I recall a project where someone tried to create an alternate language where English was a Romance language. Anyone think they can find that?
Languages of alternate worlds
- Thread starter sonicflorian
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Krall
Banned
Are you thinking of Brithenig, the romance version of Welsh in the world of Ill Bethisad?
So it's just the English Latin alphabet with "q" and "x" taken out?
Basicly, though some letters have evolved/devolved, using our modern alphabet would not be out of place or even raise an eyebrow. Infact using the alternate characters I developed would make you the wierd one.
I hope this thread hasn't died yet, but here's mine:
Ortnayzyn fyn iscynas doz fiyarnazoz gats Atlantis pramxordey denoz. Darnayzyn delhnazyn pyreduntyrn, biy ezyni nhefymyn tesh?
Translation: This is the language I've made for my Atlantis timeline. It's not quite finished yet, but what do you think?
Ortnayzyn fyn iscynas doz fiyarnazoz gats Atlantis pramxordey denoz. Darnayzyn delhnazyn pyreduntyrn, biy ezyni nhefymyn tesh?
Translation: This is the language I've made for my Atlantis timeline. It's not quite finished yet, but what do you think?
Michael Busch
For a human conlag, the romanizations everyone's been providing make sense, since the basic sounds/units of information are similar. For an alien language, most authors seem to use either too-human sounds (every Star Trek and Star Wars rubber-forehead) or nearly random unstructured sounds (e.g. the Vorlons). Any thoughts on how to transcribe a truly alien language?
As examples:
One alien species I've designed speaks by firing matched sets of vestigial course-correction jets (they live in the atmosphere of a gas giant). The resulting sounds are vaguely like a set of bagpipes being played in helium. How should I transcribe the basic sounds?
Another has no sense of hearing and communicates by sign languages (twelve limbs). There have been attempts to create human sign language writing systems, which appear prohibitively complicated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SignWriting). But an entirely deaf species won't start that way. How do they write?
After basic sounds, there's the structure of the language. Human speech varies so widely that there may not be so many surprises here. Feel free to disprove that last.
Leo Caesius
Banned
Spielberg used a 18th v. French conlang, Solresol, to great effect in representing a truly alien language in his Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Eghelos therainè ahonenoghè iie sethe-Fares/inosrearethe Losèlon ide kyannoghè iie//yores Skethoselòn ii/vo gheresti qwaneiela/Xhanasekìe adehedetsunoghè iie inaitetreminimae vo inosrewademae-
Why the Losirian language became the most dominant? For a first, the dominant position of Los helped; secondly, the inheritance of Skethos, and common to the world, was recollected by Xhanas in the most faithful and understandable way.
It has his alphabet, but it's written somewhere (and I do not remember where). :3
Why the Losirian language became the most dominant? For a first, the dominant position of Los helped; secondly, the inheritance of Skethos, and common to the world, was recollected by Xhanas in the most faithful and understandable way.
It has his alphabet, but it's written somewhere (and I do not remember where). :3
To create an Alien language the easiest thing is to probably break a bunch of universals. I saw one once that instead of having objects, subjects, and nouns it also had a sort of action, experiencer, reason, intender, and what caused it to happen. It was also written with a facial alphabet. Or theoretically we could remove different classes, like nouns, or adjectives. Adjectives are easiest, simply make them verbs, i.e. the rock is reddening. We could I suppose do the same thing to nouns, or the opposite, making everything nouns. yeah, just some thoughts.
Michael Busch
I understand, at some level, how to design such a language. My question was how to transcribe it. In the end, for print, it's probably simplest to describe what the language look/sounds like, and then provide a dynamically-equivalent translation, offset by a font (Niven/Pournelle in Mote in God's Eye, Brin in Startide Rising, etc.)
Deleted member 5719
I admire the linguistic work in Ill Bethisad, but my God, they batter the butterflies!
Deleted member 5719
I'm currently trying to work out 4 languages for my 1066 timeline.
Britaneg: Grammatically simplified Welsh/Breton hybrid.
*Mergid: A Tungusic/Turkic pidgin that develops into a creole, becoming a major world language.
*Valencian: Mozarab/Arabic.
Tolosan: Romance language which developed independently of Catalan and French. (The easiest, and the only one I've got under control, a mixture of Occitan, Catalan and Lombard).
*Mergid is a ball ache, as it's difficult to find Tungusic resources on line.
Britaneg: Grammatically simplified Welsh/Breton hybrid.
*Mergid: A Tungusic/Turkic pidgin that develops into a creole, becoming a major world language.
*Valencian: Mozarab/Arabic.
Tolosan: Romance language which developed independently of Catalan and French. (The easiest, and the only one I've got under control, a mixture of Occitan, Catalan and Lombard).
*Mergid is a ball ache, as it's difficult to find Tungusic resources on line.
This is a language from an entirely different world. It's essentially this world's equivalent of latin, and it resembles most romance languages as a result, but heavily simplified.
Ex:
Eo volo ire a Sae a vedere anintis ruinas.
I want to go to Sae to see ancient ruins.
Eo apelo Marius.
My name is Marius.
Ale, com to apelai?
Hello, what's your name?
Ex:
Eo volo ire a Sae a vedere anintis ruinas.
I want to go to Sae to see ancient ruins.
Eo apelo Marius.
My name is Marius.
Ale, com to apelai?
Hello, what's your name?
I have a language from the story I'm writing. I have an alphabet but only a few words I have a definite definition of:
Kal - House or home.
Iga - Land.
Malesk - A group of islands.
Mala - Island.
Lux - Light.
Prot - Free, or freedom.
Stella - City.
The planet is called Tariga - which means Cold Land (Tar Iga). Kyertar, a name used in the story, literally means Ice Cold (Kyer Tar).
There are other words I can't think of right now.
Kal - House or home.
Iga - Land.
Malesk - A group of islands.
Mala - Island.
Lux - Light.
Prot - Free, or freedom.
Stella - City.
The planet is called Tariga - which means Cold Land (Tar Iga). Kyertar, a name used in the story, literally means Ice Cold (Kyer Tar).
There are other words I can't think of right now.
A really good website for building languages is here:http://www.zompist.com/virtuver.htm
Mark Rosenfelder has a very detailed series of languages and an excellent forum for discussion of conlaging and he has a big article on thoughts about this kind of stuff.
Mark Rosenfelder has a very detailed series of languages and an excellent forum for discussion of conlaging and he has a big article on thoughts about this kind of stuff.
Snake Featherston
Banned
Thread necromancy....ahoy!
A phrase in Standard Hata, a conlang based on an alien species:
"Veremez marakurum."
"And thus it is that we are past where we cannot return."
In the dialect that my stories would most often feature, which is one of the demotic dialects while Standard Hata is an artificial government dialect not used outside the political world:
"Vurez erezmaram."
"And thus it is that the un-returnable point is reached."
Why yes, I do tend to go into too much detail.....
A phrase in Standard Hata, a conlang based on an alien species:
"Veremez marakurum."
"And thus it is that we are past where we cannot return."
In the dialect that my stories would most often feature, which is one of the demotic dialects while Standard Hata is an artificial government dialect not used outside the political world:
"Vurez erezmaram."
"And thus it is that the un-returnable point is reached."
Why yes, I do tend to go into too much detail.....
I've done something similar with my Vash language where there is no difference between verbs and adjectives except in a inactive/active/passive mood sense:
dag ya = I am royal
deg ya = I rule (roughly, I do royal)
dog ya = I am ruled [by/over]