Ruins Catlang [RCF]
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Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 15 December 2019
Language type
Signed conlang
Species
Feline (vocal and signed)
About Ruins Catlang
I can't get away from my Warrior Cats roots apparently, so here's a catlang. Not for canon Warriors though -- it's for a feral cat society living in and around ancient Greek ruins, inspired by the real feral cat colonies in the ruins of Ephesus.
The speakers/signers of this language are anthropomorphised to the same degree as Warriors cats, i.e., they have sentience, language, spirituality, a tribal social structure, and rudimentary herbal medicine, but are otherwise physically and behaviorally identical to real-world cats.
Unlike the couple other Warriors based catlangs I've seen, I decided to make this catlang predominantly signed, since real-world domestic cats communicate a lot through posture and body language, not only through sounds.
There is no form of marking for questions, you just give your guess and the other speaker will correct you if it's wrong. For example, to ask "Are you hungry?" you would just guess "You're hungry" or "You're not hungry". The other speaker would either agree by silence or saying "yes", or disagree by saying "no, I'm not hungry" or "no, I'm hungry" respectively.
For open-ended questions, a purposely vague statement is made, like "X has gone somewhere" (meaning "Where has X gone?") or "You want something to eat" (meaning "What do you want to eat?").
The Ruins Cat Colony designates gender roles based on birth order rather than sex. The firstborn kitten of every litter is designated sky gender, associated with spirituality, history, medicine, and the big-picture view; all others are designated earth gender, associated with earthly things and the day-to-day concerns of survival. Only sky-gender cats are eligible for the positions of truthspeaker (leader) and lorespeaker (storyteller/oral historian), whereas only earth-gender cats are eligible for the position of foespeaker (devil's advocate, tactician, and assistant to the leader).
The speakers/signers of this language are anthropomorphised to the same degree as Warriors cats, i.e., they have sentience, language, spirituality, a tribal social structure, and rudimentary herbal medicine, but are otherwise physically and behaviorally identical to real-world cats.
Unlike the couple other Warriors based catlangs I've seen, I decided to make this catlang predominantly signed, since real-world domestic cats communicate a lot through posture and body language, not only through sounds.
There is no form of marking for questions, you just give your guess and the other speaker will correct you if it's wrong. For example, to ask "Are you hungry?" you would just guess "You're hungry" or "You're not hungry". The other speaker would either agree by silence or saying "yes", or disagree by saying "no, I'm not hungry" or "no, I'm hungry" respectively.
For open-ended questions, a purposely vague statement is made, like "X has gone somewhere" (meaning "Where has X gone?") or "You want something to eat" (meaning "What do you want to eat?").
The Ruins Cat Colony designates gender roles based on birth order rather than sex. The firstborn kitten of every litter is designated sky gender, associated with spirituality, history, medicine, and the big-picture view; all others are designated earth gender, associated with earthly things and the day-to-day concerns of survival. Only sky-gender cats are eligible for the positions of truthspeaker (leader) and lorespeaker (storyteller/oral historian), whereas only earth-gender cats are eligible for the position of foespeaker (devil's advocate, tactician, and assistant to the leader).
Sample of Ruins Catlang[view] [DmLgstot][C:huH][sl:tl:][oH] , ʀ[oH] , [Csr'] [sl:tl:] mræ[hfet,tt] . mr[sr:tr][oH] , ʀ[oH] , mr [sr:tr:] .
A mongoose is valued for catching mice, a cat is valued for being a cat.[view all texts]
A mongoose is valued for catching mice, a cat is valued for being a cat.[view all texts]
Phonology
[view]Phonological System: Feline (vocal and signed)Real-life cats communicate through body language as much as through sound, so this phonological system allows for a combined vocal/visual language. It could be used for anthropomorphized felines, catlike aliens, or any other species with similar physiology.
| Sound & face | æ | æu | a | au | i | iu | r | w | m | j | p | purr | yawn | snarl | hiss |
| sound | æ | æu | a | au | i | iu | r | w | m | j | p | ʀ1 | h:2 | ʁ3 | s4 |
| small | h5 | x6 | ɸ7 | ||||||||||||
| silent | D8 | 0.9 | 0`10 | 0:11 |
- ʀ
- yawn
- growl
- hiss
- huff
- snarl
- spit
- blep
- open mouth, not showing teeth
- wrinkle nose
- show teeth
| Body | neutral/straight | down | up | left | right | forward | back | shake/twitch | closed/curled/toward self | open/toward other |
| head | hn | hd | hu | hl | hr | hf | hb | ht | ||
| ears | en | el | er | ef | eb | et | ed | |||
| eyes | yn | yd | yu | yl | yr | yt | U1 Uˑ2 U:3 | O4 O:5 | ||
| tail position | H | L | I | ╲6 | / | F | H | G | Q | |
| tail motion | sn | sd | su | sl | sr | sf | sb | st | si | so |
| tailtip position | M | N | S | Z | E | B | W | Y | ||
| tailtip motion | tn | td | tu | tl | tr | tf | tb | tt | ti | to |
| front paw | Pd | Pu | Pl | Pr | Pf | Pb | Pt | Pi | Po | |
| back paw | P`d | P`u | P`l | P`r | P`f | P`b | P`t | P`i | P`o |
- eyes narrowed
- eyes half-closed
- eyes closed (blink)
- eyes open
- eyes wide open
- ╲
| Posture | neutral | relaxed/confident | alert/tense | crouching | aggressive |
| momentary | X | R | T | C | A |
| sustained | X: | R: | T: | C: | A: |
| Interaction | tongue (lick) | forehead (bunt) | cheek | nose | paw | tail | stare | look away |
| self (nose) | Dm | Pm | tm | om | um | |||
| self (paw) | Dp | Xp | Pp | tp | op | up | ||
| self (chest) | Dc | Xc | Pc | tc | oc | uc | ||
| self (flank) | Ds | ts | os | us | ||||
| self (back) | Dr | tr | or | ur | ||||
| other (forehead/ face) | DH | ʙ1 | KH | XH | PH | tH | oH | uH |
| other (nose) | DM | KM | XM | PM | tM | oM | uM | |
| other (paw) | DP | KP | XP | PP | tP | oP | uP | |
| other (chest) | DC | KC | XC | PC | tC | oC | uC | |
| other (flank) | DS | KS | XS | PS | tS | oS | uS | |
| other (back) | DR | KR | XR | PR | tR | oR | uR | |
| ground | Dg | Kg | Xg | Pg | tg | og | ug | |
| inanimate object | Do | Ko | Xo | Po | to | oo | uo |
- ʙ
OtherThere are also tones to the sounds but I didn't want to shoehorn that into the phonology table. Rising tone is indicated by ? after the transcription, and falling tone by ! .
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Ruins Catlang. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 Ruins CatlangOrthography [edit] | ||||||||||
| 0'/0`/1 | 0:/0:/2 | Aa/a/ | AU au/au/ | Dd/D/3 | DJ dj/Do/ | ED ed/ed/ | Ff/ɸ/4 | Gg/G/ | GR gr// | Hh/h/5 |
| H: h:/h:/6 | HB hb/hb/ | HD hd/hd/ | HF hf/hf/ | HL hl/hl/ | HN hn/hn/ | HR hr/hr/ | HS hs// | HT ht// | HU hu/hu/ | Ii/i/ |
| IU iu/iu/ | Jj/j/ | KJ kj/Ko/ | Mm//, /m/ | MJ mj// | Oo/O/7 | O: o:/O:/8 | OA oa/or/ | OJ oj/oo/ | Pp/p/ | PJ pj/Po/ |
| PM pm/Pm/ | PP pp/Pp/ | Rr/r/ | Ss/s/9 | TA ta/tr/ | TJ tj/to/ | Uu/U/10 | U' u'/Uˑ/11 | U: u:/U:/12 | UA ua/ur/ | UJ uj/uo/ |
| Ww/W/, /w/ | Xx//, /x/13 | XJ xj/Xo/ | Ææ/æ/ | ÆU æu/æu/ | Ʀʀ/ʀ/14 | ʁ/ʁ/15 | ʙ/ʙ/16 | ╲/╲/17 | ||
| ✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change] | ||||||||||
- wrinkle nose
- show teeth
- blep
- spit
- huff
- yawn
- eyes open
- eyes wide open
- hiss
- eyes narrowed
- eyes half-closed
- eyes closed (blink)
- snarl
- ʀ
- growl
- ʙ
- ╲
Latest 8 related articles listed below.
Ruins Catlang Orthography
both romanization and Clanscript
07-Jun-23 16:48Ruins Catlang Grammar: Sentence Structure
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21-Mar-23 16:22Attested name translations 21-Apr-22 13:46
Ruins Cat Colony Lore
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17-Dec-21 00:42Ruins Cats traditional medicine
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30-Sep-21 17:34Sensory impairments and speaking/signing RCF 06-Jul-21 01:52
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01-Feb-21 01:56
