We’ve already established that Isian is a language of our world. We’ve also set it somewhere in the Old World, in a place relatively untouched by the passage of time. By definition, that means it won’t have much contact with the Americas, so the most common plant terms will be those from Eurasia, with a few popular items coming from Africa. On the other hand, Isian has native words for all the different parts of the plant, as well as what to do with them. Again, this comes from our worldbuilding: Isian is spoken in an agrarian society, so it’s only natural that its speakers would name such an integral part of their world.
Word list
General terms
These are parts of plants, mainly the important (i.e., edible) parts, as well as a few terms for the broad types of plants. Note that all of these are native Isian words, and almost all are also “fundamental” words, not derived from anything.
- berry: eli
- flower: atul
- fruit: chil
- grain: kashel
- grass: tisen
- leaf: eta
- nut: con
- plant: dires
- root: balit
- seed: som
- stem (stalk): acut
- to harvest: sepa
- to plant: destera
- tree: taw
Plant types
This set of words names specific types of plants. These fall into three main categories. First, there are the native terms, like pur “apple”, which are wholly Isian in nature. Next are the full-on loanwords, taken from the “common” names used in many parts of Europe; these are usually the New World plants where Isian has no history of association. Finally, there are a few compounds, like cosom, “pepper”, formed from ocom “black” and som “seed”.
- apple: pur
- banana: banan (loan)
- bean: fowra
- carrot: cate(s)
- cherry: shuda(s)
- corn (maize): meyse (loan)
- cotton: churon
- fig: dem
- flax (linen): wod
- grape: ged
- mint: ninu
- oak: sukh
- olive: fili(r)
- onion: dun
- orange: sitru(s) (loan, “citrus”)
- pea: bi (note: not a loan)
- pepper: cosom (compound: “black seed”)
- pine: ticho (from a compound “green tree”)
- potato: pota (loan)
- rice: manom
- rose: rale(r)
- wheat: loch
Coming up
These are far from the only words in the Isian language regarding plants, but they’re a good start, covering a lot of bases while also illustrating how we can combine worldbuilding and conlanging to make something better. Next week, we’ll see things from the Ardari side of the fence. Spoiler alert: it’s not exactly the same.