Qualifier, Quality or Opinion.

This changes the sentence to read:
Green three giant boxy old trees Spanish garden beautiful.

Pluralization:
The majority of words are pluralized with “vah”, or in some cases, just “v”. Tehr becomes Tehrvah, and ‘Emnu becomes ‘Emnuv. In a minority of cases, “ahv” is also a pluralizer, such as Vin becoming Vinahv.

Possessive Modifier:
In English, we use (‘s) to mark possessive modifiers. The dog‘s chew toy, the boy‘s soccer ball, the sky‘s color. In Ro’tehk, the modifier (-f) is used. “The tree‘s branches” becomes Ak tehrf ehrkvah. “The woman‘s fruit” is Ak zajf ehmos.

Pronouns and Tenses:
There are two major types of pronouns: animate and inanimate.

Inanimate pronouns are extensions of the word Tsi, which is equivalent to the word “it”. It is used on inanimate objects, but is also used for wild animals, whereas domesticated animals or pets are granted animate pronouns.

Pluralizing this pronoun ignores the previous rule of pluralizing with “vah” or “v”, and instead becomes Tsime, which translates as “they” or “them”. To make this possessive, the word becomes Tsio for singular inanimate possessive (= to “its”), and Tsimeo for plural inanimate possessive (= to “their”).

Tsi = It
Ihtsi = It Is
Ehtsi = It Will
Etsi = It Was
Atsi = It Did
Tsio = Its
Ihtsio = Is Its
Ehtsio = Will Be Its
Etsio = Was Its
Atsio = Did Its
Tsime = They / Them
Ihtsime = They Are
Ehtsime = They Will
Etsime = They Were
Atsime = They Did
Tsimeo = Their
Ihtsimeo = Is Theirs
Ehtsimeo = Will Be Theirs
Etsimeo = Was Theirs
Atsimeo = Did Their

Some animate pronouns stem from the word Ze’ihn’ro, which is the equivalent to saying “homo sapien” in our own language. The slang for this is Ze’nro, which is like saying “human”. The “Ro’tehk” is the culture this language comes from, but the people speaking Ro’tehk are the Ze’nrov.

The letters “U” and “D” tend to be used for masculine pronouns and gendered words, and the letters “A” and “J” tend to be used for feminine pronouns and gendered words:
Zat = She / Her
Ihzah = She Is
Ehzah = She Will
Eza = She Was
Aza = She Did
Zaj = Woman
Zahj = Young Woman
Zahjehn = Girl
Zud = Man
Zuhd = Young Man
Zuhdahn = Boy
Zut = He / Him
Ihzuh = He Is
Ehzuh = He Will
Ezu = He Was
Azu = He Did

Similarly, tense and gender is also added to the word “I” to form:
Rn = I (gender neutral) (prnounced “urn”)
Rihj = I am (feminine)
Rehj = I will (feminine)
R*ej = I was (feminine)
R*aj = I did (feminine)
Rihd = I am (masculine)
Rehd = I will (masculine)
R*ed = I was (masculine)
R*ad = I did (masculine)

“Us / We” are similar:
Rnvah = Us / We
Rihv = We Are
Rehv = We Will
Rev = We Were
Rav = We Did

Pluralizing this once again breaks the “vah” and “v” rule from ealier. The root also changes from Ze’ihn’ro to Ehr.
Ehrum = They / Them (mostly male)
Ehram = They / Them (mostly female)
Ehrut = Their (mostly male)
Ehrat = Their (mostly female)
Ehrumih = They Are (mostly male)
Ehrumeh = They Will (mostly male)
Ehrume = They Were (mostly male)
Ehruma = They Did (mostly male)
Ehramih = They Are (mostly female)
Ehrameh = They Will (mostly female)
Ehrame = They Were (mostly female)
Ehrama = They Did (mostly female)
Ehrutih = Is Theirs (mostly male)
Ehruteh = Will Be Theirs (mostly male)
Ehrute = Was Thiers (mostly male)
Ehruta = Did Their (mostly male)
Ehratih = Is Theirs (mostly female)
Ehrateh = Will Be Theirs (mostly female)
Ehrate = Was Theirs (mostly female)
Ehrata = Did Their (mostly female)

“You”, singular, and “You”, plural, masculine and feminine:

Uv = You
Ihuv = You Are
Ehuv = You Will
Euv = You Were
Auv = You Did

Uvah = You All (feminine)
Ihvah = You All Are (feminine)
Ehvah = You All Will (feminine)
Eva = You All Were
Ava = You All Did
Uvuh = You All
Ihvuh = You All Are
Ehvuh = You All Will
Evu = You All Were
Avu = You All Did

Verb Tense:
In English, tense can often change the vowels in the word being modified. “Drink” becomes “Drank” to indicate past tense, but present tense usually just adds an (-ing) to the word, such as “Drinking”. However, words like “Squat” become “Squatted”, using the (-ed) modifier instead of changing “Squat” into something like “Squate”. Yet another example is “Fly” turning into “Flew”. Each word has its own rules for what indicates past, present, and future, which results in quite a bit of memorization.

In Archival Ro’tehk, the majority of words are given present tense with (-e) and past tense with (-ek). Uhni, Unie, and Uhniek, are respectively Sink, Sinking, and Sank. The same rule applies for Me’ehrm, Me’ehme, and Me’ehrmek, (Roll, Rolling, and Rolled); Diah, Diahe, and Diahek, (Rise, Rising, and Rose) and so on.

Sharp & Soft Vowels:
The Ro’tehk use only a handful of gendered words, but they have a secondary system that defines “future words” from “past words”. The Sharp Vowels, which define the past, include Av, Elul, Ik, Ol, and Um. Soft Vowels, which define the future, include Ahn, Ehn, Ihn, Ool, and Uhn.

Words that begin with a Sharp Vowel often describe things “of the past” or things that are “unchanging and continuous forces”. Words like Ka’, “Green”, Dakehn, “Demon”, and Opo, “Valley”, are prime examples of this mindset.

Conversely, words that begin with a Soft Vowel often describe things “of the now and future” or things that are “uncertain or incontinuous forces”. Words like Ahnkahve, “Snow”, Keh’e, “Fire”, and Kahnehth, “Lush”, are prime examples of Soft Vowel use.

Root Words:

Root words are the basis of the majority of Ro’tehk vocabulary. This is the current inventory of roots:

A’ah
Music / Rhythm / To Convey Emotional Clarity / Dance

Ah
Water / Cold / Darkness / Life

Av
Reflect / Copy / Mirror / Mock

Bohl
Smell / Fragrance / Stench / Breathe

Kan
Plants / Order / Cycle / Growth

Keh
To Work / To Strive / To Enforce / To Make Real

Keh’e
Fire / Light / Heat / To Wipe Clean

Chi
Bond / Trust / Friend / Rely

Da
Evil / Foreboding / Shadow / Malice

Dij
Through / Among / Amidst / Between

‘En
To Record / Save / Facts / Reality

Ehn
Creature / To Consume / To Remember / Fear

Ehr
Swarm / Many / Branches / Scattering

Fa
Pain / Anger / Blood / Fangs

Fil
Call / Beckon / Speak / Command

Gop
To Break / Tear / Rip / Gap

Huh
To Live / Nation / Family / Home

Huhda
Fog / Vapor / Smoke / Steam

Ihp
Sight / Imagination / Color / Eyes

Jyna
Origin / Root / Home / Loyalty

Len
Rough / Hard / Sharp / Aware

Looni
Shine / Sparkle / Glow / Shimmer

Luhk
To Fly / To Fall / Coast / To Ascend 

Me’ehr
Circular / Roll / Spin / Loop

Nur*
Soft / Sleep / Safety / Nest

Ohm
Flat / Open / Wide / Expansive 

Ov
Earth / Ground / Solid / Below

Oonah
Beauty / Wonder / Awe / Grand

Oovah
To Forget / Lost / Wander / Uncertain

Po
Control / Contain / Manage / Enslave

R*ish
Clean / Pure / Flawless / Smooth

Ser
Positive / Affirmative / “Is”

So
Harm / Wrong / Disrespect / Trespass 

Tan
Tall / Slender / Pillar / Beam

Tho
Sickness / Poison / Curse / Death

Uh
Fall / Under / Slip / Accident

Vi
Air / Invisible / All Encompassing / Above

Vor
Negative / “Is Not”

Wak
Here / Location / Placed / Established 

Wer*
Heavy / Load / Effort / To Drag

Tsoo
Sound / To Move / Listen / To Predict

Yehn
Small / Minuscule / Thin / Translucent

Yiht
Stay / Rest / Remain / Stillness

Yo
Fraction / Piece / Segment / Part

Za
Female / Feminine / Woman / Inner

Zah’i
Lightning / Speed / Leap / Strike

Ze
Good / Fortune / Joy / Peace

Ze’ihn
Time / Past / Future / Now

Zu
Male / Masculine / Man / Outer