I had some free time and tried to figure out a bit more about Old Cybertronian.
First, the alphabet is just a cypher for the English alphabet. Very fun for finding cute hidden messages, but not useful for finding the sounds each letter makes (unless you assume they’re pronounced like their English alphabet counterparts, which I do not).
Most of the examples of spoken Old Cybertronian in the comics is spoken by fluent speakers (like Vos and Cyclonus). As a result, their dialogue isn’t much help for phonetics either. However, we do get a bit of an insight when Cyclonus attempts to teach Tailgate a song. Mispronunciations in the dialogue of new speakers can give an understanding of which sounds a new speaker familiar with the descendant language might not be able to distinguish. These mistakes might mean the sounds of those letters are similar.
The song fragment we see Cyclonus teach can be deciphered as “I’VE GOT MY OWN” (Old Cybertronian doesn’t seem to have an upper and lower case). Tailgate’s first attempt is deciphered as “I’VE GOQMY RWN” (spacing is true to speech bubble). From this, we can see two things: 1) the “T” and “Q” sounds are easily conflated by new speakers, and 2) the “O” and “R” sounds are as well.
The “T” and “Q” conflation doesn’t seem to be that odd to me. In English, they’re both unvoiced aspirates made by blocking the flow of air through the mouth; the main difference is the location of that block (front of the mouth/teeth for “T,” back of the mouth/soft palate for “Q” and “K”). Though we don’t know what it would sound like, from this we can assume Old Cybertronian has at minimum one, likely more, distinct unvoiced aspirates.
“O” and “R” is different. It seems a little unusual for a vowel to be understood as a consonant… UNLESS that vowel is actually the result of a language that places greater emphasis on the voicing (movement of the vocal chords during pronunciation) of the consonant instead of viewing the consonant and vowel as distinct sounds. Perhaps, then, what readers might understand as an “oh” sound (like in “own”) is actually an “rrh” sound with voicing before it.
I think this focus on consonant sounds, their placement in the mouth/throat, and their voiced/unvoiced qualities makes sense for Old Cybertronian. Other examples of the language in the comics that don’t use the Old Cybertronian alphabet are almost always a string of consonants. On top of that, these sounds might be more easily replicated across Cybertronians with significantly different facial structures (lacking lips, animal heads, hollow cheeks, etc) by replacing them with more metallic sounds. Unvoiced, unaspirated stops could be made by tapping parts of the faceplate together. Aspirates are the same with a short burst of ventilation. Certain kinds of voicing could be made by rumbling engines, etc. We know there’s some kind of screeching and groaning involved, we just don’t know where or by what means
I couldn’t easily find more examples of characters learning Old Cybertronian, but if there are more, I’d love to see them! I’d like a larger sample pool to more accurately guess what it might sound like in real life.
Cybertronians with horns and chevrons using them for fighting, like stags. Possibly some types of crests too like TFP Arcee's and Starscream's.
But NOT with finials, because they have joints instead of being sturdily attached to the helm and are less tough (they're used for communication, like antennas or ears).
are there other conky-2000 fans out there in the world. and by the world i mean tumblr specifically. please tell me i'm not alone 😭i love that robot (my robot bias strikes again, wahoo) he's so SILLY and HELPFUL and NICEEE waaa also the way he just. idle animations behind pee wee half the time is so me
also the little glitches in his speech scratch my brain, they're very nice goofy little sounds (to me at least lol)
I try to say that with other self-care and hygiene stuff but it doesn't work as well, but my teeth are hard like metal so it works
I'm doing that thing that people on tiktok do with really old and rusty pennies where they tape one half and then use specific chemicals on it and brush it real good to make it all shiny and good as new!
You don't quite realise how much discomfort or low level pain you're in until you start thinking about what your ideal robot chassis would be like and your thought process goes
Removable/switchable genitalia
Perfect internal functions with no pain or discomfort
robot who doesnt want to be human, not really, but can't help but crave the human experience. robot who dreams on purpose when they shut off their external stimuli processors. robot who knows they feel emotions but is also certain they are emotions no human could understand. robot who wishes they were truly content just being a robot. robots
So, we have robots and AIs who don't feel emotions, but robots that feel too much? Robots who don't know emotional control since they were fully formed with adult intelligence and emotional skills are often learned in early childhood socialisation. Because their programmers don't realise that knowledge of how emotions work doesn't actually mean they know how to control and safely handle them. Robots where every time they get angry they can't do their other functions since it's overwhelming, shutting down when they're sad, things like that. Needing to learn the emotional skills that humans start learning in daycare while being more intelligent than all their peers and it being deeply frustrating to them
