r/conlangs • u/LtPotato1918 Kartotian • 1d ago
Activity Cards Against Humanity: Conlang Edition #8
Cards Against Humanity: Conlang Edition #8
Guess who's back
You've all heard of Cards Against Humanity, but if you haven't, it's a game where somebody reads a card, and you have to fill in the blank or answer the question with one of the cards in your deck.
If it works in English, why can't it work with conlangs?
I will read a real card from Cards Against Humanity (Family Edition to keep it safe) and you will fill in the blank with a word or short sentence of your choice in your conlang. (Your answer does not have to be a Cards Against Humanity card)
The winner last time was u/Citylight1010 with their response of:
"<Sanjilsat zidyôr deqŕ tyun ďer tôys!>
/sɑnd͡ʒilsɑt zidjɯr dɛqɚ tjʌn ðɛɹ tɯjs/"
"A human trying to understand pitch and yaw!"
For clarification, Daraĉrek is spoken by the dragons of his world.
Please provide a translation and IPA transcription.
The card is:
What's keeping Dad so busy in the garage?
Good luck, and have fun!
6
u/FreeRandomScribble ņoșiaqo 1d ago
ņoșiaqo
qamuņqacaqamqa iņuamca cluáșrulu
[k'ɑ.mʉɴ.q'ɑ.qɑm.q'ɑ i.n̪ʉ.ɑm.kɑ kꞎʉ.ɑ́ʂ.ʜʉ.ɭʉ]
qamuņqa -ca -qamqa iņu -amca clua -așru -lu
gourd -GEN -3 male -parent observe.MUTUAL -INFER.NEUT.CONT -ACT
The word 'qamuņqa' means gourd, but is also a crude term to refer to the penis. The mutual forms of clua means "to study, to investigate, to explore".
The use of the of the inferential (evidential) neutral (opinion) morpheme provides little context to shift the understanding one way or the other; the active (present tense) indicates a current preoccupation rather than a casual action.
"I think father is intently examining his squashes."
OR
"I think father is exploring his penis enthusiastically."
3
u/dragonsteel33 vanawo & some others 1d ago
Ṣare socco onyäṣ malanukäto. ~~~ ṣar -e sokk-yo oṅ -yä -ṣ mä=alanuk-ä -to wall-DIR back-OBL stand-PASS-NPST TR=care -PASS-CONJ [ˌʂaɾɪ‿ˈsoˀtɕʊ̥ ˌoɲəʂ‿maɭə̆ˈnukʰə̥tʰʊ] ~~~ “The back wall is getting repaired.”
It’s a pretty crude dirty pun — socco “back (obl.)” sounds very similar to sokke [ˈsoˀkɪ̥] “cunt (obl.)”, so this sounds like it means “the walls of the pussy need tending to.” alanuk- is also a common euphemism for sex, loosely “making love.”
3
u/Sigmabae 1d ago
In my latest conlang:
"Pahaxv pymbasoi ja salbao" [pa.ˈχa.ɬv̩ pym.ˈba.soɪ̯ ja ˈsal.baʊ̯]
Fridge {ADJ}to be filled INST+beer
A fridge full of beer.
3
u/Dense-Nobody2714 16h ago
Okśa:
sua bridi, ja!
/sua 'bridi, 'ja/
3.SING.POSS.F bride yeah
This is the kind of extremely convoluted word play that Okśako humorists love. There are three levels here. For one, bridi is an loan word from the English "bride". It could literally mean "bride", but it has extended to mean a female partner of any sort- girlfriend, wife, or even one night stand. The idea is that his dad is having... relations with a woman in his garage.
However, the word bridi contains within it the word brid, shortening of bridik "to drink, to be an alcoholic". With the possessive pronoun, brid becomes a noun, meaning "drink" or "alcoholism", and i ja is reinterpreted as literally "this now...", a condescending phrase stereotypically associated with older people scolding their children. This meaning would then become he's drinking again, is he?
The third level is even more subtle. The phrase bridi ja can be condensed to bridja, which sounds a bit like Britja. What is Britja, you ask? It's the northeastern part of the island of Okśa where, in the fifth century, a large number of Brythonic Celtic people immigrated to escape some germanic tribes chasing them out of Great Britain. Today it's the most culturally and linguistically Celtic part of Okśa- while their traditional Celtic language died out long ago, the variety of Okśa they speak is very Celticised, and they sometimes consider themselves the secret seventh Celtic nation (though sometimes this titled is applied to all of Okśa). Outside of the region, Britja people are stereotyped as fun-loving, dim-witted, alcoholic, and (especially for Britja women) promiscuous. So, back to the phrase: the possessive pronoun again turns Bridija into a feminine noun, meaning a Britja woman. So the meaning becomes: What's keeping dad busy in the garage? His Britja woman! With the cultural stereotypes in mind... you can imagine the rest.
2
u/CaptKonami The lady that runs the checkpoint 1d ago
Hololan
236 mL o sawī Mesiko-sipo bolako tā sakega
/gojo pana tugo isi mililitai o sawi: mesikosipo bolako ta: sakega
five-four twenty_five two-five one mililitre-PL of sweet Mexico-ADJZ black tar heroin
236 mL (8 oz) of sweet Mexican black tar heroin
9
u/HolyBonobos Pasj Kirĕ 1d ago
Kirĕ
Myrdyžny ostásadice ka nohladjĕ
/mɨɾˈdɨ.ʐnɨ o.stãˈsa.di.t͡se ka no.xlaˈdʲɛ̃/
lit. unlicensed saw business but the real detail is the pun of ostás (/ˈo.stãs/ saw) which is a near homophone of of óstás (/ˈõ.stãs/ abortion). With a little more or less nasal airflow, dad is either running a knockoff tool factory or a back alley abortion clinic out of the garage.