macāppacāe

macāppacāe

Line 3 of the Kēlen Jabberwocky:

sere jakewāla to macāppacāe sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla nā;

(See Nov 7th’s post for an introduction.)

Beware macāppacāe – its jasūpa teeth, its many jaþāla claws.

macāppacāe is the Jabberwock. First, take a look at the word. ‘c’ and ‘p’ are the only Kēlen letters that lean over, and this word has two of each. Also, if you rotate one, you get the other, giving this word a topsy-turvy look.

cāppacāe = cāe ‘belly’ (or cāc ‘itch’ or cāh ‘fever’) + pac ‘wild animal’ + cāe again. Furthermore, it is animate, giving it the status of a volitional being, which is appropriate for a capitalized Monster and the subject of our poem.

il ōrralon ñi jarewēλecāwāŋŋi ā jawēlrūlri rū jaxēwepōma āñ;
se jarāŋŋen mo jatēññāntetūrāŋŋeni; ñi japiēlkāhi tō jarōhāþi lā;

sere jakewāla to macāppacāe sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla nā;

In the afternoon, the circular lizards did gyre and gimble around the shadow-stick.
The easily-annoyed thin-winged bird-spiders were annoyed.
     The lost chicken-pigs make cough-cries!

Beware macāppacāe …