Khurbyish Lesson #3 -- Anatomy

And here's my third post about the Khurbyish language -- last time I covered some basic color-related words (and a few a little less basic), and now it's time for something completely different...

...with that "something" being some of the basic words for body parts.  Unlike the color words, these may not be immediately obvious even with lines pointing to the corresponding parts on this drawing of a Burijeoo disguised in human form, so I'll go over each one in a little more detail.

PLUO: The Khurbyish word for "head" or "face."  This double meaning is probably due to the abundance of round-bodied species (such as K'hyurbhis and Blurbys) on the planet Nummorro, who don't really have a distinct "head" region on their bodies.
This word is also an example of a situation where the combination of "OO" and another vowel doesn't change to the second vowel with a W sound before it -- "plwo" would be an unpronounceable mess (either that, or sound exactly like "pluo" if you did mangle a pronunciation out of it that made sense), after all!  This is generally how things work with "consonant+OO+vowel" combinations; the W sound from "OO" and another vowel combining only forms when "OO" is the first sound in a word, or if it's preceded by another vowel or the dash that's sometimes used to separate a word into two.

JE: Hair.  Can refer to hair on any part of the body, combining with other body-part words as if making a possessive form (like "head's hair," "arm's hair," and so on) if you want to be really specific.  For example, "pluozje" would mean "head hair" specifically.

DIU:  Eye.

DOIN:  Ear.

YED:  Neck.  This is a word that doesn't get a lot of use among the majority of Nummorro's inhabitants, as Numnums, K'hyurbhis, and Blurbys are all essentially neckless.  Presumably the word developed in order to describe the neck region on the bodies of other species.

ZUR:  Nose.  Can refer to either the external nose structure (on those species that have them) or just the nostrils.

WAPI:  Mouth.

ARR:  Hand or fist.

TAN:  Arm or leg.  Essentially, "tan" means "limb" in general, rather than being specific to what we humans would call "arms" or "legs."  As such, I've labeled both an arm and a leg with "tan" on the picture above.  The only way to refer to an arm (as in, a limb used primarily for grasping) specifically would be to combine the words for "hand" and "limb" -- making "arrtan."  Making a leg-specific word works the same way, combining the words for "foot" and "limb" to make "bolotan."

DEN:  Finger.  Thumbs are not distinguished from the other fingers in Khurbyish.  Toes are also not counted as something separate from fingers, though if you wanted to refer specifically to a toe rather than a finger, you could combine the words for "foot" and "finger" (as a possessive form, just like when referring to hair on specific parts of the body) to make "bolozden."  Along the same lines, you could specify "arrzden" to mean the fingers on someone's hand specifically.

PUKU:  Claw.

TAND:  Body.  Can also be used to refer to the torso specifically, in the case of creatures with more distinct body segments than those of Nummorro's species (such as humans, or anything else with a bipedal/humanoid body shape.)

BOLO:  Foot.

 ==================

Of course, most humanoid creatures lack certain body parts that are commonly found on some of Nummorro's other residents.  Here's some words for body parts found on Numnums and K'hyurbhis that weren't present on the diagram above:

TEJE: Feathers.  Literally translates to "bird hair," with "te" being a word used to refer to birdlike creatures.

YUZ:  Tail.  Note that this is an older drawing of a Numnum (from around 2010), so the tail is not drawn quite as long here as it should be -- but it's still present enough for the purposes of this post.

ARKU: Spike or horn.  Generally used to refer to the spikes on the top of a K'hyurbhi's head, though some other species have short, sturdy spikes or horns which are described as "arku" as well.  Thorns on a plant are sometimes referred to as "arku," as are spikes built into suits of armor or buildings for defensive purposes.  Longer or more elaborate horns, and especially those which fall out and regrow on a regular basis like a deer's antlers, would not usually be described as "arku" in Khurbyish.

KHURB'YIWALEN: A term that refers to the natural tattoo-like markings on a K'hyurbhi's face, which are present shortly after hatching (fading in from a very pale color over their first few years of life.)  These markings are the best way to identify an individual K'hyurbhi on sight, as they are like human fingerprints in that no two individuals' markings are exactly alike.  Literally translates to "K'hyurbhi colors," albeit using the Ancient Khurbyish form "Khurb'yi" rather than the modern "K'hyurbhi" -- this is a rather old term, and has probably remained due to the fact that "K'hyurbhiwalen" would be even longer than this already abnormally long word.

As with the colors page (and probably others to come in the future), this page will be updated to include other terms not included on the current version -- probably with even more body part words not found on humanoid creatures, such as wings and tentacles!