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What's Arka?

Hey Lein, Arka is a language in your world, but actually it was made in Earth, right?
The most famous conlang is Esperanto, isn't it? What's the difference between them?



Esperanto is an international auxiliary language.
It is based on European languages like English and French so that as many people as possible can understand it.



The sun is "suno" in Esperanto. You can guess what suuno means if you are good at English.
And water is "akvo." It comoes from "aqua-," you know, as in "aquarium."



"Aqua-" comes from Latin.
Words of Esperanto are based on European languages so that as many people as possible can understand it.



It's easy to remember.
But words of Arka cannot be based on European languages because it's spoken in another world.



Yep.
Words of Arka are not based on any languages in Earth.
Esperanto is easier for many earthpeople, I think.



Then what's the characteristics of Arka?



Esperanto gets rid of cultural characteristics and national characteristics so that people in various countries speak it fairly and impartially.
On the other hand, Arka features its own culture, and this is the principal difference.



It means Arka has an original culture and is based on it.



Arka is the sole example of an a priori conlang which has its own a priori culture and climate with large vocabulary so far (2010). And that's what makes the language so special.
Have you heard of "The Lord of the Rings"? There are conlangs in this story. Arka is like them and is a more elaborate conlang because the creators of Arka can use computers and the internet.



It's hard to create an elaborate conlang. And it has an a priori culture and climate?! What a mind-boggling work! I can see how elaborate the language is by looking at ［culture］ in Diaklel.
The language itself is well created. And every word in the dictionary has its etymology.



I heard it takes time to make just one word.
Arka cannot borrow words from English and so on, so the creators of Arka make words one by one, checking the culture and climate.
It does take a long time to make words.



"Does the concept exist in Atolas?," "If it does, then in which age should the word be made?," "How shouold we name the word?," "What's the diction of the word?" and "And what about its culture?"-- the creators must go through these questions to make just one word.
How many processes does the creators have to go through to make a word?


I heard it takes much more time to check over the culture and climate than to write a definition of the dictionary.



It really is a backbreaking work! I think 10,000 words of Arka are equal to tens of thousands words of Esperanto in point of spending much time and energy.
The dictionary has various kinds of words. Of course, it has "becs" (banana), but it has also technical terms for chemistry and so on. And technical terms for them have a cultural and historical background.
For example, lactic acid is not named after acid of milk. It's called "baxasl." It was named after "bax" (a kind of pickles) because lactic acid was found from the pickle in this world.
I hardly heard of methionine. It's "dilsvils" (amino acid of spinach) in Arka.



I'm a native Arka speaker, but I don't know the word "yovitovonanilzom" (di-tert-butyl peroxide).
"freinsoj" (spondylolisthesis) means "centrum of warriors." The word was made 1,900 years ago in my world. I heard many warriors suffered from the health malady.
I knew the name of the health malady, but I didn't know how it was named...



Oh, "ferakm" (heating oil) means "cheap oil"?! I think it's not so inexpensive.
Hmmm... the dictionary says "heating oil was cheaper than whale oil, so "ferakm" means "cheap oil"." The word has its own historical background.



In addition, a game like chess named "xelto" and a toy like cards named "karxe" have been made. The creators and learners made outfits like "laasa" (the cape I'm wearing) and "lufi" (the skirt I'm wearing).



Now I understand the characteristics of Arka. It is a project to make a whole world from scratch, isn't it?
The grammar of Arka is a bit difficult because the language is in an a priori world and should be natural.
Arka is definitely at the opposite end of the scale from Esperanto. That's why people who are interested in conlangs should learn both of them.



You're right.