It’s been a while since I did this, but we’re making a return with this blog series! Sospéke is back, and it’s bigger than ever. I didn’t get the greatest photo of it, but here’s an idea to help:
I only have seven letters so far (fourteen if you consider the tails and bodies to be different). I am so pumped to have an actual alphabet to work with. It’s wonderful. I actually now know what the…
It’s been a while since I did this, but we’re making a return with this blog series! Sospéke is back, and it’s bigger than ever. I didn’t get the greatest photo of it, but here’s an idea to help:
I only have seven letters so far (fourteen if you consider the tails and bodies to be different). I am so pumped to have an actual alphabet to work with. It’s wonderful. I actually now know what the words for wind and fire look like, and it’s beautiful. I have a plan for how sentences will be set up. Hint: sentences will not end with periods.
So that you understand the above picture better, the English letters above the symbols are the sounds that the symbols make. You may notice that there are occasionally multiple English letters above symbols. This is simply my way of explaining non-English sounds. “RR” represents a rolling r, common to languages like Spanish. “KH” represents a more guttural sound as is common to German.
The sound of the language is based off a mixture of both German and Gaelic (yes, Irish and Scots). Yes, I know, it’s perhaps not the best mix of all time. However, if I’m making a language, I want to honor my heritage from both sides of the family with this creation.
To remind those who are new to the whole concept, the words are made up of at least two parts. The body is the main part of the word. The centers, which look like dots, are placeholders, to show what place the word has in the sentence. Without a center, a letter is just a letter. I haven’t fully fleshed out their use yet, but as of right now, they determine things like pronouns, nouns, verbs, etc. The tails are the additions to the bodies, which add to the words complexity. (Ex: a complex form of “wind” would be words like “windy”, “flying”, “breathing”, etc.)
As of right now, I don’t have much grammar down. But I have the basic sounds, and it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. I feel like a really proud dad. In a way, I am.
If you want to see the evolution of Sospéke, please see parts 1, 2, and 3.
For those who don’t know what Gaelic sounds like, here are some videos. Sospéke will sound something like it. Enjoy.
We continue in the construction of the language Sospéke for the Dark Veil series.
I finally got around to getting some linguistics help for Sospéke (the current name for language for Dark Soldier). Turns out, I have a former linguistics major just down the hall – one of my best friends at college! I had forgotten what his major had previously been as he hardly ever talked about his first major. Yet, as soon as I mentioned I was doing a constructed language, he stopped me…
I finally got around to getting some linguistics help for Sospéke (the current name for language for Dark Soldier). Turns out, I have a former linguistics major just down the hall – one of my best friends at college! I had forgotten what his major had previously been as he hardly ever talked about his first major. Yet, as soon as I mentioned I was doing a constructed language, he stopped me mid-sentence. He ran to a room across the hall and brought back three decently-sized books.
We immediately began talking about how pronouns work in languages, and how modern languages deal with such issues. As it turned out, there are languages in which pronouns are decided by adding an extra sound or two to a word. I was instantly inspired and realized what I would be using centers for. Turns out, if done correctly, I can add centers to different areas to differentiate between “he”,”she”,”it”,”I,” etc. For example, the word for “fly” can say “She is flying” if you just place a dot to the bottom-left of the letter. The only problem with this is adding tenses. How will I differentiate between “She is flying” and “She was flying?” Not sure.
But if I do it this way, that means I could technically have a full sentence in the space of one letter. Which means I can officially say something I’ve always wanted to say…
But I will continue in this endeavor. I will make the most efficient and beautiful language that has ever been seen! Today, pronouns… tomorrow, the world!
The second part of the series on making the language for the book!
I haven’t gotten a whole lot more done in regards to language for the novel, but here’s what I can tell you. A lot of soul speak is based off Gaelic, with the general sound at least. The rest, in regards to sound, is based off Elvish. Well, it is and it isn’t. I like Tolkien’s concept I’m making Elvish role off the tongue, in essence making a very human language. But I’m going in a slightly…
I haven’t gotten a whole lot more done in regards to language for the novel, but here’s what I can tell you. A lot of soul speak is based off Gaelic, with the general sound at least. The rest, in regards to sound, is based off Elvish. Well, it is and it isn’t. I like Tolkien’s concept I’m making Elvish role off the tongue, in essence making a very human language. But I’m going in a slightly different direction. I don’t want you to have to worry about breathing while speaking this language.
No, don’t worry, you are going to be breathing while speaking. What I mean by that is that I incorporate the breath into the language. For instance, one of the letters is literally just a heavy “H”. It sounds like you’re sighing. So, when you say a word like “Hhalverron”, you get to breath out while speaking. Now, as you may remember with the other blog about this, I don’t actually use English letters for this language. The letter “HHA” is merely a spiral. That’s all. I’m also working on the letters based on breathing in, but I’m not sure how exactly I’m going to do that. That all comes with making the language, I suppose.
So why did I choose to make the language based on breathing? Simply because it’s easier that way. If you can skip the breaths between words, you can get messages across faster. Plus, it sounds cool. Who doesn’t want a really cool sounding language?
I’m beginning to realize just how much is involved making this language. For the next couple weeks, I’ll probably be getting some form of a language major to help me with making this language. I’m still working on connector words, like “And”, “Or”, “Nor”, etc. I’m not sure I mentioned this in the last post, but as of now it’s based on dashes, literally connecting the words or phrases.
That’s it for today’s post, let me know what you think in the comments section. All of the stuff is up for grabs; you guys are more than welcome to try to help me out with this. I’m really not a multiple languages major or anything like that, so I don’t know a whole lot about making languages. But there might be somebody on WordPress that does! So don’t delay to give me ideas!
For those of you who aren’t involved with the author blog, you’re going to want to catch this.
I realize I have made many posts about the book, but none of them are actually that interesting. I say things like, “Oh, it’s darker this time. More humor. I enjoy writing this one character.” But I’ve never really done anything that would actually invigorate ME. So how about something different this time?
I have two ideas. These are things that are not completely important to the actual story.…
I realize I have made many posts about the book, but none of them are actually that interesting. I say things like, “Oh, it’s darker this time. More humor. I enjoy writing this one character.” But I’ve never really done anything that would actually invigorate ME. So how about something different this time?
I have two ideas. These are things that are not completely important to the actual story. This information will be exclusive to the WordPress account. If you don’t follow me here, you’ll never know. And don’t worry, it won’t be very spoilery. Some of these things are partially talked about within the first ten pages, and other things are not talked about at all. So comment your choice, and if you have other things you want to hear, just leave ’em in the comments too.
1. Mythology
That’s right! If you choose this, we will be talking through an in-depth discussion of the mythology of this world. You learn all about the Celestial and guardians (sort of like a god and demigod hierarchy), the 500-year-war, the stories behind the cities, etc. Basically, you get the Silmarillion of the Dark Veil series, but not quite as in-depth. Nothing’s quite as in-depth as the Silmarillion, so I hear.
2. Learning Soul-Speak
I get really geeky about this stuff, so I’m probably going to enjoy this even more than you guys will. If you haven’t heard already, soul–speak is the very cryptic language of this series. Although I don’t really need to do so much with it, I take a lot of pride in doing all the complexities involved. I’ll be up into the night thinking of new letters and concepts, how the letters work, grammar, etc. I’ve even made letters for non-english sounds. So much fun! Ready to go language geek with me?
So it’s really up to you guys. So tell me what’cha want, what’cha really really want! And I will comply as best I can.
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” — Maya Angelou
Making the link between anarchism and Christianity.
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