Difference between revisions of "Talk:Kofnes (Language)"

Latest revision as of 16:42, 13 May 2024

Notes

Metaphors

some Kofnea tea metaphors, e.g. a provider / comforter / matriarch is known as a teapot and someone spoiled, beloved, or well-cared-for a teacup. Someone wet behind the ears is said to be watery or needs to steep a little longer.

Etymology

Technically, I’m 100% sure that the whole -ne(a) ending is derived from -nar, which meant “people” in the starting language of the colonizers of this world. But it’s also clear that their original plural of -li became irregular at some point or at least merged into some roots.

Stress

Further, stress is penultimate, except where there’s suffixes. Stress must always be on the root. Sometimes with suffixes, it’s penultimate on the root and sometimes syllable-final on the root, which I shall eventually figure out which is which, I’m sure.

Worldbuilding

Kofu started off as singular “war clan” with kofuali the plural, but now, it’s just kofu all the time without bothering to differentiate.

Those who fail at a challenge for recognition may try again until they succeed, though it definitely hurts your reputation if you do that, so most people just try to either get enough skill for the challenge in advance or pick wisely in the kind of challenge they want to do. Reputation absolutely opens and closes doors in their society, and despite it becoming more urbanized and modernized over time (which is not to say they didn’t have technology but they started off with super small settlements when they colonized), the physical skills of fighting, survival, or being protectable (there are actual tested skills to it) remain important to their culture at a fundamental level.

If you don’t succeed in a challenge before 25, that’s what they call the age of forfeiture, when they’ll treat you like an adult instead of a kid but there are some things you still can’t do without being recognized, regardless of whether you’re an adult. You get adult status early if you challenge successfully before 25.

The clans started small but are quite large at this point. They cover a full half a continent and have basically divided into four larger groups: the hilakhot kofu (far north), the paschtha kofu (near north), the vannu kofu (east), and the daanni kofu (south). And of course, the southernmost group on the other side of the mountains are outcast but used to be considered clans. When they went to war, they all became war clans instead of just clans and adopted the War Protocols, which have since been mostly discontinued. The Hilakhot consist of 5-6 clans, the Vannu 2-3, the Paschtha 7, and the Daanni, I’m not quite sure, and the clans consist of large, exogamous bands. You don’t know everybody in your clan, but you might know most people in your band if it’s a smaller one and the band mostly lives together.

As they urbanized and due to the war they came out of, there was a lot more centralization and mixing of all the clans into cities and educational spaces, but there’s an annual clans gathering where everyone sorts themselves out into their proper groups every year, swear fealties, confirm recognitions, and all the clan leaders do a political session with input from their band leaders before they all go back to their lives for the rest of the year.

"So people tend to marry outside their band, but within their clans, would that be right?"

Frequently, though they may marry other clans as well, more likely if they’re from a city that means they meet people from a lot of different clans. Marriage patterns vary a bit: Paschtha does more marrying outside of the clan and has some of the most centralized structure. Hilakhot and Vannu are more traditional and tend to marry either for political reasons or within the clan, though if they go outside the clan, it is generally going to be with an explicitly already allied clan. Daanni is… Well, they maintained the War Protocols, so you basically have to ask for an exception if you don’t want to marry the “optimal partner” arranged for you based on the contracts with gods you both hold and what will produce the most powerful or useful children. They’ll go outside the clan for that and there is no level of poor enough you don’t get assessed and matched.

Which sounds terrible, so let me unpack that slightly. The outcast clans decided at one point to kill off all the god-contracted “protectors” of the clans because they felt there was inequity of power and it had to change. They succeeded with many of the clans but the remaining clans, who are the kofu today, basically banded together, instituted the war protocols based on actual war exigencies in their agreed upon clan laws and traditions but extended, and a war king or queen stepped up to lead them in time of war and they solved the problem by endeavoring to make all their population powerful, rather than killing off the ones that were. The target generation ended the war with an overwhelming force when they took back their land and there’s a ton of strain between Daanni and the remaining clans because they’re the only ones who did not suspend the Protocols at the end of the war. The Paschtha have an active war queen, but her function is in charge of things related to war and keeping the Daanni from forcing their war king’s rule on the rest of the clans. The Hilakhot and the Vannu do not maintain an active war queen or king, though both have one on standby should they go to war again.

So because Paschtha maintains an active, centralized war government, there’s a lot of intermixing of clans and they tend to intermarry freely. Paschtha is also currently the host for the annual clans gathering as their war queen is responsible for handling the war king of the daanni, so that’s as neutral a territory as they’re going to get. Whereas Vannu actually swear fealty to the Paschtha war queen, they still basically live make it as an allied group of clans and handle all non-war issues themselves. So they and Hilakhot, who are the most traditional and don’t swear fealty to the Paschtha war queen at all, tend to stick to marrying in their own clans (except those who live among the Paschtha) and only marrying outside to strengthen alliances.

So overall, yeah, large at this point. You might as well have four nations, but they refuse to reorganize into a nation-like governmental structure and are only starting on having political relationships much beyond their immediate neighbors.

Vocab

Kofnes-Utsae (Adan / Kolos)

huanrhye poku / baso – whereas setze bread is basically unseasoned dough until cooked, huanrhye is dough stuffed with butter, seasoning, and bits of filling, where poku is savory meat and/or vegetables and baso is fruit or sweets. Huanrhye is cooked “dry”, that is without oil, traditionally baked, and is considered a snack rather than a proper meal item.

setse – bread deep-fried in seasoned oil in a pot, also the name of the traditional meal made with setse, where ke’esh (rice) is immediately deep fried after the removal of the bread, then yusoit (meat, sometimes with vegetables) is immediately deep fried after that in the same oil, and all are served together with a sauce. When plattered, the sauce is poured over all three parts of the meal. When plated, each portion and the sauce are in separate bowls. Setse is considered one of the three main traditional meals of the kofu, that is the war clans.