More Ai-Naidari Words: Stress

Wow, but we had an enormously long conversation on the chat server about Kherishdar, thanks to yesterday's post. I got a lot of word requests! I didn't get to them all, because I spend a lot of time pondering every word I "find." Etymology matters! So does the sound of the word in my mouth when I roll it around.

Here are some, though, which were requests or gifts. For Rabbit:

fojejz [foh JEHJZ ] (adj) - raw, tender, abraded. Used mostly in the emotional sense: when you're so bruised up that everything bothers, upsets, or tips you over an edge. Occasionally used to describe objects that are at the point of failure, like a leather belt that's frayed to the point of breaking soon.

Note that this word uses both "j"s, first the hard 'j' like in 'jog' and ending with the soft 'j' like in 'genre'. 

For Breezy:

domaesh [ doh MAYSH ] (n) - the surprise when you misread someone and unfortunate things happen. (For example, if someone is giving off 'I'm angry' signals and you miss them and that makes that person abruptly cut off all contact with you.)

Domaesh is a noun that has no inflected form (so there's no singular). You never have 'a surprise' or 'many surprises.' It's always domaesh.

Finally, Cynthia wondered if tsibil is still used, and the answer is... 'sort of.' It broke down over generations of usage and became this word:

tsil [ TSEEL ] (n) - small personal milestones. These are little goals you give yourself that you want to celebrate when you meet, but don't have a broader community impact. So, for instance 'get to the point where I can do 50 jumping jacks in a row' is a tsili, but 'have my first baby' isn't (because that's something everyone celebrates). Your friends might cheer you on if you share your tsil with them, but it's not a big deal except to you and anyone who wants you to succeed.

An interesting cultural example of something going from tsil to communal milestone is NaNoWriMo. Writing a certain number of words is usually treated among humans as a small personal milestone, but having NaNoWriMo turn it into a celebration lasting a month that lots of people partake in and gather to discuss has propelled it into the 'cultural milestone' arena. The Ai-Naidar would be intrigued by this transformation!

Anyway, some more language stuff, as I make notes for Kherishdar's Exception, which I'm still going to write even though the Patreon goal fell down again. There's probably no word in Ai-Naidari for 'doing things you're not supposed to just to prove you don't need other people's permission/approval to do them.' >.>