HOW TO: Create your own Language

5-First words + Etymology

You'll know what I mean by 'first words'. However, what is 'etymology'?

Everyone knows about the existence of the history of words and their origins, but does everyone know the subject of such is named 'etymology'?

(Etymology/Origins of the word: Etymology-from Old French ethimologie, via Latin from Greek etumologia, from etumologos 'student of etymology', from etumon, neuter singular of etumos 'true'.) 

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 TIP: Don't listen to people who say that inventing your own language is for 'nerds'. Such foolishness, hehe. If you try and make one, you're clearly a highly intelligent person. 

How would a native speaker of your language greet someone? What exactly would they say, or even better, exclaim? 

In English, German and Dutch, we use a highly similar word: 

English-Hello

German-Hallo

Dutch-Hallo

They are pronounced slightly differently, but they would still be mutually intelligible with a native speaker of each of the three languages. 

Let's view 'hello's etymology on Wikipedia!

  According to the , hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from "halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman." It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there'). As in addition to hello, halloo,hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels. 

Furthermore:

According to the , hallo is a modification of the obsolete holla (stop!), perhaps from Old French hola (ho, ho! + la, there, from Latin illac, that way).

The Old English verb, hǽlan (1. wv/t1b 1 to heal, cure, save; greet, salute; gehǽl! Hosanna!), may be the ultimate origin of the word. Hǽlan is likely a cognate of German Heil (meaning complete for things and healthy for beings) and other similar words of Germanic origin. asserts in his book Mother Tongue that "hello" comes from Old English hál béo þu ("Hale be thou", or "whole be thou", meaning a wish for good health) (see also "goodbye" which is a contraction of "God be with you".

I also recently found out about 'goodbye' being a contraction of 'God be with you'. Isn't that cool? I love etymology. 

So, with that said, it's time to start making your own first words! 

'Hello' in Lei'ine is 'Maxi-tana', simply because I liked the sounds present within it. 

But you might need to know where your first words come from so you can ultimately connect them with others in the future. 

'Maksi-tahna'-maksi: tenderness, affection. Tah-subjunctive form of verb: to be. Na-conjunction meaning 'with'. 

Literally: May (my own) affection be with (you).

But what's the subjunctive form of a verb? We'll find out in later lessons! As for now, comment below by telling us what your first words are.

Here's a prompt to help you out:

Hello-

Goodbye-

Thanks-

I-

You-

Book-

Dog-

Cat-

Child-

Tree-

Don't form your own sentences just yet! We need to decide on whether your language is a SOV kind of language (subject, object, verb-like some cases in Italian: Io li sto guardando-I them am watching-I am watching them), or an SVO (subject, verb, object) language, like English.