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Today I spent more time writing Part Two, which I am probably nearing about 60% done with, and I'm at 12,000 words with, so it will probably be about 20,000 when I'm done with it.
I was able to pull some experiences from my dad's trip to Yugoslavia in summer 1992, and that should give you an idea of what Odapir, as a country, is (or was) like. Odapir is an authoritarian country with constant surveillance that, much like the PRC, convinced people that they were practicing actual communism and not just an authoritarian regime built to harvest their labor regardless. Oh well, at least high speed rail tickets are free in Odapir.
Today I will drop some Modern Odapir translations because they're actually kinda ridiculous and I'm really proud of what I was able to accomplish with this damn language.
Stops: p, b, t, d, k, g
Nasal stops: m, n
Fricatives: (f) (v) (s) h
Approximants: w, j
Tap: r
Vowels: i, y, e, a [ə], á [a], o, u
Diphthongs: ai [əɪ̯], oi [ɔɪ̯], au [əʊ̯], áu [aʊ̯]
As you can see, phonemic vowel length was lost, as well as a lot of diphthongs, and all of the affricates. Non-glottal fricatives remain as allophones of stops between vowels, i.e. p, b, t > f, v, s / V_V.
Wá maji áso ná moi ten ko! - Watch where you're going! (Lit. using where you're going, do a warning!)
Omoi moimaji ko - Halt. (Lit. do a stop.)
Majy jamá ná ymak moimaji. - Why are you out after dark? (Lit. Why exist you after dark.)
I really like the (o)moi N ko grammar I created, because it serves several functions all in one. It literally means "to do a N," but it's actually just a light verb construction.
While not lagging behind in terms of written content, I am definitely lagging behind in creating Modern Odapir, which is rather important for the story!
Now, there exists one word in Modern Odapir. One word. Tavishy, although this is an anglicism of the actual word. It came from Middle Odapir tabishu:, which meant 'safety, tranquility,' but also meant 'hide, conceal' when used as a verb. I haven't decided how it will be semantically changed yet.
Modern Odapir's vowels will be very cursed btw. Middle Odapir's vowels are already like... super cursed (see last post.) I'm thinking palatal sounds (j, sh, c) turn u > y, and then "disappear." (Like, j > lost, sh > h, and c > ts > s.)
Yeah and I'm gonna try to get rid of the affricates in the modern language. It creates some fun allophonic variation for the stops (e.g. p > f / [+vowel] _ [+vowel], elsewhere p, etc...) I may also have f, s > h / [+vowel] _ [+vowel].
That's all for now, amɜdáhō! (That's middle Odapir for both goodbye and hello!)
I hit 20,000 words today! I'm so excited. This also means that I am just over 9,000 words on Part Two, which also makes me proud.
Today I also really focused on fleshing out Odapir as a conlang, and I have a little ways to go before I finish deriving Modern Odapir from Middle Odapir.
Fun fact, by the way, Odapir is an exonym, since Odeineikō is the endonym in Middle Odapir.
As a treat for reading this far into my blog, have a description of Middle Odapir phonology:
Stops: p, b, t, d, k, g
Nasal Stops: m, n
Affricates: pf, ts, c (palatal affricate)
Fricatives: f, s, sh (palatal fricative), h
Liquids: w, j (palatal approximant)
Tap: r (alveolar tap)
High: ī, u, ū
Mid-high: o, ō
Mid-low: e, ɜ
Low: a, ā
Diphthongs: əi, ei, əu, au, ou
That's all for now. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!
Woohoo! I'm at two weeks of consistent progress!
I expanded Part Two to around 7,500 words today, which makes the whole thing around the 19,000 word count. I don't know what my original estimates for this thing were, but my newest estimates for how long this thing will be are between 70,000 and 100,000, since I'm probably only 20% of the way through and I'm already almost breaking 20,000. Definitely not a bad thing, it's just how the story I'm trying to tell is coming out.
Tomorrow will be national Odapir day (I decree it!) because I need to flesh the language and culture out. While there's already a substantial mass to work with, it's not ready to be translating anything, and I need translations.
That's all for now. Stay tuned!
Today, in addition to adding about 700 words to Part Two, I also made a bunch of translations into Modern Ipol. I probably translated about two hundred words of English into Ipol, and I will post one snippit of it here:
Pijteshijv sispeen pijte sis Nistemiks sis Nurrif sis Leerf pifijz. Pijteshijv losr shise tismostijv sispeenes pijte sis leerfine sis koleerf pite, Ir Nusnijv, spuw's sis spine, por sisla's pijte sju sis koleerf ejr sotenaks sis Nistemiks piste.
Ipol is the language of the Hero of Life's Confederacy of Zeneste. It started as the dialect of the capital, Ir Nouzonif, where it diffused, becoming a standard language for Zeneste. It replaced Classical Zispoel as the language of government and official business one-hundred and fifty years ago.
A couple notes:
ij and uw are symbols for long i and long u respectively.
j before a vowel is the palatal glide /j/.
Nistemiks literally means "the states" but it's also the most natural translation for 'Zeneste.'
Maybe at a later date, I'll do a post that breaks down this translation, but that's all for now!
Today I wrote a lot more of Part Two. It's officially >5,000 words, so the whole thing is >16,000 words now. Nice.
Have another 'bagnin'' line from my alpha-reader:
Sinezo 'na asispijenen sineen Nuwrrite piste, I thought, repeating the words of the chef in my mind. When a rice farmer has become the Emperor.
Mau sispijnen, I finished. Anything can happen.
I don't know if I've already posted this translation or not, but have at it.
My alpha reader pointed out how wonky the pacing is in the first 1,000 words. And how much of an underwriter I am. Maybe once I finish Part Two, or Three, I'll go and review the whole thing.
I still haven't figured out how to deal with the ending of the story yet, but yeah.
I put about 1,000 more words into Part 2 today, and 90% of it was just Izi and Hota yapping, learning about each other. More on Part 2 later.
Today I wanted to share the two lines from Part One that one of my alpha readers said were "banging." I completely agree with her. That's all for now!
I didn't remember exactly what he did. He was always meeting with high-ranking military officials in his study, which he always told me to stay out of. I remembered his smile and his quiet voice. My last few weeks with him were spent in a hospital. He made me promise to devote myself to myself. I didn't really understand what he meant then, and I had only started to understand it when the Dr. Este came for me.
And:
In Ipol, the language of Zeneste, the formal 'rr' sound already sounds like you're choking on a cherry pit, but my 'rr' sound sounded more like an 'h,' but stronger-sounding. Just thinking about taking speaking lessons made my heart drop.
Day 10 of writing my novel again. (13 in base 7).
Part 1 is done!! I stayed up late to finish it. The ending might be kind of lame so far, but that’s what my alpha readers are for! I really hope they come through because I need the feedback.
I’ll celebrate tomorrow. How, exactly? Not sure yet. I will update tomorrow.
Specifically those that use a protolanguage... please write down your sound changes before you copy-paste them! I've been struggling for several months to remember which sound changes happened from Old Ipol -> Modern Ipol and I cannot, for the life of me, find the file where I saved them. Please write them down I'm begging you.
I'm almost done with Part One (I think!) I should finish it tomorrow. There are about 10,000 words so far, and I need to write the final coronation scene with plot twist #1!! Izi is the Hero of Cognition!
Also, as soon as I finish that, I'll give it to some of my friends for "alpha" reading, since I'm ready for a first draft of something to get torn to shreds to help keep me motivated.
In the eventual future, I hope to flesh out Zispoel and Ytos as languages enough so that I can create "meme" translations of the novel itself into Zispoel and Ytos. A sort-of "meta-translation," if you will.
Day 8 of writing my novel, aka 1 week and 1 day. I didn’t write much today, as expected, but I let the characters remain rent free in my mind. Like yesterday, I did a lot of thinking about Part Four—mostly how to wrap up the whole story. I haven’t started writing it yet, but maybe I will start on Monday.
One week (day seven) of writing my novel again, and boy did I not do a lot of writing today. It was a lot of plotting, instead. And thinking about characters (see my post earlier today.) I likely won’t write a lot tomorrow, since I’ll be free of the chains of capitalistic studenthood (summer chinese classes for college), so I will probably keep doing more plotting in my free time.
Counterintuitively, today was a lot about thinking about the later parts of the novel: Parts 3 and 4. Those are much less thought-out than Parts 1 and 2, mostly because of how much writing I have to do to get there. Although, Pixar’s story writers (I think?) used to say, “endings are hard. Start by writing yours.”
In the coming days, I’ll consider the end of Meiste more.
I will post later about my writing progress today, too, don't worry. But right now, I thought I'd introduce the concept of Heroes in Meiste, how they relate to religion and politics, and introduce a few of them, along with their Guardians.
Before I get too deep into the weeds, every person's magic is also their soul in Meiste. Without their soul, their body and cognitive function can stay alive, but it's greatly decreased. (Foreshadowing...)
Tl;dr: The most powerful six magic users are Heroes.
A Hero is a human who is a vessel for the rapid generation and usage of magic. Since there are only six magic types, there are only six Heroes-one for each magic type. These six, along with the Seventh Hero, Meiste itself, make up the Seven Heroes. Each Hero also has a Guardian who necessarily protects them.
Several Heroes are already known about: the Hero of Life, the Hero of Language, and the Hero of Earth. The other three remain (mostly) a mystery.
she/her (Ipol: prijv/pijf)
"Meiste," translated as Earth, encompasses much more than just dirt in Zispoel. It also translates to the "physical" realm, where we as people reside. The (probably) Euclidean space where we type on keyboards and waste hours behind our cell phones.
Eheste Lozerief, known as Dr. Este, can manipulate space. She keeps her black pick-up truck on her keychain when she's not using it, for example. And she can teleport. Her mood is kind-of hit-or-miss when dealing with her, and while she does okay as a follower most of the time, she can only let her own needs get walked-over so much before she explodes.
Her Guardian: Tev, (or the Sensonif)
she/her (Ipol: prijv/pijf)
Sensonif literally means 'monster' in Ipol, by the way, and while her stature may be monstrous (fifty-foot tall lava-monster lady), her demeanor is anything but! She's warm-hearted (pun!) and fun.
She's one of four ancient beings called the Elementals (which aren't very relevant to the story.) She lives in a volcano and takes care of the village at the base of her volcano.
Those two end up dating each other post-canon.
In Iziser - Hero of Cognition (or Emeistezon)
he/him (Ipol: por/piste)
"Emeiste" literally means 'not-real,' so it could be translated as 'unreal,' but that may be a bit reductive. "Emeiste" encompasses everything that isn't real, but still exists. A prime example of this is the entire field of quantum physics and the wave functions that codify it. As a result, Izi can, himself, exist in a quantum superposition at will.
Izi is more assertive than Lozerief, but not quite as crabby as she can be. He and Lozerief bond over their shared nerddom, however, since they're both super interested in magic theory.
His Guardian: Pejemer
she/her
Pejemer is a seven-foot-tall swordswoman with ashen-colored goat-like horns and a sword so thin it can cut through anything. She's been wielding it for 1,100 years. Her species is also not human, like all Guardians. Instead, she's a Tawoo.
Pejemer is much more like Tev: easygoing, lighthearted, and fun. But Pejemer is more relaxed than the energetic Tev.
Hotautebz Az - Hero of Mind (or Ezispoerizon)
they/them (Ipol: pir, pirij)
"Ezisperizon" literally means "not-language," so it pretty much encompasses the subconscious. Hota, then, can control the subconscious. They can speak telepathically, influence a person's feelings, plant thoughts in their mind, or even take control of another person's mind!
They're far too timid to do any of that, though. They're six-foot-four, capable of mass-manipulation, and wouldn't hurt a fly-even if their life depended on it.
Their Guardian: Luwzrij
she/her
Luwzrij is a swamp fairy, a kind of humanoid with wings that's one of the four types of fairies, and Luwzrij is from the swamps of Eastern Zeneste. She's outgoing and charismatic, but rather clumsy (including downright destructive.)
Only Iziser and Lozerief are introduced by the end of Part One, but Hota is introduced very early in Part Two. None of their Guardians are present until halfway through the novel (Part Three.)
Day Six of Writing my Novel again (follow up from last night because I forgot.)
I smashed past 8600 words in Part One last night, and if my novel has 4 parts like I plan for it to, then the total word count should be somewhere along the order of 60-75,000 words. Not a lot, but good enough for draft 1!
I actually counted this time! Today is day five.
Today I thought I could post some songs that represent character dynamics from part 1:
Dr. Este's weird past with the Hero of Life (foreshadowing):
Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul, and Mary
Izi's Song Around the Palace:
Sea Songs - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1924)
That is all for tonight.
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.)
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
Ipol has 12 vowels.
High: i, ij, u, uw
Mid: e, ee, o, oo (/oː/), oh (/ɔː/)
Low: æ (/æː/), a, aa (/aː/)
Ipol is a (C)(S)V(C)(C)(C) language:
C = any consonant
V = any vowel + r
S = semivowel + r
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)
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?
Day Three of Writing my Novel, Meiste.
I didn’t write all that much today, due to obligations outside of the screen. However, I let the characters live rent-free in my head, along with letting my brother power-scale them (because he’s a hyper-nerd and it makes him happy.)
Easily the strongest (introduced) character is Dr. Este Luzrij, the Hero of Earth. She can bend space to her will, teleport, and shrink or move objects. I haven’t decided, yet, if she can do time dilation (because gravity is weird) but she’s definitely stronger than Iziser or Hotautebz.
I wrote about 2200 words of Meiste today while flying home from Albuquerque. Since I had no wifi to load up my google doc (peak writing setup, I know) I instead began working on Part 2 (out of how many? Not even I know!)
For the most part, I have a vague idea of the main characters, how they grow together, and where they end up, but part of the fun in writing is surprising myself in the moment. Like, today, the two characters who will wind up in a relationship by the end of the book, I wrote their introduction and first outing. It was glorious.
I finally started writing my novel, Meiste, again! It’s about a rice farmer who becomes Emperor, a student at a religious boarding school searching for the secrets of spirituality, and one explosive (/literal) Princess all working together to return magical stability to their home, and fighting oppressive systems along the way.
So far, I’m 4,500 words in—there’s definitely still a long way to go. Most of my research for this so far has been about two things: rice farming and religion. (Sounds like the start to a bad dad joke!) I plan to mostly focus on the (former) rice farmer, In Iziser, since the novel is supposed to be from his point of view.
In a later post I will explain magic in my conworld, Meiste, but one form of magic is Language magic. An overpowered ability some language magicians hold is the power to turn locutionary actions into perlocutionary results.
J. L. Austin was a philosopher interested in language, and he coined the terms "locutionary," "illocutionary," and "perlocutionary" to refer to sentences which invoke actions and the result thereof. Locution is literal meaning, but illocution refers to what an utterance has done, and perlocution refers to what happened thereafter.
For example, when you say "have a good day," you invoke perlocution to enforce that the person to whom you spoke should have a good day. When you say "please pass the salt," perlocution involves somebody passing the salt.
It's not hard to see why this is overpowered, then. If a perlocutionary language magician says "damn you!" then you may or may not be damned, depending on the magic behind it. Or if they say "bless you!" you may literally be blessed.
This may even be extended to sentences like "give me money," where now somebody may give the person who spoke money.
This is definitely overpowered, but I argue definitely not as overpowered as most Earth magic.