Reblogging To Add What I've Found:

What do you listen to while writing?

Feel free to drop your playlists or favorite tracks!!!

“The characters in my novels are my own unrealised possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.”

— Milan Kundera

Kshafa Morphosyntax

For Kshafa I want to have a more complicated morphosyntactic alignment than what I had for Ngįout, which was marked nominative, but otherwise just plain vanilla nominative accusative. What I had come up with was inspired mainy by what I'd read about alignment in Majang, which is a complicated variant of tripartite fluid-S, in which the subject is nominative if it's "topical/expected", and ergative if not.

This whole split based on pragmatics is a bit too complicated for me, so I decided that for Kshafa the split is going to be based on the definiteness of the subject. If the subject is definite it is nominative, and if it is indefinite it is ergative in transitive clauses and absolutive in indefinite clauses.

The diachronic explenation I have for this to make it make sense in my mind is that originally it was an ergative fluid S language that is based on definiteness - transitive clauses are ergative, intransitive clauses are fluid. Then, a kind of focal definite demonstrative article thing stuck to a definite ergative argument and the nominative case was made.

In addition, another part of the system (that was also inspired form Majang) is that the verb agrees with the definiteness of the subject, and because Kshafa has can be pro-drop, it can distinguish between intransitive clauses and transitive clauses with a dropped agent. Some examples:

A dog runs - run.3SG dog.ABS

The dog runs - run.3SG.DEF dog.NOM

A boy is being bitten - bite.3SG boy.ABS

The (known thing) bites the boy - bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS

smth bites the dog - bite.3SG.DEF dog.ABS

A dog bites a boy - bite.3SG boy.ABS dog.ERG

The dog bites a boy - bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS dog. NOM

Final thing is that nominative arguments can be freely fronted, so:

The dog bites a boy - bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS dog. NOM => dog.NOM bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS

I'm pretty happy with that, it makes sense to me. The only thing is that I need to figure out what to do when non-subject arguments are definite, because I don't want to have a morphological definiteness destinction in the other cases, and having a definite article just for non-subject cases feels weird. Maybe I can just say that just like how turkish only marks definiteness on accusative arguments, Kshafa only marks definiteness on subjects.

Day 34 (1:04 in my extended base 30/7) of rewriting my novel

Today I bring back the side character who really won't get enough love: Vimir.

Vimir's a clutz, thick and through. He's easygoing and hard not to love. He spends his time working, but when he's not working he's either making mead to drink later, or drinking his mead now.

Vimir is probably Izi's second-most loyal ally, but definitely his most loyal ally when the story begins. For years, he would spot Izi cash to be able to afford his own place. Izi's always felt guilty, but has never had a way to repay him.

Y'all, I just got curious at one point, and I hope this isn't a repeat of a previous post. So, if you don't mind:

Wiktionary

orange - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Wiktionary has a couple of recordings if you're curious about the difference/don't know linguistics and can't read IPA.

Follow-up question:

What words/phrases (if any) rhyme with orange?

This is a hotly-debated topic in the English language. I sincerely believe that in my dialect, no single word is a true-rhyme with orange that isn't also either a portmanteau or explicitly related to the word "orange." (E.g. blornge does not count for me, even though it does rhyme, because it is a portmanteau of blonde and orange.)

Reblogs are appreciated!

The High Valyrian adjective jessie "joyful" was coined in honor of my fiancée, Jessie Sams, and the glyph was made thinking of her. I've known Jessie for ten years at this point, but our lives led winding paths that eventually led us to each other. We started working together in 2019 on Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem, and I've wanted to work with no one else ever since. When I proposed to Jessie, I gave her a ring with a Valyrian inscription inside. That inscription featured her name glyph: Ao jessives ñuhys iksā, which means "You are my joy".

I'd never planned on getting a tattoo in my life, but we came up with an idea that meant a lot to both of us. I'd created a glyph for the word "joy" in High Valyrian and based the sound of that word on Jessie's name. She, in turn, had created a word based on my name in her language Zhwadi (it means "create"). Her writing system is also logographic, so there's a character associated with that. Consequently, we each decided to get each other's "names" tattooed on ourselves. Now a part of us will always be with the other. :)

Day 19 (25 in base 7) of rewriting my novel.

I wrote another 1,000 words ish. I've been adding roughly 1,000 words per day, and as a result, I'm somewhere along the order of 24,000 or so words total.

Today, I also completed a grambank table for Ipol! A while ago, @dedalvs created a grambank spreadsheet for conlangs that has been very helpful for documenting my conlangs' grammars (so I don't forget them,) and today I finished a "draft" of a finalized one for Ipol.

I will link it here:

Google Docs

Ipol Grambank

Language Features Grambank Feature,Basic Category,Subcategory,Y/N,Conlang Description and Example(s) <a href="https://grambank.clld.org/par

Submit any questions about it that you might have, or submit translations! I'm always looking to expand the lexicon.

That's all for now.

EDIT: I mistakenly credited David J. Peterson with creating this spreadsheet, but he's just who I heard it from! It is actually by Jessie Peterson.

Edit 2: I knew David Peterson and Jesse Peterson were married, but I didn’t piece together that it was Jesse Peterson who created the grambank spreadsheet.

OC Lore Excerpt

I got the brilliant idea for this short excerpt after listening to one of my favorite songs.

This excerpt is a piece of Aito’s lore, where he lost someone he loved dearly due to his lack of acceptance for himself.

Edit note: This specific excerpt is set in 19th century England (Aito is hundreds of years old) (that’s a whole other piece of lore but whatever)

WARNING: THIS EXCERPT CONTAINS SEXUAL THEMES.

“Do you love me?”

It was morning, and the sun peeked through the drawn curtains onto his tanned face and reflected in his eyes, making them shine like a swirled caramel. I sat on the edge of the bed, in my nude, and he laid behind me with his cheek propped on his hand and the sheets covering his lower body.

I looked at him, a mild visage of bewilderment on my face. I gave a scoff as I stood and grabbed my shirt off the nearby chair. “I just had sex with you. Why wouldn’t I?”

I felt his fingers trace down my spine and stop above my rear, then he placed his hand on my lower back. I shivered as I began buttoning my white shirt.

“I don’t know. You just felt…distant the whole time,” he said softly. He tugged at the back of my shirt, and I turned to face him after I picked up my tie.

“How so?” I asked, looking down at him as I straightened the black tie around my neck. 

He slipped the covers off himself and sat off the edge of the bed in front of me. My eyes traced his figure as he looked up. He ran his hands up the sides of my thighs and stopped at my hips, massaging them. “You just looked…apathetic the whole time. As if you weren’t enjoying it.” His eyes would flit up my body, and I inhaled sharply as he ran his hands down my front. I swallowed hard and slipped my trembling fingers into his messy black hair, although gingerly.

His hands rested on the backs of my thighs as he looked up at me again, a faint, pained expression on his face. His hands dropped and clasped in his lap as he pressed his forehead into my stomach. “That. You’re hesitant. Why?”

I stared down at him, then dropped my hands as well. I felt a vise grip my chest, and I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it. After a moment, he raised his head and eyed at me expectantly. I exhaled deeply and closed my eyes. “I…I don’t know.”

I did know. But I hated that I knew. I knew it was because I still couldn’t fully approve of all the love I wanted to give.

I opened my eyes, and his expression was one of unconvinced hurt.

Gently, he placed his hands on my hips and pushed me a step back. He stood and tilted his head up at me, his voice breaking. “You hurt me so. You can’t even say you love me back.”

My breath hitched in my throat, and I stared at him silently. I felt my eyes begin to sting and gloss over.

“Cry for me,” he challenged, although it came out more as a quiet, choked beg.

I blinked away my tears.

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?

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?