marain
Marain - Latin Symbol table:
| Latin | Marain | Latin | Marain |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | S | s |
| B | b | T | t |
| C | c | U | u |
| D | d | V | v |
| E | e | W | w |
| F | f | X | x |
| G | g | Y | y |
| H | h | Z | z |
| I | i | 0 | 0 |
| J | j | 1 | 1 |
| K | k | 2 | 2 |
| L | l | 3 | 3 |
| M | m | 4 | 4 |
| N | n | 5 | 5 |
| O | o | 6 | 6 |
| P | p | 7 | 7 |
| Q | q | 8 | 8 |
| R | r | 9 | 9 |
Translation
Decimal ↔ Nonary
Enter a nonnegative whole number in either box. Decimal uses base 10; Marain uses base 9, also known as nonary. In the Marain box, both 0 and 9 mean zero and display as glyph 9.
Marain digit keys:
Example: typing 8090919 displays 8999919, reads as base-9 8000010, and converts to decimal 4251537.
English phrases → Marain
Build a draft from known words and patterns in the community lessons. Unknown or ambiguous vocabulary stays visible as <??>. A complete word match does not guarantee a correct translation.
Try a short statement, a “do you…?” question, or “I have…”. “You” is singular; “they” is plural. Unsupported structures receive word and phrase matches.
Marain (Romanised)
Marain
Matches and grammar used
| English | Marain | Interpretation |
|---|
This is a limited community-conlang assistant. Text stays in your browser.
Grammar recovered from the lessons
These rules describe the supplied community lessons. They are not presented as a complete grammar established by Iain M. Banks.
| Function | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | -uh; -yuh after a vowel | ra → ra'yuh |
| Object | -va | marayn → maraynva |
| Recipient | -vihl | ge → gevihl |
| Origin / location / companion | -sa / -li / -ye | prenli: in a spaceship |
| Possession | yesayn + thing.NOM + holder.COM | yesayn lomra'yuh ra'ye |
| Yes/no question | hanggra + clause | hanggra kabo geyuh maraynva |
| Verb → noun | -i after a consonant; -wi after a vowel | nadeki; kabowi |
| Number | Base eight; number + dam + noun | dosa dam uprayheva |
Cases carry grammatical roles. The assistant uses a consistent subject–verb–object order, while lesson examples also use other orders. Bare verbs do not establish English tense, aspect, or number agreement. Recovered negation scope, complex clauses, and adjective agreement remain incomplete; see the separate proposed extension below.
Community grammar extension v0.2 — hypothetical mood and predicate chaining (proposed)
The following forms are new proposals, not recovered Banks canon. The existing hanggra question marker and the words heth (“believe”) and tsha (“think about”) are retained.
Use zero-marked predicate chaining by default: subject.NOM + modal/control verb + main verb. The earlier ke particle is now optional for disambiguating complex complements.
| Meaning | Marain | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| I want to leave | ra'yuh okehi uprahay nayla | Unmarked predicate chain |
| I would like to leave | ra'yuh okehi'tcha uprahay nayla | Hypothetical desire, optionally polite |
| I would leave | ra'yuh upraha'tcha nayla | Irrealis departure |
| I could leave | ra'yuh funuf'tcha uprahay nayla | Irrealis ability |
| I think you should leave | ra'yuh heth geyuh shuhztnuft uprahay nayla | Belief governs a proposition with its own nominative subject |
New suffix 'tcha: Before adding it to a predicate, delete one final ch, c, p, d, t, or y (longest match first). Otherwise keep the complete stem. The apostrophe marks the romanized suffix boundary and is not a native glyph. Examples: uprahay → upraha'tcha, funuft → funuf'tcha, okehi → okehi'tcha, nocht → noch'tcha.
The suffix is distinct from standalone tcha (“if”) and hangtcha (“counterfactual if”). The existing modal predicates funuft, gihwinuft, shuhztnuft, kwemraku'ha, okehi, and ku'ha retain their meanings. Place hech after the predicate whose scope is negated.
Full grammar extension and examples. The phrase tool implements a bounded subset; unfamiliar nested and counterfactual constructions still show partial matches.
Community grammar extension v0.3 — patientive, resultative, and prospective (proposed)
Proposed language, not recovered canon. The new -vuh ending is a nominal patientive case; 'inayng and 'wolug are predicate-level markers, not ordinary noun cases.
| Function | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Patientive (PAT) | noun-vuh: undergoer is grammatical subject; agent unspecified | tovuh tshainsle bechumli — it was imagined |
| Resultative (RES) | predicate'inayng: second clause is presented as a consequence of a prior proposition | tovuh tshainsle'inayng bechumli — consequently, it was imagined |
| Prospective (PROS) | predicate'wolug: planned, scheduled, or intended but unrealized | ra'yuh uprahay'wolug nayla — I plan to leave |
| Future obligation | kwemraku'ha (obligation) and beyanli (future time) are independent of planning | ra'yuh kwemraku'ha uprahay nayla beyanli |
| Planned obligation | Combine obligation with PROS on the intended action | ra'yuh kwemraku'ha uprahay'wolug nayla |
The new predicate suffixes preserve every letter of the stem. Only hypothetical 'tcha uses the special final-letter deletion rule. The apostrophe is a romanisation boundary and not a glyph. Suffix stacking on the same predicate remains unspecified.
Three new proposed compounds support a fuller example: gralemih (know), tshainsle (imagine), and independent inayng (therefore). In a causal clause, the resultative suffix can replace the standalone connective.
Culture-universe name generator
Invent names resembling the non-ship names in Iain M. Banks's Culture universe. The generator learns letter transitions from the supplied reference list and assembles single, compound, personal, place-like, and institutional names. Generated names are new inventions, not canonical names or Marain translations.
Use the same seed and structure to reproduce a list. “New seed” creates a fresh batch. All generation runs in your browser; it does not send input to a server.
Loading name corpus…
Browse source names (user-supplied reference corpus)
The original, unmodified list contains 784 entries, including people, places, factions, and other names. Names are preserved exactly as supplied; individual entries have not been independently fact-checked against the novels. View or save the complete plain-text list.
Loading source names…
Culture Orbitals & habitats
Named Orbitals and habitats, kept apart from personal names and generated inventions. The first list is the user-supplied confirmed-name set, not automatically inferred from birthplace suffixes. The origin clues below are separate research notes, not additional confirmed Orbitals.
18 standalone names
1 additional habitat label (Broatsa / Broat)
16 origin examples, including exceptions
The accompanying note calls an earlier list “17-name,” but the list supplied here contains 18 standalone names plus “Broatsa (Phage Rock).” All 19 source lines have been retained rather than silently discarding an entry.
Source-listed Orbitals and habitats
- Codure
- Chiark
- Cloathel
- Dibaldipen
- Dinyol-hei
- Erbil
- Foerlinteul
- Gadampth
- Hursklip
- Masaq’
- Quyeela
- Screce
- Seddun
- Spanshacht-Trouferre
- Stafl
- Svanrayt
- Teriocre
- Yinang
- Broat (Phage Rock; source form
Broatsa; Kwins system)
Plain-text source: the complete Orbital/habitat name list. The original spelling Broatsa (Phage Rock) is preserved in that file; Broat is displayed here as the habitat's formal name according to the supplied interpretation.
Reading Culture personal-name origins
The usual two-component origin identifies a larger location and a more specific location. The first part can identify a stellar system or an Orbital; the second may identify a Plate or another subdivision. -sa is a suffix on the origin component, roughly equivalent to English -er—not a prefix, and not proof that either part is itself an Orbital. Iain M. Banks gives the explicit example Juboal-Rabaroansa: Juboal is a stellar system, Rabaroan is a Plate; the Orbital's own name is not specified by that example. Author's original explanation, “A Few Notes on the Culture”.
Additional birthplace and origin clues — not confirmed additions
Sixteen examples from the supplied research notes. “Identified” means the supplied evidence identifies the components' types; the book line pointers and most classifications have not been independently checked against the novels. Unresolved candidates remain unresolved.
| Source form and person | First component | Second component | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading annotated origin clues… Read the reference data. | |||
Exceptions and evidence rules
Tursensa Ngaroe is an explicitly retained Gzilt ordering variation and should not be rewritten to match a Culture-default pattern. Parharengyi being an asteroid-built interstellar habitat is a hypothesis, not an established identification. Ulver Seich was born outside the Culture (Sursamen Shellworld, eighth level). Quyn-Sichultsa refers to a star system and planet in a subsequently adopted Culture name, not an Orbital.
Ship and drone names are excluded. Klatsli Quike's Astle-Chulinisa is excluded as birthplace evidence because Quike is a ship avatar. The presence of an origin-like suffix alone does not establish the nature of any location.
Structured source data: JSON reference and origin clues. Source locations in the notes are edition-dependent line numbers.
English to Marain
Enter English words. Known dictionary words will be converted into Marain.
