We’ve previously seen that Isian is a language of the Old World. That means it’ll have a generally Eurasian stock of native animal terms. Isian speakers have many of the familiar domesticated animals, such as the dog (hu) and cat (her). Beasts of burden include the horse (tawl, only the most general term), among others, while tame meat usually comes from the tu “cow” (plural form tus for bulls, tur for cows) or the jeg “pig”. The speakers also enjoy many types of fish (pach), and sheep (lini, with the same gendered plurals as tu) are raised for both wool and meat.
Birds (firini) are also well-represented in the lexicon. Two of the more important ones are the choch “chicken” (a hen is a chay, plural chayr) and the duck. The latter has two words: masculine hanka and feminine hadi (plural hadir), with the feminine form being the default.
Isian’s speakers don’t like insects (eketi) any more than we do, but they’ve given names to some of the more common ones. Flies, mikhi, are everywhere in their land, as are iti “ants”. But not all insects are creepy-crawlies. There’s also the fifal “butterfly”, an object of beauty, and the source of delicious honey, the disi “bee”.
Out in the molad “wild” lands, there are even more animals. Plenty of Isian men hunt for onte “deer”. Some prefer smaller game, however, like the habas “rabbit” or hule “fox” (plural hules). Only the bravest or most foolhardy would go after the gor “bear”, though.
Finally, the speakers of Isian know that a certain segment of fauna has something in common with humans. Dogs, cats, cows, and goats (cawat or cawar) all produce milk for their young; the latter two also make it for human consumption. These are the melembini “mammals”, a compound literally meaning “milk-animal”.
General Terms
- animal: embin
- den: hosh
- insect: eket
- mammal: melembin
- nest: seb
- tame: caso
- wild: molad
Specific animals
- ant: it
- bear: gor
- bee: disi
- bird: firin
- butterfly: fifal
- cat: her
- chicken: choch (chay(r) “hen”)
- cow/bull: tu(r) (f.), tu(s) (m.)
- deer: onte(s)
- dog: hu
- dragon: varoc
- duck: hanka(t) (m.), hadi(r) (f.)
- elephant: alifan (borrowed)
- fish: pach
- fly: mikh
- fox: hule(s)
- frog: irpa
- goat: cawa(t/r)
- horse: tawl (generic)
- lizard: dolcot
- mouse: hish
- pig: jeg
- rabbit: habas
- sheep: lini(t/r)
- snake: shulbis
- spider: bidrin
- wolf: hoga
- worm: um