Languages

From: johnjmedway (jjm@zycor.lgc.com)
Date: Mon 08 Nov 1993 - 19:59:16 EET



Loren, muchas gracias for the repost of the AOL discussions. Glad I don't have access to that, though. I'd have no time left for the rest of my life!

>> From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
>> X-RQ-ID: 2191
>>
>> Darktongue is agglutinative, intuitive, and has many onomatopaeic words -
>> these latter can be based on the characteristic echo produced by an object
>> ...
>> Repetition indicates emphasis. Thus 'uzuz' - Mistress Race Troll, or
>> Hombombobom the Great Drummer. In our campaign 'ju' indicates mana and

Pretty close to what I'd thought up. Yours is a more extensive write-up though. I'd tried to describe it to players as sounding "like a mixture of Bushman, Humpback Whale, Korean and the bands Yello and Laibach".

Some of my examples to the players:

    baam

        be, is, are
    bowng                                     chigah
        of me, mine                               no take
    bowng-bowngk                              chiga-chigaah
        of me and my allies, ours                 not take, no hurt, no eat
    bowng-ga-bownk                            ung-ahhh
        of them and not me, theirs                hinder
    nk
        you ( sonar ping at "you", often omitted )
        

So you get:

    nk ung-ahhh bowng

        [Allies and posessions] of mine will not hinder you.
        ( Offer of cheerful, willing assistance. )

    bowng-ga-chigaah
        This is mine.  You may take it.
        ( When presenting food or gifts. )

    bowng-bowngk, chiga-chigaah
        This is of me and of my allies. Do not take/hurt/eat it.
        ( Please be so kind as to ... ARGH! stomp! pound-pound-pound * )
    
    * at this point the mindlink with the Lhankor Mhy researcher abruptly
      terminated.

Of course, most of the more subtle expressions of Darktongue are too low in pitch and cannot be made or understood by humans.

>> New Pelorian - in our campaign there is both an alphabet and a syllabary of
>> about 600 important syllables (plus many little-used characters). THe
>> written language looks a bit like Hindi. (We use many Indian models for the
>> central Theistic zone of Genertela.) The alphabet is considered easy to
>> learn but inelegant and the upper classes communicate in beatifully
>> calligraphed letters using the more compact syllabic script. Provincials
>> often learn only the alphabet. The script is cursive (as 'Gray' speculates..)

Is the alphabetic script, or the syllabic script cursive? Is it Dara Happan which uses the old script, or New Peolrian?

>> From: 100270.337@CompuServe.COM (Nick Brooke)
>> X-RQ-ID: 2192
>>
>> think British = Civilized, run him as British. In the great Hollywood
>> tradition of Evil Empires, I've always assumed those Lunar officers were
>> played by British character actors. Ethilrist looks (and acts?) like Alan

Of course!

And the common pelorians and soldiers speak with a cockney accent, too.



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