I keep thinking about this guy I saw in Dallas.
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
RMH
Stranger Things
No title available

Product Placement
Cosmic Funnies

izzy's playlists!
Claire Keane
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH

No title available

Andulka
Peter Solarz
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Not today Justin
h

Kaledo Art

JBB: An Artblog!
trying on a metaphor
No title available

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Ireland

seen from Belarus

seen from Netherlands

seen from United States
seen from Malaysia

seen from Germany

seen from United States

seen from Austria
seen from South Africa
seen from Ireland

seen from Germany

seen from Austria

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Poland

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
@mirageindex
I keep thinking about this guy I saw in Dallas.
What I love about this, though, is that the little nails will become an outline of where the water was. It will trace the shape, show someone later what was there once upon a time. It will be a testament to how much this guy wanted to capture the amazing things he saw and experienced, and though it will never truly keep it, it will hold a memory, something that in itself is beautiful and worthy of experience. We cannot describe the indescribable, but we can trace its outline, give some idea of what we experienced.
official linguistics post
Playing with an idea for my conlang's writing system. I love the funky semi-syllabaries of the paleohispanic scripts, and I giggled when I did the numbers and realized that with my minimal phoneme set this would fit perfectly on a 26-letter ASCII keyboard. The esthetic is some kind of weird blend of bronze age Mediterranean and Japanese kana.
Conlang Year day 74
Day 74: March 14, 2024: Update your dictionary with demonstrative forms Added a section to my dictionary document to keep track of derived words. Even though the language has no inflections there are still some grammaticalized derivations.
Derivational Forms: A Running List necu, -ncu Necu, meaning “esteemed, noble, respectable”, shows up as the suffix -ncu in a bunch of odd places. It originates in common daily prayers to find game animals or ward off harm. One might says a quick prayer to Lord Cut not to slice one’s hand before preparing dinner, or to Lord Shut to keep the house safe at night. Before the animacy distinctions were lost -ncu nouns were referred to as animate, in deference to their small deities. crab = Lord Pinch: cipa necu > cipanecu > cipancu knife = Lord Cut: wesi necu > vesinecu > vesincu gate, exterior door = Lord Shut: rama necu > lamanecu > lamancu hearth = Lord Bright: mori necu > molinecu > molincu wave = Lord Pull: toso necu > tosonecu > tosoncu predator, beast, monster = Lord Teeth > nikapa necu > nikapanecu > naipancu > nepancu
-ma, -co Demonstratives are the source for the words “here” and “there”, from “this or that place”, though the connection has been obscured by sound changes. place: paŋi > pani here: paŋi ko > paŋko > panco there: paŋi ma > paŋme > pa:ma > pæma > pema cuma “spine, central, important” Here -ma serves to make cu feel more concrete, because it had come to be most often used simply to mean “in” or “at”. So -ma can de-grammaticalize words that have drifted from their roots!
Conlang Year: Demonstratives
DAY 73: Write a section on demonstrative modifiers Demonstratives immediately follow the nouns they modify and do not inflect. There is a two-way distinction between proximal (“co”, this) and distal (“ma”, that) demonstratives. Cipancu ma: that crab 🦀 👈 Cipancu ma iya: those nine crabs 🦀🦀🦀 🦀🦀🦀 🦀🦀🦀 👈 Lani co: this house 👇 🏠 Lani co veli: all these houses 👇 🏠🏠🏠
Demonstratives are also the source for the words “here” and “there”, from “this or that place”, though the connection has been obscured by sound changes. place: paŋi > pani here: paŋi ko > paŋko > panco there: paŋi ma > paŋme > pa:ma > pæma > pema
I'm finally caught up and can actually follow along one day at a time as intended!
Conlang Year: Days 69-72
DAY 69: Review and update your noun documentation DAY 70: Decide if modifiers will agree with nouns No inflections, no noun classes, no worries. DAY 71: Explore options for demonstratives DAY 72: Create demonstrative modifiers Keeping this one simple with a two-way demonstrative distinction. co: this ma: that
Conlang Year: Possession
DAY 65: Consider different types of possession DAY 66: Identify any possessive markers you need DAY 67: Create forms for possessive constructions DAY 68: Write an overview for possession The language (I really need to settle on a name for it, I’ve tried out a bunch but nothing's stuck) distinguishes between alienable and inalienable possession. For inalienable the possessor is used like an adjective, while for alienable the word “lao” (of, from) precedes the possessor. So: mema poya: the squid’s mother but cipancu lao poya: the squid’s crab This also goes for anything to do with a noun’s intrinsic qualities, such as size, color, texture, etc. lavo esa: the stream’s edge inta lao esa: the stream’s rocks (which can be easily removed)
This works the same way for pronouns. moci va: my head ota taica lao va: my seven cups
Conlang Year Days 60-64: Adpositions!
DAY 60: Explore ideas for more adpositions DAY 61: Create sources for new adpositions nose: *jesa
ye preposition “pointing at, to, toward”
limb, edge, border: *lafo
lavo noun (1) “limb” noun (2) “edge, border” lao preposition “out, away from” yelo verb “leave, go out” noun “exit”
spine: *coxu
cu preposition: “center, in, at” cuma noun (1) "spine, backbone" noun (2) “center” adjective: “important, central” with demonstrative ma to make the noun feel more specific. yecu preposition: “into” verb: “enter, go in” noun: “entrance”
DAY 62: Consider how adpositions and case will interact No cases no worries.
DAY 63: Write an introduction to adposition phrases The language has prepositions mostly derived from verbs. The language makes extensive use of the names for body parts as the origin of common verbs, and these too are the oldest forms of the prepositions. Some example sentences: The bird flies toward the crab. Cuvi saica ye cipancu. The crab runs from the bird. Cipancu nene lao cuvi. The crab runs on the shore (water edge). Cipancu nene cu milavo. The crab runs into the water. Cipancu nene yecu meli.
DAY 64: Enter adpositions in your dictionary Done!
Conlang Year: dictionary tidying
DAYS 58-59: Organize and clean up your dictionary, update to include all forms Quite a bit of work adding them all but it feels like it’s coming together now. I’m using the template document that the Petersons shared for Langtime Studio and it’s been a big help.
Conlang Year days 52-57
DAY 52: Update your template with forms you created I wasn't happy with the pronouns so I change the plural marker and added exclusive "we".
Each pronoun can be pluralizied by adding “li”, meaning “group, set, bunch”. “Vali” is the inclusive we, meaning both the speaker and the spoken to, while “vali ma”, roughly “those of us”, excludes the person spoken to.
1st: va, vali, vali ma 2nd: ni, nili 3rd: to, toli
DAY 53: Write an introduction to noun class (if any) No noun classes, so here are some more verbs instead. to have: tima > tima to give: ropi > lopi to know: faso > aso to need: tefo > tevo to want: jona > yona
DAY 54: Write an introduction to number The language doesn’t distinguish between singular and plural on the noun itself, e.g. cipancu ma pa “that one crab”, cipancu ma omi “those eight crabs”, cipancu naite “a few crabs”, cipancu ma vuli “all of those crabs”.
DAY 55: Write an introduction to definiteness There’s no obligatory distinction between definite and indefinite nouns. If you really want to show that you’re talking about something you’ve already referred to you can use the demonstratives co/me (this/these/that/those) with some number, as in the examples above.
DAY 56: Write an introduction to function Since there are no noun inflections the language relies on strict word order to show each noun’s function in a sentence. So “Cipancu co laili cuvi pa” is “This crab throws two birds” while “Cuvi pa laili cipancu co.” is “Two birds throw this crab.”
DAY 57: Select any nominal inflections to provide in the dictionary No inflections so here are some more nouns: bridge: fapi > api door: tuŋa > tuna road: mojoŋo > moino table: wusa > vusa cup: xota > ota
Conlang Year days 48-52
DAY 48: Create class markers or new nouns fire: loke > loce smoke: mifa > miva water: meli > meli rock: xinasa > inta soil, earth, dirt: pisolu > pailu foam: sesu > sesu
DAY 49: Create number markers or more words none: rinewi > limpi all: woluri > vuli some, group, set: ki > ci many: keŋu > cenu few, rare: nikete > naite
one: pa > pa two: sa > sa three: finiko > inco four: nuki > nuci five: wete > vete six: maxe > mai seven: tikaka > taica eight: xome > omi nine: fija > iya ten: lo > lo
DAY 50: Create definiteness markers or more nouns this: ko > co that: me > me place: paŋi > pani here: paŋi ko > paŋiiko > panco there: paŋi me > paŋime > peme everywhere: paŋi woluri > panivuli what: ta > ta
DAY 51: Create function markers or more nouns to: ye (from yesa, nose originally “point your nose toward”) from: ruxu > lao with (both comitative and instrumental, maybe possessive too?): paji > pai
DAY 52: Update your template with forms you created No affixes for my conlang, but this seems like a good place to come up with the pronouns and how they work. Each pronoun can be pluralizied by adding “ci”, much like Mandarin pronouns.
1st: va, vaci 2nd: ni, nici 3rd: to, toci
Conlang Year days 41-47
DAY 41: Decide on a more synthetic or analytic approach Very analytic.
DAY 42: Start a basic introduction to your conlang’s grammar Note: This may just be a sentence or two for now! My language has SVO word order with nominative-accusative alignment and is very head-initial and analytic in its structures.
Maybe add more nouns and verbs?
NOUNS sun: mako > maco moon: keju > ceyu star: tora > tola house: laŋi > lani fruit: tasi > tasi nose: jesa > yesa
VERBS! say, talk: japa > yapa hear: rumito > lunto fly, wing: sixaka > saica hit: pama > pama taste: ŋami > nami
DAY 43-46: Explore options for nouns. the modern form of the language won’t use any of these, but it could be fun to have a few “fossil” words that preserve inflexions from earlier stages in the language.
DAY 47, February 16: Organize your notes and make a templatic structure Word order in a noun prhase will be NOUN-demonstrative-number-adjective.
Conlang grammar overview
DAY 39: Explore options for word order and syntactic alignment -nominative-accusative alignment -SVO -Strongly head-initial
DAY 40: Select word order and syntactic alignment, add examples and templates.
transitive verb with an animate subject/agent The crab pinches the fish: Cipancu cipa liyu.
transitive verb with an inanimate subject/agent The wind throws the tree: Suvi laili coime.
intransitive verb with an animate subject The bird sleeps: Cuvi ula.
intransitive verb with an inanimate subject The flower turns: Tenco maisi.
More catching up on Conlang Year
ˈDAY 35: Solidify your list of ordered sound changes The Lexurgy code for this turned out to be much longer and more involved than I thought it would be. Got there in the end though!
DAY 36: Write a section on phonotactics for modern forms ((C)V) ˈ (C)V ((N)CV) where the stressed vowel can have the diphthongs ai, ao, or oi, but unstressed vowels cannot. Nasal codas only occur after a monophthong in the stressed syllable (always penultimate).
The modern form has the same five vowels but with the fun new diphthongs.
DAY 37: Explore Romanization strategies Just use “y” for /j/ and “c” for what was /k/ in the proto form. I'm going with "ao" throughout for the merged au/ao diphthong because it's most intuitive for somebody who speaks English as a first language. Anglophones always want to read "au" as in "auto"!
DAY 38: Start your official dictionary cipancu [si.ˈpaŋ.ku] *cipa necu noun (1) crab noun (2) accent
DAY 34: Try compounding forms and test again
Here the term for snail formed most recently, while the other words are much older. snail = hat worm: sikifi puxu > sikvi puu > siivi puu > saivi pao spider = little weaver: xere fepi > xerefepi > erevpi > ereepi > elipi crab = Lord Pinch: cipa necu > cipanecu > cipancu
Necu, meaning “esteemed, noble, respectable”, shows up as the suffix -ncu in a bunch of odd places. It originates in common daily prayers to find game animals or ward off harm. One might says a quick prayer to Lord Knife not to cut one’s hand before preparing dinner, or to Lord Door to keep the house safe at night. Before the animacy distinctions were lost -ncu nouns were referred to as living, in deference to their small deities.
Cipancu is often used to mean “accent”, as palatalization of /k/ is one of the most obvious differences between spoken varieties of the language. If somebody asks “what’s their crab?” they mean “where are they from, do they say /si.ˈpaŋ.ku/, ʃi.ˈpaŋ.ku/, or t͡ʃi.ˈpaŋ.ku/?”
DAY 33: Create five more animate nouns to test sound changes person: to > to louse: ŋenepa > nempa snake: kisosa > caisa mouse: suti > suti ant: weŋasi > venti
Shields!