A Little Linguistics (Purely for Interest!)

Posted on by She

This is a small example of my shorthand writing system. If you are familiar with Gregg, then you will recognise a number of influences: similar stroke patterns and the same non-essential vowel addition, but with a personal twist. It’s the most efficient method, what can I say? What’s that quote about the wheel and inventions?

Every part of the script is functional, and it can be written in a mirrored fashion from right to left, allowing the writer to snake down the lines on a page and not remove his or her hand. For ease-of translation, I present the following only in standard left-to-right. It reads as the first part of this post, up to the colon. There are a few word changes, because I made alterations later, maybe you can spot them.

20180307_152007

The following two extracts belong to the same language, but are written in differing scripts. For writing systems, they are the simplest I have created, being alphabetic in nature, similar to the Latin system I am using now, but the syntax of the language differs considerably, with highly agglutinative morphology being used to free up word order, creating pretty, convoluted forms of lexemes.

The top example originates in a writing system I never happily named. It is facile, and is my most ancient creation. The graphemes are dense, causing it to be lengthy to write, but it is easy to read. The second example is just pretty, and based roughly on the script for Quenya/ Sindarin but is the one that matches closest with the phoneme system for the language as it was designed for it.

The closest (rough) translation in English would be:

Warrior- voc.sg.nom great if overpwer-2.sg.nom woman-PROX.sg.acc evil SUB create-2.sg-FUT son.1.sg.gen sword-INDEF.sg.acc magic SUB fear-COND god-def.pl.nom

OR

“Oh great warrior, if you can defeat this witch, my son will make you a magic sword that the gods would fear.”

20180307_183435

Currently, I am working on a highly efficient tonal language with a writing system including two elements to the writing system: semantic and phonetic, just like Mandarin.

 

Published by She

63 thoughts on “A Little Linguistics (Purely for Interest!)”

      2. Green tea is also my cup of tea. I am practically made of tea. Please join for a cuppa and a chat whenever the fancy takes you. Now I sound like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, but whatever goes! 🙃🙃😊

        Liked by 1 person

      3. You sound like him. 😂😅But don’t worry we all have a bit of those characters in us.
        Whenever we can sing: “an happy non birthday…” turning 22 in 4 days.🤗😄

        Liked by 1 person

      4. 😆😆😆 why not celebrate every day. Our lives are so short! I love life. I hope you do too. In life we have choice and…most importantly tea!

        Also a very happy birthday to you in 4 days. You have so very much life ahead! 22 is the best age and the twenties are the very best! The cup should always be half full, or something needs to change, and change we can, through choice! Enjoy!!!

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    1. Yes! I am not sure when I will have time, as the time I mentioned in October–we have booked to go to Greece for nearly 2 weeks. I will make time somewhere though 🙂

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      6. It is a little… different. But a lot of people have created languages, such as Esperanto. It has been done for a long time before, and will be done a long time afyer, no doubt!

        Liked by 1 person

      7. True! I told you this before, but I think an opportunity was wasted when people created sign languages based on different spoken languages. If there was just one sign language, everyone could learn it and speak with one another no matter where they were or who they were talking with.

        Liked by 1 person

      8. I could not agree more. It is not like signs cannot be universal. Languages are different because if you are born into one language you may struggle to create the sounds of another properly, but there is no reason signing could not be universal. Do you sign with your son, and you said he was non-verbal?

        Liked by 1 person

      11. He can use PECS-based systems, and he can also pull us to something or bring something to us. At school he does more, but like most kids, when something is associated with school he doesn’t really want to do it at home.

        Liked by 1 person

      12. It must be difficult. I am not familiar with PECS based system. What is this?

        Nobody wants to mix work and play, and stand with him there!!

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      13. Its a picture based system of communication that incorporates the words but doesn’t exclusively use words. I can’t remember what it stands for.

        Liked by 1 person

      16. I wish there was more to help you in this area. I am sorry this is such a frustration for you and your family. It is a shame he did not take to signing.

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    1. Hi Neha, sorry I did not reply earlier. I was living in remote parts of Africa with tribes people who speak in clicks -such a wonderful experience for a linguist!

      I am afraid I do not have any posts on how to create your own conlanguage at the moment, as this is usually a writing blog. If there is a lot of interest in the process of creating conlangs, I would be pleased to put together some posts. If not, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Really Clever stuff!!
    Its a long time since I heard anyone mention either Quenya or Sindarin – such great memories of reading Tolkien.

    Great Stuff!

    Liked by 1 person

      2. Thanks very much 😋🙂🙂 you are very kind.

        I would not worry, isn’t almost everything typed these days? The requirement for handwriting to be readable must surely be almost entirely superfluous in the modern day for most purposes 🙂 (unless you have a script that you have not created a typeface for 😆).

        Liked by 1 person

      4. That is true! I adore my travel diaries. I have an entire shelf in the study of them, dating back to 2007, when I first began exploring the world. There is something tangible about the contents. They are completely unique. Do you have diaries or travel diaries?

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Whoa. You must be so organised to have kept your diaries back from 2007.
        I stopped writing personal diary during my college. Post that I maintain a small travel diary which is more of a travel log (once you decode my handwriting).

        I make sure that I only pen positive thoughts in my diary. Do you happen to have a selective criteria of your own?

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      6. I love the idea of only writing positively. Is this to cheer yourself up and find the silver lining in each day, or it is how you wish to be thought of and remembered? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we remembered most of our lives in rose-tinted pages.

        I jot down any thought that I can chew on and mind wrestle. Mostly, it is funny nonsense or quirky little snippets of curiosity, but sometimes it can be more, digging to the core of issues or people or problems or whatever 🤗 most of the diaries are from my lengthy travels where I record everything of note, especially the cultural and religious differences.

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      7. I never really thought of writing cultural observations or differences, although I observe a lot. This can be a good idea.
        I had observed that our thoughts and actions are interlinked. Hence the more positive I am, the better my approach towards my surroundings is. However, while writing negatives my entire body language got shaped accordingly, so were my thoughts.
        And honestly, at that age, there is a separate charm towards negativity. Hence I wrote positives only, and that affected my day as well. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      9. Well, probably I was. The diary ended up being dark and messy (typical act of a college student).
        I always think of completing it, but somehow I don’t.

        Do you have a diary that you couldn’t complete?

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      10. I am not sure a diary is ever complete, well until you are no longer here, so yes, there is a diary I have not completed, as I am still breathing 😋with the exception of travel diaries that have a specified end point at the conclusion of the trip. I always make sure I finish travel diary entries🙂 I have become a pro at writing legibly on a moving vehicle 😆😆

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      11. Haha, I guess no journey is ever complete. Life or after life, however, the little records that we have must be difficult to maintain.
        I, for once, find it difficult to pen anything in a moving vehicle. 😛

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