The attached file shows my script and how to pronounce each letter, as well as a sample text in Paiodd.
https://acrobat.com/#d=CLHyICY0gGudMOp-ZaIC*g
I created the script using www.fontstruct.com, which is somewhat limited, and as a result there are spacing and size issues, but for the most part it works.
I'm working on rewriting the grammar of Paiodd as well, and will post that when finished.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Just in time for Easter, here is a poem in Paiodd, the High Speech of Virestia, with a theme of life from death, and some references to Virestian religious beliefs. The words are below, followed by a translation.
eus gué dir siepuí epía
sualir zholadd alía.
shedía ebb, dhiolmaun
esía siepuí assené.
órabir gué thes ó gué oz
thoroía thum shopía
dúcínir shaulía.
ketshedía siebb maun fit
l'dhir íasem.
ebb ó maun ai
eusía siebb ash'gía hanir.
Translation
I came upon a lifeless tree
within a joyful meadow.
The prisonstone, like the tree,
seems lifeless at first.
I looked closer and saw
that a lovely flower bloomed
upon a lonely branch.
So too the stone holds life
in its depths.
The tree and the stone have shown
that life comes from death.
Monday, April 2, 2012
What is Hypothetical Linguistics?
Hypothetical Linguistics is a term I have coined to refer to the possibility that constructed languages may have some academic value. As far as I know, I am the only one to have used this term. Constructed languages are languages that are created most often for use in a fictional world of science fiction or fantasy, but not exclusively. The popularity of the movie Avatar and the HBO series Game of Thrones has garnered much media attention for the formerly obscure hobby, but it has been around for a long time (Chozick 2011, Wheeler 2012).
Before the more recent cases mentioned above, the most famous examples of fictional languages were the family of Elvish languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien and appearing in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien 1984), and of course, Klingon created by Marc Okrand and used for the Star Trek franchise (Okrand 1985). However, even before these prominent examples, there were the many attempts at creating a universal language with hopes that it would usher in an era of world peace, of which Esperanto is only the most prominent example (Clark 1912). There have also been attempts at creating purely logical languages, such as Lojban (Logical Language Group). This hobby is actually much more popular than you might think, however, as even a casual perusal of the Language Creation Society's website shows.
None of these languages have been taken seriously in the academic world, however, for what would seem obvious reasons. After all, if the focus of Descriptive Linguistics is to describe the way real languages work, what good is a language that's made up? I propose that a made up language is extremely useful for many reasons, but most of all for the reason that most art and literature is useful: it highlights, criticizes, and may even help shift our paradigms of how we do things. Art and literature highlight and criticize our social mores, while hypothetical linguistics should highlight, criticize and open the door to change of currently held linguistic theories and paradigms. I believe it can do this because the many types of constructed languages (or conlangs as the hobbyist call them) touch on almost all of the major concerns in the field of Linguistics today.
In my undergraduate research project, "Paiodd: A Study in Constructed Language", I described several different types of conlangs. There are fictional languages, created for use in a fictional setting, which are the ones that have been getting all the press lately. There are international languages, intended to bridge the gap between people of different nationalities, such as Esperanto. And finally, there are logical languages, such as Lojban. Each of these types of conlang has a different concern, but all touch on various questions and issues that the field of Linguistics is concerned with. Below is a brief summary of these types and the kinds of questions they raise.
Fictional languages: These are probably the most versatile, able to address the most variety of questions about language, including the links between language and culture, why certain combinations of features occur in individual languages, and what completely novel grammatical relationships could be defined.
International languages: At first, I thought these might be the least interesting or useful type of conlang for the purpose of Hypothetical Linguistics, but then I realized that one of the major criticisms of such languages is precisely the reason they are useful. That is, they raise the question of how connected language and culture are, and whether an artificial language can create an artificial culture.
Logical languages: These raise the issue of why most languages are not entirely logical in the first place, and whether or not they should be. They also call into question the issue of whether a language entirely based on logic can work and be as expressive and beautiful as natural language.
I hope this weblog will expound upon these issues, as well as provide a forum for me to publish some of my own work in conlanging. This stems from my undergraduate work mentioned above, and is also a response to the growing in interest in the field recently, as a result of the film and television industries. I hope to discuss issues related to this growing interest in the hobby so obscure and seemingly useless that Tolkien called it "a secret vice", as well as the reasons I think this hobby may not be so useless after all, and perhaps throw out Paiodd lessons, poems, stories and even videos of Virestian folk songs (Virestia being the land where Paiodd was spoken).
Sources and Resources:
Na'vi from Avatar http://www.learnnavi.org/
Dothraki from Game of Thrones http://www.dothraki.org/
The Language Creation Society http://www.conlang.org/
Allan, Jim, ed.. An Introduction to Elvish. The Bath Press, 2002. Bath.
Chozick, Amy. "Athhilezar? Watch Your Fantasy World Language." New York Times. Dec. 12, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/arts/television/in-game-of-thrones-a-language-to-make-the-world-feel-real.html?_r=1 Accessed: April 02, 2012
Wheeler, Brian. "Why Are Fantasy World Accents British?" BBC News, Mar. 29, 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17554816 Accessed: April 02, 2012.
Before the more recent cases mentioned above, the most famous examples of fictional languages were the family of Elvish languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien and appearing in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien 1984), and of course, Klingon created by Marc Okrand and used for the Star Trek franchise (Okrand 1985). However, even before these prominent examples, there were the many attempts at creating a universal language with hopes that it would usher in an era of world peace, of which Esperanto is only the most prominent example (Clark 1912). There have also been attempts at creating purely logical languages, such as Lojban (Logical Language Group). This hobby is actually much more popular than you might think, however, as even a casual perusal of the Language Creation Society's website shows.
None of these languages have been taken seriously in the academic world, however, for what would seem obvious reasons. After all, if the focus of Descriptive Linguistics is to describe the way real languages work, what good is a language that's made up? I propose that a made up language is extremely useful for many reasons, but most of all for the reason that most art and literature is useful: it highlights, criticizes, and may even help shift our paradigms of how we do things. Art and literature highlight and criticize our social mores, while hypothetical linguistics should highlight, criticize and open the door to change of currently held linguistic theories and paradigms. I believe it can do this because the many types of constructed languages (or conlangs as the hobbyist call them) touch on almost all of the major concerns in the field of Linguistics today.
In my undergraduate research project, "Paiodd: A Study in Constructed Language", I described several different types of conlangs. There are fictional languages, created for use in a fictional setting, which are the ones that have been getting all the press lately. There are international languages, intended to bridge the gap between people of different nationalities, such as Esperanto. And finally, there are logical languages, such as Lojban. Each of these types of conlang has a different concern, but all touch on various questions and issues that the field of Linguistics is concerned with. Below is a brief summary of these types and the kinds of questions they raise.
Fictional languages: These are probably the most versatile, able to address the most variety of questions about language, including the links between language and culture, why certain combinations of features occur in individual languages, and what completely novel grammatical relationships could be defined.
International languages: At first, I thought these might be the least interesting or useful type of conlang for the purpose of Hypothetical Linguistics, but then I realized that one of the major criticisms of such languages is precisely the reason they are useful. That is, they raise the question of how connected language and culture are, and whether an artificial language can create an artificial culture.
Logical languages: These raise the issue of why most languages are not entirely logical in the first place, and whether or not they should be. They also call into question the issue of whether a language entirely based on logic can work and be as expressive and beautiful as natural language.
I hope this weblog will expound upon these issues, as well as provide a forum for me to publish some of my own work in conlanging. This stems from my undergraduate work mentioned above, and is also a response to the growing in interest in the field recently, as a result of the film and television industries. I hope to discuss issues related to this growing interest in the hobby so obscure and seemingly useless that Tolkien called it "a secret vice", as well as the reasons I think this hobby may not be so useless after all, and perhaps throw out Paiodd lessons, poems, stories and even videos of Virestian folk songs (Virestia being the land where Paiodd was spoken).
Sources and Resources:
Na'vi from Avatar http://www.learnnavi.org/
Dothraki from Game of Thrones http://www.dothraki.org/
The Language Creation Society http://www.conlang.org/
Allan, Jim, ed.. An Introduction to Elvish. The Bath Press, 2002. Bath.
Chozick, Amy. "Athhilezar? Watch Your Fantasy World Language." New York Times. Dec. 12, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/arts/television/in-game-of-thrones-a-language-to-make-the-world-feel-real.html?_r=1 Accessed: April 02, 2012
Clark, W. J. International
Language. Aldine House, 1912. Covent Garden.
Graves, J. K. "Paiodd: A Study in Constructed Language". Presented at the Jacksonville University Student Symposium, 2004.
Logical Language Group,
The. What Is Lojban? http://www.lojban.org/publications/level0/brochure/book1.html
Okrand, Marc. The
Klingon Dictionary. Paramount Pictures, 1985.
Schoen, Lawrence M. “A Brief History of Klingon.” 2000,
http://www.morgenwelt.de/futureframe/000131-klingon.htm.
Tolkien, J. R. R. “A
Secret Vice.” The Monsters and the Critics,
Christopher Tolkien, ed. Houghton Mifflin, 1984. Boston.
Wheeler, Brian. "Why Are Fantasy World Accents British?" BBC News, Mar. 29, 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17554816 Accessed: April 02, 2012.
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