#this is in fact for the time travel conlang

[strixcattus]

Why be shackled to base 10? Base 12 is neat. Base 6 is also neat, and uses fewer digits. There's an obvious winner here given that the syllabary is going to have, like, uhhhhhhhhh fiftyish

[ithilienns]

Notes on Middle Earth Name Etymologies

Hi all! I'm currently doing an edit series on the name etymologies of Middle Earth.

Since I've seen some discussion in the tags and reblogs of my first edit, I thought I would use this post as a fact sheet. Here, I'll go into a bit more detail on the conlangs and note real-world etymologies of the edits and add to it as I go! Basically, I thought I was normal about this, and it turns out I am decidedly not.

A note on translation:

It's important to remember that Tolkien presents The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as translations of the Red Book of Westmarch. This means that for the most part none of the names given to the hobbits, for example, are their 'real' names. Instead, their names are in Westron, a language descended from the 'Mannish' languages spoken by the Edain of Middle Earth as opposed to the 'Elvish' languages.

Westron by the Third Age is a lingua franca across the regions of Middle Earth where the events of the books take place. However, it is not English and is not related to English in any way. Within the framing of the books, Tolkien is only translating the stories in the Red Book of Westmarch from Westron into English. Other 'Mannish' languages also exist at the same time, like those spoken in Dale or Rohan. Tolkien uses languages related to English to roughly approximate the relationship these other 'Mannish' languages have with Westron. For example, the people of Rohan don't actually speak Old English. Instead, Tolkien translates the language of the Rohirrim as Old English in order to reflect the relationship that language has to Westron (more archaic, phonologically and grammatically distinct, but closely related and you are able to understand a few words just by guessing).

A good example that captures this is the word "hobbit". The real-world etymology is fairly simple, since it was a spontaneous invention of Tolkien's. However, if we look at the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings as translations of the Red Book of Westmarch, "hobbit" is just a translation of the Westron word kuduk. Similalry, when Théoden uses the word holbytla, it's just a stand in for the word he would have actually said: kûd-dûkan, meaning "hole dweller" in the language of the Rohirrim. Tolkien constructed the word holbytla using elements from Old English, so in that sense it has a real-world etymology. But this is done to provide an in-world etymology for kuduk and reflect the shared history hobbits have with the Rohirrim from beore the two peoples settled in the lands they inhabit by the War of the Ring. Théoden (whose name in the Red Book would not be Théoden!) does not speak Old English.

Of course for fic purposes we still use English for Westron and Old English for the Rohirrim (we are not all jrrt, we can't all construct / reconstruct these languages!). But this means that there are real-world etymologies for a lot of names (like Gandalf, the dwarves, or many hobbits). These are often meant to reflect their in-world contexts. It was also incidentally an easy way for Tolkien to borrow cool names without breaking the world mythology he created.

Gandalf

The internal etymology of Gandalf is that it is a name from an older 'Mannish' language from the North. The external etymology of the name is that Tolkien took it, along with most of the names of the dwarves in The Hobbit, from the Dvergatal in the Völupsá (part of the Poetic Edda), and it features across various Old Norse texts. In Old Norse the name means "wand elf".

Incánus

Gandalf is meant to have picked up this name during his travels in the south, potentially in Harad. Incánus is thus the Quenya rendering of a Haradic word Inkā-nūs meaning "North-spy" (x). It might also have had an exclusively Quenya origin, or even Westron. In terms of real-world etymologies, it may have been taken from the Latin meaning "grey-haired".

Mithrandir

Gandalf's Sindarin name. It comes directly from the elements mith "grey, light grey, pale grey" and randir "wanderer, pilgrim" and means "Grey Pilgrim" or "Grey Wanderer"(x).

Tharkûn

This is a Khuzdul name given to Gandalf by the dwarves and means "Staff-man" (x). This is one of the few names of Khuzdul we actually have, since most of the dwarves we meet in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings use their common names (as opposed to their secret Khuzdul names) that are in the 'Mannish' languages.

Láthspell

This is the name that Gríma Wormtongue gives Gandalf when he arrives with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli at Meduseld. It is meant to mean "ill news" in the language of the Rohirrim. The real-world etymology is "evil tale" or "evil news" in Old English. More generally, Gandalf is referred to by the Rohirrim as "Grey-hame".

Olórin

The name is derived from the Quenya olor, meaning "dream" or "vision" and was used by Gandalf in Aman (x).

Saruman

Saruman is the anglicisation of the wizard's common name in Westron, in the same way that Frodo's real name is Maura Labingi and Frodo is the way his name is translated into English. It's external etymology is probably connected to the Old English searu meaning "skill, cunning, cunning device", so that the compound [searu + man] is the equivalent of his Quenya and Sindarin names, Curumo and Curunír respectively (x).

Curumo

The name means "Skilled-one" in Quenya from curu "skill, craft" and the agental suffx (to indicate someone who performs an action) -mo (x). It was the name Saruman was known by in Valinor.

Tarindor

Saruman was known by this name when he first went to Cuiviénen to protect the elves alongside the other maiar who would later form the Istari, as well as Melian. It comes from tar- "high" and indo "mind, thought, will", meaning "High-minded One" in Quenya (x). Please note that this name (and the idea of Saruman going to Cuiviénen at all) comes only from the Nature of Middle Earth and was probably a very late addition to the Legendarium, so its canonicity can be debated.

Curunír

The name is a Sindarin rendering of the Quenya Curumo and is taken from curu "skill (of the hand), craft, magic"., meaning "Man of Skill" or "Man of Craft". The name is also used for the word wizard (x).

Sharkey

Sharkey is the name given to Saruman in his role as the leader of the men who take control of the Shire. It may be related to the Orkish sharkû, meaning "old man" and then adapted to Westron (i.e. anglicised). It has various external etymologies.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

House = Rasloria /ɹaslˈɔːɹi͡ə/

Agent, singular. Non-gendered.

Definition Just like your typical family home, if your family consisted of a lot of time-travelling, semi-immortal beings who love drama, and your house is also a sentient being that perpetually just isn't interested in your crap.

Example ↪ Romanised: Eina bovai tao ei Rasloria-N, ter N-qi'vatara qijinu bai ce galmi temryn. ↪ English: I would go to my House, but it launched itself off a cliff today. ↪ Audio:

↪ Sollifreyan (font v1):

Advanced

Etymological and Morphological Breakdown:

Ras- (Root): Derived from 'ras', a Gallifreyan term meaning 'strength' or 'power', this root in 'Rasloria' emphasises the formidable power and influence of the Great Houses within Time Lord society. It signifies the authoritative and dominant role these Houses play in shaping cultural and political landscapes.

Lor- (Root): Originating from 'lop', which means 'light' or 'bright', the 'lor' segment in 'Rasloria' suggests enlightenment, wisdom, or guiding principles.

-ia (Suffix): A variation of 'ria', denoting a collective entity or group. In 'Rasloria', the suffix '-ia' transforms the combined roots into a term representing a collective familial or societal entity, specifically a lineage or House.

Usage and Additional Notes:

Embodiment of Power and Enlightenment: 'Rasloria' uniquely combines the concepts of power ('ras') and enlightenment ('lor'), highlighting the Great Houses as both authoritative entities and centres of wisdom in Time Lord society. They are seen as the custodians of not only political power but also of cultural and intellectual heritage.

Influence on Time Lord Identity and Society: The term reflects the profound impact these Houses have on individual identities and the societal structure of Gallifrey. 'Rasloria' encompasses the influence of these Houses on personal names, social dynamics, and the lineage of their members.

Role in Historical and Cultural Narratives: As 'Rasloria', the Great Houses are portrayed as pivotal players in the historical and cultural narratives of Gallifrey, shaping key events, societal changes, and the evolution of Time Lord civilisation.

Symbol of Legacy and Tradition: The term also captures the essence of the Great Houses as symbols of legacy and tradition, embodying the long-standing values, beliefs, and practices that define Time Lord society.

Modifiers ↪ Plural: rasloria-ua (Houses) ↪ Gender: porasloria (male House) | morasloria (female House) ↪ Negative: rasloria-o (not a House)

(GIL Gallifreyan Conlang Guide (coming soon))

Gallifreyan Word for Wednesday by GIL

》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

[walks-the-ages]

I randomly found a "time travel fix it fic" for transformers and read it despite never interacting with any Transformers media outside exactly 1 Happy meal toy as a kid and Not Actually Watching the live action movies when they first came out (our brother liked the movies because they were so Mature(tm), I don't remember literally any of the details) and absolutely loved it.

I am a sucker for Time Travel Fix It Fics, and I think i recognize a tiny bit of plot from listening to that one HHbomberguy video where he reviewed the old transformers movie (the big guy eating planets is what I remember, and the one guy who talks super fast)

and honestly, Transformers fanfic is everything I wanted from the murder bot series and more. Especially reading the wiki page (from having to look up what everyone looks like) . Canonically transgender robots who looked at humans having genders and saying "oh that's cool, I'm that gender now, instead of the monogender(?) our species defaults to" .

The fact that they can reproduce in so many different ways (including "lets just build a robot and boom, it's alive and sentient now") , the fact that so many fics are effortlessly using not-quite-conlang perfectly to convey these characters are sentient robots made of machinery and are relatable but without just turning them into 'basically human narrator with anxiety in power armor with good hacking skills'.

The Wikipedia is absolutely hilarious to read with all the snarky comments and the level of detail with just how many continuities there are out there.

Anyways, if I wanted to actually get into Transformers shows, is there a particular place it's best to start, or is it fine to start at the original show and watch the cheesy original 80s(?) cartoon first and just move forward from there?

Are there any transformers novels?

[floralegia]

for never have i ever: role reversal, time travel fix it, age gap, genderbend

Role reversal: I wrote this for Dragon Ball actually! The fic was called Spare. Fun fact, between this and another multichapter DB fic I wrote around the same time, I went absolutely nuts working on a Saiyan conlang that is now mostly gathering dust in my gdrive, haha, but I had a lot of fun with it!

Time travel fix it: This is an all-time fave of mine to read, but I've never written it! I think a fun way to do it for like FOB would be someone going back in time to prevent the hiatus but then realizing that it was actually a good thing... or something???

Age gap: Lol. Lmao. I've got everything from 800+ y/o immortal being + 20something human to your more classic older teen + adult (in two flavors) to idk does Sheith even REALLY count as an age gap ship? I guess probably, so Sheith too.

Genderbend: Once thus far for Sk8 the Infinity (Langa/Reki), but also there is Girltrick fic a-comin' 👀

[6of575]

my goal is to try and make at least a post a day on here, even if its nothin very interesting to anybody else

i feel like,,, if i can finally successfully make it a habit to post and engage, it might just trick my brain from task avoidance

so! post done and heres the part for me thats fun:

(under a cut since its ramblin long)

the books im currently reading concurrently are some conlang construct books mr am got me that have been on my wishlist for ages, along with a very cool book about black holes and theories surrounding them, which mr am loaned to me from his collection

one of the things we share is a love of science and space, and more specifically, stars and time travel and all the things about our known universe that black holes straight up break

i have a lot of fun chatting with him; i really cant overstate the value of a friend so genuine, who i am never too much of, and i can talk about all my interests without the reflexive dread creeping on in

all that bullshit i learned growing up, yanno the kind: "im boring, im dumb, who could possibly enjoy swapping rock facts, much less listen to hours of it even when it our interests DONT align"

like, theres so much else about my friendship with him thats meaningful, but thats top tier right there

and lately? ive gotten a few others in my corner, who when i share, im starting to feel like that with them, too

its so weird! to have gone from one person to a tiny community of folks (and i mean little! its like,, five? six? of us max usually) that thrive on a love of the weird and the cringe and the stubborn hope

plenny others have waxed more eloquent than me about this sorta thing--how fandom spaces come sorta pre-fab with common, shared interests that its fans bring, and they build their fort and theres rules already laid out, and it becomes a second (sometimes first) home, of sorts

but when its starting from scratch, when its about stuff and is made by people that others just wouldnt ordinarily invest in or look at without outside prompting, thats not the same! its not a bad thing, more neutral, but its stressful, its really such a lonely feeling

except--when you finally find it, that person, and thats a community of its own, and it can grow, and suddenly you swappin stories, throwing jokes! and memes and links and hey inevitably, theres also those what ifs about your little guys

and everything is srs and sacred and everything is hilarious and "i cant believe this is real life" levels of stupid

you get to learn habits and quirks and whole personalities

"hey this reminded me of you" "hey, check out this view" "oh, thats right, yer the possum dude" "you love medieval lore--and i read this, and what do you think about it, too"

its suddenly kind of a fandom space after all, and its like, still work of course, reaching for and keeping more and being a person with, it aint that neat or pretty

but its got warmth and joy and expansion, after a lifetime of making yourself small enough to try and fit

you end up fans of your friends, fans of their life, hyping each other up and up and up about the most mundane shit and it starts to look like not even the skys the limit

planning things to do together, spending long hours into the night to parallel play with vidgames or watchin movies like time aint nothin thisll last forever, right? (it doesnt, always, but thats also part of this, and the ones that stay, the ones that work with you

those are the ones waking up to backread your chats like its the morning newspaper

and your life matters

like its better than the best hot goss, its saturday morning cartoons and their favour ice cream flavours

only now we adults and its also commiseratin over breakups and bills, and cross-country moves, and its celebrating that i saw chickens in the yard today and you finally got your boygirlthemsomethin gender fuckery juice)

idk idk idk

i feel some kinda way about all that

i never thought id make it so far that im nearly forty

never thought id get to ask "okay, well, now what? what do i wanna do, and try, and be?"

im... starting small i think, and im for reals happy, happier than i have been in years; i learned how to be alla my friends biggest fans, and im starting to finally believe

other people can feel that way about me

i just really think thats kinda neat

[dedalvs]

welcome back! i’ve really been enjoying langtime studio. it’s been really inspirational for my own conlanging, both regarding the linguistics stuff you guys use as well as your general workflow

Thank you! That was the hope.

For those unfamiliar, LangTime Studio is a joint project by me and Jessie Sams (@quothalinguist). Jessie and I created the Méníshè language for Motherland: Fort Salem, and we loved working together so much that we wanted something else to do in the downtime between that first season and a potential season 2 (which was no guarantee, at the time). I couldn't wait for some other job to come along, so I decided to do something with a project I'd been neglecting.

For a long time, I've wanted to do something that was essentially a board game version of the Sega Genesis game Shining Force (for newer gamers, it's like proto-Fire Emblem, but better). I wanted to set it in a post-human Earth featuring anthropomorphic animals (mutated somewhat like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and I wanted them all to speak their own languages. They'd have absolutely no connection to previous human languages, just as they'd have no connection to previous human culture. In order to have any characters in this game, I'd have to create actual languages to draw names from, and I kept stalling.

Originally my plan was to "upgrade" my old languages. I was goingj to have five different anthropomorphic species, and I was going to take the following languages and redo them, bringing them up to my current standard:

Cats: Zhyler

Rabbits: Kamakawi

Opossums: Sidaan

Dogs: Gweydr

Mice: Njaama

I even started with Zhyler (I have a tiny little document called New Zhüler on my computer), but there was just too much to change... It ripped the heart and soul out of the original projects, and the new versions simply weren't as good as I wanted them to be.

Then I hit an idea that combined this idea with one I'd had earlier (to wit: Some famous author could set up a subscription service where essentially they write their new novel on, like, Google Docs, and they let people watch literally while they write). What if Jessie and I created these languages together, and did it on YouTube, and then started a Patreon to justify the work hours we were putting into it?

And this is where LangTime Studio was born. Jessie and I worked together to come up with the details, and ultimately we decided we'd stream every Thursday at 2 p.m. Pacific. We've been doing it now since February of 2020, and we've worked our way through the languages for the rabbits, opossums, and mice, and we're nearing completion on our cat language. Only the dog language remains!

I'd always hoped that anyone could pop in at any time and not have to be there from the beginning of the season. I mean, if you're watching Bob Ross, it's fascinating to see him start from a totally blank canvas, but if he's already got a sky, ground, and a mountain on there, it's not like you turn it off. It's still fun to see a happy little tree come into being!

Most of the time it looks like this:

That is, Jessie and I spend a lot of time to thinking and trying to figure out what to do next, and people watch and chat and give us ideas, answer questions, etc.

It's been a fun Thursday tradition for us for what's coming on three years now, and we're looking to keep going!

So that's partly what we've been up to. We didn't know how well we'd be able to keep it up with my travel schedule, but you'll notice this started in February of 2020. February 27th, in fact. I actually did have a talk in between then and the total lockdown which put our second episode on a Wednesday. The next talk I had was canceled. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one...

Of course, catching a live stream isn't something everyone can do or wants to do, but hey, if you want to know what it's like for a conlanger to work on a language from absolute zero to fairly functional, this is it. I'd always hoped especially that beginning conlangers would find it inspiring and encouraging to see how utterly and completely lost we get—and how often it happens. Like anything else, you just gotta keep plugging away. :)

[script-a-world]

Pylon Bios!

As we've added some new team members, please allow us to introduce ourselves!

First of all, we call ourselves Pylons. What the heck is a pylon? Well, outside of this blog, it’s an upright structure for holding up something, usually a cable or conduit. When this blog was started more than five years ago (whoa), the group chose the word Pylon to describe ourselves collectively, as a fun little nickname. Whee!

Without further ado, meet the current Pylons! (in alphabetical order) (For retired Pylons, please visit the Historical Pylons page.)

Addy: Howdy hey, I'm Addy! I dabble in many (many) things, but I'm most familiar with civil engineering and general logistics, along with some knowledge about vernacular architecture and neat ruins. Beyond that, I have some pretty eclectic knowledge from a lifetime of Wikipedia binges. I tend to lean towards fantasy, but do have an interest in sci-fi. 

My favorite thing in worldbuilding is taking an "unrealistic" premise (eg, a flat world) and finding a way to make an internal system that makes sense. No matter what you do, you want your system to run by consistent rules - beyond that, there's a lot of freedom.

Brainstormed: Hey there, call me RB or Brainstormed, and you can find me at @thunderin-brainstorm. Any pronouns will do. I'm a student, illustrator, and world traveler currently back in the US. Worldbuilding has been my hobby for quite a long time and I'd love to give you some tips and tricks that I've learned, or take your idea and turn it on its head to perhaps show you a new perspective. The many projects I've developed have been lifesavers for me, as they allowed me to harness my Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder and use it as a positive tool for creativity. Aside from drawing and daydreaming, I spend a lot of time biking, hunting for cool rocks and bones, binge reading any scholarly article that catches my eye, and memorising completely useless random facts that I spout at any given moment in lieu of remembering actual important information.

Constablewrites: My name is Brittany, and I'm a California girl living in the Midwest. I use she/her pronouns. I've always loved stories with rich and detailed worlds, whether in movies, books, games, or something else entirely. I'm the kind of writer who will spend hours researching to confirm a minor detail. Naturally, I not only write SFF, but my recent projects have all required worldbuilding on more than one axis (like multiple types of magic, or time travel on top of historical) because I am apparently something of a masochist. I'm a walking TV Tropes index and a whiz at digging up random useful knowledge, both of which come in handy as a Pylon. Other random facts: I'm a trained actress and singer, I used to work at Disneyland on the Jungle Cruise (among other attractions), and a laptop held together with duct tape is responsible for my day job in tech support. I blog about writing as @constablewrites and about random things that amuse me as @operahousebookworm.

Ebonwing: Hi, I’m Ebonwing. I’m a writer and worldbuilder, and sometimes a worldbuilding writer or a writing worldbuilder. I gravitate towards fantasy, though I’m not going to say no to the occasional stint in scifi, and as I’m also a giant language nerd, I enjoy making conlangs for my creations. Other than that, I’m also an artist and indulge in any number of other crafting hobbies, and if I’m not doing any of those things, I can probably be found playing video games. 

Feral (she/her): Hi! I'm Feral, and you can find me @theferalcollection where I reblog things nearly exclusively or on my website theferalcollection.com where I post original writing content and offer freelance editing services for indie comic books. I work in the interiors & home furnishings industry and have previously earned degrees in comparative literature and theatre & drama. 

I’ve been writing and worldbuilding for over twenty-five years now (jfc). I used to consider myself a fantasy writer, but I’ve been writing almost exclusively science fiction for the past six years. My first love was Star Wars, so I think it will always be a little of both. 

My worldbuilding philosophy is that internal consistency matters more than just about anything else, and it really all comes down to the story you want to tell with your world - whether it’s told to others or just yourself.

Licorice: Hi, I’m Licorice. I’ve worked as a full time secondary school teacher of social studies for several decades now; my specialism is world history, but I also know a fair bit about law, politics, philosophy, anthropology, the history of medicine, and current affairs generally. My current academic interest is Chinese history. In my free time, one of my hobbies is writing fanfiction. I have travelled all over the world, and spent long periods of my life living in cultures not my own, mostly in Europe and Africa. I speak English, French, and beginners’ Japanese.

Miri: Miri here, with my main tumblr @asylos and my writing tumblr @mirintala. I am a Canadian Pharmacy Technician by day and a small time ePublisher and gamer of many types by night. Mostly wandering around the Internet helping to organize events in the FFVII tumblr fandom (modding at @ff7central and @ffviifandomcalendar), and stumbling around in various video games with my friends. I use she/they pronouns

Synth: I’m @chameleonsynthesis on Tumblr, but that’s a mouthful, so just call me Synth. Any pronouns work. Born and raised in Canada, but living in Norway since late 2007. Been worldbuilding in one form or another for some thirty-odd years now, with a predominantly science-fantasy bent. I’m of the artsy creative type, with way too many projects on the go at any given time, and enjoy long walks through Wikipedia and getting caught in TV Tropes. The best thing is when I stumble across some strange factoid that can justify aspects of my many weird alien species. When I’m not working on my worldbuilding or my art or at band rehearsal I can often be found exploring the hiking trails in the mountains surrounding the city.

It seems I have become the main “space ask” person ‘round these parts.

Tex: Hello, I’m Tex. Most of my hobbies are centered around fandom and worldbuilding for it, particularly on the science side, though I also like cooking and reading up on fiction and non-fiction whenever I have the time.

Utuabzu: Hi, I’m Utuabzu, I previously was part of ScriptMyth (RIP) where I tended to take the lead on Mesopotamia and Egypt related asks. I’m most of the way through a Bachelor of Linguistics, e parlo italiano und ein bisschen Deutsch. I have a deep and enduring interest in the history of the ancient world, particularly the ancient Near East, and I’m also a bit of a nerd for politics, which is helpful when it comes to worldbuilding. My random adhd-fueled 2am research binges have resulted in my knowing a lot of odd things. I enjoy traveling and experiencing other cultures, however as I am Australian this unfortunately requires flying, which I hate a great deal, and a fair bit of money, which I don't have. I expect to one day be crushed beneath a pile of my books. It is a demise I am ok with. If I must be referred to in the third person, he/him is fine, but don't stress about it. Other pronouns are more likely to cause confusion than offence. I have an unfortunate tendency towards really long sentences.

Wootzel: Hi, I’m Wootzel, or @wootzel-dragon! I use she/her pronouns. I'm a writer and artist of various flavors of fantasy, when I'm not being swallowed by life's obligations. My favorite thing about worldbuilding is making things as realistic or pseudo-realistic as possible, and finding a justification for everything. Sometimes, this is also my least favorite thing about myself, because it can make things very hard! But, it can also be really rewarding when I get things to work out in a way that I enjoy. 

My other hobbies include trying to rehabilitate my anxious dog, starting ambitious sewing projects on a whim, and wondering where all my time goes on a daily basis. I am still unsure about what I want to do with my life, except that it’ll always have writing in it somewhere. 

[askelectrochromic]

what is the Krikani language like? i like the description of Cheloan glyphs as analogous to Hanzi or Kanji (being able to identify the ``spicy'' character) but id love to know about the Krikani writing system

(im not expecting you to write a whole conlang of course but was curious if you had a general shape or feeling to it in mind) ^^;

SableGear0: You know, I haven't actually given it much thought yet. I probably should, though. My first impulse was to say "they don't have a written language" (for reasons I will discuss in a moment) but that seems impossible; they're a sapient species capable of space-travel and manage huge military systems, they probably have writing since not all communication can be person-to-person. So, organic rambling solution-finding and some links and images under the cut.

Generally I conceptualize Kriken as a (semi-)eusocial hive organism that are passively psionic, to keep in touch with the greater hive. How much direct communication happens psionically I'm still not sure; whether it can be used "conversationally," or if it's merely a "vibe" they share with local Kriken that's strong enough to pick up on the "vibe" from the core colony sometimes. The fact that they have a spoken language probably means its closer to the latter.

If the psionic communication is powerful enough, then maybe they wouldn't need to write? But then how would you do something like label the controls on a starship or make maps? You might have to devote someone to memorizing what all the labels would be and then telepathically ask them what you're looking at. Which isn't totally unreasonable, if we consider them highly specialized hive organisms. Maybe they do have "librarians" that keep this stuff in their minds and can be asked/accessed on a whim. This would be an extremely alien way of keeping track of information. While I kind of like it, it seems maybe a bit too weird for the Metroid series as we know it. Arguably, Metroid has kept its aliens fairly (socially) tame, giving us a lot of written logs throughout the Prime series. Though the ones we've gotten the most lore on are Pirates and Chozo, which aren't great benchmarks since they were respectively "the bad guys" and "the good guys (mostly)."

Being insectoid, Kriken might also communicate via pheromones? But pheromones and what/how Kriken eat have been stumping me because... well, their heads aren't really attached.

Trace has no neck. And while in some renders it looks like that tiny teardrop of a head is resting on the body, the in-game model and wireframe show pretty clearly they do not touch. Hence why I go with psionic; their heads float for spooky psionic reasons. This also means that while their heads may be a sensory center (headshots still work in Hunters), I doubt it's where they stick food when (if?) they eat, so it being a chemosensor feels a little unlikely, but I digress.

Anyway back to written language. I suppose I have to ask myself, what would a written language look like if it was invented by ants? Or bees? Ants is a tough one mainly because I don't actually know much about ant organization. My impression is that they build and tunnel fairly organically, just wherever is easiest to go and/or smells like it has the most food. When I think about bees, though, I think about bee dances, and how that might be adapted into a written language; a system abstracting the orientation and movement of the body into markings that can be re-read at any time so that worker doesn't have to bust down and dance it out every time she wants to relay some information to someone new.

And thinking about that, I think about Phyrexian. This conlang shows up in the Magic the Gathering universe, and knowing what I know about Phyrexians (an all-consuming hivemind-like culture that take creatures and turn them into half-mechanical abominations to serve their own purposes), it seems like a decent fit.

The shape of these is really what I was going for but the cultural implications match up too. I was thinking of the cross-strokes being similar to the directional facing if you were to write down a bee dance, the extra marks indicating other movements like stops or the frequency of a waggle.

It also looks like something a bug might make if you dipped it in ink and let it walk around on a paper, so that's neat. Scratching marks like these out would be fairly quick and easy for a Kriken, since they only appear to have a crab-like manipulator and a single combat claw, and I've stuck with that design choice in describing them because it's more interesting than "oh and they have normal hands too".

So there's your answer, I guess. Written Krikani probably looks kind of like Phyrexian; branching strokes off a central line that stem from an ancestral system of gestural communication (and I like the verticality so I'll probably keep that too). Simple, efficient, and easy to replicate.

Thanks for the ask! This was a bit of a brain-teaser.

[greenjudy]

an interesting old person experience

I've mentioned this before. 

But more and more often, as I scroll Tumblr, I come across posts and comments that speak of crises and spaces and experiences I cannot and will not ever know. 

Fandoms as distant from my small circle of propensities as Ultima Thule emitting signals in passing, like messages traveling here from other stars. 

Even my familiar territory is turning strange, as I age out of the common fandom conlang we use to communicate. I never saw the first Blorbo; I only perceived its traces in the bent branches and sheared-off bark marking the passage of something large and heavy moving through the brush.

I thought it would be scary to look at your posts and fail to get anything out of them, but it's not. 

Culture is not in fact what we have in common. We are all getting old and peculiar and less understandable even to loved ones; even to ourselves. 

What we have in common is time and distance, time and change, time and the capacity for understanding.

[warcrimesimulator]

So I'm actually getting ready to start developing my conlang and honestly I am not looking forward to this 😭

There is the original (and very much dead) language of the time-traveler civilization pre-collapse, and two extant languages descend from it. One language is only really used in religious contexts and as a basic communication tool between descendants of the civilization across different countries. The other language is used exclusively by the most isolated and culturally distinct taiga/tundra populations in Russia/Scandinavia.

Part of the struggle though is just the fact that the original language in nature is obviously within a science-fiction context. This was an advanced civilization with time travel and nuclear fusion and transhumanism and biological immortality. All working knowledge of this was wiped post-collapse and while some vague memories remained, the context changed to myths and legends, religion, philosophy. So I'm basically having to create a science-fiction language, and breaking it down again (with added influence from real-world languages they would have now been exposed to) to create "natural" languages. I dunno how to even explain that honestly. am i even being coherent. probably not.

[piratespencil]

1 & 2 for the book asks, please! Yay books!

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

I answered this one earlier but I'll give another answer! I don't reread things a lot but the fact that I've read both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo more than once shows you how much I love those books... They're long but they're fantastic. Fantasy heist crew doing fantasy heists. Very good.

2. top 5 books of all time?

Top five of all time is too hard so I'm going to cheat and say top 5 I read this year haha... This might get long so I'm going to do a count-down under the cut:

5) In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent - This is a non-fiction book about conlangs and it's super interesting!! The older I get the more I realize that non-fiction books can be fun actually...

4) All Systems Red by Martha Wells - I got really into sci-fi this year and this series, The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, is so good. A security construct (part human part robot) hacks itself so it can just hang out and watch TV all day and then stuff happens. I love Murderbot with my whole heart. Great place to start if you haven't read a lot of sci-fi but want to.

3) Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch - This is another non-fiction book!! This one is about internet language and internet culture and it is so interesting and so well-written, absolutely one of my favourite books of all time.

2) Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - The whole Locked Tomb series by Tamsym Muir is super cool. Weird, trippy gothic horror slash sci-fi with lesbians. But the most recent book in the series, Nona, is absolutely my favourite one so far. Weird gender stuff. Super endearing narrator. Bonkers plot. God is a twitch streamer from New Zealand. Love it.

1) The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - More sci-fi!! This book is basically just the episodic adventures of a little long haul ship crew traveling through space but there is something so endearing about the characters and so compelling about how this book is written. As soon as I read it, it scratched an itch I didn't know I had. I'm gonna reread it at some point for sure. (It's the first book in the Wayfarers series, and while the other books in the series are also cool, they deal with different characters and this one is by far my favourite.)

Sorry that was so long!!! I hope you liked this list though, I highly recommend all these books, especially if you enjoy sci-fi and/or non-fiction about linguistics haha.

[siallalegends]

Predatory Squirrels

Most of Rodentia are of course obligatorily herbivorous, or mildly omnivorous. In fact, even in Sialla, most squirrels are, as on Earth, herbivores, eating mostly nuts and seeds. However, one tribe has bucked this tendency, scurrying through the trees, they might look like cute little critters, but they are in fact, vicious and highly effective predators.

The predator squirrels, tribe caroxerini in English, range from about 6 inches in height to nearly 36, weighing between 0.20 pounds and 24 pounds. With the largest species being almost 6 feet in length, including the tail. They are almost exclusively found in heavily forested areas, as their hunting style requires good tree cover. All predator squirrels have amazing hearing and eyesight, with slit pupils in order to find prey. They can move extremely quietly through canopy and once prey is with sight, they can move with extreme speed in pursuit, once prey is caught, they use their highly developed claws, and specialized, razor-sharp incisors to tear it apart.

The small species subsist mostly on insects found throughout the trees, but larger species hunt smaller rodent species and birds. These larger species often employ a strategy of jumping out of the trees, often up to 10 feet straight down onto their prey. This requires sight and hearing capabilities of a level not found anywhere else in Rodentia.

The most extreme genus of these squirrels are in English called the Torpedo Squirrels (Sagitta). Rather than pouncing on mice and small birds, these 15-to-22-pound squirrels launch themselves from perches up to 3 meters up onto such prey as deer, pigs, and various bovids. The impact of the landing is often enough to kill the prey, if the neck or head is hit. But even if the impact doesn’t kill them, the squirrel will lock in its claws and start biting. A few bites to vulnerable areas is usually enough to kill the prey, but if it flees after being hit, the torpedo squirrels are able to hold on for a very long time. One was documented riding a deer almost 10 miles from the initial attack zone without letting go. But solitary torpedo squirrel attacks are rare, because they are pack hunters. While one squirrel is usually sufficient to take down a deer, torpedo squirrels travel in packs of up to 2 dozen. Once the prey is slaughtered, the squirrels go into a sort of blood frenzy, and a full pack can clean a deer carcass of meat within 5 minutes.

These Torpedo Squirrels occasionally attack humans, and a single squirrel can do a lot of damage, though most packs have learned that humans are incredibly dangerous, so only the idiots attack them, and they are usually left to die. Because of the danger even a single squirrel poses, humans generally kill these squirrels on sight and use them as trophies. Indeed many Srilguut aristocrats have had portraits holding a dead squirrel.

However a different species of squirrel has met with a significantly different fate.

The domesticated squirrel (Formandam Amici), is a medium sized predatory squirrel, around 4.5 to 6 kg in weight, with a body length of around 50 cm, with a 52 cm tail. It eats mostly small rodents and birds, thus making it the perfect pest controller. It naturally nests in tree hollows, and stays in one nest for as long as it is safe, so when they got into Srilguut grain storage buildings, they just, stayed, and since they don't eat grain, but do eat things that eat grain, Srilguut farmers started building their grain storages with the express purpose of attracting and keeping squirrels.

And thus, man's best friend domesticated humans.

I'll link to other posts later, but if you're new here, start with this post:

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

tavjua /tˈavd͡ʒjuːə/ : (to) accompany

Positive Action. Present tense. Formal.

📖 Definition & Synonyms

→ Definition: To assume that position where you walk just half a step behind someone else. → Synonyms: attend, escort, chaperone

🗨️ Example Usage

→ Romanised: 'Eonle tavjua ei semu time ara siavi?' 'Pann. Sarr.' → English: 'Do you want to accompany me through time and space?' 'Nah. Soz.' → Audio:

→ Sollifreyan Font (v1):

🧩 Modifiers

→ Tense (simple): N-tavjua (accompanied) | tavjua-N (will accompany) → Negative: tavjua-o (not accompanying) → Slang: tavjuu

🔍 Advanced

Etymology and Morphological Breakdown

Tav (Root): Derived from "tav," meaning "travel."

Ju (Root): Derived from "jum," meaning "a physical action."

A (Action Suffix): A common suffix used to denote actions.

Usage and Additional Notes

The conceptualisation of 'Tavjua': The term "tavjua" can be understood as 'to accompany,' specifically referring to the act of physically travelling or moving alongside someone. It encapsulates the idea of journeying together.

Literal Meaning: The term literally translates to "to travel and act," reflecting the dual aspects of accompanying someone on a journey: the travel itself and the physical presence or action involved in being alongside them.

(GIL Gallifreyan Conlang Guide)

Gallifreyan Word for Wednesday by GIL

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[perpetual-fool]

-

Starting serious work on my conlang, and got swindled into watching a show.

I've worked out that fundamental meaning has to be a function between observations. I think I can abstract that to 'arguments' and 'premises', but I need to work out data types, what sort of things there are which could be premises. It shouldn't be that complicated, but I'm finding it hard to wrap my brain around it for some reason. I think that's because I'm trying to sort out my existing understanding, and much of that has been corrupted.

I kept seeing clips of the show online, it suggested something interesting was happening. Problem is, it's not, nothing's happening. Like, I would have to start with how things are, then see what develops from that. Instead, it's like characters are sort of vaguely pantomiming a plot, except the plot doesn't fit the circumstances or the characters. Like for instance, the character known for wantonly killing decided to spare the main antagonist for no reason, so that the antagonist can come back and antagonize later. And also there's no justification for the antagonist to antagonize, and everyone is trying to kill each other despite the fact that all of them are trying to achieve the same thing. Or, character makes a heartfelt plea to convince someone of something, but say nothing specific and make literally no argument about it. That is, there is no causal relationship between how the world is supposed to work and what's happening in the plot.

And I'm wondering if this is just a sloppy version of what actual people do. It does mirror a lot of their behavior. Ya' know, the truth is true whether or not it's valid, or whether it happened, or whether it even could happen. And the equation isn't that complex. If they're not starting from the premises then they must be starting from the argument. Oh! say, arguing over whether the ends justify the means. an argument without its premises. I have wasted so much fucking time trying to make myself understood. Last attempt, I had this whole thing about multiple phrasings, examples, counter-examples. But none of that will fix communication if the other party is actively trying to destroy it. Ambiguity for instance, I'm pretty sure that's a feature and not a bug. Like, off the top of my head I know three different versions of "argument", and they'd would decide which one(s) I meant here to justify imposing what they want onto me. That was actually the thing that tipped me off to the fact that it's them and not me. I'd clarify 'I mean term(a), not term(b)' and then they responded as though I meant term(b).

Honestly the most disappointing thing for me about season 2 is that they still refer to the timelines as 'sacred' or 'branched'. So like, (spoilers for Loki S1) the deal with 'the sacred timeline' was that it's the one He Who Remains came from, what was or was not a 'branch' and who was or was not a 'variant' was defined by HWR. But now HWR is dead, the terms no longer have any meaning. Every timeline is a branch, everyone is a variant. So it's like the writers don't even have the most basic grasp on their worldbuilding. Somehow that feels more significant to me than bad setups or nonsense plot. I guess maybe it was the most engaging thing they had going. Like, what's most interesting for me is when I have to reframe how I think about things. I'd love to hear a take on time travel that's not just 'the past rewrites the future' or 'there are parallel timelines'. Say, the scene where Loki is talking to OB in the past, and as it's happening in the past he remembers it in the future: if they'd actually justified that somehow that'd be cool. (Aside, variations of "you can't actually change anything" are cop-outs.) It makes sens that they wouldn't, you'd need to come up with an alternative causality, which would be difficult to impossible. But it'd be fun.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

theres like 2 posts about world building ive seen circulating & every time & im. wow. felt. i wish i had a cool story for my world but all my little guys end up like slice of life stories. & then i get to some minor detail about how would it be different from this world & instead of doing the reasonable thing of "this would be cool no one needs to know the specifics" im like. oh yeah the religions in the world would be different from this world that would be a fun little trivia thing [proceeds to make very in depth elaborations to various religions from different in universe countries] [makes up specific figures for them] [gives them weird little personal lives on top of the lore]. the fact i havent made a conlang for at least one of the countries is solely dependent on the fact its a lot more intricate than i have time for. i added whales in the sky so it'd be cool & instead of leaving it at that i went yeah sure why shouldn't they be in replacement of planes & have a history of breeding programs both for commercial flights & competitive whale racing & shows (much like horses) and on top of that different species have different tolerances to how high they can fly or how close to the poles/other hemispheres they can travel without having adverse effects. theres giant deer in the forests with their antlers & hooves composed of gemstones relative to the area theyre in. they have the ability to confuse people & make them walk in circles to remain undiscovered. literally a type of cryptid. theres region specific terrains & landscapes that each pose there own unique threats & rewards to people in them. there's islands that just float around in the sky -electromagnetism perhaps im still deciding on this one- that are near impossible to count so no one knows if theyve all been discovered or if the same ones are ever discovered twice. etc etc.

and this is all mostly irrelevant and or minor bc the single big thing that matters is that half of the population is born with some sort of psychic abilities that are highly personalized.