It's 1100. I Just Spelled "animate" As "aninimate." I'm Writing A Conlang Grammar.

Day 23 (32 in base 7) of Rewriting my Novel

I was on a plane again today, so I wrote a bunch. If I didn't crack 30,000 today, I'll crack 30,000 tomorrow. Yay!

I finally got around to writing an introduction for this blog, which was long overdue. I'm definitely not only shouting off into the void of binary while I continue to write.

Neither Odapir nor Ipol are to a point where I would feel comfortable publishing a dictionary, but they're to a point where I can translate as I need to and derive words on the fly. If I ever get to a point where I have 1,500-2,000 words, I'll publish a dictionary, then. Probably online.

Day 24 (33 in base 7) of re-writing my novel

Since google docs (my primary writing tool, accompanied by my note-taking journal) doesn't quite accurately describe my true word count, today I will celebrate 30,000 words like I promised yesterday, because it's close enough to be within a 5% error.

I wrote more today, including getting deep in the weeds with the relationship between Izi, Hero of Cognition, and Dolgof, the Hero of Life. Without sharing very many spoilers, they're in very similar situations. Or, have been.

Izi, the current Emperor of Zeneste, has never been in a position of power before, nor has he been a proper leader. Dolgof had been in his position during the drafting of the Constitution of Zeneste, but she never became a good leader.

I like this dynamic between them. Not only does Izi have someone to discuss what being a leader means with, he also has someone to juxtapose himself against, however unhealthy that may be.

remember everyone if you google [subject] wiki and the top result is from fandom, literally scroll down like, at all. if an independent wiki exists it will almost be the second result, and it will almost always be better than the fandom wiki. a shocking number of people seem to be unaware of this technique

Day 17 (23 in base 7) of writing my novel again

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.

Phonology

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.

Translations

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.

OC Open Tag Questionaire

Open tag from @fantasy-things-and-such

I'll do this with three of my main OCs: Iziser, Hotautebz, and Lozerief.

1) Are you a night owl or a morning lark

Izi: Normally, I hear the phrase as "night owl or morning star." I sleep in too late to be a morning star, though.

Hota: Izi thinks he sleeps in late? 10 AM? Rookie numbers.

Lozerief: I don't sleep. I once went a period of two weeks without sleeping before my body had enough and I slept on the floor. My sleep schedule is so irreconcilably bad that I can't, in good conscience, answer this question.

2) what is/would be your favorite kind of cheese

Izi: I'm lactose intolerant! I hear they make good brie in the highlands, though.

Hota: I feel bad for Izi. He's missing out on the wonders of mozzarella.

Lozerief: I grew up on a dairy farm. I had a brief stint selling cheese. I can't stand the stuff anymore-cheese, milk, butter, you name it! I guess my favorite at the time was well-aged gouda. I put my heart and soul into making gouda, let me tell you.

3) whats your favorite letter?*

Izi: This question is terribly unspecific! What language? Because my favorite "normal" letter is "rr." It looks like this: 工.

Hota: Again, poor Izi doesn't know the horrors of trying to learn to write Ytos. That being said, my favorite letter is the regular "r" in Ipol, which looks like this: 口.

Lozerief: Depends on the language, mostly, and script. Like, I'm old enough to remember the Classical Zispoel abugida that Pagjom invented, like, nine hundred years ago! It's hard to choose a favorite, especially in modern Ipol, which simplified the old abugida tremendously, down into an abjad. But, "f" is my favorite letter: Π.

*Sidenote: these are relative approximations of the actual characters in the Ipol Abjad, which I may later make a post on.

I tag @theothersideofthewoods @oldfashionedidiot and @authorcoledipalo + open tag. Your questions are:

What's your favorite restaurant? If you don't have one, what's your favorite food?

How many languages do you speak? Do you speak English? How many forms of those languages do you speak?

What does magic mean for you?

The problem with april fool’s is that the majority of people aren’t very funny

Day51 of rewriting my novel

University has gone back to session so I’ve had less (no) time to write, but what with American holidays, I’ve gotten a chance to increase my word count a little bit! Just figured I’d post an update.

Clickbait WIP Titles

A tag game from @ominous-feychild (but I'd seen this tag game go around for a little while now, so it was about time anyways.)

I'll do a couple titles a piece.

Meiste

🔥🔥🔥🔥 RICE FARMER BECOMES EMPEROR ❗❗❗❗AND GETS MAGICAL POWERS 🗣🗣🗣🗣 (⛔⛔NOT CLICKBAIT⛔⛔) (REAL)

😂😂😂STUPID ANTI-HERO SIDES WITH VILLAIN 📢📢📢 (GENUINELY THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA) 😂😂😂 (GETS HER SHIT WRECKED ON PAGE 112 😳😳😳) (COPS CALLED)

It Will Hurt: and There Will Be No Fire

😱😱😱VEGAN VAMPIRE ABUDUCTED ✋✋✋ (GONE WRONG) (ENDING WILL SHOCK YOU) 😳😳😳

🚀🚀🚀 SPIDER-VAMPIRE RESCUES ABDUCTED SISTER 😵😵😵 (REAL❗❗❗❗) (⛔⛔NOT CLICKBAIT⛔⛔)

These were surprisingly fun to make. Brings me back.

The Usual Suspects: @oldfashionedidiot @quillswriting

Paging: @foxgloves-garden

i fucking love writing a healthy best friendship between a man and a woman without making it weird or having them fall in love

Hey, I wanted to share some conlang news with you all. A friend of mine named Jake Penny just released a video describing their creation of a new conlang—Pankashku—for the movie Madame Web.

Now if you've actually seen Madame Web (unlikely, I know), you may recall not hearing a conlang in it at all. This is because the actual Pankashku dialogue that Jake translated for the film was cut in its entirety, and Jake was not credited.

As a professional conlanger, I can tell you this does happen, and it always sucks, but it especially sucks when it happens with your first and only job. Jake isn't alone this. Bill Welden created a conlang for the movie Noah, and it, too, was cut and Bill wasn't credited. Both were paid, and, of course, the contract states that your work will be used at the company's discretion (which includes not at all), so it wasn't like they were taken advantage of, but when your work isn't used and you're not credited it means no one hears about you, and industry word of mouth doesn't spread to get you future work. It really, really sucks, given that there are so few opportunities for conlang artists to be compensated for their work.

That is why I'm sharing this here! If you're interested, please give it a watch, but if not, please reblog it around, if you would. A lot of work goes into creating a language, and the least we can hope is that our work will be heard/seen and appreciated.

Also, if you'd like to support Jake, they and Miles Wronkovich have a YouTube series/podcast which you can support on Patreon here.

Thanks for your time! <3