Zirka Language

A written and spoken language for fantasy, sci-fi, or any other use you can think of! Get Started

[spooderp]

dear linguistics side of tumblr,

why making language hard

sincerely,

confuséd critcher that wanted to make a language for a WIP and has failed horribly and started over

[zirka-language]

Depending on what you're trying to do, you may not need an entire language! Maybe just enough words and grammar for exactly what you need, or even just a cypher of an existing language could work (like Zirka: https://alamantus.com/zirka).

Making conlangs is fun and rewarding, but it can definitely be hard! It doesn't help that you kinda have to learn a new language in the form of cryptic linguistics terms on top of it if lol

[zirka-language]

Web assets for the Zirka codelang. Contribute to Alamantus/Zirka-Assets development by creating an account on GitHub.

Oops, I just noticed that I never actually posted the update I promised about the Zirka plugin! Anyway, this link provides instructions for how to install and use the new Zirka plugin on your website as well as a link to a no-frills demo to try it out! You do need HTML access to your site in order to use it, but it’s fairly easy to use otherwise!

Enjoy!

[zirka-language]

I'm finally working on updating the Zirka plugin with the new letters and IPA-based translation scheme! I might even make a font and a script/cursive version for the plugin if everything goes well!

Hopefully I'll update again soon with the finished product!

[zirka-language]

Back at it again, shaking things up a bit. I've swapped some letters around so they'll have some more symmetry with their equivalent sounds rather than the English sounds, and I redesigned the smoothing letters (diphthongs) based on the updated characters. I'll have to make a better chart at some point, but this was just for ease of use.

Also, these are the English→Zirka representations, not reflecting the Zirka sound. That'll be the next step using an image editor to get a clean look at the characters.

[het-stille-woud]

Here is a simple writing system I have created recently. Write it in any way you see fit; I prefer to write it from right to left, leaving very little space between words. Feel free to add letters, sounds, or meanings.

[zirka-language]

This is how I got my start with conlanging, too! I started with a cypher of English and developed it over the years, and now we have Zirka! Keep at it and you could have a fun hobby! :)

–Robbie

[het-stille-woud]

I have been conlanging for three years.

[zirka-language]

Well that's great! Glad you already consider it as a hobby. :) keep it up!

[het-stille-woud]

Here is a simple writing system I have created recently. Write it in any way you see fit; I prefer to write it from right to left, leaving very little space between words. Feel free to add letters, sounds, or meanings.

[zirka-language]

This is how I got my start with conlanging, too! I started with a cypher of English and developed it over the years, and now we have Zirka! Keep at it and you could have a fun hobby! :)

–Robbie

[zirka-language]

Phonology Change

I’ve been thinking about how I could improve this Zirka, and two specific things always come to mind: the sounds and the “smoothing letters”.

First of all, I developed Zirka long before I knew anything about linguistics and standard linguistic tools like the IPA and other helpful things like that, so I have a low-level layman presentation of how to use Zirka. While I do definitely want to keep it accessible to the layman, I would also like a bit more precision, so I’m going to at least update the Usage page to also include IPA explanations. This should help better explain the confusing fact that translating /a/ and /æ/ produce the same Zirka character, resulting in the words “bat” and “bot” both translating into the same ([kut]) spelling and pronunciation.

Second, the smoothing letters (a.k.a. digraphs, if you’re in the linguistics camp) that have been available are not sufficient, and at least one (“ly”) is completely useless thanks to /li/ just plain making more sense to use. This plus the fact that I want more and more interesting sounds like /t͡s/ to exist in Zirka, I am going to update this list and some letters.

Here is what I am thinking for the updated full codex (including digraphs), written in IPA:

A ( /a/, /æ/, /ɑ/, etc.) => U /u/

B ( /b/ ) => K /k/

Ch ( /t͡ʃ/ )   => Th /ð/

D ( /d/ ) => B /b/

Dr ( /dɹ/, /dɻ/ ) => Bis /bɪs/

E ( /e/, /ɛ/, /ɜ/, etc. ) => O /o/

F ( /f/ ) => Sh /ʃ/

Fl ( /fl/ ) => Shr /ʃɹ/

Fr ( /fɹ/, /fɻ/ ) => Z /z/

G ( /g/ ) => P /p/

Gr ( /gɹ/, /gɻ/ ) => Pas /pæs/

H ( /h/ ) => N /n/

I ( /i/, /ɪ/ ) => A /a/

K ( /k/ ) => T /t/

Kl ( /kl/ ) => Tr /tɾ/

Kr ( /kɹ/, /kɻ/ ) => Ts /t͡s/

L ( /l/ ) => R /ɾ/

M ( /m/ ) => D /d/

N ( /n/ ) => F /f/

O ( /o/ ) => E /e/

P ( /p/ ) => M /m/

Pr ( /pɹ/, /pɻ/ ) => Mus /məs/

R ( /ɹ/, /ɻ/ ) => S /s/

S ( /s/ ) => L /l/

Sh ( /ʃ/ ) => Kl /kl/

Sk ( /sk/ ) => Lat /lat/

Sl ( /sl/ ) => Lr /lɞɾ/

Sm ( /sm/ ) => Led /lɛd/

Sn ( /sm/ ) => Luf /ləf/

Sp ( /sp/ ) => Lum /ləm/

St ( /st/ ) => Lag /lag/

Sw ( /sw/ ) => Luv /ləv/

T ( /t/ ) => G /g/

Th ( /θ/, /ð/ ) => J /d͡ʒ/

Tr ( /tɹ/ ) => Gis /gɪs/

Tw ( /tw/ ) => Giv /gɪv/

U ( /u/, /ə/, /ʌ/, /ɞ/, etc.) => I /i/

V/W ( /v/ or /w/ ) => V /v/

Y ( /j/ ) => Ch /t͡ʃ/

J/Z ( /d͡ʒ/ or /z/ ) => W /w/

For reference, the word to be translated is stripped down to its most basic sounds, for example “clever” changes to klevur [klɛ vɞr], which would then be translated to trovis [tɾo vis], and “pulley” breaks down to puli [pɞ li], which translates to mira [mi ɾa].

I will obviously need to revamp the alphabet a bit to account for the new digraphs, but I think this change will allow for a much more usable experience when translating from English into Zirka, plus I get to have some of my favorite IPA sounds in the language, so it’s a big win overall!

Dith ishot’klif, -Robbie :)

[zirka-language]

From now on, all future updates about Lexiconga will be entered at this link. Sorry if you liked my little posts here, but it’s time Lexiconga updates got a home of their own. I’ll still post about and link to the new updates, but I won’t elaborate much about them here—the elaboration will be there.

[zirka-language]

Little Lexiconga Update

I managed to get public links to your dictionary a lot smaller! Now it’s just lexicon.ga/<your dictionary>! For example, my Gobahai dictionary is at http://lexicon.ga/74 instead of http://lexicon.ga/view/?dict=74!

Don’t worry if you’ve shared the old format, though, because that will still get you where you need to go. The new format is just much nicer to look at and a lot easier to remember!

Thanks for using Lexiconga! If you have any questions or ideas for new features, please let me know!

–Robbie

[zirka-language]

I’ve added a maximize button to the “Explanation/Long Definition” and “Dictionary Details” text boxes that gives you a huge area to write in. It even preserves your cursor position or highlighted text as it expands so you don’t lose your place in the size change (if the scroll is wrong, hitting a left or right arrow key will pop your view to where your cursor is). When you’re done editing, just hit “Minimize” or click the gray area outside of the box, and you’ll be free to continue on as if you had been using the smaller box the whole time.

It’s super handy when you have Details as long and complicated as mine! :)

I hope this addition is as useful for you as it is for me!

–Robbie

(Pictured is my other conlang 'Oayhàoù, the protolang for Gobahay. I post about both of them over at @oayhaou if you want to check them out!)

[zirka-language]

Lexiconga Update!

The word entry form is no longer trapped at the top of the page—now you can bring it with you wherever you go in your dictionary!

Click the Lock/Unlock button in the top right corner of the word form, and it’ll scroll down the page with you. You can also edit a word without having the page pop back to the top. Super handy if you need to reference other words when adding/editing!

(Pictured are words from Gobahay, a language I’m working on at @oayhaou​ at the moment)

[justlingthings-blog]

So my latest project (which is no doubt taking away from precious study time) has been to create my own language. I’m not even completely sure what it’s called yet, something like Axli Amitit (glossed ‘red(stone) mouth+plural of unexpected number’). So I came up with an alphabet that I’ll do a post on later, and started deriving some phonological/spelling rules, and (finally) figuring out the grammar. 

My cousins got me a nice red moleskine notebook for xmas, and I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it, and since the Ketama people (who speak Axli– they started out in one of my short stories) are all obsessed with this red stone they make their buildings out of (it’s in the name), I figured a red notebook would be perfect. 

And since I was having trouble coming up with new syllables I decided to write a program in python to derive new phonetically acceptable syllables, and try to apply some phonotactic rules (the second task has been a bit harder). 

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Feel free to ask me questions about the process and etc. since I’m vain and bored.

[ineedarendezvous]

I always wondered if conlangers have made programs to generate words that adhere to their langs’ phonotactics. I’d try it but I don’t have the conlanging, let alone programming skills.

[justlingthings-blog]

I”m actually not sure how many conlangers do this generally. I’m only doing in bc my language has a fairly simple syllable structure and i happened to be learning python at the same time. But it’s fairly difficult to adapt phonological rules into language a computer can understand, it can get really complicated really quickly. 

As to building conlanging skills, the most helpful thing for me has been taking classes in/studying historical linguistics and language change. If you start to understand how diachronic processes manifest as present day language features it’s a lot easier to create realistic conlangs.

[conlangery]

There are several around. The most well-known would be awkwords (this is maybe the third host I’ve seen for it), which works reasonably well but isn’t spectacular, especially if you want to play with frequencies. William (on Tumblr as acta-lingweenie) has a Python script for word generation, but I don’t think he’s ever publicized it.

[zirka-language]

I've definitely done this, but I haven't developed the rules for any language well enough yet to really use it. Zirka is a codelang at best right now, and 'Oayhàoù utilizes more specific and deliberate word forms to express meanings and evoke emotions from words, so generating words doesn't really work for me right yet. I do build scripts to help translate Latin characters into the characters for my conlangs, though. (If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to show you how!)

For fun, I did build a random "language" generator a while back before I knew anything about linguistics. It generates random alphabets and basic rules and then creates dictionaries with unique words. It's mostly useless, but I think it's fun! :)

[zirka-language]

Now that I’ve been learning more about conlanging and linguistics in general, I’m going to be working a lot more on a “true” Zirka conlang rather than just the codelang that it amounts to now. The codelang will still be valid, of course, if you want to use it, and the codelang form will be at least act as the base of the conlang, but the conlang will differ in that it will have its own grammar and words will not translate directly to English as well. Codelang Zirka “dialects” based on different source languages will be named differently as well. For example, English source will be known as Enka, Spanish will be Spaka, French will be Freka, and so on.

For Zirka, however, there will be several important changes, some of which will benefit codelang dialects as well:

more smoothing letters to help with “n-” combinations like “ng” and “nt”

removing the “ly” smoothing letter

its own sentence structure

unique words

proper IPA pronunciation representations

maybe an extended syllabic alphabet to shorten words (the length of some of the words has bugged me for a while)

other stuff, probably

Anyway, changes are coming! I hope you’re as excited as I am, because the changes should be pretty big!

Des gi tid! –Robbie

[zirka-language]

Lexiconga Update!

I've added a very small but very useful feature for searching: a results counter!

Now whenever you filter or search a dictionary, it will display how many results are showing! This is also useful because it can be a good indicator of why you can't find a certain word if you accidentally have a filter set.

If you need to see the total number of words in your dictionary, you can still always see the number in the dictionary's settings.

Anyway, I hope you find this as useful as I do!

–Robbie

[zirka-language]

Matgeruf Characters (Jan 13, 2015)

I’m developing a more full conlang called ‘Oayhàoù while also trying to develop a conworld for both Zirka and ‘Oayhàoù to be contained within. ‘Oayhàoù is the more primal language for humans and is the lingua franca of all mammals, and Zirka is the language that humans developed for themselves when they gathered into closer quarters and their societies grew (Zirka itself fragmenting into many other languages and language hybrids around the world).

In order to keep a connection to other humans who either never learned Zirka and continue speaking ‘Oayhàoù (or some variation of it) or whose dialect of Zirka is too different from another, the ruling humans developed an ideographic system for communicating ideas more easily than having to learn Zirka called Matgeruf. There are symbols for all of ‘Oayhàoù’s nouns to aid with a non-Zirka speaker trying, for example, to find their way through a city. They would see the symbol for “home” and could assume that it is a place they can stay comfortably like an inn, or they see the symbol for “food” and know that there is food where that sign is, whether it is a market or a restaurant. The symbols are as vague as (and often are more vague than) ‘Oayhàoù’s own words with the idea of reusability in mind—they give a general idea so viewers don’t have to be constantly asking for directions.

I’m still developing 'Oayhàoù, so the list of Matgeruf characters shown above is as incomplete as the language. I think it’s pretty cool though. The symbols follow some specific rules based on a 3x3 grid, for instance a square in the grid can only contain a straight line all the way through horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, a bend, or a dot. The symbols themselves are either generally representative of the word they represent (like air, fire, water, ground, tree, etc.) or are morphs of the symbols that represent the 'Oayhàoù word’s root (like place, reptile, snow, etc.).

The reason it’s only nouns is because it is only intended as a bridge between languages to allow a degree of independence rather than be a language itself.

Anyway, that’s a first look into my conworld and Zirka’s interaction with it! I’ll try to keep most of the content here related to Zirka or at least the people who speak it, but I may want to share more about 'Oayhàoù as it gets more fleshed out because

[zirka-language]

I started working on developing a conworld recently, but I couldn't think of a good name for it. It's set on its own planet somewhere in the universe that followed a parallel-but-alternate evolutionary path to that of earth, and it uses another conlang I'm developing as its lingua franca. But then I realized that this conworld is the perfect groundwork for Zarkonya, the place that I originally developed for the Zirka language to live within years ago!

So I guess my question is this: would you lovely people following this blog care to read about Zarkonya's development? It's only tangentially related to Zirka, but it might be better than having the blog become static.

What do you think?

[zirka-language]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Lexiconga Accounts are here!

With an account, you can have as many dictionaries as you need and switch between them at will, access your dictionaries from any device, make public and share your dictionaries, and have the peace of mind of having your dictionaries stored in the cloud instead of just on your browser where clearing the cache might accidentally remove it! It’s free to get and use an account, and it always will be.

Create your account using the Log In/Create Account button in the top left corner and then use the same button to log in (just read the notificaitons that appear and you’ll figure it out). The first time you log in to your account, the dictionary you have loaded in your browser will automatically upload to your account. (If you don’t have a dictionary saved, it’ll just upload the blank “New” dictionary anyway.) After that, you can use Lexiconga as normal! Check the About Lexiconga button for more information about what you can do with an account.

The Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are pretty standard, but just make sure you’re ok with them before using accounts. I definitely recommend that you DON’T share accounts because one save will overwrite another if the previous save is not loaded to the other person’s computer. Also, if you use your account on multiple computer, always be sure to reload the page on the computer you’re working on if you’ve made changes from another computer.

I hope you enjoy and that you share some awesome lexicons with the world!

–Robbie