Robot Language.
IGNORE THIS POST IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT BOTCAST. GO ON, GET OUT D:
So, because some people in OOC asked, uh...
I. I'm a hideous person. I hold that language is an extremely fundamental part of someone's culture, and the structure of a language can tell you a lot about the culture they grew up in. Thus, I started to think about what sort of language Cybertronian is anyway. For instance, despite the fact that there are "Femmes" and "mechs" in several continuities, these things don't scan directly to "male" and "female" as we know them since Cybertronians don't reproduce sexually; thus, such a language wouldn't have gender pronouns. And then I went "it is however a pretty damn stratified society, particularly for 'cons which have had a military structure for millions of years.
S-so I created this. Orz. It's the barest beginnings of a conlang. It's far from complete and probably completely wrong especially since I don't know jack about IPA notation. Also, since this was mooostly done to alleviate my own boredom, it focuses on G1 (s-sorry animooted, beast wars, and movieverse casts!) Also, this isn't based on anything official other than my own insane ramblings, so... no, Hasbro hasn't actually made a conlang, they usually just use funny symbols that are actually English.
Note that this essay is primarily based on Cape and Cowl's G1 / BW continuity. I am not a linguist, and so most of what's in here is probably wrong.
Pronounciation
Cybertronian is a click language, using clicks and trills
! - forward click w/ tip of tongue
| - a sound by sucking on the tip of the teeth; in English the sound when you make when you go "tsk-tsk"
ʘ - middle click
# - back of throat click
ǁ - side click
0 - pop
~ - trill
z - more akin to a buzz
p - as in put
r - rolled, always
` - glottal stop
Autobots generally voice their consonants (ie, they say b, v, d, z) and Decepticons generally don't (saying p, f, t, and s); though both dialects use the z sound. Both Predacon and Maximal use more vowels and voiced consonants, but there's also fundamental structural differences that I won't get into here.
Cybertronian is a heavily inflected click language, consisting of tonal clicks, trills, hums, glottal stops, and hissing syllabences. The overall effect is extremely mechanical sounding series of alien clicks.
Cybertronian has no gender based pronouns. In the Decepticon dialect, there are suffixes and prefixes which can be affixed to pronouns to indicate faction and base function - for example, "I-Decepticon-Flier" or "He-Autobot-Four-wheeled-racer". This is due to the extremely militarized and hierarchical nature of Decepticon society - 'cons place high value on rank and status, and these ranks are enforced. These suffixes are not used in day to day conversation, however, and are considered extremely formal.
So, for example, Decepticon pronouns:
| - first person singular
|krʘ - I (decepticon seeker)
|i`krʘ - I (lieutenant commander decepticon seeker)
ʘǁ - second person singular
ǁkr - you (decepticon seeker)
kha - third person singular
khakrʘ - he (decepticon seeker)
Rank suffixes are also added onto names, much like saying "Mr. so-and-so" or "Commander such-and-such". The number one has to use is indicative of one's relationship to the person you are speaking to.
So:
Second in command - Khss
Liutenant Commander - i`
Air Commander - Ara`
Decepticon - kr (somewhat like Mr.)
Seeker - ʘ
Starscream - Tyrk*chii
Megatron to Starscream - Tyrkʘchii
Soundwave to Starscream - Tyrkʘchiikr
Thundercracker to Starscream - Tyrkʘchiikrʘ
Astrotrain to Starscream - Tyrkʘchii`i`ara`krʘ
Rumble to Starscream - Tyrkʘchiikhssi`ara`krʘ (in an emergency / informally, Tyrk*chiikhss will do)
Granted this example is rather academic as no one remembers to give Starscream his full form of address anyway; on the other hand, the fact that he says !khssi`ara`krʘ whenever referring to himself speaks to his arrogance. Even Megatron generally just says ! (though !zfehkr #orkeh-zfah, "I (supreme commander) Megatron(am)" is one of his more famous quotes)
Autobot ranks are far less rigidly hierarchical given that they began as civilian 'bots; therefore, Autobots have no such rank suffixes, save for the rank of Prime.
- this is NOT the case for Malgians, who have an equally complex but different rank system.
***
Question, Statement, Declaration, Exclamation
Cybertronian sentences are prefixed with words that indicate the type of sentence - a question, a statement, etc; as well as type of question. Thus:
Who are you?
Vre` ʘǁzva
Vre` - question (who)
ʘǁzva - you is/are
I am Perceptor
Dekh A`kho!-zva.
Dekh - statement
A`kho! - one with vision / Perceptor
-zva - is/are/am
Note that the above sentences are in the Autobot dialect, as evidenced by the presence of v and d sounds.
You'll also note that this means that Soundwave's habit of saying "STATEMENT: BLAH BLAH" is actually a holdover from Cybertronian. Most of the Transformers would have learned English by downloading a file that told them how to speak it; in the 'cons case, Soundwave would have been the one to compile that file, thus, he had to learn the language the same way everyone else does - by analyzing it. As he learned it more naturally, the speech patterns of his original language come through more clearly. Or, at least, that'd be my headcanon explanation.
Autobot, Decepticon, Maximal, and Predacon all use their own distinct written scripts, though all these scripts are related. There are fonts which Hasbro uses in their media for these languages; however, they map exactly to English characters. Given that there's some sounds Cybertronians don't use at all (w, for instance) and others they use that we certainly don't (|, for instance) I'd have to re-map the font to actually mean something for my conlang. As is, however, these files can give you an idea of just what the written scripts look like.
Autobot
Decepticon
Maximal
Predacon
Maximal and Predacon also have unique numbering systems, as explained here, which probably means that Autobots and Decepticons ALSO have unique numbering systems. Trippy!
Animated uses the same Con/Bot scripts as G1; however, Movie continuity has no modern written language at all. There ARE examples of an ancient, extinct language; this language is glyph-based much like Chinese. Examples are here, based on toy packaging, and more information is here. It's interesting to note that a lot of movie continuity characters can't actually read, or at least, they can't read Cybertronian since there is no written form of the language in regular use, and they certainly wouldn't be able to read G1 or Animated scripts.
Other stuff...
Animated's dialects differ slightly from G1's, and from the Movieverse, and so on. The biggest difference is that Animated Autobots also have extensive rank suffixes and prefixes; not as bad as the 'cons (who are a highly militarized society) but still extant. Oddly, the word for "Magnus" and "Prime" is the same across continuities, but mean something different in Animated just like it does in English. Wacky! Again, someone from Animated will understand people from other continuities just fine, but they're going to find that autobots from other continuities speak really oddly, and that G1 Cons are REALLY hard to understand, especially if they aren't familiar with Decepticon in the first place.
Predacon and Maximal vs Decepticon and Autobot: the difference is about as vast as between Modern English and the english used in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" (for an example, see the canterbury tales, wikipedia in middle english, and Geoffery Chaucer Reviews Snakes on a Plane), with Decepticon and Autobot being the Early Modern to the Predacon and Maximal Modern. Obviously, if you sit down and think about it for a bit, you'll understand it okay; but initially your reaction's gonna be "lolwat?"
Finally, my own horrible attempts at actually pronouncing this stuff!
A shoddy attempt at actually pronouncing Starscream's name
Vre` ʘǁzva? Dekh A`kho!-zva.
Botcast and... everyone. Can feel free to ignore this, it's not necessary for headcanon I just. Did this to amuse myself.
orz.
*hides*
So, because some people in OOC asked, uh...
I. I'm a hideous person. I hold that language is an extremely fundamental part of someone's culture, and the structure of a language can tell you a lot about the culture they grew up in. Thus, I started to think about what sort of language Cybertronian is anyway. For instance, despite the fact that there are "Femmes" and "mechs" in several continuities, these things don't scan directly to "male" and "female" as we know them since Cybertronians don't reproduce sexually; thus, such a language wouldn't have gender pronouns. And then I went "it is however a pretty damn stratified society, particularly for 'cons which have had a military structure for millions of years.
S-so I created this. Orz. It's the barest beginnings of a conlang. It's far from complete and probably completely wrong especially since I don't know jack about IPA notation. Also, since this was mooostly done to alleviate my own boredom, it focuses on G1 (s-sorry animooted, beast wars, and movieverse casts!) Also, this isn't based on anything official other than my own insane ramblings, so... no, Hasbro hasn't actually made a conlang, they usually just use funny symbols that are actually English.
Note that this essay is primarily based on Cape and Cowl's G1 / BW continuity. I am not a linguist, and so most of what's in here is probably wrong.
Pronounciation
Cybertronian is a click language, using clicks and trills
! - forward click w/ tip of tongue
| - a sound by sucking on the tip of the teeth; in English the sound when you make when you go "tsk-tsk"
ʘ - middle click
# - back of throat click
ǁ - side click
0 - pop
~ - trill
z - more akin to a buzz
p - as in put
r - rolled, always
` - glottal stop
Autobots generally voice their consonants (ie, they say b, v, d, z) and Decepticons generally don't (saying p, f, t, and s); though both dialects use the z sound. Both Predacon and Maximal use more vowels and voiced consonants, but there's also fundamental structural differences that I won't get into here.
Cybertronian is a heavily inflected click language, consisting of tonal clicks, trills, hums, glottal stops, and hissing syllabences. The overall effect is extremely mechanical sounding series of alien clicks.
Cybertronian has no gender based pronouns. In the Decepticon dialect, there are suffixes and prefixes which can be affixed to pronouns to indicate faction and base function - for example, "I-Decepticon-Flier" or "He-Autobot-Four-wheeled-racer". This is due to the extremely militarized and hierarchical nature of Decepticon society - 'cons place high value on rank and status, and these ranks are enforced. These suffixes are not used in day to day conversation, however, and are considered extremely formal.
So, for example, Decepticon pronouns:
| - first person singular
|krʘ - I (decepticon seeker)
|i`krʘ - I (lieutenant commander decepticon seeker)
ʘǁ - second person singular
ǁkr - you (decepticon seeker)
kha - third person singular
khakrʘ - he (decepticon seeker)
Rank suffixes are also added onto names, much like saying "Mr. so-and-so" or "Commander such-and-such". The number one has to use is indicative of one's relationship to the person you are speaking to.
So:
Second in command - Khss
Liutenant Commander - i`
Air Commander - Ara`
Decepticon - kr (somewhat like Mr.)
Seeker - ʘ
Starscream - Tyrk*chii
Megatron to Starscream - Tyrkʘchii
Soundwave to Starscream - Tyrkʘchiikr
Thundercracker to Starscream - Tyrkʘchiikrʘ
Astrotrain to Starscream - Tyrkʘchii`i`ara`krʘ
Rumble to Starscream - Tyrkʘchiikhssi`ara`krʘ (in an emergency / informally, Tyrk*chiikhss will do)
Granted this example is rather academic as no one remembers to give Starscream his full form of address anyway; on the other hand, the fact that he says !khssi`ara`krʘ whenever referring to himself speaks to his arrogance. Even Megatron generally just says ! (though !zfehkr #orkeh-zfah, "I (supreme commander) Megatron(am)" is one of his more famous quotes)
Autobot ranks are far less rigidly hierarchical given that they began as civilian 'bots; therefore, Autobots have no such rank suffixes, save for the rank of Prime.
- this is NOT the case for Malgians, who have an equally complex but different rank system.
***
Question, Statement, Declaration, Exclamation
Cybertronian sentences are prefixed with words that indicate the type of sentence - a question, a statement, etc; as well as type of question. Thus:
Who are you?
Vre` ʘǁzva
Vre` - question (who)
ʘǁzva - you is/are
I am Perceptor
Dekh A`kho!-zva.
Dekh - statement
A`kho! - one with vision / Perceptor
-zva - is/are/am
Note that the above sentences are in the Autobot dialect, as evidenced by the presence of v and d sounds.
You'll also note that this means that Soundwave's habit of saying "STATEMENT: BLAH BLAH" is actually a holdover from Cybertronian. Most of the Transformers would have learned English by downloading a file that told them how to speak it; in the 'cons case, Soundwave would have been the one to compile that file, thus, he had to learn the language the same way everyone else does - by analyzing it. As he learned it more naturally, the speech patterns of his original language come through more clearly. Or, at least, that'd be my headcanon explanation.
Autobot, Decepticon, Maximal, and Predacon all use their own distinct written scripts, though all these scripts are related. There are fonts which Hasbro uses in their media for these languages; however, they map exactly to English characters. Given that there's some sounds Cybertronians don't use at all (w, for instance) and others they use that we certainly don't (|, for instance) I'd have to re-map the font to actually mean something for my conlang. As is, however, these files can give you an idea of just what the written scripts look like.
Autobot
Decepticon
Maximal
Predacon
Maximal and Predacon also have unique numbering systems, as explained here, which probably means that Autobots and Decepticons ALSO have unique numbering systems. Trippy!
Animated uses the same Con/Bot scripts as G1; however, Movie continuity has no modern written language at all. There ARE examples of an ancient, extinct language; this language is glyph-based much like Chinese. Examples are here, based on toy packaging, and more information is here. It's interesting to note that a lot of movie continuity characters can't actually read, or at least, they can't read Cybertronian since there is no written form of the language in regular use, and they certainly wouldn't be able to read G1 or Animated scripts.
Other stuff...
Animated's dialects differ slightly from G1's, and from the Movieverse, and so on. The biggest difference is that Animated Autobots also have extensive rank suffixes and prefixes; not as bad as the 'cons (who are a highly militarized society) but still extant. Oddly, the word for "Magnus" and "Prime" is the same across continuities, but mean something different in Animated just like it does in English. Wacky! Again, someone from Animated will understand people from other continuities just fine, but they're going to find that autobots from other continuities speak really oddly, and that G1 Cons are REALLY hard to understand, especially if they aren't familiar with Decepticon in the first place.
Predacon and Maximal vs Decepticon and Autobot: the difference is about as vast as between Modern English and the english used in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" (for an example, see the canterbury tales, wikipedia in middle english, and Geoffery Chaucer Reviews Snakes on a Plane), with Decepticon and Autobot being the Early Modern to the Predacon and Maximal Modern. Obviously, if you sit down and think about it for a bit, you'll understand it okay; but initially your reaction's gonna be "lolwat?"
Finally, my own horrible attempts at actually pronouncing this stuff!
A shoddy attempt at actually pronouncing Starscream's name
Vre` ʘǁzva? Dekh A`kho!-zva.
Botcast and... everyone. Can feel free to ignore this, it's not necessary for headcanon I just. Did this to amuse myself.
orz.
*hides*