#my langs: proto fae

[mother-spore]

Day 54

.    ʊvodas    ɛd͡ʑo²gi⁴z⁰   ɑtɑθ    ofɪ²ʎi⁴z⁰    obɑki¹z⁰   ip   æ⁰bæ⁰p     a⁰ç¹eg¹eɹid.

Sometimes world.plural and star.plural as thing they refer-to.

Sometimes it called them "planets" and "stars".

[scribefindegil]

Languages, always! I know this is a thing lots of writers address, especially nowadays, but: what is the main language of your setting? What are the minority languages? Are they related? How are minority languages treated? How did one language become dominant? What are dialects like, and what are the dialectical differences? What are other languages in your world? Where are they from? Are they related to your main-setting language, or not? If there's a lot of travel, is multilingualism common?

Ohhhh man you hiton one of the things that I’m REALLY interested in, so buckle up!

Okay, first ofall, this world is for a D&D game and while our setting is homebrew it’sstill based heavily on official publications—we work under the assumption thatthings like the Monster Manuals are actual books in-universe, which doesn’tmean that the information they provide is accurate but does mean that certainpeople in the world think it’saccurate.

As such, westarted with the “standard” d&d languages and have beenexpanding/developing out from there! I’m very lucky that one of my players isalso really into linguistics and thus supports my descent into the ConlangWormhole. There’s still less linguistic variation than is truly realistic, justbecause I can’t devote my entire life to developing fantasy languages, but Itry to keep things interesting.

(under a cut because it’s uhhhhhh over a thousand words of Language Babble)

In our setting “Common”actually developed from a pidgin that emerged from interspecies trading a longtime ago. I wanted to have a less imperialist history for this world than what’simplied if Common is just Human Language. For a while it served as a secondarylanguage for dealing with other races, but by the time our campaign takes placeit’s developed into the primary language of the world, especially in placesthat have a lot of international trading. On the continent of Ashona, where ourcampaign is set, nearly everyone learns at least some Common even if it isn’ttheir primary language. It’s represented by English, for obvious reasons. Wehaven’t gotten into a lot of dialectology, but there are innumerable dialectsof Common. The one spoken in the Underdark has diverged enough that it’s nowconsidered a separate language; it has a much stronger Elvish influence thanthe Common of the overlands.

Speaking ofElvish, we use Quenya for that because Tolkien is a much better conlanger thanI’ll ever be. Surface elves tend to be pretty isolationist in this setting, sooutside of Elvish settlements the language isn’t spoken much. However, it isconsidered something of a prestige language, so a lot of arcane scholarship iswritten in Elvish and it’s often taught to nobles of other species. As ageneral rule, wood elves will be impressed if you try to speak to them in theirown language, while high elves will sigh and correct your grammar.

Draconic is the oldestlanguage in this setting because dragons lived on this world before any of thehumanoid species. A lot of geographic features have Draconic names. It’s also alanguage of lore, although dragons themselves don’t tend to write down manylong texts. They do, however, have a script for their language which isdesigned to be scratched into things with claws. Draconic didn’t have a lot ofinfluence on Common because dragons aren’t known for conducting a lot of trade.One of my Dragonborn players and I are in the process of creating a Draconiclanguage! Because our two dragonborn player characters are named Kriv and Voskiwe went with a very Slavic-inspired phonology. High Draconic, the kind spoken byactual dragons, is highly inflected and has several different registers basedon levels of formality and respect. The dialect spoken by most dragonborn haslost a lot of the formality distinctions and sometimes merges the nominativeand accusative cases. Depending on how much contact they’ve had with truedragons, kobold tribes may speak perfect High Draconic or one of several moresimplified dialects.

The Halflinglanguage has the most direct influence on Common and in some areas has mergedwith it. This is represented by the use of more “Anglish” words in Halfing vocabulary—likecalling a school a “learnstead” instead of a “university.” In more isolated areastheir dialects are less comprehensible and I’d represent them with variations onOld or Middle English.

There are severalgeographically distinct Dwarvish languages, but the one spoken in Ashona(sometimes called Conclave Dwarvish because most of its speakers areconcentrated beneath the Conclave Mountains) is represented by Þrjótrunn, analt-lang by Henrik Theiling that imagines a Romance Language based on Icelandic.Anyone who trades with the dwarves is well served to learn their language, soit’s quite well-known even in areas where everyone speaks Common. The dwarvishscript has also been adapted by a number of communities that don’t have anative writing system (such as orcs, who were historically an oral culture buthave come to accept that writing is useful under some circumstances).

Orcish and Goblinare both low-prestige languages, very seldom studied by people who aren’t partof those groups. In mixed-race settlements, orcs and goblins who speakprimarily their native language are considered “uncivilized,” because peopleare gross. I use Laadan (a conlang created by Suzette Haden Elgin as a “woman’slanguage”) for Orcish, primarily out of spite, and Sona (an auxlang based on asmall number of ‘radicals’ that are combined into compounds to make words) forGoblin. Orcish is really good at conveying emotional complexities, and Goblinuses reduplication a lot to convey degrees of intensity. Goblin ALSO has acomplex logographic writing system, but human (etc) anthropologists mistake itfor crude pictograms and insist that goblins can’t write, something which suitsthe goblins fine since they can then leave messages for each other that otherraces will overlook.

Sylvan, the languageof the fae, is the most plot-relevant campaign language, and as such I’m creatingit myself. Because d&d elves are descended from the fae, I used a basephonology similar to the earliest form of proto-Quenya and included a number ofproto-Quenya roots in the vocabulary. I’m in the process of working on thesound shifts that produced “modern” Sylvan. The spoken dialects for Sylvan varywildly, but the written form is quite standardized and has remained that wayfor a long time.

As for languagesof the Outer Planes: Celestial is represented by Hildegard of Bingen’s “LinguaIgnota,” which is really just a cipher of Latin with the nouns swapped out, butwhich I adore. Infernal, the language of devils, is represented by the conlang Lojbanbecause it’s designed to be as exacting and unambiguous as possible (the other extremely Lawful Plane, Mechanus, uses Loglang, which has basically the same structure as Lojban but different vocab, because there was A Schism). The HighInfernal dialect is also used by some Prime Material Plane lawyers when drawingup contracts. There’s also a much more simplified dialect that is the languagespoken by Tieflings and others with fiendish blood. Primordial, the language ofelementals, is represented by SolReSol, a musical conlang, because I wantedsomething with a more alien sound. Also most elementals don’t have mouths.

(We don’t have anyhuman PCs right now so I’ve been spared trying to figure out what they speak.Obviously there are a number of different languages, although there are alsoregions where most humans just learn Common or whatever other language is mostprevalent around them)

[mother-spore]

Day 63

. ɑtɑθ ɪmɛ¹ɹ æ⁰bæ⁰p a³ç¹iθ a³ç¹ɛʎoz ɪbo¹ʨ̑e²ʥ̑ a²ç¹ɛ¹mʊ⁵d⁶.

And good you is play.past universe say.past.

and the universe said you have played the game well

[mother-spore]

Day 62

. ɑtɑθ    æ⁰bæ⁰p    æki¹z⁰    a⁴ç¹ɪv¹ɛ¹fɪ²m¹    ɪbo¹ʨ̑e²ʥ̑    a²ç¹ɛ¹mʊ⁵d⁶.

And you I love universe say.past

and the universe said I love you

[mother-spore]

Day 58

. æ⁰bæ⁰p. æ⁰bæ⁰p. ɪ¹tɛ⁶ʎ¹ æ⁰bæ⁰p a⁴ç¹iθ.

. You. You. Live you is.

You. You. You are alive.

[mother-spore]

So I have a new big project unrelated to conlanging, But I haven't completely forgotten about my goal to get Proto-Fae up on my website this month.

[mother-spore]

what do those superscript numbers next to the letters mean?

They're how I represent the thing that speakers of the language consider 'tones', and tell you which musical note to pronounce each vowel at. Which is, coincidentally, the main reason why I cannot pronounce any of these words properly.

In isolation: 0 = unvoiced; 1 = A; 2 = B; 3 = C; 4 = D; 5 = E; 6 = F; 7 = G

A number given at the start of a written sentence (not written if the number would be 1 because this is neutral) tells you how many notes to transpose the sentence.

So in a neutral (1) sentence: 0 = A; 1 = B; 2 = C; 3 = D; 4 = E; 5 = F; 6 = G; 7 = Unvoiced

In a question (3) sentence: 0 = C; 1 = D; 2 = E; 3 = F; 4 = G; 5 = Unvoiced; 6 = A; 7 = B

In the script for the language, digits are written below the line.

And attached to their vowels as so:

[mother-spore]

Day 68

Thoughts about this blog's future under the readmore

. ɑtɑθ æ⁰bæ⁰p obɑki⁰z⁰ ʊ³t⁴ iθ ɪ²piɹi⁰z⁰ æ⁰bæ⁰p a⁴ç¹ʊnak ɪbo¹ʨ̑e²ʥ̑ a²ç¹ɛ¹mʊ⁵d⁶.

And you thing in is dark you fight universe say.

past and the universe said the darkness you fight is within you

---

Something I've been thinking about lately, now that we're approaching the end of the end poem, is that I don't want this blog to die when the poem's done.

I know I'll be sorting out proto-fae for putting up on my website in it's entirety once this is done, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with this tumblr blog.

I do know that I won't be wanting to take on another big translation project that takes me three months to do and stops me doing any other worldbuilding.

So yeah, any suggestions as to what I could post here would be welcome.

I think I'd like to reblog other people's conlang/worldbuilding stuff going forwards as well as my own content but I have enough trouble getting the translations out at the moment.

[mother-spore]

Day 60 - Part 1

. ɑtɑθ  ʊvodas   o⁶zɑ¹zi¹z⁰   ɑθi⁶s³i¹z⁰    ɑθ¹ɛ¹ɹi²t͡ɕi¹z⁰    ɪ⁵pe¹çi¹z⁰  ɑ¹d͡ʑ³e¹ç   ɪbo¹ʨ̑e²ʥ̑     a²ç¹ɛ¹mʊ⁵d⁶    æ⁰bæ⁰p    a²ç¹ɪgiç.

. and sometimes sky night winter light in through universe say.past they think.past,

and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the light that fell from the crisp night sky of winter,

[mother-spore]

Day 59

. ɑtɑθ  ʊvodas  i³tiɹi¹z⁰ ɑθ¹ɛ⁷g³e¹çi¹z⁰  ɛzaʎi⁴z⁰  ɑ¹d͡ʑ³e¹ç   ɪbo¹ʨ̑e²ʥ̑     a²ç¹ɛ¹mʊ⁵d⁶    æ⁰bæ⁰p    a²ç¹ɪgiç.

And sometimes sunlight summer tree.plural through universe say.past they think.past.

and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the sunlight that came through the shuffling leaves of the summer trees

[mother-spore]

Day 57 - Part 2

. ʊɭ¹ɛti⁴z⁰   obɑki⁴z⁰   a²ç¹ada⁴d;   i²k⁰o⁵fi⁴z⁰   ʊɭ¹ɛti⁴z⁰   a²ç¹ada⁴d; ɑ⁷ve²t͡ɕi⁴z⁰  ɑtɑθ   ɪ³gi⁵çi⁴z⁰    i²k⁰o⁵fi⁴z⁰      a²ç¹ada⁴d   ɑtɑθ     ɪm     æ⁰bæ⁰p    ɑʎɑn   ɑtɑθ   æ⁰bæ⁰p  a⁴ç¹ɪ¹tɛ⁶ʎ¹ʊ¹ʎ⁰    æ⁰bæ⁰p   a²ç¹ɪgiç.   ɪ¹tɛ⁶ʎ¹    æ⁰bæ⁰p    a²ç¹iθ,   e²θʊ¹f   æ⁰bæ⁰p    a²ç³o¹bɛ²bʊ⁷ʎ⁰,  ɪ¹tɛ⁶ʎ¹    æ⁰bæ⁰p   ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹ti¹z⁰     a²ç¹iθ

Word.plural thing made; thought.plural word.plural made; feeling.plural, knowledge.plural meaning made and big they breathe and they alive they know.past, they alive, many they die.past.neg, live player is.past

Decoded them into words; decoded words into meaning; decoded meaning into feelings, emotions, theories, ideas, and the player started to breathe faster and deeper and realised it was alive, it was alive, those thousand deaths had not been real, the player was alive

[mother-spore]

Day 53 - Part 1

.  i¹t²a³f    a⁴ç¹ɛ²ʎ¹oz.   ʊvodas   iti¹z⁷   ɛd͡ʑo²gi¹z⁷   æ⁰bæ⁰p   a¹t͡ɕada⁴d.

Quiet act-as. sometimes small world player make.pres.

Shush. Sometimes the player created a small, private world

[mother-spore]

Day 51

.3   ɪ⁴vi¹p  ʊ¹ʥ̑a²v   æki³z⁵  a²ç⁵ɛçɑg.

? lowest Beginning we come.

Let's go further back.

[mother-spore]

Day 50

. ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹ti¹z⁰,     ɪ¹çɑgi²vi¹z⁰,    ɑ²ʎɑ⁶ɭi¹z⁰,    a¹mɛ⁷b¹i¹z⁰   æ⁰bæ⁰p   a⁴ç¹iθ.    ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹t     ɪv¹ɛ²fɪ²m¹    a⁴ç¹ada⁴d.

Player, story, program, person you are.present. Player love make.present.

You are the player. The story. The program. The human. Made from nothing but milk and love.

[mother-spore]

Day 47

Whooo so I’ve decided to translate woman as mother here - The line is describing pregnancy, and fae don't really have a concept of ‘men’ or ‘women’ within the setting, but do have ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers’.

"ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹tɑ¹d²ɪn" (player-code) is used here in place of "atoms"

. aʎa¹ɭi⁴z⁰   ʊ³t⁴,   izo²si⁴z⁰  ʊ³t⁴,   o⁴zɑzɑ³ɭ   ʊ³t⁴,   o⁴pɪ¹ti¹z⁰   ʊ³t⁴    ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹tɑ¹d²ɪn   æ⁰bæ⁰p    a²ç⁵iθ.   ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹tɑ¹d²ɪn   ʊma²ti¹z⁷  a²ç⁵ɑ⁴vet͡ɕ⁵:   ʊma²ti¹z⁷  a²ç⁵ɪmeçʊ¹ʎ² ,      a²ç⁵oʎʊ¹ʎ²   ,  a²ç⁵ɑʎɑnʊ¹ʎ²     :    ɛ¹d͡ʑɪ¹ti¹z⁷   ʊma²ti¹z⁷  a²ç⁵ada⁴d.

. grass in, river.plu in, air in, ground in code they is.past.story. code mother collect.past.story: mother drink.past.story, eat.past.story, breathe.past.story; player mother make.past.story.

The atoms of the player were scattered in the grass, in the rivers, in the air, in the ground. A woman gathered the atoms; she drank and ate and inhaled; and the woman assembled the player, in her body.

[mother-spore]

Hm.

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