More language notes!
More language-fu ahead. featherynscale and triadruid were kind enough to work through my pouting to help me improve the alphabet so it looks less like Tengwar. I've got a baby lexicon of about 50+ words, a rudimentary grammar system, and even some punctuation.
Of course, this is still in the 'rough draft' stages, and will no doubt change drastically by the time I get to use it. Mostly I'm posting it here to document my progress for later. Also, be warned that one of the images may be wide enough to look ugly on your screen. Sorry 'bout that. Good thing it's behind a cut.
Yes, I have examples of sentences written in the script. :D
Here's the phonemes:
p
b
t
d
ph
v
th
ð
w
s
z
š
zs
h
r
l
n
m
ny
a
o
u
e
i
á
ó
û
ë
î
Most of these are the same as in English, but here are the quirky ones.
'ph' as in 'fish'
'th' as in 'thigh'
'ð' as in 'that'
's' as in 'sew'
'z' as in 'zoo'
'š' as in 'shin'
'zs' as in French 'rouge'
'ny' as in Spanish 'cañon' (or the way most of us say 'California')
'a' as in 'call'
'o' as in 'no'
'u' as in 'hunt' (schwa)
'e' as in 'let'
'i' as in 'will'
'á' as in 'chai'
'ó' as in 'boy'
'û' as in 'who'
'ë' as in 'their'
'î' as in 'bee'
So, those are the sounds. Stress is a little more complicated.
Primary stress is usually on the first syllable, unless the word is four syllables long, in which case stress falls on the second syllable. Words of five or more syllables have a secondary stress on the third-to-last syllable. Grammatical prefixes and suffixes do not get stress, and do not change the stress of a word - so 'sëth' ('chair') keeps its stress even when the prefix 'thû-' is added to mean 'under the chair': 'thûsëth'.
Here are a few sample sentences in the script, with transliteration beneath, then translation beneath that.
Zsophîel oršón îltušoða.
Zsofiel dressed quickly.
Tošo e thandë zsûl lamo.
The green sea is calm now.
Að behiv hîrom, aš rophu aðazs e thûsëthum lamo.
I write to you, and my house-fox sleeps under the chair.
I totally have an idiom in there. :D The 'aš' ('and') has already evolved into a special glyph, 'cuz it's small and the letters melded into that shape pretty easily. So, there's an Ëlmîr ampersand for ya. I expect the definite article 'e' will follow suit quickly, because that's just ugly. Also, I need a new vowel modifier for 'i' and 'î', 'cuz that is not working for me.
And yeah, due to a quirk of geography and habitat, the Ëlmîr domesticated foxes and not cats. And there are different breeds, too. But that's nothin'. Wait till you see what their dairy deer look like after a few millenia of selective breeding.
Of course, this is still in the 'rough draft' stages, and will no doubt change drastically by the time I get to use it. Mostly I'm posting it here to document my progress for later. Also, be warned that one of the images may be wide enough to look ugly on your screen. Sorry 'bout that. Good thing it's behind a cut.
Yes, I have examples of sentences written in the script. :D
Here's the phonemes:
p
b
t
d
ph
v
th
ð
w
s
z
š
zs
h
r
l
n
m
ny
a
o
u
e
i
á
ó
û
ë
î
Most of these are the same as in English, but here are the quirky ones.
'ph' as in 'fish'
'th' as in 'thigh'
'ð' as in 'that'
's' as in 'sew'
'z' as in 'zoo'
'š' as in 'shin'
'zs' as in French 'rouge'
'ny' as in Spanish 'cañon' (or the way most of us say 'California')
'a' as in 'call'
'o' as in 'no'
'u' as in 'hunt' (schwa)
'e' as in 'let'
'i' as in 'will'
'á' as in 'chai'
'ó' as in 'boy'
'û' as in 'who'
'ë' as in 'their'
'î' as in 'bee'
So, those are the sounds. Stress is a little more complicated.
Primary stress is usually on the first syllable, unless the word is four syllables long, in which case stress falls on the second syllable. Words of five or more syllables have a secondary stress on the third-to-last syllable. Grammatical prefixes and suffixes do not get stress, and do not change the stress of a word - so 'sëth' ('chair') keeps its stress even when the prefix 'thû-' is added to mean 'under the chair': 'thûsëth'.
Here are a few sample sentences in the script, with transliteration beneath, then translation beneath that.
Zsophîel oršón îltušoða.
Zsofiel dressed quickly.
Tošo e thandë zsûl lamo.
The green sea is calm now.
Að behiv hîrom, aš rophu aðazs e thûsëthum lamo.
I write to you, and my house-fox sleeps under the chair.
I totally have an idiom in there. :D The 'aš' ('and') has already evolved into a special glyph, 'cuz it's small and the letters melded into that shape pretty easily. So, there's an Ëlmîr ampersand for ya. I expect the definite article 'e' will follow suit quickly, because that's just ugly. Also, I need a new vowel modifier for 'i' and 'î', 'cuz that is not working for me.
And yeah, due to a quirk of geography and habitat, the Ëlmîr domesticated foxes and not cats. And there are different breeds, too. But that's nothin'. Wait till you see what their dairy deer look like after a few millenia of selective breeding.