Ok, so, when reconstructing natural proto-languages, those protolanguages are almost never attested. Historical Linguists are basically making educated guesses and throwing darts against a wall when making the Proto-Indo-European hypothesis, it was just that the evidence was so compelling that linguists (and, most humans) believe it. For all intents and purposes, it's a really good guess.
The issue with my conworld? Classical Zispoel and Proto-Ytosi-Itaush are still fully attested languages with exactly 2 and 1 native speakers each, all still technically living.
To make matters worse, Lozerief is kind-of a scientific genius, and Pagjom is the literal Hero of Language. Together, they could reconstruct Proto-Zispoel and see what a god-awful, horrifying shit-show it was.
The idea that my characters could derive my god-awful, good-for-nothing protolanguage is, somehow, deeply disturbing to me. I think they would realize they were in a simulation if they did that.
I can see a version of this prompt being very characteristic of Lozerief's unrequited love for the Hero of Life, although the Hero of Life (henceforth Dolgof) definitely cannot read minds. I imagine their interaction would go something like this:
Dolgof: Do you still think of me after all this time?
Lozerief: No shit I still do? You led me on for nearly seven-hundred years and expect me to just, I don't know, forget about it?
Dolgof: I didn't mean it like that, I just-
Lozerief: No, no. You misunderstand me. I still don't know if you know what you did, but it took a Zenestian civil war, a fifty-foot lava monster, and the world almost exploding, to get over those grueling centuries.
The whole thing probably ends with Lozerief teleporting off in a hot rage.
It’s been many years since you’ve stopped aging. You’ve seen nations rise and fall. Met, and forgotten countless people. One day, as you’re resting your eyes in a park, dreaming of a love long past, the person on the bench next to you speaks. “You think of me after all this time?”
more of my silly oc band au— honestly, are they even your best friend if they won’t help you write a concept album where your characters are totally in love?
Help my family to get out and search for what is left of life. The war is devastating. Death is approaching every person and destruction is everywhere. We hope that there is hope before it is too late.
Go support!
This week, a teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School in Meridian, Idaho was reprimanded by the West Ada school district for having a sign up in her classroom reading "Everyone is welcome here" she refused to take it down and went to the media with her story. The district responded saying everyone has to be a team player and the poster was discriminatory and distracting.
So students walked out.
This afternoon, a student-led walkout protest happened at the West Ada district office. Children are the future. Just because Idaho is a red state does not mean that rights violations and whitewashing are normal or par-for-the-corse.
read the story here
Today, in addition to adding about 700 words to Part Two, I also made a bunch of translations into Modern Ipol. I probably translated about two hundred words of English into Ipol, and I will post one snippit of it here:
Pijteshijv sispeen pijte sis Nistemiks sis Nurrif sis Leerf pifijz. Pijteshijv losr shise tismostijv sispeenes pijte sis leerfine sis koleerf pite, Ir Nusnijv, spuw's sis spine, por sisla's pijte sju sis koleerf ejr sotenaks sis Nistemiks piste.
Ipol is the language of the Hero of Life's Confederacy of Zeneste. It started as the dialect of the capital, Ir Nouzonif, where it diffused, becoming a standard language for Zeneste. It replaced Classical Zispoel as the language of government and official business one-hundred and fifty years ago.
A couple notes:
ij and uw are symbols for long i and long u respectively.
j before a vowel is the palatal glide /j/.
Nistemiks literally means "the states" but it's also the most natural translation for 'Zeneste.'
Maybe at a later date, I'll do a post that breaks down this translation, but that's all for now!
I actually counted this time! Today is day five.
Today I thought I could post some songs that represent character dynamics from part 1:
Dr. Este's weird past with the Hero of Life (foreshadowing):
Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul, and Mary
Izi's Song Around the Palace:
Sea Songs - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1924)
That is all for tonight.
Since google docs (my primary writing tool, accompanied by my note-taking journal) doesn't quite accurately describe my true word count, today I will celebrate 30,000 words like I promised yesterday, because it's close enough to be within a 5% error.
I wrote more today, including getting deep in the weeds with the relationship between Izi, Hero of Cognition, and Dolgof, the Hero of Life. Without sharing very many spoilers, they're in very similar situations. Or, have been.
Izi, the current Emperor of Zeneste, has never been in a position of power before, nor has he been a proper leader. Dolgof had been in his position during the drafting of the Constitution of Zeneste, but she never became a good leader.
I like this dynamic between them. Not only does Izi have someone to discuss what being a leader means with, he also has someone to juxtapose himself against, however unhealthy that may be.
Water Witch 🌟
Yeah I finally wrote the Izi and Taguchif meet with governor Bunthun scene, which I decided was a lot shorter than I originally thought it might be?
Like, I make it very clear that she's pretty much just a power-hungry warlord who's jumping at the chance to assume complete control over Zenée adn start turning it into an enthostate and consolidate power by knocking out Tolftorrijv and the Middle States/Sedroste.
She's also a hard-ball. She demands control over Ir Nouzonif City only to immediately call back and be like "yeah, actually, just reparations and bordering land is fine."
The Usual Suspects: @oldfashionedidiot@quillswriting
If you'd like to be added to my taglist, please respond to this post or DM me.
Day 20 (26 in base 7) of rewriting my novel.
I did a lot of planning today, but I didn’t add any words to the novel today.
Also, a new character just kinda… popped out of nowhere yesterday while I was writing?
they/themConlanging, Historical Linguistics, Worldbuilding, Writing, and Music stuffENG/ESP/CMN aka English/Español/中文(普通话)
231 posts