F. Inflected forms
The original Taimirian language is envisioned as one that is completely isolated, in which words comprise only one units and particles are separate from their words. However, in related dialects, it would be ergonomical to merge certain words together. This gives rise to dialectical variation in an unregulated setting.
Regional type A "Anhi": Particles before pronoun e.g. An hi becomes Anhi or Ani
Regional type B "Hín": Particles after pronoun or noun e.g. An hi becomes Hian or Hín
G. Rules of inflection
(Regional type A)
Inflection type Aa: An hi becomes Anhi
Inflection type Ab: An hi becomes Ani or An'i
(Regional type B)
Inflection type Ba "Hian": Particle is intact as postfix e.g. An brid, an huali becomes Bridan, hualian
Inflection type Bb "Hihan": 'h' is inserted if two vowels are made adjacent e.g. In utsina, ana turu becomes Utsinahin, turuhana
Inflection type Bc "Hín": The vowels in the noun root and postfix are merged e.g. In utsina, ana turu becomes Utsinán, turúna.
Inflection type Bd "Han": The terminal vowel in the root is eliminated e.g. In utsina, ana turu becomes Utsinin, turana.
H. Numbers and Plurals
1. en
2. kas
3. tre
4. kaha
5. vis
6. kus
7. sett
8. kahta
9. ihta
10. setu
11. setu ha en "ten and one"
(variations: setuhaenBa setuhahenBb setuhánBc setuhenBd)
20. kas na setu "two of ten"
(variations: kasnasetuA, kassetunaB)
21. kas na setu ha en "two of ten, and one"
100. sata
1,000. tusenat
10,000. vanat
1,000,000. tuat
Plurals with numbers specified are expressed with the number in the genitive case. Thus it is said of two geese "two of goose" and six houses "six of house". It is possible in certain dialects to affix the plural marker "e" to plural objects. The dialects are hence characterised by the treatment of plural.
An kahta n'agnis (An kahta na agnis: Eight sheep)
Plural type a: No plural affix - An kahta n'agnisAba, Kahtan agnisnaBaa
Plural type b: Plural affix - An kahta n'agnis eAbb, Kahtan agnisenaBab
Plural type c: Affix only when number is unspecified.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Taimirian Grammar 1
Objective: To visualise a language which is grammatically perfect, i.e. has no exceptions to the rule, no redundancy, and needs nothing to be implied.
Constraint: The stylistic constraint in this project is that it is an isolating language (no affixes or barreling of words), with all cases and tenses indicated by markers rather than built into the word. Uniquely for this project, my language will have a marker for the nominative and accusative cases as well as the locative and other cases.
Method: The project will start from the use of nominative and accusative markers. Thence additional rules will be introduced to express things already expressible in English. Vocabulary will be conjured out of thin air or with reference to some existing language, so that the reader is not confused by broken English.
A. The Nominative and Accusative Markers
The particle an accompanies a subject i.e. a noun in the nominative case:
An hun - dog
The particle ir accompanies an object i.e. a noun in the accusative case:
Ir pesk - fish
For a simple sentence that says: A dog is eating a fish, we can say:
An hun thju ir pesk.
The beauty of this rule is that it eliminates the need for a passive voice, like the Finnish language infamously possesses. So if you want to say that a fish is being eaten, you can say
Ir pesk thju.
B. The Definite Marker
A noun is indefinite by default. For a definite noun, the particle ta is inserted, similar in role as "the" for English.
An ta hun - the dog
Ir ta pesk - the fish
An ta hun thju ir ta pesk - the dog is eating the fish
Ir ta pesk thju - the fish is being eaten
C. Verb Conjugation and Pronouns
In order to make the language extremely isolating, no verbs are conjugated. However, there are markers for tense. Using the word fin to mean "to be":
An ta pesk fin - the fish is
An ta pesk i fin - the fish was (past tense)
An ta pesk a fin - the fish will be (future tense)
The personal pronouns are listed thus:
U / Uri - 1st person (singular/plural)
Tu / Tur - 2nd person (singular/plural)
Hi / Hir - 3rd person (singular/plural)
Relative pronouns are simply the case marker of the noun of reference:
An foda na uri, an fin in heofon - Our Father, who art in heaven
D. The Other Case Markers and Negation
The particle na indicates possession and attribution, accompanying a noun in the genitive case:
An hun na u - My dog
An foda na uri - Our Father
An na tu, an na hir - Yours, theirs
The particle in accompanies a noun in the inessive case.
The particle ana accompanies a noun in the adessive case.
The particle fra, placed before in or ana, changes that particle into an elative or ablative marker.
The particle do, placed before in or ana, changes that particle into an illative or allative marker.
Examples:
An hun na uri i het do in talo - Our dog went into a house
An hun na uri fin in ta talo - Our dog is in the house
An foda na u het do ana hi - My father is going to him (lit. going to-at him)
An foda na u fin ana hun na hi - My father is with (lit. at) his dog
An hir a kom fra in ta talo - They will come out of (lit. from-in) the house
The particle vit accompanies a noun in the commitative or instructive case, seen in English as "with".
An hi i thju ir pesk vit hand na hi - He ate the fish with his hand (instructive)
An hi a kom vit ta hun - He will come with the dog (commitative)
The particle son accompanies a noun in the essive case, like the word "like" or "as" in English.
An tu a kom son kung na uri - You will come as our king
An hi i fin son kung - He was like a king
The particle ni before the case marker negates the case, and also a verb
ni in ta talo - not in the house
An hi ni kom - He is not coming.
E. Grammatical Moods
Moods are indicated by the order of words in the sentence as well as markers.
The indicative mood is the default, narative mood that we have been dealing with. The word order in use is subject-verb-object (SVO) or subject-object-verb (SOV).
An hir a kom do i baile - They will come to town
The conditional mood, similar in role with the English "if", uses the word order VSO:
Kom an hir do i baile - if they come to town
Het an tu do i baile, an tu a kan ir hi - If you go in to town, you will see him
The imperative mood uses the word order VOS, emphasising the addressee at the end.
Het do i ta baile, an tu! - Go (in)to the town! (Addressing one person)
Het do i ta baile, an uri! - Let's go to the town!
Het do i ta baile, an u! - I shall go to the town!
Ni het do i ta baile an uri. - Let's not go to town.
In the subjunctive mood, the particle go is used at the beginning of the phrase in indicative. The subjunctive mood is also used for subordinate clauses:
Go an ta hun het - (I hope that) the dog goes away.
An hi ana u i so, go an hi a kom - He told me that he will come.
The interrogative mood uses the particle kad at the beginning of the sentence, indicating that a question is being asked.
Kad an thju? - Who is eating? (Question on subject)
Kad ir an tu thju? - What are you eating? (Question on object)
Kad ana an tu thju? - Where/when are you eating? (Question on locative nouns)
Kad vit ir hi thju? - How do you eat it? (lit. What-with is it eaten? Question on instructive noun)
Kad son ir hi kan? - How does it look? (lit. What-like is it seen? Question on essive noun)
Kad go an tu thju? - Are you eating? (Questioning validity of a subordinate clause)
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Project Osteoglyphy
Report first drafted on 8 July 2006 on Word, edited and presented here in this blog on 7 February 2008.
Project Osteoglyphy is an exploration in the field of artistic neography, the creation of new writing systems. The focus of this project is to create a script which, when applied in writing, presents a pictorial character way beyond the merely textual.
The project started as a way to adapt the Korean alphabet (Hangeul) into the writing of Finnish, Korean being a script with very aptly designed formal characteristics and Finnish being a strongly phonetic language. Many of the letters in Osteoglyphy are hence derived from Hangeul, and the script is predominantly used to write Finnish. Finnish test words are used here.
I. The Osteoglyphic Alphabet
Most consonant letters are derived from Hangeul. While the vowel letters have been created ex nihilo, they are formulated under the same principle under which the Hangeul consonants are made i.e. according to the shape of the mouth pronouncing that vowel.
Fig I: The Alphabet and letter order
II. Approach to Formal Unity
I decided on an angular design of all the letters. Now I can't remember why I did that. Maybe it's for making it feel more Finnish, and for doing away with the characteristic geometry of Hangeul. And so it naturally follows that the letters acquire a special tendency to be written close together, because they don't look good written apart. They stick like lines stick to each other in a Mondrian.
Fig II: Test word "Helsinki" written in Hangeul, for comparison.
Fig III: "Helsinki" written linearly, with first version letters.
Fig IV: As above, with a more stickly, runic approach.
Fig V: The whole thing just sticks together.
Fig Va: Piet MONDRIAN 1919 Composition; Light Color Planes with Grey Lines / utilising a similar formal approach to Osteoglyphy
Note the manner in which phonemes touch each other and even share the same sides. The phonemes for n and k are joined, since the orthography (the alphabet) of virtually all Northern European languages pronounce them as a single sound. This compression of phonemes, where adjusted to produce a continuity of pattern, gives rise to an interesting undulating in direction as contrasting to the usual, linear rendering of words in the reader’s eye. In extreme cases, even the directionality of the script itself.
III. Direction of Writing
Directionality is the direction in which individual graphemes are written, and in this case the phonemes themselves can be twisted around in a word like play-dough. This also makes it diabolical to read though pleasing to the untrained eye.
Fig VI: Variations on the directions in which letters in a word is written. Test word "Nahkaruoska"
A scribe is able to take artistic license as to which way to arrange the letters in a word i.e. whether the letters are written left-right, top-down, zigzagging or clustered together. Of course, in a real setting in which this script is used, standard (clustered) arrangements of each word may be set.
IV: Diacritics
A diacritic (e.g. two dots or umlaut over an o that makes it ö) gives an indication to a reader that the letter bearing the diacritic is to be pronounced differently. In the case of Finnish, ä is pronounced roughly "ae", ö is pronounced "eur" (as in French), to name just two.
Osteoglyphy utilises only one diacritic, the ring. It's beautiful and simple and partly based on the obsolete diacritic once used in writing Chinese loanwords in the Korean alphabet, the Gabyeoun.
Fig VII: Two examples of the ring applied in test words
Fig VIIa: Basic Finnish Osteoglyphy, including háček letters
In written Finnish Osteoglyphs, the ring usually approximates an umlaut.
A ring on an "a" grapheme reads "ä".
A ring (usually written as a diamond) within an "o" grapheme reads "ö".
Less commonly, the ring functions as a háček when applied to the grapheme "s"
A háček "č" is not written with a ring in Finnish; rather, it mimics the Korean "j" (New Revised Romanisation) or "ch" (McCune-Reischauer)
In writing consonants like "g", "b" or "f" that do not appear much in Finnish but are more common elsewhere, a ring is applied on an existing letter to represent its close counterpart.
A ring applied on a "k" grapheme reads "g"
A ring applied on a "v" grapheme reads "b"
A ring applied on a "p" grapheme reads "f"
In writing palatalised consonants in languages that have them, the ring also comes in.
A ring applied on a "t" grapheme reads "gy" (Magyar)
A ring applied on an "n" grapheme reads "ny" (Magyar, Mari and Russian)
and so on.
V: Digraphs and Modified Letters in Non-Finnish Osteoglyphy
Fig VIII: Digraphs and special letters in Icelandic Osteoglyphy
A special "y" digraph is used instead of the Finnish "y" as the Latin "y" is pronounced differently in the two languages. (i.e. more like "i" in Icelandic and "ü" in Finnish)
"Hv" is made of letters "k" and "v" as the digraph is pronounced like "kw"
"Þ" is directly borrowed from the Icelandic letter. (Pronounced "th" as in "teeth")
Fig IX: Special letters in extended Osteoglyphy adapted for languages like Estonian, Magyar, Mari, Saami and suchlike.
The "z" phoneme imitates its roughly correspondent jamo in Hangeul, the obsolete banshiot
The "d" phoneme imitates its correspondent jamo in Hangeul, the digeut
The graphemes for vowels "ə" and "õ" are creations ex nihilo.
VI: Handwriting and Typefaces
Fig X: Seal: The most primitive edition of the script, good at giving an atmosphere of primeval civilizations.
Fig XI: Rune: Ideal for engravings, with exception to the ring diacritic. This is the standard script in the project, being the most ductile in its word forms.
Fig XII: Hand: This script variation is written similarly to a modern alphabet.
Fig XIII: Blocktype: An experimentation of a modernistic typeface, which occurs as whatever civilization using this writing system enters the digital age. I’m serious.
Test word "Helsinki"
Test word "Nahkaruoska"
Test word "Laulutyttö"
Fig XIV - XVI: Handwritten: Exploring the possibilities of freehand writing, converting a script which is tedious to write into an easily-renderable system which is tedious to read. They look nice all the same anyway.
VII: Languages adaptable to writing in Osteoglyphy
Fig XVII: Languages in white are adapted to the script, while those in grey are currently construction not under progress. Theoretically, any language renderable in the Latin alphabet is renderable in Osteoglyphy.
Applications 0: Examples of individual glyphs that bear unexpected forms when letters are arranged in a specific way.
Fig XVIII: Avatar designs bearing interestingly-shaped glyphs of random test words
The test words used here are (left to right, top to down) Aho, Akureyri, Taivas, Aamu, Skagi, Debrecen, Nuoruus, Arkeni, Álafoss
Ductile as the letters in Osteoglyphy are, they can be modelled and modified to form many interesting shapes dubbed glyphs. The letters that constitute each test word are the basic bluiding blocks for many a glyph. The trick to finding a good glyph in long lesson times is to find a random test word, write it out in many different arrangements, until a meaningful shape, like a bird, a human, a dog or some modern architecture springs forth from the paper.
Doing it is great fun and it's a cheap way to do logo design.
Applications I: 'A' Levels Art Coursework
Fig XIX: CD design for Moving House (digital animation short, 2007)
featuring glyph "Thomond" above the title as shown.
Fig XX: The same glyph in the leading frame of the video file (screenshot)
Fig XXI: The glyph "Ahtisaari" on a cargo container appearing in the train scene. The logo itself is never clearly shown in the film, however.
Fig XXII: A shot with the above container design shown.
Project Osteoglyphy is an exploration in the field of artistic neography, the creation of new writing systems. The focus of this project is to create a script which, when applied in writing, presents a pictorial character way beyond the merely textual.
The project started as a way to adapt the Korean alphabet (Hangeul) into the writing of Finnish, Korean being a script with very aptly designed formal characteristics and Finnish being a strongly phonetic language. Many of the letters in Osteoglyphy are hence derived from Hangeul, and the script is predominantly used to write Finnish. Finnish test words are used here.
I. The Osteoglyphic Alphabet
Most consonant letters are derived from Hangeul. While the vowel letters have been created ex nihilo, they are formulated under the same principle under which the Hangeul consonants are made i.e. according to the shape of the mouth pronouncing that vowel.
Fig I: The Alphabet and letter order
II. Approach to Formal Unity
I decided on an angular design of all the letters. Now I can't remember why I did that. Maybe it's for making it feel more Finnish, and for doing away with the characteristic geometry of Hangeul. And so it naturally follows that the letters acquire a special tendency to be written close together, because they don't look good written apart. They stick like lines stick to each other in a Mondrian.
Fig II: Test word "Helsinki" written in Hangeul, for comparison.
Fig III: "Helsinki" written linearly, with first version letters.
Fig IV: As above, with a more stickly, runic approach.
Fig V: The whole thing just sticks together.
Fig Va: Piet MONDRIAN 1919 Composition; Light Color Planes with Grey Lines / utilising a similar formal approach to Osteoglyphy
Note the manner in which phonemes touch each other and even share the same sides. The phonemes for n and k are joined, since the orthography (the alphabet) of virtually all Northern European languages pronounce them as a single sound. This compression of phonemes, where adjusted to produce a continuity of pattern, gives rise to an interesting undulating in direction as contrasting to the usual, linear rendering of words in the reader’s eye. In extreme cases, even the directionality of the script itself.
III. Direction of Writing
Directionality is the direction in which individual graphemes are written, and in this case the phonemes themselves can be twisted around in a word like play-dough. This also makes it diabolical to read though pleasing to the untrained eye.
Fig VI: Variations on the directions in which letters in a word is written. Test word "Nahkaruoska"
A scribe is able to take artistic license as to which way to arrange the letters in a word i.e. whether the letters are written left-right, top-down, zigzagging or clustered together. Of course, in a real setting in which this script is used, standard (clustered) arrangements of each word may be set.
IV: Diacritics
A diacritic (e.g. two dots or umlaut over an o that makes it ö) gives an indication to a reader that the letter bearing the diacritic is to be pronounced differently. In the case of Finnish, ä is pronounced roughly "ae", ö is pronounced "eur" (as in French), to name just two.
Osteoglyphy utilises only one diacritic, the ring. It's beautiful and simple and partly based on the obsolete diacritic once used in writing Chinese loanwords in the Korean alphabet, the Gabyeoun.
 |  |
Fig VIIa: Basic Finnish Osteoglyphy, including háček letters
In written Finnish Osteoglyphs, the ring usually approximates an umlaut.
A ring on an "a" grapheme reads "ä".
A ring (usually written as a diamond) within an "o" grapheme reads "ö".
Less commonly, the ring functions as a háček when applied to the grapheme "s"
A háček "č" is not written with a ring in Finnish; rather, it mimics the Korean "j" (New Revised Romanisation) or "ch" (McCune-Reischauer)
In writing consonants like "g", "b" or "f" that do not appear much in Finnish but are more common elsewhere, a ring is applied on an existing letter to represent its close counterpart.
A ring applied on a "k" grapheme reads "g"
A ring applied on a "v" grapheme reads "b"
A ring applied on a "p" grapheme reads "f"
In writing palatalised consonants in languages that have them, the ring also comes in.
A ring applied on a "t" grapheme reads "gy" (Magyar)
A ring applied on an "n" grapheme reads "ny" (Magyar, Mari and Russian)
and so on.
V: Digraphs and Modified Letters in Non-Finnish Osteoglyphy
Fig VIII: Digraphs and special letters in Icelandic Osteoglyphy
A special "y" digraph is used instead of the Finnish "y" as the Latin "y" is pronounced differently in the two languages. (i.e. more like "i" in Icelandic and "ü" in Finnish)
"Hv" is made of letters "k" and "v" as the digraph is pronounced like "kw"
"Þ" is directly borrowed from the Icelandic letter. (Pronounced "th" as in "teeth")
Fig IX: Special letters in extended Osteoglyphy adapted for languages like Estonian, Magyar, Mari, Saami and suchlike.
The "z" phoneme imitates its roughly correspondent jamo in Hangeul, the obsolete banshiot
The "d" phoneme imitates its correspondent jamo in Hangeul, the digeut
The graphemes for vowels "ə" and "õ" are creations ex nihilo.
VI: Handwriting and Typefaces
Fig X: Seal: The most primitive edition of the script, good at giving an atmosphere of primeval civilizations.
Fig XI: Rune: Ideal for engravings, with exception to the ring diacritic. This is the standard script in the project, being the most ductile in its word forms.
Fig XII: Hand: This script variation is written similarly to a modern alphabet.
Fig XIII: Blocktype: An experimentation of a modernistic typeface, which occurs as whatever civilization using this writing system enters the digital age. I’m serious.
Test word "Helsinki"
Test word "Nahkaruoska"
Test word "Laulutyttö"Fig XIV - XVI: Handwritten: Exploring the possibilities of freehand writing, converting a script which is tedious to write into an easily-renderable system which is tedious to read. They look nice all the same anyway.
VII: Languages adaptable to writing in Osteoglyphy
Fig XVII: Languages in white are adapted to the script, while those in grey are currently construction not under progress. Theoretically, any language renderable in the Latin alphabet is renderable in Osteoglyphy.
Applications 0: Examples of individual glyphs that bear unexpected forms when letters are arranged in a specific way.
Fig XVIII: Avatar designs bearing interestingly-shaped glyphs of random test words
The test words used here are (left to right, top to down) Aho, Akureyri, Taivas, Aamu, Skagi, Debrecen, Nuoruus, Arkeni, Álafoss
Ductile as the letters in Osteoglyphy are, they can be modelled and modified to form many interesting shapes dubbed glyphs. The letters that constitute each test word are the basic bluiding blocks for many a glyph. The trick to finding a good glyph in long lesson times is to find a random test word, write it out in many different arrangements, until a meaningful shape, like a bird, a human, a dog or some modern architecture springs forth from the paper.
Doing it is great fun and it's a cheap way to do logo design.
Applications I: 'A' Levels Art Coursework
Fig XIX: CD design for Moving House (digital animation short, 2007)
featuring glyph "Thomond" above the title as shown.
Fig XX: The same glyph in the leading frame of the video file (screenshot)
Fig XXI: The glyph "Ahtisaari" on a cargo container appearing in the train scene. The logo itself is never clearly shown in the film, however.
Fig XXII: A shot with the above container design shown.
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