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kapi ‘monkey’ |
kapi ‘monkey’. While there’s no word reconstructable for PIE that means ‘monkey’, there is a a connection between Greek kẽpos ~ kẽbos ‘long-tailed monkey’ and Sanskrit kapí- ‘monkey’. Perhaps a borrowing from Semitic languages, where we see Hebrew qōph and Egyptian qephi.
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lawhan ‘lion’ |
lawhan ‘lion’. From PIE *liwi- (?), this root is continued by Greek lís, léōn, Latin leō (> name Leo), Old English lēo, Old High German lewo, Russian lev, and Lithuanian lẽvas. Perhaps a Semitic borrowing; compare Hebrew layiš, Assyrian labbu, Egyptian labu.
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lawkari ‘firefly’ |
lawkari ‘firefly’. Created for Primal, this word is a compound of lawka- ‘light’ (seen in English words such as il-luc-idate [< Latin lūc- ‘light’] and light) plus kari ‘fly’. Wenja kari derives from PIE *kori- ‘biting insect’, reconstructable from Greek kóris ‘bedbug’, Old Church Slavonic & Russian korĭ ‘moth’. Perhaps built to the root (s)ker- ‘cut’, as found in Wenja karsa ‘cut, carve, stab’.
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likarta ‘lizard’ |
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frashlikarta ‘crocodile’ |
likarta ‘lizard’. Connected with Latin lakerta ‘lizard’, which may have originally meant ‘the jumper’. We see this root in Greek likertízō ‘jump’.
frashlikarta ‘crocodile’, the ‘king lizard’. For a discussion of fraja ‘rule, stretch out’ and fraji ‘king’ / frashni ‘queen’, see this post.
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mali ‘(honey) badger’ |
mali ‘badger’. The dreaded mali, who doesn’t give a sikar. From PIE *meli-, this word is continued by Latin mēlēs, dialectal Slovenian məlc. Unclear if related to melit- ‘honey’ (Greek méli, Hittite malitt-, Latin mel, Old Irish mil).
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mamaf ‘mammoth’ |
mamaf ‘mammoth’. Created for Primal, this word was originally mamata in Wenja but was shortened for reasons of gameplay. A relatively new word, mamaf (as well as English mammoth) has its roots in Russian mammot’, which was probably taken from Ostyak, a Finno-Ugric language of Northern Russia.
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nasan ‘rhino’ |
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nasanka ‘tapir’ |
nasan ‘rhino’. Created for Primal, this word literally means ‘possessing a (large) nose’ (compare dantan ‘sabertooth < possessing (large) teeth’), and is derived from Wenja nas ‘nose’ (< PIE *nās, *nas-), which is connected to English nose, Latin nāsus (> English nasal), Latin nāris ‘nostril’, Old Church Slavonic nosŭ, Avestan nāh-, etc.
nasanka ‘tapir’ is a diminuitive of nasan, literally meaning ‘little rhino’. The -ka- suffix is reconstructable for PIE.
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pardaku ‘jaguar’ |
pardaku ‘jaguar’. To my knowledge, no word is reconstructable for PIE, and so the Wenja form has been modelled on Sanskrit pṛdaku.
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pardal ‘leopard’ |
pardal ‘leopard’. Likely not a word in PIE (it’s rather something like *sinǵʰo-), this word is a loanword from an unknown language. Seen in Greek párdalis, Sogdian pwrδnk, and is connected to Sanskrit pṛdaku in some way.
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payska ‘fish’ |
payska ‘fish’. From PIE *peisk-, this word is continued by Latin piscis (as seen in the astrological sign Pisces), Old Irish iasc, and English fish. *peisk- chosen over the more common root *dʰǵʰuhᵪ- ‘fish’ (Greek ikhthũs, Lithuanian žuvis, Armenian jukn) for reasons of pronounceability. Pictured is the duspayska ‘bad fish’; also seen in the waters of Oros are the manhu ‘carp; cod’, from PIE *mṇhᵪ- (> minnow).
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shawi ‘bird’ |
shawi ‘bird’. From PIE *h₂aw- ‘bird’, continued by Latin avis ‘bird’ (> English avi-ary), Welsh hwyad ‘duck’, Umbrian avi- ‘bird’, Albanian vida ‘dove’, Greek aietós ‘eagle’, Armenian haw ‘bird, chicken’, Avestan vīš ‘bird’, Sanskrit ví- ‘bird’. Connected to Wenja shawya ‘egg’, literally ‘the thing from the bird’, from PIE *h₂owyo- (> Latin ovus, German Ei, English egg).
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ula ‘owl’ |
ula ‘owl’. From PIE *ulu-, as seen in Latin ulucus ‘owl’ and Sanskrit úlūka- ‘owl’. Probably imitative in origin.
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wal ‘wolf’ |
wal ‘wolf’. From PIE *wḷkwos, this word shows irregular change — we’d expect walkwa, which is actually the Wenja word for ‘wolf pack’. Descendents of this word are found all across Indo-European, for instance in Sanskrit vṛka-, Greek lúkos (seen in English lyc-anthropy), Latin lupus (English lupine), and English wolf.
Two of my favorite posts so far =)