Phonetic Runic!

Looking forward to learning how to pronounce runic! This will add a great amount of depth like Lord of
the Rings.

He mentions it at around 17 minutes into this video...

 

Just look to Icelandic, Old Norse, and Old English / German. Tolkien gave pronunciations in LOTR which are similar to the old Germanic languages anyway. So not sure what is meant by "new": a new feature for Ultima games (incl SOTA)?


Can't access video atm.

 

"New Britannian Runic" isn't a language. It's a cipher. You can't steal the entire vocabulary and syntax from an existing language and then try to map its phonetic structures differently. That's just dumb. It's like deciding you're going to pronounce a->e, e->i, i->o, o->u, u->a -- just 'cause.

 

He's definitely brilliant. @RichardGarriott is not just the longest lasting person in the game industry, but I think he's one of the most brilliant in the industry as well.

He knows how to make a great game, without having to screw it all up with the corporate mentality that builds mindless games that has the soul purpose of making money by following a some kind of formula. He has both an entrepreneur mind, and the mind of a creative. He's got a gift.

 

Think it beasically means a new phonetic language for SotA. He talked about the 3 languages for SotA way back in April 2013, which I posted about here.
- Runic
- Pictographic (like Tabula Rasa)
- Phonetic (like Gargish)

So far we've only seen the Runic language. And they've only briefly mentioned the "words of power" for spell casting (which might correspond to the Pictographic language, but unclear) in some hangouts or IRC chat. Perhaps we should nudge RichardGarriott for an update on this

 

smack has it right here. The phonetic language won't be the same as runic. Last time RG really talked about it was about a year ago and he wasn't entirely sure he'd get more languages in at the time but it's something he wanted to do. So I'm pretty sure we'll get them sooner or later. He's not going to just change his mind but it might not be for EP1 which would make me sad.

 

Perhaps it is just adding sounds to the runic. Vowels stay vowels-like phonemes, and consonants would keep phonemes in keeping with consonants. So instead of reading back the runic in English it would sound completely different.

Unless he truly plans on creating a completely new language. I just don't see them having the time nor resources for doing so. If Lord British writes a new "language" on his spare time, then he's really fing super human talented.

 

Ÿmcanna farthena nellarím ethna dillerím dillë thâar.

Translation: A new, working language could be written (Literally: A new and working language is able to write itself.)

 

I don't think we view language the same way. When they developed the Klingon Language that took linguists to work on that project. It was a real language that people could take at some universities.

So when I think about creating a new language, I don't think in terms of creating new words that mean the same shttit as our words. Why create a language like that?

Languages have features that go far beyond just words. You can't just plug in a paragraph typed in Japanese into Google translate and figure out exactly what somebody is saying. You can get the jist of it but you may miss the actual meaning/message. The Japanese are not a literal people, they often use metaphors so translating into English would still run the risk of misinterpretation because we look for direct literal meanings when the Japanese infer their meanings.

 

As Lord Trenyc says, runic is a cipher for the English alphabet. LB said in the video that he is developing a new phonetic language and also new versions of runic and pictograms. Not a combination. So runic will not play a part in it except where the text is encoded in runic.

SotA will definitely benefit from this work if LB is indeed crafting a new language for New Britannia. Folklore and the patina of narrative is a very effective tool to create believable worlds. Terry Pratchett is another author that uses layers of folklore to make Discworld feel more genuine.

 

I wonder if there will be any game play implications? I really doubt we are going to have "Audio" quests where you have to plug in a microphone and recite something in 'phonetic-runic' to complete an objective. (would be fricken cool however )

Hopefully there are some game play factors in addition to cultural evidence/world richness.

 

Isaiah:

In my example sentence above, I did a bit more than just create substitutes for English. words. That would be a cipher, not a language.

ÿmcanna: derived from two theoretical morphemes: ym, which indicates the concept of having and can which indicates the the concept of potentiality. The verb ÿmcanna comes to mean something like "has the potentiality."

fathena: derived from a morpheme far, indicating speech. To this, I have affixed a theoretical abstract noun marker. Farthena would come out to mean something like speakingness. Likely the verb for "to speak" in this language would be farra

nellarím: derived from the morpheme"to be born or brought forth" with an adjective marker attached. As an adjective it roughly corresponds to idea contained in the word new. Given the information already provided here, one could predict the word for "birth/newness/origin": nellena, derived from the aforementioned morpheme with the abstract noun marker attached. Also, just from the little bit I've pointed out so far, one could also predict a word for "ownership/possession": ymmena and "ability," cannena.

ethna: a conjunction. One could ultimately link this to the morpheme indicating addition or growth. Hence the theoretical verb etta, "to add", or the theoretical noun ethena, "growth" or "addition."

dillarím: from a morpheme indicating work/action/doing. Note the use of the consistent adjective marker.

dillë: a word obviously related to dillarim. Dilla in this labguage is the typical verb in this language indicating doing/working/acting. The dieresis on the final e of this form shows that this is an infinitive form of the verb. In my translation above I loosely translated this as "to write." I should have been more literal: A new and working language is able to do itself, or to work itself out.

thaâr: third person singular pronoun with a suffix of reflexivity added.

I would be happy to discuss some of my syntactical consideration for this language if you'd like, Isaiah. And what exactly indicated to you that I had no experience with linguistics?

Malchor2

 

Cool I like it. You sold me. Let's see that in SotA.

 

Isaiah:

ynnaŸmghella yôgh. (Thank you, or literally, "I do not have any ungraciousness") And the lowercase y on the negative prefix ynna is not a typo.

Malchor2

 

Just remembered an old Origin stalwart David Ladyman is working for CIG right now...he also happens to have degrees in Mathematics and Linguistics!

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13296-Meet-David-Ladyman

No doubt he has a TON of stuff on his plate with Star Citizen, but he would be the perfect candidate for helping LB. Maybe he already is?! :O

 

Just as a test:
A Translation of "Reflection of True Love" by TimeLord

Fënna yogh alladrammena ayfraena’ym ethenenarím’ym.
Fënna yôgh rim.
Fënna thênn rim.
Fënna yôghaz rim zhra.
ynnaFën yôgh frena; fën ohmerrena.
ynnaFën yôgh nannena; fën ohmdillammena.
ynnaFën yôgh omnannena; fën ohmfarthena.
ynnaFën yôgh orzhagra; fën farmellena.
ynnaFën yôgh adrammagrathaz thênnym; fën omnadram thênnym.
ynnaFën yôgh ayyamagrathaz thênnym; fën zhragra thênnym.
ynnaFën yôgh orzhazhymaz thênnym; fën adrathraena.
ynnaFën yôgh dragrathaz thênnym; fën omnafarthenazh
ynnaFën yôgh zhehegratha thênnym; fën orimemmazh.
ynnaFën yôgh ohma; fën thymthymena.
ynnaFën yôgh zhthannagratha thênnym; fën adraenazh
ynnaFën yôgh orgrathaz thênnym; fën orammenazh.
ynnaFën yôgh am thênnym; fën ammenazh.
ynnaFën yôgh orzhomnadram thênnym; fën mellena thrimymarim.
ynnaFën yôgh zallena thênnym; fën yayadrammenazh zallena’ym thênnym.
ynnaFën yôgh orzhaym thênnym; fën oryenenaz thênnym.
Fënna yôgh ayfraena.
Fënna yôgh ethenenarimazh.
Fënna yôgh thénnym.
Fënna thênn yôghym.
Ÿmcanna yôgh adrammë thenn?
Ÿmcanna thenn adrammë yôgh, omnadrarim rim ayfragra?
Ÿmnanna ayfraena fënnë omna alladrammagrafa.
Alladrämma ayfraena thaâr omna ayfragra ethna ayfragera.
Fënna thâ oryenena.
Fënna thâ thrimenena.
Fënna thâ thrininnagrafa thrininnagra’ym ethna thrininnagera’ym, thrininnenazh zhra.


TimeLord's original can be found on thecaverns.net.


Literal translation of the above:I am the reflection of treelike/true love.
I am thus.
You are thus.
We are thus together.
I am not a gift; I am a heart's thirst.I am not a want; I am that which the heart seeks.
I am not a desire; I am what the heart speaks.
I am not an underling; I am a benediction.
I am not your eyes; I am that which people gaze on (face).
I am not your embracer-limbs; I am your helper.
I am not your ten-lower-digits,;I am warmth.
I am not your moving-around-limbs; I am that which is spoken into (you).I am not your finger; I am what is touched.
I am not your seat-of-emotion; I am rhythm.
I am not your standing-parts; I am that which is arrived at.
I am not your hearing-part; I am the thing heard.
I am not mind; I am the thing thought of.
I am not your head-cushion; I am your night's pleasantness.
I am not your sleep; I am your sleep's expected thing.
I am not your body-cushion; I am protection.
I am love. I am treeishness/truth.
I am yours.
You are mine.
Can I see you?
Can you see me, arriving like a lover?
Love needs to be in a reflection-device.
Love reflects itself in he who loves and she who loves.
It is protection.
It is starlight/sparkliness.
It is the ringing-device of he who rings and she who rings,
A thing rung together.

 

Nicely done Malchor the 2nd