#Ike does not have a fixed species any more

[kaleidoru]

dream within a dream, lotus eater machine

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group E Round 4

[image ID: the first image is of No Significant Harassment, a shadowy figure standing behind a sleeping pink-red, fox-like creature. their green hands seem to be holding up the floating creature. the second image is of Shrimp, a black creature with a blue and white collar. he has bright white eyes, 4 spindly legs, a long tail, and an oblong head. end ID]

No Significant Harassment

They're just a silly little guy. A jokester. Significant harassment if you will. Anyway, a more in depth run down: They're a city sized supercomputer built by a Buddhist adjacent society to figure out how to transcend the 'Great Cycle' (semi-metaphorical cycle of death and rebirth) in a safer way than the previous method (submerging oneself in the 'void sea' which is a mysterious golden liquid that dissolves whatever it touches). Despite being built for this express purpose NSH never really shows a pressing interest in ascension, even cracking jokes about those who are still looking for a solution. Whether this is due to indifference, dislike of, or humor to cope with being unable to ascend is not clear and really up to interpretation. Example: NSH: I wish them super good luck in that endeavor. How is it going to happen? Have the overseers gnaw through bedrock until their entire can crashes down in the void sea? BSM: Please be respectful when speaking of the Void Sea. Grey Wind, where did you hear this? CW: I really shouldn't say. He's going to attempt some sort of breeding program. Thought you might want to know. NSH: Haha with the slimers, lizards and etceteras? Surely the answer was in a lizard skull all along! He's very flippant, but does care very intensely for those close to him. NSH: Moon? It's me again. NSH: I do not know if you are receiving these. Please signal in any way you can. NSH: I need to talk to you. I need to know you're okay. NSH: … NSH: Its difficult for us to assist you over this distance. NSH: Even more difficult for us to do anything in the midst of these tantrums. NSH: Were going to try everything that we can. NSH: Just hold on a little longer. (Context for previous convo: They genetically engineered a super organism of a slugcat (the species you play as in Rain World) to help reset his coworker/sibling after her collapse and restart her systems. He was so desperate to fix her that he accidentally messed up the slugcat's (Hunter) genetic code and as a result it became riddle with the Rot (relatively similar to aggressive cancer) :( which parallels his other coworker/siblings condition who also has the rot. ) He canonically uses he/they pronouns too! Nonbinary swag! NSH has major internet troll vibes. He has sent a data pearl of "something distasteful" to his neighbors on several(?) occasions and causes chaos. If he had access to the wider internet he'd probably be an influencer So…yeah! Vote NSH this website likes the allure of heavy machinery and stuff like that so… there you go. Kind of a blorbo. End post.

Shrimp

Ok so Shrimp is public enemy #1 and I love him. He's the funny little guy you see on your loading screen during the game who you don't think much of until eventually you find an asylum on one of the floors of the Upturned Inn and oops! Shrimp is there! And you need to free him to progress, which Ik is alarmed by even though you can also just tell him you didn't see/free Shrimp. You can put a collar on this little guy to make him look snazzy, despite how little he's with you. On the floors where he's friendly he kind of just follows you around, so you get to have a little buddy for parts of the game! He's basically just your pet dog who may or may not be severely dangerous. And by may or may not I mean a definite yes he is, because he turns aggressive when he gets especially hungry. He can eat the food objects scattered around, though, so that's avoidable! He can also stay with you for nice little elevator rides, which does concern Ik, but it works out! until he starts trying to attack you but if you don't feed your dog then I don't care if it attacks you [additional propaganda 1] [additional propaganda 2] [additional propaganda 3]

[alpimerealmsystem]

Mkay so help me out please

SO, here's a list of all the poetry I need to write AND all of the otherkin/alterhuman/therianthropy/non-human/ so many others/ stuffs I need to write PUT THIS SHIT IN MY ASK BOX PLEASE. TELL ME WHAT Y'ALL WANT ME TO WRITE ABOUT. Anything that y'all want me to write I'll get around to it quicker, but because I don't wanna ask more people about what they wanna see, I need others to motivate me to write, does that make sense? Basically seeing someone request shit mentally encourages me to write about that stuff. SO enjoy the lengthy list (I will do 3, one for poetry, one for werewolf stories cause why not, and one for non-human rants I can do)

First list, poetry:

Busy calming down

Wasting time (what I'm doing rn)

Something that makes you feel unreal (and tell me what makes you feel unreal if you request this)

Broken toys (but compared to humanity)

Sickness

Being able to put yourself first

Butterfly effect

Misunderstood

The Nimona book/movie

Nothing left anymore

Food magic

Demons

Going crazy

Out of originality

Too much of life

Losing a loved one

Silence

Rebirth

Love at first sight

Shouldn't have let someone in

Home

Small things that bring you joy (and tell me what does if you request it)

Fire

Aftermath

War

Controlling Fate

Any color (if you request it's your choice)

Full moon

Stranded on an island

Religion

Overcrowded

We always want what we don't have

Habits develop into character

Snow white

Ariel

AND THATS JUST SOME OF MY POETRY IDEAS (holy shit I'm going crazy)

Next list: The stuff people want to see written about non-humanity more (I am using this as an umbrella term)

We're normal people y'all

We have feelings

The day to day life of being alterhuman

Alterhumans complaining about humans ruining everything

Bugkin

Primatekin

Non-humanity being influenced by mental health

Species dysphoria

Kintype loss

People who are alterhuman due to zoanthropy or plurality

Ockin

Non-otherkin alterhuman Identities

Hearthome and otherlink

It's not a mental illness

Objectkin

Psychological kin experiences and about psychological otherkin

Transspeciess

Otherhearted representation stuffs

Fiction folk

Other vague representation

Multiple studies have come to the conclusion being non-human requires accommodations not fixing

Fictionkin representation

Otherkin being "disrespectful" with their identities

Respecting non-humans

The history of otherkinity

There's an interview I need to write up and post- if anyone wants to see that right away (it's with someone who has two spirits in one body)

The feral side of being non-human and the struggles that come with it

Relationship between neurodivergance and otherkinity

Recipes for alterhumans and their kintypes

The general pros and cons to being nonhuman

Otherkin not getting bullied (stories)

Not being comfortable in your own body

And that was a portion of the list I have for that :') NOW last list I promise. This one is for so many different werewolf stories (that I haven't gotten around to, I'm a failure, ik)

A werewolf ripping clothes they just bought due to transforming

A werewolf having to wear certain clothing to hide body parts when they're partially transformed (ex, a beanie for hiding ears, gloves for claws, etc)

A werewolf forgetting it was full moon

A werewolf growling at a dog cause it growled at the werewolf (also same thing for howling?)

A werewolf having to deal with stupid jokes

A werewolf having to explain claw marks around the house aren't from a pet to their landlord

A werewolf having to resist buying pounds of meat since they can't afford it

A werewolf doing dog stuff and not realizing it

a werewolf losing weight due to turning on the full moon

A werewolf not realizing their strength and accidentally hurting people

Werewolves with disabilities

These are all just portions of lists I have, anyways REQUEST ME STUFF FROM THEM. I will not shove it in my queue, it'll get posted as bonus content and also I will do anything outside of these lists to. I will write any short stories just nothing including nsfw stuffs or heavy gore (although I'm fine with some) and yeah. Please request because it will give me more motivation

[tiptapricot]

bestie help... i can't sleep because i'm being plagued with visions of old gay people (bnt)... ik you've mentioned a few things about them in middle age in another hc post but i would bw delighted to hear any more thoughts if you had some 💖

Ohhh I can try!! I’m placing middle aged BnT post FtM since that’s an area I haven’t explored as much

Life after saving all of time and space is… strange. In a lot of ways it’s not that different, and in others it reaaaally is

One one hand, Bill and Ted still live in the same houses, they still go over to jam with each other every day, they still have their kids and their wives, but on the other, there’s stories of them and their family all over news sites and social media, Wyld Stallyns has rocketed back to worldwide success, and they both have this creeping feeling that maybe their marriage issues weren’t meant to be fixed at all….

Being in the cosmic nexus of a destiny-achieving, existence-saving event with your best friend kind of changes your perspective on a lot of stuff

The paparazzi mellow out after a year or so, but they still have people coming up to ask for autographs and to give thank yous, and news stories are still running mundane updates on them at the end of reports, and all the stores they’re regulars at give them discounted drinks, and it’s strange

The world as a whole has had a shift, too, a good one

Reports after the fact described the event as time and space being twisted and punctured and stretched like putty or rubber, and though most things ended up back to normal, there were still after effects, fingerprints and bumps left in the wake of a near disaster

For a few weeks after The Song That United The World was played, the whole planet was thrumming with leftover energy. It was the most creative humanity had ever been. Artists, singers, painters, writers, sculptors, architects, actors, mathematicians, everyone was spurred on by a bone deep inspiration, and the world created

People became kinder to each other too, gentler and more open and caring, sensors found that the global temperature had miraculously dropped to safe levels, nature started growing back at a faster more vivacious rate, and a scientist discovered that Wyld Stallyns’ music contained an inherent connection to the cosmic vortex, and as a result, made a perfect and sustainable source of green energy when played

So much happened, and yet Bill and Ted… stayed Bill and Ted

They don’t have the same weight and hopelessness as before, they have a stable music career and their kids have been helping produce all the songs they came up with in the Great Creativity Boom, and they don’t feel any different, but that’s the thing

The story that they would unite the world always seemed so distant, and then it became reality in the course of a few days. Even a year after the fact, it’s still a lot to take in

That and… the fact that Bill and Ted can’t stop looking at each other differently

They keep having moments, while hanging out in the garage, where they’ll just find themselves staring at each other, hip to hip on the couch, and there’s something different there than there was before. Or maybe they just didn’t notice it until now

Bill talks to Jo about it, and Ted does the same with Liz. They’re hesitant, because after working to hard to stay together, wouldn’t it make that pointless if they ended things now?

It’s a lot of late night talks, a lot of hugs and snuggling

Jo and Bill have talked about similar stuff before, about Bill’s long standing feelings for Ted, and about Jo’s attraction to women, but they still thought staying in a relationship would be best. But now that Bill’s been seeing how Ted looks at him, he realizes maybe it’s not after all

It’s all new for Ted though, and it’s kind of difficult for him to wrap his head around. Liz sits on the back porch with him and they share drinks and watch the stars and just… talk. Realizing you’re in love is a big thing after all

The divorces are easier than any of them expect, and it’s like a weight is removed from their shoulders afterwards, a new sense of freedom

They decide to have Jo move in with Liz and Ted with Bill, a similar set up to what they did in their early 20s, and start moving their things over

In a lot of ways it does feel the same as moving out after graduation, only this time, when Ted brings his last box of stuff in, when it’s just him and Bill standing in the entryway sweaty and smiling, he takes a step forward, and takes Bill’s face in his hands, and traces a thumb over his cheek as Bill smiles and closes his eyes, and leans in to kiss him

It’s not a movie moment, nothing dramatic and huge, and yet it is the sweetest kiss Ted “Theodore” Logan has ever had

It’s easy to go back to living with each other again, they work together just as well as they always have, only now there’s a new kind of domesticity seeping into the cracks of their life

Casual touches, slow dances in the kitchen and living room, the sleepy weight of the other person’s body against theirs in bed

Bill asks about marriage one night, when it’s just them, when only Ted will feel his breath and the way he shifts to be closer to his chest, and Ted says, “Yeah… I’d like that.”

They don’t invite too many people. They keep it close family and friends. Missy takes Bill suit shopping and Liz helps Ted pick out a dress, and Billie and Thea perform a fantastic song at the reception

The next day they wake up to the news that three thought to be extinct species have been rediscovered

Bill likes to kiss Ted’s wedding ring, and Ted uses the word husband like he’ll never get another chance, and they are so damn happy

Sometimes it can still be rough. They still have sleepless nights where their heads are full of thoughts of other timelines and flashing visions of distant galaxies and the infinite tangle of time, but they have each other when that happens

They can talk about what they see, about the changes. Bill can squeeze Ted’s hand and snuggle into his neck, and they don’t have to think about prison yards or their own cosmic importance

Through it all, with each other they are allowed to be Bill and Ted, nothing else, and that’s the greatest destiny either of them could ask for

Headcanons masterpost

[alesreadings]

Crave by Tracy Wolff.

2.5 stars.

“There’s not much to be afraid of when you’ve already lost everything that matters.”

I'm warning you: if you haven't read the book and don't want any spoilers, don't read further, because my review is filled with spoilers and sarcasm. I am conflicted with this book. I hated it, it was cringey and the romance was ugh (but I shelved as romance, AND as "this shit has no romance"), the characters were stupid as fuck and the plot was not interesting but predictable, and the villain, oMG, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??? However, it was fast paced. It took me a while because I was on a reading slump and having constant breakdowns, lol. Anyhow, it amazed me how quick I read this book and how fast many chapters went... Which is good, because my reading slump was stick to me, and I guess I gotta say thanks to this book ¿? Ok, let's start the review! Grace lost her parents due a mysterious accident (as your typical avergage normal YA girl) and she has no more family, except her uncle, who lives in Alaska and runs an Academy. So, Grace moves on to Alaska to live with him and her cousin, Macy. Everything is normal, until Grace realizes that something is not right. Surprise! Vampires, dragons, witches and shapeshifters are real! And she might be one of them! Plot: It was predictable as fuck. I could guess many things that were going to happen and I wasn't surprised. Also, there were many plotholes, that left me with many many many questions that were not answered in the entire book. Lia killing Grace's parents has no sense. I mean, beside of being senseless, it's stupid and has no point. No one could saw that coming (let me explain you why before you think "uhm, yeah, well, that's the point of a plot twist") because there was no hint that Lia had something to do with it. Lia is barely in the book, and appears only when it is convenient for Grace, not to give us hints that hello! she is the "villain". Lia being the villain is a crime. I'd rather be a good villain for this book. I mean, I get it, you want your "mate" *insert gags* back and you're suffering, but, sweetie, why you didn't kill Grace inmediately? It was ridiculous and lame. Why Grace was left alive? What specie does she belong? Is Hudson alive? Why is she a gargoyle now? Why we had Jaxon's pov? (I dind't read them all tho, lmao) What was the real purpose of Lia for wanting Grace, a simple human, to her sacrifice? Will Grace have some braincells in the second book? We'll never know. Also, I think everything goes really quick in the span of 2/3 weeks. And I mean it: everything. Characters: Oh, this one is gonna be amazing. Get ready. Grace: I always liked to think: "what would happen if I find out that vampires are real? how would I react?" and the answer it's totally the opposite to what Grace did. Grace isn't smart, let's face it. Any of the mc with vampires involved is it. They're more interested on the hot dark haired guy who's telling them to stay the fuck away from them because, they're dangerous. *stares at Edward Cullen* But, the girl is drooling for the vampire since the moment they make eye contact and then it's insta love. uGH. I mean, Jaxon is telling you to stay away from him, to scare you and in the first moment you're touching him because why not? he's hot and totally not like the other guys you've met before, and oh, also the scar that makes him look like a true fucking bad boy. Yeah, no thanks. For some reason, she's the one who summons problems and Jaxon is "saving" her. She's convinced to it and despite of what he's done, she thinks he's the good guy, the victim, the hero and the most powerful dude in the world. Ugh, ugh, ugh, cringe. What amazes me of Grace is the fact that she wasn't scared to see what Jaxon can do... Sweetie, are you ok? Anyone in their five senses would have left the dude when he warned the first time. Anyone. And you can think "if a guy like him told me to stay away from him, I wouldn't do it, because he's hot", yeah, but hE'S CREEPY AND A STALKER AND A MURDER, WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?! I can't blame Grace for all the shit going in her life tho. I feel pity for her tbh. The fact that she said "Jaxon was never

meant to be the hero of my story... because I was always meant to be the hero of his." killed me, but not in the good way. For some reason that is beyond of my comprehension, it's like Grace believes that she can fix Jaxon, that she can make him see that he's a "good guy" and that he doesn't have to carry the weight of the world. (what the actual hell??) Jaxon: The great, handsome, vicim, hero, powerful, hot and mysterious Jaxon Vega. He's a fucking dick. He's a stalker (in his chapters he clearly says it) and a prick. Oh my gods, I truly hate him. The only good with him is his taste in music (because it's written by a women), but the rest? ugh, he reminded me of the average vampires who think they're the heroes of the story and the world depends of them (Edward, Hawke, Rhys but he's a fae ik, and who knows who else, ewwww). He's disgusting in so many levels that I can't explain. I still wanna know something: what had to do Jaxon in Lia's plan to kill Grace? I know that boy ain't something good. My ace ass was cringing everytime he appeared in front of Grace and I was relieved when he was gone. I don't have much to say about him, beside that I don't like him and hIS ONLY EXISTENCE IS A FUCKING RED FLAG. My boy Flint deserved better tbh. I was most interested on him beING A FUCKING DRAGON, THAT'S AWESOME, that in Jaxon being a typical vampire. And I will never get tired of say that Flint is way fucking better than Jaxon. He's my boy, ok? ok. Macy was irrelevant, even tho I loved her a lot, even more than Grace. She deserved better and if she is not endgame with Flint, I'll riot. Romance. Nope. No. NO. nO. The fuck no. How you can fall in love with a guy you barely met 2/3 weeks ago? And even more, say that you love him. On the first day in Alaska, Jaxon warned Grace to stay away from him, and she touches him like they're something ??????? And on the third day, she's drooling at the sight of the guy because he "saved" her. Everything was so rushed and it was like it existed a "love triangle" bUT FLINT DIDN'T HAVE A CHANCE LIKE JACOB IN TWILIGHT, LOL. We all know from the beginning that Jaxon (Edward) is gonna be the champ, the winner and the endgame. You can predict that from the beginning of the book. Also, MATES???? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!?!?!??!?! This trope is so used and boring that makes me sick. I mean, please, give me something built from zero. Not the "they're meant to be and that's it. suck it" nOPE. Give me plot twists. Hype. Like with From Blood and Ash this book is so overhyped. I mean, I read it because I like vampires and the academy trope. But literally, many people told me "this book is everything" "you're gonna love it" "Jaxon is so wonderfu, sexy and you'll love it"... Yeah, well, you can see now how it went. This book isn't thaaaaaaat bad, but isn't good either. It's fast paced, yes, but not something that I would recommend. You know? I think age is hitting me like a bitch and saying that many of the YA vampire books are not my thing anymore, and I really love vampires, lol. ANYHOW. This is my opinion, I'm not saying that this is purely trash or something like that, and you know why? Because I'm gonna read the second book of this one to see if my boy Hudson still alive, yep.

[in-a-narrow-land]

Old Anitami, Part Two: Noun Classes

<<Previous: Orthography, Phonology, and Phonotactics

I initially wanted to spend only one week on nouns, but this is long enough as is, and now it looks like I might have to split up cases into two posts. So, noun classes! These categories mostly aren’t productive in modern Anitami, but we still have all the morphosyntactic residue left over.  It’s one of my favorite things to teach, at least to Anitami speakers, since it taps into a set of patterns we’re all vaguely aware of but don’t really have a solid grammatical explanation for.

There are five classes in total: animate, inanimate, human, abstract, and miscellaneous (which isn’t quite accurate, but I’ll get to that when I get to it). [ooc: amentans are not human, this is a translation convention]. Each one has a characteristic affix which appears in every case except the nominative, and a few have characteristic prefixes as well. Pronouns must agree with class, as well as object-markers on verbs (which are optional), the mandatory subject-markers need not. They’d all be class 1 or 3 in any case.

Class 1: Animate. This one is fairly straightforward – animate things all have some sort of internal vital force. The words for person (one of the few “human” words that isn’t in the human class), all animals, and ghosts and other supernatural beings are all prototypical examples. Fire, and by extension computers in modern Anitami (literally fire-ensouled things) are animate, but not other electrical appliances. The words for heart, lungs, brain, stomach, and blood are animate, but not other organs. A couple of virulently fast-growing species of plants are animate, but I can’t recall any off the top of my head.

The stem ending for this class is –(a)nen.  If the noun ends in a vowel, the a will usually drop out. The remaining vowel may shift around depending on additional case endings.

Vocabulary: Fila, human; Laman, animal; Halmi, fish; Anno, snake; Kisa, fire. Particular animals names are often prefixed with na- (as in Nalinwi, cat), and birds names are often prefixed with e- (Emala, owl), but these fall away in compounds. These would decline as Filanen-, Lamannen-, Kisanen-, etc.

Class 2: Inanimate. Even more self-explanatory than class 1. Inanimate nouns are concrete, tangible objects, which are not, even by metonymic extension, alive. This is also the default class for loanwords after about the middle of the classical period, even if they’re semantically abstract or animate, but this is mostly only relevant to technical or religious vocabulary. There are plenty of weird other weird exceptions, but they’ll all be covered as they come up in the other classes. It should probably go without saying, but classes are morphologically fixed and don’t vary with the particular semantic context. In a play about a walking, talking rock, the rock would still be grammatically inanimate.

The stem suffix for this class (i/a)l, depending on vowel harmony.

Vocabulary: Talla, tree; Ert, seed; Lothe, flower; Kalka, glass; Alash, stone; Kaimat, house; Maen, bread. Tallal, Ertil, Lothil, Kalkal, etc.

Class 3: Human. This class covers all caste names, all professions names with a couple of exceptions, the words for child, man, woman, etc., all family relationships, etc. – anything that a human being, and only a human being, could be.

The stem suffix for this class is –(a)nath.

Many nouns in this class end in the agentive suffix –mi (Kisantami, Lamenelmi, etc.), which roughly means a person who does/is x, and also shows up pretty frequently in personal names. It’s also the source of my favorite example of rebracketing in any language! As most of you probably know, the people who first spoke the language we now know as Anitami called themselves the Anaita. The word for a person form this group was, naturally, Anaitami (Anaita-mi). Later on, -mi ceased to be productive and lost its particular meaning, along with the other personalizing suffix (–li, meaning a person similar to x, also still found in personal names). Both began to merge semantically with –i, the class 5 stem ending (in that both indicate a particular instance of a large thing, but see my notes on class 5 nouns). Later still, the Anaita establish a nation, and contemporary speakers naturally break down their demonym as, not Anaita-mi, but Anaitam-i. Those of you who were paying attention last week will remember that Anaitam contains an illegal stress, therefore it must reduce, and it does – to Anitam.

Vocabulary: Alasi, singer; Aven, judge; Pallan, builder; Tis, actor.

Class 4: Abstract. Here, things start to get a little more complicated. Class 4 is defined as “abstract” in every grammar textbook, but it really has to do with collectivity. (I can’t claim any credit for this concept, or for my understand of class 5 nouns. I got it all from my first Oahkar professor, of all people, who’s actually Anitami and generally pretty fascinating).

The core abstract nouns – childhood, age, peace, war, guilt, contentment (and all emotional states), wisdom, talent, etc. – can be thought of as a kind of summation over a lot of specific instances of a thing. By identifying a shared property over series of specific things (children, time periods, attractive people, whatever), you arrive at the abstract, or collective, noun.

For the same reason, all gerunds are grammatically class 4. In this sense, they’re conceptualized as the summation of a bunch of individual instances of the verb they derive from – I enjoy eating, I need to practice swimming, reading helps one learn Anitami, etc. all imply repeated, habitual action. Nominalized adjectives (e.g. the poor, the rich, the beautiful) are almost all class 4.

Human collectives are also all class 4, with the exception of caste names, even if they’re arguably concrete. The words for family, nation, language, and ethnicity are class 4, and the names of all individual nations and languages and ethnicities gain a class 4 stem suffix as they decline. This is one of the few features of the noun class system that’s still productive in modern Anitami!

Concrete nouns that inherently refer to a something with a large number of smaller parts are often, though not always, class 4. The classic examples are hair, fur, feathers, dust, grass, and snow. Inclusions in this category aren’t consistent, and it’s best to just look up a list if you’re confused about whether a particular noun is class 4 or class 2.   Of course, this is utterly bizarre if you’re conceptualizing class 4 as abstract nouns, but it makes perfect sense when you think about it in terms of collectivity.

The stem suffix for this class is –(ik)at. This class includes an unusual number of words which include the stem in their nominative form; unlike the other classes, the first two characters don’t reduplicate. Estikat, but Peikatat, etc.

Vocabulary: Estik, knowledge; Menal, goodness; Peikat, strength; Yahai, childhood; Waln, fur.

Class 5: Miscellaneous. Not miscellaneous! The textbooks are wrong! Class 5 can see like a catchall, until you realize that the central metaphor involved in instantiation. Nouns in this class are individual instances of more comprehensive objects or processes. The most central examples are deverbal nouns – words which derive from verbs but behave grammatically as nouns – that refer to particular events or actions. Scratch (from “to scratch”), song (from “to sing”), promise,  reading (in the sense of “this passage has multiple readings,” or “he gave a reading of his poetry”), etc. Note that this only applies to nouns that are actually derived from verbs, and not nouns that sound similar to verbs because they share an etymological root. As with class 4, inclusions in this category really can’t be derived from first principles, and it’s always safer to consult a list.

Also by a similar process to class 4, singular things that ordinarily occur in groups are usually class 5. A blade of grass, a speck of dust, a snowflake, a puzzle piece, etc. Many class 5 nouns in this category don’t have class 4 equivalents, though, and vice versa.  By analogy, many partial, broken, or otherwise incomplete things are class 5 – fragment, shard, unfortunately lots of words for physical disabilities, etc. Adding the class 5 ending to other nouns is a really old-fashioned way of denoting that it’s broken.

Approaching the metaphor from another angle, things that are made are frequently class 5.  The idea is that they’re the material instantiation of an abstract idea, or in the case of more utilitarian objects, one example of a form that’s repeatedly instantiated. Painting, sculpture, carving (for more than one reason) are class 5. The words for characteristically earthenware utensils (like bowl) are class 5, but not the words for characteristically metal ones (knife). It’s not entirely clear why, but the leading theory is that it has something to do with the metalworking process inherently requiring more people.

All words for units of measure are class 5, and units of time are considered particularly paradigmatic. Finally, the words for ambassador and foreigner are class 5 – the only human words that aren’t class 3 – because they represent “instances” of a foreign people. Demonyms are also class 5, for the same reason.

All class 5 words end in –i in the nominative. The stem suffix is –min.

Vocabulary: Walni, bowl; Neloti, reading; Halti, scratch; Fayali, year; Lossi, snowflake.

Next: Case >>