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Author Topic: Language  (Read 11809 times)
Bethar
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« on: June 15, 2010, 11:08:47 am »

Okay, in an effort to put pressure on myself to do something, I am going to offer the following:
1 - I will make available the Fubarnii alphabet and some indication of how to write it (this should be straightforward, I have the information, I just need to present it in a coherent format)
2 - I will attempt a list of common Fubarnii words (with regional variations) and a brief guide to some simple rules of grammar, for the purposes of place names and tribe names.  This will be harder and more complicated.
If I haven't got the first one done by the end of the week, please nag me.
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Brandlin
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« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2010, 12:52:50 pm »

please consider this a pre-emptive nag Bethar Smiley

1. would be a big boon - allowing us to at least write things thet LOOK ok, even if they are gobbledigook. I keep painting sigil/runes on the buildings but i'm just recycling the ones on the website!!

Smiley

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Bethar
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« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2010, 09:57:50 pm »

Okay, here is an alphabet (or three).





There will be some examples along shortly.
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Brandlin
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« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2010, 10:53:59 pm »

you know we are already writing swer words dont you?

i am a little surpised, as it seems many of the symbols from the rule book (which i have used on the buildings) are actually letters rather than who words, concepts, ideas or other more complex communication.
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Koya
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« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2010, 11:04:00 pm »

That's really interesting.. It makes me wonder though, is fubarnii spelt:



or sort of fubahrnee.

That's how I've been pronouncing it, but it's suddenly occured to me I may well be wrong, English being the irrational, stress laden language it is.

I hesitate to ask more after being given such awesomeness, but is there a numerical system? It seems like the kind of thing which could be useful for marking out militia regiments and such (assuming fubarnii would think to do such a thing).

I really like the delgon alphabet.. it looks like the thing you could chisel into stone quite easily, good for impressive architecture. Smiley
« Last Edit: June 17, 2010, 11:13:39 pm by Koya » Logged
Carcharoth
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« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2010, 08:16:25 am »

you know we are already writing swer words dont you?

i am a little surpised, as it seems many of the symbols from the rule book (which i have used on the buildings) are actually letters rather than who words, concepts, ideas or other more complex communication.

The letter-symbols themselves are often derived from older symbols which carried more meaning. Think of the symbol 'omega', it is a letter of the Greek alphabet, but also carries meaning in its own right. Or the whole numbers theories associated with Hebrew in the bible. The Fubarnii quite like things with depth of meaning, so the fact that a word has letters that in themselves have meaning would be somehow satisfying. I'm not sure they would try to draw hidden meaning from that, but it might be a cause of academic amusement.

Koya. Not quite. The vowel symbols sit directly above or below the main letters. Beth has sent me some examples so I'll try to get them uploaded at some point today.
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Carcharoth
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« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2010, 08:43:14 am »

A few examples from Beth. Not sure what they say, but she'll be along at some point to explain

Cursive Script:


Formal Empire:

Delgon:
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Carcharoth
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« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2010, 09:15:58 am »

I posted this example of the lettering a while back. It's a slightly different writing style - slightly simpler and less flowing than the cursive variant Beth shared. I could imagine this being the style an engineer might use in his books - very neat, but with less flourishes than Empire Formal.
The Delgon example of Roban might be inaccurate, but gives the general idea of how the diacritics work. R (o) B ahn (with the o sitting under the R). I'm sure Beth will probably explain how I've got it wrong...

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Brandlin
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« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2010, 10:39:37 am »

written right to left as well by the look of things?
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Carcharoth
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« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2010, 10:56:45 am »

All Beth's guides are written 'backwards' so she can write them left to right, then invert them. That does kinda make sense, but it means you have to be wary when using any letters or doing any writing as you've got to invert everything.

So yes, the writing is generally written right to left, primarily based on the fact that my knights hold their spears in their left hand  Smiley
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Koya
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« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2010, 03:41:57 pm »

Koya. Not quite. The vowel symbols sit directly above or below the main letters. Beth has sent me some examples so I'll try to get them uploaded at some point today.

Ah.. I see. That actually looks a lot nicer and more space-economical. I was thinking too Japanese. Smiley
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Bethar
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« Reply #11 on: June 20, 2010, 09:58:31 pm »

You would actually spell "Fubarnii" with the characters
f(long u) - b - ahn(long i)
three consonant characters and two diacritics.

The sample texts are Tom's translation of the beginning of one of the Fubarnii myths as far as I remember.  I am particularly pleased with the cursive writing.  This particular Delgon example is written right to left instead of top to bottom, which can happen sometimes, but top to bottom would be more authentically Delgon and I will try to do an example of that at some point.

Someone asked about numerals - that's a whole different discussion.  Tom thinks they count in base 8, but I will have to check that with Mike.  They almost certainly have a 'sensible' system like Arabic instead of a damn stupid system like Roman numerals, but quite how it looks I'm not sure...
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Brandlin
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« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2010, 10:13:24 pm »

I am particularly pleased with the cursive writing.

So you should be. It has a genuine realness about it and yet is otherworldly at the same time.

<insert big hand clapping applause icon here>
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Carcharoth
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« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2010, 10:19:36 pm »

Here are a few more examples that Beth sent through to me a while ago - names of towns from across the Empire.



I'm not sure if these have been checked against recent studies of the Fubarnii language, but they are fairly accurate!

I'm more uncertain about the Delgon script at the moment, so regard Beth's examples of a Larigal scholar's interpretation of what she understands of the language. She may be correct, but there may be some subtle differences that she is missing. As an example, I would see the Delgon written language as being very precise and uniform. Possibly written out very neatly on a carefully arranged grid. The diacritics would cause issues with that sort of arrangement, but I'm sure they have come up with a suitable system for formalising that. As Beth has already commented they do tend to write vertically rather than horizontally.
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Bethar
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« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2010, 10:52:13 pm »

A few more examples.  Here is how "Pryn Gul Tower" would look
1) carved in stone using Delgon alphabet


2) Daubed on a piece of wood


3) As a nicely presented sign in Empire script


(sorry, this last one's a bit big)

I'll get all these put on the website at some point.
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