I have jumped face first into the deep end of @fialleril Amavikka world building and even further into @booklindworm Amatakka dictionary and a thought has occurred to me.
With a phrase a heavy, both culturally and literal, as “dukkra ba dukkra” (freedom or death) I can’t help but ponder the further possibilities of how a change in the pronunciation of “ba” (or) could open this sentence to even more meanings.
I am by NO means an expert in ANY language but I’ve been exploring tonal languages- specifically how to pronounce the different tones nearly the same letter could pronounce depending on how it’s written- especially when comparing to more Eurocentric letter modifications.
(1st thru 4th tone marks or pinyin vs the vast spread of diacritical markers vs tones and accent contours. [see below cut for examples] Or something adjacent to those. All while considering consonant modifier options [specifically things like “ß, ł, ń, š, or ż” comes to mind].)
With a language as- theoretically- old as Amatakka and a culture as vast as Amavikka (looking specifically to A Call For Help by BarinSidhe on AO3 and specifically how the “freedom” euphemisms/terminology/ phrasing changes from one planet to the next [as is logical in my mind and nifty little tidbit {and it remembering Obi-wan’s time on Bandomeer which most fics seem to forget} I love this fic for] and can thus lead to some minor misunderstandings even amongst fellow Amatakka speakers and Amavikka who have been further removed from their culture when moved to new planets) I would be less surprised to find out that such things simply fell out of use and have changed greatly over time than I would be if it stayed consistent.
One of the things I’m considering that could’ve fallen out of use is tonals. Not entirely, of course, but I’m wondering if once upon a time Amatakka had words with far more nuance to them but in order to make it easier for newer learners the tonal forms of many words fell out of use, and new- different- words took their place.
Returning back to “dukkra ba dukkra” (because I SWEAR I have a point).
One: I’m half convinced that once upon a time Dukkra would’ve had two (or more) pronunciations, even if it was just the newer Amavikka doing so & it tended to fall out of use the longer they were enslaved.
Two: imagine if different pronunciations of ba had different meanings, different tonal sounds that could lead to the word meaning something entirely different than simply “or”.
Meaning, hypothetically, “dukkra ba dukkra” depending on the tones used could go from “freedom or death” to:
- freedom is death / death is freedom (these two feel okay to interchange)
- freedom from death
> death from freedom (I see a few ways this could swing interestingly)
- freedom and death / death and freedom (gotta love the implications of listing order)
- freedom of death (see next)
> death of freedom (these two are SO different that I think you’d need to have pronunciation differences between each “dukkra” to clarify which is which)
- freedom in death (largely implied already in Double Agent Darth AU)
> death in freedom (I just think this is an interesting concept)
Etc.
And Three: as a midwestern American I have the unique standing of hearing how even those of us on the same continent (the same country, the same region, the same state even) have minor changes in pronunciations of the same word that while it doesn’t change the meaning of the word it can immediately tell everyone around you where you’re from and truly shows off the limitations of the written word to correctly convey sounds in a way everyone will understand. (Long vs Short “a” sound in the word “bag”, if you want to get specific.)
While we know this occurs in Star Wars due to IRL ascents (ref: Leia), I’m ignoring it. As it leaves several more pronunciations up for grabs.
(But it also leaves me kinda scratching my head if I’m even approaching nearly half the Amatakka dictionary correctly. Which is why I bring the concept up in the first place, because I think for a Conlang these types of things need to be conveyed.)
But… yeah, that’s what’s been rattling around in my brain for the last few weeks.
Thoughts?
