Conlang (Extra Lexember?) - Put Some Clothes On

[aldersprig]

Post 1: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2017/12/25/lexember/

Post 2: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2018/01/05/conlang-extra-lexember-syllabary/ 

Post 3: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2018/01/08/conlang3/

Post 4: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2018/01/15/conlang3-2/

Post 5: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2018/01/18/conlang/

Part 6: http://www.lynthornealder.com/2018/01/22/conlang-2/

Today's topic is... Clothes

Okay, let’s see.

We need people who weave, which means we need something to weave.

vinkin is a sort of linen-like fiber which grows easily in their environment.  vinken is the fabric made from it, and vonken is to weave or to make fabric.

rortlon is to sew; rirtlin is a sewn garment, rertlen is “sewn.”

in most cases, rirtlin has come to mean clothing as a whole.

lenlen is a sewing needle; hinlon is thread.

hinhin is embroidery, which is often done with beads made of wood, metal, or clay.

oh, yes, beads.

Ishji, ishin, jijin. (wooden, metal, clay beads).

The main garment worn is a folded sheet of fabric joined at the shoulders and often belted (kedvel; kidvil, a belt) around the waist; when the weather is cold, a tube that would probably be considered a shrug in modern terms is worn under or over this main garment.  The garment is a tilri (telren, folded; tilren, fold; tolren, to fold); the sleeve/shrug is a nini.

(none, to give someone the shoulder, to turn your back on them).



read on…

Comments

[kelkyag]

In what modes is it linen-like, other than being a plant fibre? Does it require

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In what modes is it linen-like, other than being a plant fibre? Does it require <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retting"retting</a> or other processing after harvest?

[aldersprig]

I know retting :-)

Tongue-in-cheek answer: it’s linen-like in that it’s the first fiber they’re known to have used.

Real answer.
It’s a bast fiber, probably linen-like also in that it’s grown in a chiller climate - despite their main crop being African in real-world semi-origins, these people live in a chillll climate. It requires retting. It is softer than, say, jute or hemp but not the world’s softest fiber.

I mean, except they’re on an island with minimal cattle animals so it might be THEIR world’s softest fiber for a couple more centuries.

[kelkyag]

:-P

Yay, details! :)

Hrm. No herding animals at all? They might have a silk analog ...

[aldersprig]

They have the thit, which is either small-cow or pig like, I haven’t decided.

Silk’s a good idea thought!

[kelkyag]

How do they feel about eating insects? IIRC, silkworms are edible. Fiber and protein crop ...

OTOH, fictional crops and domesticated animals do not need to be closely analogous to real ones. :)

<waiting for mass-market synthetic spider silk>

[sauergeek]

If they have food animals, they likely also have leather, unless the skins don't tan well. I have no idea if that's a thing with animals here; even relatively small food animals like rabbits and squirrels provide useful leather. (Having just looked it up, there's even chicken and salmon leather, which suggests that there are other bird and fish leathers.) Are leather or hide clothes of any sort still in use?

How do they make the beads? (Metal beads suggests some amount of metalwork, but the easiest metals to work — gold, copper — make lousy blades. Bronze isn't far behind, though.) They have clay; is it fired or just dried? Depending on how they finish clay, they may also be able to make glass and smelt some of the more difficult metals, like tin or zinc, or even iron, if the clay firing temperature is hot enough. What other jewelry or ornamentation do they wear?

All the tech level questions, oh look, I might be a nerd...