Archive for July, 2013
Conlangery #92: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Monday, July 29th, 2013Béno ankoan — Power of Animals
Sunday, July 28th, 2013Incidentally, this is my first song in Sandic ever done with an actual accompanying instrument (excluding hand-patting like has been done in the past). I used the drum I've had sitting in my closet for a while. Maybe I should make this a more regular thing and try to learn to play actual music with my songs?
I love chants, what can I say? Some people prefer pop music... I like simple "let's sing these while on a hike" kind of songs. You have to imagine this wouldn't be so nicely sung when someone is in the grip :p
Order of texts: Sandic -- Smooth English of Sandic -- Original English
Online recording software >>
Béno ankoan,
fian opéféd,
lēenan kalēniali
pa me opéahl
mér en me,
otema herle
mér madîjj me
otema boa amai
mér lēnial me
otema helakolé
ba verc me obaahlra nokcso
--
Power of the animals,
come to me,
all the spirits hiding
be in me
when I am running
let me do as the deer do
when I fight
let me do as a mother bear does
when I am hiding
let me do as a fox does
my blows
let them be as (those of) a snake
--
Animal Spirits
Come to us now
Vanishing Spirits
Come live in us
when we run
let us run like the deer
when we fight
let us fight like a momma bear
when we hide
let us hide like a fox
learn to strike
like a rattlesnake
Phonology idea
Saturday, July 27th, 2013Detail #50: a type of numeral
Friday, July 26th, 2013It hit me that one natural context for numerals is when discussing time, and it could very well be possible for a language to have specific forms for the numerals for N:th day (or even N:th general unit of time), or for N days, to such an extent that the time unit generally can be left out.
Imagine
four-TIME-[some oblique case, plural]: on four days
four-TIME-[some oblique case, singular]: on the fourth day (of the month)
four-TIME-[some other oblique case, singular]: four days from the time inferred from the context
four-TIME-[some other oblique case, plural]: every fourth day
Meanwhile, if the language treats "many" and "how many" as numerals, in giving them ordinal forms as well, this could provide some further cool stuff. Finally, diminutives would possibly be used to form, say, hours and minutes or some analogous time units.
I would further like for it to lack the nominative and accusative, so that talking of four units of time as a subject or objects requires normal ordinal or cardinal numerals.
This idea might enter Tatediem.
child is hapi
Friday, July 26th, 2013Word derivation for "child"
Basque = haur, Finnish = lapsi
Miresua = hapi
Another Basque word for child (or offspring) is ume, which is also used for young animals.
The words child and children can be found in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Vaes Dothrak Vimithreri
Friday, July 26th, 2013I’m mostly recovered from my first trip to Comic-Con this past weekend, and I’ve discovered that June is almost over, and I’ve only got one post for the month. This is my attempt to remedy that.
Something fun that I got to do for Comic-Con was translate some of the trolley signs for San Diego MTS into Dothraki. The signs were up at the station right across the street from the convention center, and I thought they came out pretty well. Here are some pictures:
For a full set of the signs, though, check out this picture that SDMTS put together (along with some more literal translations I provided):
Thanks to Nara Lee for setting it all up! It was pretty cool.
Also, while I was there I got to participate on a panel called “I Can’t Write, I Can’t Draw, But I Love Comics!” put together by Susan Karlin. Here’s a photo:
The Making Game of Thrones blog also put up a post on the panel with a pretty good picture. You can check it out here.
In Valyrian news, I’ve finished the translations for season 4, so all that’s left is filming and post, and a long wait for the premiere!
Ama ba glénra — Mother of Darkness
Thursday, July 25th, 2013Order of texts: Sandic -- Smooth English of Sandic -- Original English
Record music with Vocaroo >>
The One Ring
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013This is the "one ring" poem, done after seeing a challenge for it on Facebook.
Order of texts: Sandic -- Smooth English of Sandic -- Original English
Record and upload audio >>
tsune baahl tré ân otiab ere,
tsune baahl tré ân otiab su,
tsune baahl tré ân otiab úraj
wî (ân) pa glén ŵak otiab sodra.
--
There is one ring to rule them
one ring to find them
one ring to bring them all together
and to bind them in the shadows.
---
One ring to rule them all
one ring to find them
one ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.
Diioo staloni – Book of pictures
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013Sandic is totally getting one of those, if only for the reason that I would love to have a book to flip through and look at myself. Granted, I already know the words, but there's something beautiful about seeing them printed that really makes it worthwhile!
Anyway, to that end, I made this image today. :) I hope to make many more soon!
Words with an umlaut are stressed where the umlaut falls. Same for words with letters underlined. Since I didn't think to do it before uploading, the stress for "safpa" is on the first a: "sAfpa". :) Enjoy!
Special thanks to PDClipart for making their collection available online! I can see myself playing with this a lot in the coming weeks.
butterfly is pehinexa
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013Word derivation for "butterfly"
Basque = tximeleta AND pinpilinpauxa
Finnish = perhonen
Miresua = pehinexa
Basque has multiple words for butterfly, perhaps they are from different dialects. I choose the two that seemed most common.
The word butterfly occurs just once in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice tells the Caterpillar that some day he'll change into a butterfly.