jakāellīñ
Finally, the 18th Conlang Relay text. I loved this text. With a little tweaking (which I did, of course) it was a story about two legendary Kēleni culture-heroes. 🙂
The first sentence is:
ñi jakāellīñ jarēspe sū janūwa ī;
And right away, as the object of ñi, we have an unfamiliar word. I had to create this word for the relay, though I had the concept of the thing already. I also had to create related words, of course. Anyway, jakāellīñ refers to a small (6-30 inches in height) statue, traditionally carved from jade (ankāelle) though other materials can be used. Traditional subjects for jakāellīñi include deities, heroes, ancestors, animals, and sometimes trees. They are usually displayed in niches decorated with cloth and plant matter, and they are considered lucky. They are not used directly as idols or for worship, despite the fact that many have a religious significance.