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About Unish

  • Unish Overview
  • Unish Vocabulary
  • Unish Grammar
  • Unish Pronunciation
Home > About Unish > Unish Vocabulary

Unish 어휘

  • Principles for Selecting Unish Words
  • Transformation of Characters
  • Word Templates

Principles for Selecting Unish Words

1. Commonality
1.1 Commonality in Quantity

The word that is used in several languages or borrowed into them is given priority in selection.

Example:guitargitar(in 11 languages)
teacha(in 7 languages)
gasgas(in 13 languages)
humorhumor(in 14 languages)

1.2 Commonality in Official Languages

The word that is officially used in international communties is given priority in selection.

Example1:gold, kin, jin, oro, ouro, oro, or, Gold, zoloto, dhahab, sonaa, paralelo, chrusos, aurumgold
Example2:century, seiki, shiji, siglo, século, secolo, siècle, stoletie,
qarn, sataabdii, frivola, aionas, centum anni, Jahrhundertsenturi

1.3 Commonality in Daily Life

The word that is familiar to people in everyday life due to its appearance in signboards or brand names is given priority in selection.

Example1:stopstop
firefire
Example2:brownbraun
riverrio

2. Short Word-length
2.1 Shortest Word

The shortest word is selected.

Example1:brain, nou, nao, cerebro, cérebro, cervello, cerveau,
Gehirn, mozg, dimaagh, mastisk, buddhii, bheja, mualonao
Example2:breakdown, koshou, guzhang, fallo, avaria, enguiço, guasto, panne,
Betriebsschaden, polomka, tasattul, avaria, karab hojana, pathaino blabefalo

2.2 Shortest Spelling

In the case of the words that have the same origin, the simplest spelling is selected.

Example1:perfect, perfekta, perfectus, perfekt,
perfecto, perfeito, perfetto, parfaitperfet
Example2:certain, certa, certus, certosert

2.3 Shortest by Clipping

If meaning is sufficiently conveyed by a stem, other parts are omitted.

Example:equipment, soubi, zhuangbei, equipo, equipamento, perilo, equipaggiamento,
équipement, Ausrüstung, oborudovanie, upaskar, eksoplismos, muiddat, armaeqip

3. Diversity

The degree of familiarity is enhanced by selecting words from diverse origins as much as possible.

Example:nosenoz(English: nose; Italian: naso; French: nez; German: Nase; Russian: nos; Latin: nasus)
neckmog(Korean: mog)
cheekjia(Chinese: jia)
heeleri(Hindi: erri)
elephantelefant(English: elephant; Spanish: elefante; German: Elefant; Portuguese: elefante; Italian: elefante;
French: éléphant; Greek: elephantas; Latin: elephantus)
birdtori(Japanese: tori)
sheepyang(Korean: yang; Chinese: yang)
goosegus(English: goose; Russian: gus’)

4. Distinctiveness

Even a short word is avoided if its pronunciation is too simple and it can be confused with other words.

Example:goose, e, gachou, ganso, oca, ganso, oca, oie,
gus', wizza, hans, parazito chena, anser, Gans(instead of ‘e’) gus

5. Phonological Simplicity

If possible, the structure of ‘CVCV’, which is easy to pronounce, is selected.

Example1:appear, arawareru, chuxian, aparecer, aparecer, exsistere, conspici, apparire,
apparaître, erscheinen, poiavliat'sia, DhaHar, upasthit honaa, parousiazomai, apparereapar
Example2:air, taiki, daqi, atmósfera, atmosfera, atmosfera, aer, al-jaww,
atmosphere, Atmosphäre, atmosfera, vaataavaran, atmosphairadegi

6. Cultural Priority

A word is selected from the language with which the word is most associated culturally in meaning.

Example:teacha(from Chinese)
roseroz(from English)

7. Compounding

A new word is created though active compounding.

Example1:dictionarymotbuk(mot ‘word’ + buk ‘book’)
Example2:Mondaylunadi(luna ‘moon’ + di ‘day’)
Example3:firstunme(un ‘one’ + me ‘ordinal ending’)

  • Principles for Selecting Unish Words
  • Transformation of Characters
  • Word Templates

Transformation of Characters

1. Consonant Deletion: CC ⇒ C

Unnecessary duplication of consonants is simplified.

Example1:bellbel
addressadres
Example2:checkchek

2. Vowel Deletion
2.1 VV ⇒ V

The cluster of vowels is simplified as much as possible.

Example:enoughenuf
heavyhevi
guestgest
hearthart

2.2 -VCVC ⇒ -VCC (cf. nasal/liquid sound)

When the final consonant in the structure of ‘-VCVC’ is a nasal or liquid sound, the vowel which is pronounced as [∂] is omitted.

Example:evenevn

2.3 V ⇒ Ø (cf. word-final position)

A word-final inflectional ending or silent vowel is omitted.

Example1:suresur
adviceadvis
Example2:tower, turris, Turm, torre, tourtor
adventure, Abenteuer, aventura, avventura, aventureaventur

3. Glide Deletion

‘ow’ which is pronounced as [ou] ⇒ ‘o’

Example:slowslo
snowsno
yellowyelo

4. Systematic Change
4.1 [ks] ⇒ 'x'

Example:accessaxes
successsuxes

4.2 'qu' which is pronounced as [kw]  'q'

Example:quickqik
quarterqart

4.3 'g' which is pronounced as [ʤ] ⇒ 'j'

Example:orangeoranj
chargecharj

4.4 'c' which is pronounced as [k] ⇒ 'k' / pronounced as [s] ⇒ 's'

Example1:classklas
cardkard
Example2:citysity
centurysenturi

4.5 'y' which is pronounced as [i] ⇒ 'i' / pronounced as [ai] ⇒ 'ai'

Example1:everyevri
employemploi
Example2:drydrai
flyflai

5. Change for Shortness

When the pronunciation of a word is widespread and the word tends to be shortend, the spelling of the word is changed according to its pronunciation..

Example:businessbiz
introduceintro
advertisead

  • Principles for Selecting Unish Words
  • Transformation of Characters
  • Word Templates

Word Templates

1. Personal Pronouns

I : miyou(sg.) : dehe/she/it : le
we : misyou(pl.) : desthey : les

2. Interrogative Pronouns

what : watwho : wuwhich : wich
where : werwhen : wenhow : wi
why : we

3. Determiners

all : alevery : evrieach : ge
any : enino : nosome : som
many : menimore : mormost : most
other : odroanother : undoro
this : disthat : dat

4. Conjunctives

and : ebut : butor : or
so : soif : ifas : az
because : kozsince : sinsalthough : aldo, daga
while : wail

5. Cardinal Numbers / Ordinal Numbers (number + -me)

one : unfirst : unme
two : dusecond : dume
three : trithird : trime
four : safourth : same
five : pentfifth : pentme
six : sessixth : sesme
seven : sepseventh : sepme
eight : oteighth : otme
nine : novninth : novme
ten : tententh : tenme
hundred : senthundredth : sentme
thousand : milthousandth : milme

6. Numbers for Repetition ( number + -mal)

once/one time : unmal
twice/two times : dumal
three times : trimal
four times : samal
five times : pentmal
six times : sesmal
seven times : sepmal
eight times : otmal
nine times : novmal
ten times : tenmal

7. Months (number + -mes)

January : unmes
February : dumes
March : trimes
April : sames
May : pentmes
June : sesmes
July : sepmes
August : otmes
September : novmes
October : tenmes
November : tenunmes
December : tendumes

8. Days of the Wrrk (-di)

Sunday : soldi
Monday : lunadi
Tuesday : firedi
Wednesday : aqadi
Thursday : namudi
Friday : goldi
Saturday : landi

9. Units of Time

second : sekond
minute : minut
hour : hora
day : di
week : wik
month : mes
year : an

10. Seasons

spring : bom
summer : ete
autumn : aki
winter : winter

11. Directions

east : est
west : west
south : sud
north : nord

12. Colors

white : blanblack : heired : red
blue : bluyellow : yeloorange : oranj
purple : purpurgreen : grenpink : pink
gray : greibrown : braun

13. Terms of Family

father : padermother : mader
son : sondaughter : fila
brother : brudersister : sister
husband : mariowife : marie
uncle : onklaunt : tia

14. Terms for Body

head : hedhair : harear : ear
nose : nozcheek : jialip : lip
finger : ditoneck : mogarm : arm
hand : manochest : chestmouth : ib
knee : genubody : badiback : bak
leg : legelbow : elboheel : eri
foot : fut

15. Terms for Animals

animal : animalbird : torifish : fish
bull : torofox : foxdog : dog
cat : katsheep : yangmonkey : saru
tiger : tigerlion : leorabbit : rabit
elephant : elefanthorse : umabear : gom
frog : ranamouse : mausgoose : gus
wolf : lobo