Yes, we are. However, we both have jobs, many hobbies, and I at least am dealing with a great deal of strain in my real life, as well as in terms of mental health. Updates may not be frequent, but they happen when I or tinsnip have the spoons.

1) As is usually the case with the Cardassians, ask a simple question, get a complicated answer. There are multiple words for "grandfather" and "grandmother," and they all depend on upon age and status. @tinsnip and I went into the answer in more detail here.

2) Okay, well, the way I make up Kardasi words is very time-consuming, so I'm not sure how useful it would be, but here we are:

My first step is to actually hit Dictionary.com. I look up the English word and check its etymology. Is it from Old English? Is it a loan word? If so, what root does it come from in its original language?

Two examples:

a) When I was looking to make colour words, I looked up "white" to see its origins and discovered that it's related to "wheat." Which is interesting to me, because I assumed that when people were looking for a word to describe something white, they'd compare it to clouds first. What are the Cardassians most likely to think of as white? Do I want to go with a similarity to wheat, or pick something else? (Snow is probably out.)

b) If I were to come up with a word for "fantastic," there are two things worth considering. One, its original usage has shifted in relatively recent times, from something bizarre and out of a fantasy to something really great. Second is the fact that "fantastic" came to the English language via Latin, and that via Greek.

Again, via Dictionary.com:

So, in this case, I ask myself: Is the word I'm trying to translate likely to be native to Kardasi, or more likely to be a loan word from, say, Vulcan or the Federation? And am I translating the word with its current sense or its original sense?

(As a minor point, when I was asked to translate "kismesissitude," first I looked up several definitions of what the concept actually was [not being a Homestuck]. Then I thought about what the word broke down into [kismet + nemesis] and how its components related to the definition. And THEN I started thinking about how the Cardassians would think of the concept--would it be identical? Similar?)

My next step is to start looking over Cardassian words that are similar in meaning to the word I'm creating, if there are any. (I've started to make a list of these to simplify the process.) Learning one of J.R.R. Tolkien's Elven languages, Sindarin, gave me this idea, as Tolkien created a bunch of root sounds for concepts (fire, light, growth, etc.) and built his languages out of those. (Here is where they're listed, for the curious.)

If I have a sound that seems to turn up in numerous words (ex. "ot" turns up in both alcohol-related words [delot, alcohol] and words having to do with creating/drinking alcohol [ot'ta, bottle]), I'll find a way to incorporate it or something similar into the word I'm creating. If not, I'll think about how common the word is. For example, words that are very common or basic (cat, bed, tree, house) tend to have fewer syllables. Words that express more complex or nuanced concepts (feline, repose, arboreal, condominium) tend to have more. At the same time, words that are very basic in the English language (”snow,” again) might require a more complex word, or even a loanword in Kardasi.

Finally, I take into account the language as a whole. Which sounds turn up next to each other more often? Which sound combinations are rarer? If I've never seen the combination "zxq" in Kardasi before now, I'm not very likely to include it in a new word.

...And yes, I more or less follow all of these steps every time I make a new word in the language. I'm not sure how helpful this is for anyone else, but I feel as though this is at least useful to keep in mind while conlanging.

Disclaimer: While I'm a big ol' languages nerd, I've never formally studied language formation or anything like that. I've been doing more reading about it lately, but I have a degree in music education, not linguistics. So please keep that in mind.

Thanks for your question! It was fun to write down the steps I’ve been keeping in my head.

Oh my god.

@tinsnip?

It looks like you REALLY did a thing. /dying laughing

I don’t mind in the slightest! Grammar isn’t my strong suit in any language, but I believe I know what you’re asking. If I’m answering the wrong question, by all means let me know. And @tinsnip, if I’ve managed to mess up the grammar of our own damned conlang, come give me a smack. :D;;

So, as an example, let’s take “the woman’s knife.” You’d say this as ra-ruxt Ul-ik (the-woman knife-possesses). If you want to change that to “her knife,” it would be si Ul-ik (she/her knife-possesses). And if you want to say that “it is hers,” it would be si hi-ik (she/her it-possesses).

All clear?

This was a fun one for me to figure out, because not being a Homestuck, I was unfamiliar with the concept. So I went and researched it and picked apart the potential etymology before figuring out how the Cardassians would label the emotion.

First off, you’re absolutely right that kismessitude would be very present in Cardassian culture! That whole episode with O’Brien and Gilora Rejal seems to prove as much.

As far as I can tell, kismesis seems to be a combination of the words “kismet” (fate) and “nemesis.” While there is a word for “fate” in Kardasi, aThela (ah-thay-lah), it’s a very old word that’s probably not best used widely–too much like religion. Likely, though, it had something to do with the original name for the concept.

Instead, I’d suggest a safer alternative to be tase’arget’er (tahs-ay’ahr-gayt’ayr). Essentially, it’s the opposite of love (e’ being the prefix for [at least outwardly] loving relationships and tas- negating it), and features eternal (’er) arguments (arget). Whether those are arguments or arguments…probably depends on the people involved in the kismesissitude.

Thanks for a fun question!

So I went and did a little reading about the science behind ultraviolet light, because that’s how I roll. While humans as a rule can’t see ultraviolet light, people with a condition called aphakia, where they’re missing the lens of their eye, actually can. The colour ultraviolet is described by them as “whitish blue” or “whitish violet.”

Since your Cardassians favour the colour blue (which I haven’t got ‘round to adding to the dictionary yet but is maract), let’s go with the “whitish blue,” description as to how they’d describe it.

GarImaract (gah-rye-mah-rahsht–that’s a capital i and not an L, damn this sans-serif font), then. The literal meaning is “bright (as in bright light) blue,” since it would probably be a much more intense colour to them than most “normal” blues.

“Modesty” would probably be jiknu’pe (zheek-nuh’pay), in the sense that you’re deliberately concealing yourself. Presumably there are multiple nuances involved, though; Garak does talk about hiding himself in plain sight in A Stitch In Time fairly often, so that could be an additional layer. A simple (in the sense of modest) tailor indeed….

Your wish is my command! (Eventually.)Since we didn’t already have a name for a moon (Cardassia Prime has three), that needed to be made: prisok. Which makes “moonlight” prisokirc. (pree-soh-keersh)Given that Cardassians are not fond of bright lights, and their name for their sun translates as “the Watcher,” the word for sunlight has fewer positive connotations: ra’ajev prisik, “the Watcher’s eye.” (rah’ah-zhayv pree-seek)There was actually already a word for rain, hec (haysh), but considering the word is also slang for “semen,” you might have missed it...! :PAs for the rest:

Sand: Xass (X = like the final CH in Bach, plus “ahss”)Wind: sU (soo)Grass: maka (mah-kah)River: mat’ta (maht’tah)Ocean: ea (ay-ah)

Regarding comparatives, you can use the prefix Chi-, which means “close to” or “almost.” So, if you wanted to say someone was like moonlight, they would be chiprisokirc. A bit of a mouthful, but that’s Cardassians for you.

I actually had a chat about this with @tinsnip, because this is some neat worldbuilding that I wanted to do justice.

So! For starters, if blue is very popular with your Cardassians, then there ought to be a word for it. As it turns out, among humans at least, linguistically, it takes a while for words distinguishing blue and green to develop. Depending on how old your legends about the various ‘buses are, they might be referred to as “mar” (currently used for green only) instead of “maract” (mahr-asht), blue which I now need to add to the dictionary.

I’m going to suggest “marbet” (mahr-bayt) as the oldest base word for these creatures. Cardassians generally don’t fuss about gender much, and I’m not so sure it would matter much to them whether that sort of monster were lying on top, lying under, or switching, so that’s less important. If you’d like, though, I could come up with multiple words.

Also, many of the oldest religious/mythological figures have regional variants of their names. The goddess who governed the worst of the afterlife was known as Arik'aca, Arik'vassa, or Varikassa. The mother goddess Glacett was also known as Marett or even Lametta. Other gods, like Endaras (a goddess who appears to hardworking Cardassians to grant them her favour) and Oralius tend to have names without many, or any, regional variants. So it’s very possible that there could be other names for these beings. I can lend a hand there, too.

One thing that might be kind of fun would be to refer to these monsters as working against Endaras’ will as they tempt faithful Cardassians away from their hard work. Not sure if that would fit with your worldbuilding, but you never know.

Thanks for your patience, and happy writing!(All deities mentioned are from the Cardassian Sourcebook.)

No worries about potentially repeating a question! If I ever get repeats, I can always direct them to the relevant post.

So, the short answer to your question is: you don’t. In Kardasi, the number or amount of what you’re talking about is determined by context, or by specifically modifying your sentence (ten people, many animals).

This is one of the features of the language inherited from Galileo Ace’s framework, and I’m fond of it. Cardassians like precision--why say “They taught the students” when you can say “They taught the thirty-one students”?

Ohhhh! That would be a tremendously useful resource to have around! By all means, please share this with me (and everyone else here).

Thanks for reaching out!