Hello, This Is A Longshot Saving Life Call, I Am Imonje From Gaza. I Am Here To Request For Your Support

I’ve never read this book, I only watched the series on YouTube. I must read it at some point. David J. Peterson’s content on linguistics is immaculate.

I FOUND A BOOK

Look what we got from the library!!! Look at it! Look!

Now that we have The Book, there's no stopping us. You will all be drowning in words and grammar and scripts >:D

But seriously. If I had a flappy hands emoji, I'd be using it right now.

Day 41 (1:14) of rewriting my novel

I didn't write a lot today, but that's okay. Any progress is progress.

I'm still thinking about Izi's speech in Tolftorrijv, and about what he might say. For the three-man band that is the "New Heroes," Izi fills both the Heart and the Leader, and Taguchif overlaps with him in the roles of Lancer and Smart one. I guess that makes Hota the tank, while also fulfilling some leadership roles because they're good at making plans. A well-balanced team.

I now plan on breaking that balance in Part Four, though, splitting them up. It's time for Zeneste to come under new management, anyways.

Cursed Low Zeneth Translations

Consider this a makeshift guide to how Low Zeneth works.

Overview

Low Zeneth is a language and group of dialects spoken Southwestern Zeneste (the state of Tolftorrijv.) Its last common "ancestor" with Ipol was Classical Zispoel, but it had already started to diverge before the time of the Hero of Life. Low Zeneth is radically different than Ipol in many ways, though it's been influenced substantially by Ipol, too.

I will focus here on the prestige variety of Low Zeneth: the kind spoken in the city of Tolftorrijv.

Phonology/Romanization

Rendered Phonemically:

Stops: /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

Nasal Stops: /m/ /n/

Affricates: /t͡s/ /t͡ʃ/

Fricatives: /f/ /θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /h/

Approximants: /w/ /l/ /j/

Tap/flap: /ɾ/

Trill: /r/

Vowels:

/iː/ /i/ /yː/ /y/ /uː/ /u/

/eː/ /e/ /øː/ /ø/ /oː/ /o/ 

/ə̃/ /ə/

/a/ /ɑː/

That makes 34 total phonemes broken down from 20 consonants and 14 vowels.

Romanized:

p, b, t, d, k, g

m, n

ts, q

f, th, s, sh, h

w, l, j

r

rr

ij i üü ü uw u

ee ê öö ö oo o

v e

a aa

If you can't tell, I had fun deriving this phonology from the restrictive, Classical Zispoel phonology. Maybe a little too much, but oh well.

Morphology and Syntax - Grammar

Technically Low Zeneth is a VSO language, but that's not the full picture.

Basically, auxiliary verbs get sucked up into the (head-initial) tense-phrase. The tree below describes the translation "fijsesê bv hijfrê" which literally translates to "have I money" and means "I have money."

The result is that most subordinate clauses have the structure SVO, while the main clause has structure SV(A)O.

Low Zeneth has very slim morphology, only inflecting for a simple plural in nouns with -o, and no morphology at all in verbs. A series of sound changes rendered the T/A distinctions of Classical Zispoel basically indistinguishable, so to compensate, speakers of Low Zeneth employ heavy periphrasis.

Cursed Translations from Today

Fijatsia bv io dv luw êraanva ijrenva

Phonemic: /fi.ˈja.tsi.a ˈbə̃ ˈi.o ˈluː e.ˈɾɑː.nə̃.a ˈiː.ɾe.nə̃.a/

Lit. Translation: Will I give you of news urgent.

Meaning: I will give you urgent news/I must give you urgent news.

Üümen ijnvth Dvrr Ilaajote hijthen-luwario

Phonemic: /ˈyː.men ˈiː.nə̃θ ˈdə̃r i.ˈlɑː.jo.tə ˈhiː.θen.lu.wa.ɾi.o/

Lit. Manages Zeneste Emperor Tolftorrijv fight-people.

Meaning: The Emperor of Zeneste (now) manages the Tolftorrijv army.

Conclusion

I just figured I'd talk about Low Zeneth today because I haven't talked about it a lot but have been producing a bunch of translations. I realize only now that I didn't go over forming questions in this post, but maybe later I will. Feel free, as always, to request that I translate random words/phrases into this language.

more of my silly oc band au— honestly, are they even your best friend if they won’t help you write a concept album where your characters are totally in love?

ingrid sundberg's colour dictionary - writing help

Ipol (Conlang) Synopsis

Day 3 (? 4?) of writing my novel and I actually wrote a bunch today! But today I wanted to do something different: present on the most-used conlang in my novel: Ipol.

Ipol ['i.pol] is an Eastern Zenestian language descended from Classical Zispoel by way of Old Ipol. Ipol is actually the word used for the accent spoken in Ir Nouzonif (Ip. I Nusnif [i.'nus.nif]), the capital of Zeneste. Most other dialects, including several languages, are lumped together into Ipol Sinezo (literally: Rice-farmer Ipol.)

Phonology

Consonants

Ipol has 16 consonants:

Oral Stops: p, b, t*, d*, k, g*

* t, d > tʃ, dʒ / _ i

**Nasal Stops: **n, m

Fricatives: f, s*, h

* s > ʃ / _ {i, e}

Semivowels: j, w

Liquids: l

Rhotics*: r*, rr

r > /ɹ/ / _ {#, consonant}

r > /ɾ/ / (everywhere else)

rr is the uvular rhotic /ʀ/ found in French

Vowels

Ipol has 12 vowels.

High: i, ij, u, uw

Mid: e, ee, o, oo (/oː/), oh (/ɔː/)

Low: æ (/æː/), a, aa (/aː/)

Phonotactics

Ipol is a (C)(S)V(C)(C)(C) language:

C = any consonant

V = any vowel + r

S = semivowel + r

Translation + Teaser

Excerpt from Part One:

Dr. Este grunted, wrinkling her nose at me. "If you know what's good for you," she rephrased, "you'll stay far, far away from the attic." I gulped. Then, I shook my head. What were a bunch of sticks going to do to me when I wasn't looking. "Why? The Sensonif isn't hiding up there, is she?" I realized that the first stained glass window depicted the three Heroes: the Heroes of Life, Earth, and Language. Then the other window depicted the Hero of Earth killing the Sensonif-a monster said to be fifty-feet high and filled with lava. One touch from her is said to kill a person in seconds. My comment stiffened the Vice President, who stopped. Then, hanging her head, she gripped my shoulder and looked up into my eyes, her gaze lifeless and cold. "Nerte treste ésispijen," she whispered, "Sispoh sispijz la eheempijz." If you care about yourself, you mustn't go into the attic.

Nerte - you.ABS

Treste - you.ACC

sispijen - believe in, care about

Sispoh - must

sispijz - (negative modal verb)

la - in, into, towards

eheempijz - attic (literally house-up, or the top bit of a house)

Conclusion

Given that Dr. Este is the Hero of Earth who sailed around the world with the other two Heroes (of Life and Language,) what do you think is in the attic that she's so worried about?

I have a foolproof strategy for worldbuilding these days (as an American):

Step 1: Wait for Trump/MAGA to do something stupid and perform insane levels of Orwellian double-think to justify it.

Step 2: Write it down and change the names around.

The only good thing from all of this is that now I have an in-depth understanding of the dynamics that create this kind of situation, which is kind-of a must for Evil Government TM. Easily the worst way to get an in-depth understanding of that but...

I have a foolproof strategy for worldbuilding these days (as an American):

Step 1: Wait for Trump/MAGA to do something stupid and perform insane levels of Orwellian double-think to justify it.

Step 2: Write it down and change the names around.