In addition to a completely normal vocabulary full of completely normal words with completely normal meanings (and some completely weird meanings), the Cenyani language has a number of frequently-used interjections.
Interjections are sometimes known as exclamations, and that’s pretty much what they are. They are most commonly used to express strong emotions (“Whee! We’ve landed!”), but could just as easily be adapted to less powerful emotions (“Gee, I’m so surprised...” or “Gah! I’m so boooored”), or indeed even non-emotive exclamations (“Hey you! Get over here!”).
The list below is far from complete, and will definitely be updated as I come up with more interjections to add here. In written Cenyani, interjections should be followed by an exclamation mark much like in English, but for the sake of readability, there are no exclamation marks below.
Laughter is a universal language, and even in Cenyani it sounds like “hahaha” and all sorts of variations along the same theme.
Finally, in addition to the interjections below, the cenya also have a bunch of animalistic sounds, including hissing, snarling, growling, roaring and howling, but also a gentle, rumbling purring sound. These sounds have their own transcriptions in Cenyani, and although I’m not sure they qualify as interjections, I decided to put them here anyway.
- aya
- ow; ouch – physical pain, especially a very sudden pain.
- celas
- hello; hi – common greeting which literally means “friend” in the vocative case. Because of the literal meaning of this word, it is not commonly used for greeting people you don’t like at all.
- celis
- plural version of celas, used when greeting multiple people.
- ma
- hey; yo; you there – followed by a name (or other noun) in the vocative. It is a way of calling for someone with more force or intention.
- well; come on – appended to the beginning of a call to action, it acts similarly to the above usage, suggesting a strong desire to see the action fulfilled. Ma, roxes tay! translates roughly as “Well, let’s go!” or “Come on, let’s go!”.
- rrle
- indeed; true – indicates agreement or mutual knowledge.
- rrh
- [ʀ̩ː] represents two distinct sounds: growling, and purring. The cenyi purr sounds more like a deep rumbling than a cat purr; it is closer to a growl in that respect. The precise meaning of the sound is determined by context, but the growl is usually followed by an exclamation mark, which the purr usually isn’t.
- ssy
- [çː] represents hissing (the y is consonantal). This sound is often lengthened, as in ssssy and so on.
- ša
- yes – agreement with a positive statement. Unlike English “yes”, this word cannot be used to disagree with a negative statement (e.g. “You’re not real” “Yes I am!”).
- šamáš
- sure; happy to; I’d love to – like an emphatic ša, this is used when you strongly agree with someone, and especially if you agree to do something. Compare: German jawohl.
- širi
- thanks – relatively informal way of thanking a person. The word itself is the plural form of šir, which corresponds to the obsolete English noun “thank”.
- please – appended to the very end of a request which is expected to be fulfilled, sort of like thanking someone in advance. Even with carefully chosen intonation, this usage is frequently seen as a sign of mild annoyance, as if you’re saying “You probably wouldn’t do it if I didn’t thank you” – but also “I can’t believe I have to tell you to do this”.
