World Languages

[Aneira Haimati]

Languages in general, and even fantasy languages, have always interested me. I'd love to help in whatever area you need it, once you get going. Feel free to PM me or message me on MSN. I can also be coaxed into logging onto AIM if preferred.

[Miharu Mindi]

Pua, I totally understand what you mean. An example of my submissions are:

Dhani - Shashassen: Extremely insulting, literally "she who abandons her children"
Myrian - Kotakbil: One who makes too much noise in the jungle; literally "heavy footed"

That sort of thing. Katie and I are putting together a bunch for common, and then ones for each other races which have their own language. Excepting, like, Jamoura which are just a bunch of grunts and stuff. But we're gonna submit them to the development thread once we've got 'em done.

[Pua]

most Awesomeness. Don't forget when doing words to phrase conversions that the root words usually remain within

[Nyahna Sasin]

Mm. I know that Kadurro stated in his journal that he's been called a Dhani. Although that was pretty much a plot device to not recognize my characters race.

[Tarot]

Okay, I'm building a genealogy tree for languages here: Language. It uses a badass wiki extension that makes charts from text so we don't have to bother making the diagrams offline (or ripping our hair out when the info changes/needs an update).

Errors? Omissions? Input from the races' creators is especially important.

[Miharu Mindi]

That's awesome Tarot! Thanks a million!

[Nyahna Sasin]

Mm. I think it's safe to say that snake tongue developed out of snakes, so I'm not really certain why it's said to develop out of another language.

[Pua]

I think snakes qualify as another language

[Sefra]

Okay, I'm building a genealogy tree for languages here: Language. It uses a badass wiki extension that makes charts from text so we don't have to bother making the diagrams offline (or ripping our hair out when the info changes/needs an update).

Errors? Omissions? Input from the races' creators is especially important.

Awesome, love the chart! Is there any way to make all the items linkable? (provided there's something to link to, of course).

Also, I think I will begin by setting up a more formal format for the phonology of the Ancient language. Which probably just means making an image that is the chart used by the IPA to represent phonemes.

As I understand from my rather limited experience, generally what is needed to build an evolution like it seems we're about to do, there needs to be a good description of the grammar of the language and the phonemic inventory (including morphology, phonotactics, and a bunch of other stuff I'll have to look up on Wikipedia again to make sure I'm getting it right).

I propose that our most immediate goal be to generate a grammar and a more thorough phonology for Ancient.

[Liminal]

Everything from my perspective looks pretty good. The only thing I would add is that at least one language -- Denvali -- is missing from the chart. It's a post-Valterrian derivation of Middle Common, and though it has very few speakers, Mizahar's greatest post-Valterrian linguist wrote a paper on it, so it's worth including.

Also, I've been working under the assumption that Suvan Common and Alahean Common were different dialects, although still mutually intelligible. Any way we could/should show that?