WARNING: Wall of text to follow

Materials: paper, pen, digicamera, word, excel
Time: a lot of hours
Conlang: Rawyani
Conscript: unnamed
Content: Anecdote by a speaker
Word Count: 233 (in conlang)

Translation:
When I was a boy I still lived among the People. One evening, my grandparents and I were on our way to join my parents at a party celebrating the engagement of my sister and the presentation of her new mask. I myself had only recently become old enough to wear the mask at all times, although I did not understand why I should. I remember having this conversation with my grandmother.

“Come child; are you ready to go meet your parents at the party?”

“Yes, Grandmama.”

“Ach, child, where is your mask?”

“It’s dirty, Grandma!”

“You know better than that! Go get it. Have you got it? Shall I tie it for you? Has your mother ever told you what happens to little boys who go out without their masks?”

“No, Grandma.”

“The devil, Suwpyoy, will come get you and make you a servant in her house. Only a servant who is not of the People would go about shamelessly bare-faced.”

“I know, Grandma, but what about Rayna?”

“She is too young. Suwpyoy couldn’t have children working in her house. Nothing would get done. Children are innocent and always busy with unproductive things. They cannot be shamed if they do not wear their mask. But you are too old and you know better. Now come, we will be late. You shouldn’t make your parents wait.”

“Grandmama, will Suwpyoy come to get me?”

“Of course not, my child! Aren’t you modest and humble? Don’t you wear your mask? Aren’t you polite of speech and respectful and quiet? Suwpyoy only consumes naughty boys. Now, into the carriage!”

“Yes, Grandma.”

Transliteration
Ta ro tayn kit kaws o raynt, kit sumpoy chin ankoswimkin twik kwoyt Panchir. Iy priystin, poy ankashkomimsuk roshpomun tor awnswaki sot kit ta waw twinik, poy shaytwani kwin pyokonyik ors wanttokis sot kwin panchon tu’mish chatim shopyonacho. Kit sipst waypoy chachayn onmuw koskomimsuk ori uttayn roshchyak kwin shya, ontayp waypoy nawm kosryamsa kwoy yanrum. Kosropant, waypoy koswanwa ruwkwor chani s’twik kwor awaswaki.

“Irshoman, Raynt, kam ir opti roshpomun kwotor wawanti saw kwor twinik?”

“Iyay, Awaswawa?”

“-Tch, Raynt, uw mi shoryay?”

“Tinay ink sikanim, Awaswa!”

“Sikossuri irshwayn! Irshroktur tinays. Irshikra tinays? Chis kosisna tinays s’kwirs? Kam wawi waypoy oshocha s’kwirs, ay kantakuw s’oyt kiyik iman am nawm chyashchyak kuwi shoryakin?”

“Nawm, Awaswa.”

“Rot akam, Suwpyoy, rasprim osh.notna kwirs sot oshpruip waw tonta ors kwirs na kwotincho. Nur o tonta on orsh panchir ras sitonnukkam sitankit shaykomimsuk.”

“Kosisnaw, Awaswa, ayp asryonus Rayna?”

“Cho shanyuno. Suwpyoy uspoy nawm oshtwunta ots raynt roshtonta na kapincho. Nayn tank rasprim kankott. Ots raynt sanktiyos sot its onwanwarim tank situtayn ansrishwuwan kyas. Usnawm kannukkamta kyas, siy nawm chyashchyak kuwi shyasin. Ayp ir shanori sot sikossur irshisnaw. Sichayn, irshoman, ruk natay katwaynor. Sasnawm irshtwuw roshomayno kwotor wawantrir.”

“Awaswawa, kam ras oshoman roshroktur Suwpyoy kwits?”

“Chanruw nawm, Rayntki! Kam ir ink shyoyi sot ashayi? Kam nawm irshchyak kwin shoryay? Kam ir ink tsayyiy mish wayani sot otsaymoy sot ontkyuwi? Suwpyoy nur oshsoshut kwoyt ontashaik iman. Sichayn, yayn kwin amkawr!”

“Iyay, Awaswa.”


About the content and linguistic points of interest:

When I wrote this, I had in mind a society made up of people who, after early childhood, never show their faces to anyone but their immediate family. These people wear masks. Of course, they wear different masks given their age, status, experiences, and the context of whatever situation in which they find themselves.

A sizable portion of the lexicon is then dedicated to the masks and related ceremonies and statuses.

There is also a formal level of speech, although I haven’t used it here. The formal speech would be spoken while one is wearing their mask (among strangers and acquaintances). Since one would have to be understood even through the muffling effects of a mask, the formal register demonstrates a reduction of distinction between vowel sounds. Quite a few prepositions and articles are different based on whether or not the word following begins with a vowel.

I also developed this language so that the default noun is female and it must inflect to become male, rather than the other way. For example, in German, “ein Freund” is a male friend, it inflects “eine Freundin” to form the female counterpart. In Rawyani, “ot apon” is a female friend, “ot aponir/ ot apontim” is a male friend.

I think a culture that has a system like this might demonstrate different dynamics between the sexes, so I decided modesty would be a trait that they would expect in their boys, whence came the anecdote.

Most of the parts-of-speech marking is done to the articles and prepositions. There is agreement between nouns, adjectives and verbs in gender (animacy (male and female) and inanimacy) and number.

There are distinctions made between transitive, ambitransitive, intransitive, and non-volitional transitive verbs.

EDIT: If anyone would like me to, I'll post a gloss of (some of) this in my scraps.