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+--- Thread: Random Conlangery. (/showthread.php?tid=7999)
Random Conlangery. - Foxboy - 02-25-2009
As folks who know of and/or tune out Valles' world building rants from the Legendary Global channel could attest, I got into a conlang rant myself.
So, as part of the project to create a conlang or two for his story, I worked up this piece of "pseudo poetry." For pronunciation, consonants and digraphs are what you'd expect from English, vowels are the "Italian five" and "@" represents "schwa" or the sound represented by "u" and "o" in "button."
Shuz@ tirebe m@d,
Noi letala ko pal@ g@sita.
Cheni layomi supeya more sa!
Nigeche nalu.
At this point, nothing means anything, this is just trying to get the sounds to flow, or get a feel for the language.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
- Bob Schroeck - 02-25-2009
Mm. Interesting. First line sounds latinate, but the rest of it sounds more Asian...
If you've done any browsing of my website away from the DW stuff, you'll know that I dabble in artificial languages, too, though I go about it in a
different way. After I settle on the grammar and the basic mechanics of word construction, I decide on the phonemes (and the distribution thereof) that match
the "feel" I want the language to have, and then write a program to generate words. After I have a sampling, I start looking for natural patterns
within the generated words and begin assigning those elements to grammatical roles. I also have several rules of thumb I use when assigning words to meanings
-- frequently-used words will be short, for instance. (Example: consider the difference in how Japanese and English use the word "I", and the
difference in syllables between the various Japanese equivalents and English's one.) And of late I've begun using Soundex algorithms to catch words
with similar pronunciations, which I then set up with common ancestries and similar (or related) meanings. Also consider cultural elements when assigning word
meanings. My Elven language has two very similar words -- one for "human", the other for "thief" -- because of the "historical"
relationship between humans and elves in that world.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- Foxboy - 02-25-2009
At this point, I'm finding words and sounds that Valles likes, then I can work it from there. I already have a bit of sketchy grammar, that is, I know what
the grammar DOES to make words mean different things. I just don't know the specifics yet. V is aiming for a nonpositional structure. That is, phrase order
isn't necessary to understanding a sentence since the parts of the sentence are inflected in such a way that one always knows what the Direct object and
indirect objects are in a sentence.
So the only difference in the sentences: (using English vocab/inflections]
*Money me give.
*Me give money.
*Give me money.
*Give money me.
IS a poetic feel, or perhaps emphasis. The imperative "give" is always the verb, me is always an indirect object, etc.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
- Bob Schroeck - 02-26-2009
So you're designing a heavily inflected grammar, similar to Latin, as opposed to the positional grammar that English is evolving into? That can be fun...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- DHBirr - 02-26-2009
Intriguing. I've played with this sort of thing a bit myself, as "throwaway" touches for stories that'll never get written anyway. I came up,
for instance, with a snatch of national anthem for one imaginary country:
Gwyrr, ka vahal do kedru;
Daaz - voi sh'vesno kedru;
Gwyrr, ai kos tanshish fermu;
Idore.
Which translates as:
Rise, for the Homeland's calling;
Swift - all the hills are calling;
Rise, or our Night is falling;
Idore.
Idore being the name of their country. One of the things I decided is that the word "tanshish" in the third line doesn't mean
lowercase "night," the period between sunset and sunrise. That word would simply be "shish." With the intensifying prefix
"tan," however, it means "night without end" or "final doom" -- which is why, in the translation, "Night" is
capitalized.
Incidentally, if you're curious about the tune to which it's sung, watch the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings. The orcs besieging have a
battle chant ending in "Mordor," and the tune of that was the model for this.
While I'm boring you, here's another example. I envisioned a passage (in another story entirely) in which the hero briefly refers to a certain
empire by its native name -- reasonable, since he was a fugitive from there. The background ... got out of hand, resulting in this little glossary:
Khiros Majial - the Empire of Khiros, or Khiral Empire.
Majian saa-Khiral - Imperial Khiral citizen (plural Majian saa-Khiralur).
The word Majian, "Imperial," is seldom omitted by Khiral citizens, as this would be regarded as at least mildly disloyal. Majian Khiral, without the saa- prefix (abbreviated from the word Sastar, "Citizen"), is an adjective referring to,
for instance, the army, navy, ministries - anything Imperial Khiral other than the citizens and the Emperor himself (even the Imperial Consort is
designated Majian Khiral Tolanné).
Majiostis-Voianh Khiral - Khiral Witch-Emperor (an Empress reigning in her own right would be Majiostéin-Voianh
Khiral). Although Voianh commonly translates as "Witch," the Elvréid-Haidule dynasty's power, as that
of all its predecessors, is based not on true witchcraft but on sorcery, usually of the diabolic variety. It is
treason to use the imperial title in the abbreviated form "Majiostis-Voianh" without the specification
"Khiral." (Typical forms of address are Alterru, "Sire"; Shelis Vonn, "Blood Lord";
Yathen Khaikos, "Unholy Majesty"; and the full imperial title.)
Tadaz
Kwerranur - The elite bodyguard of the Majiostis-Voianh Khiral
and his immediate family, as well as of the highest ministers of the state. The name is usually translated as
"Steel Spectres," although Kwerran also has aspects of "vampire" or "demon."
Within the
Tadaz Kwerranur is a further elite of the elite, the Rethos Kibellan or Inner Guard, whose proactive style of protecting state security
involves espionage upon and assassination of elements both outside and especially inside Khiros Majial which could threaten the regime.
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Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.