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capeandcowlooc2013-04-21 03:53 am
noematic) wrote in capeandcowlooc2013-04-21 03:53 am
a little TONGUE in cheek really
Tomorrow begins the next chapter of the modplot, and I will have the logs up once I get home from work. There will be seven logs, one per Gottala, and each log will be organized into events by the day (the plot runs five days total). You CAN jump ship on particular days; be sure to check the DAY OF on the Gottala that you're interested in to ensure that your exit point meets with your entrance point. While the city-ships meet broadside for exchange and trade, there are certain restrictions depending on the Gottala. Just because you can leave one doesn't mean you can also board to stay -- it all depends on the destination ship. Remember that in game time, the multiversal port out begins at noon -- and your characters won't have their communicators! The overview of the plot can be found here. As a reminder, if your character has MAGICAL or TELEPATHIC powers, they will be wonky on this world! They won't work the same way. If your character has a specified linguist superpower then contact me here if you're interested in the language key code for the Tirisean people.
THEY DO NOT SPEAK EARTHLY LANGUAGES.
However, that being said, language is constantly evolving, even for fictional people. So while their "high tongue" is coded and elaborate, there is a "lower cant" that is more accessible to off-universe travelers like yourselves.
A quick understanding of the Tirisean "high tongue" and "lower cant", to help you conceptualize:
Each letter in every word is pronounced phonetically. For example, “foo” is a letter of the Tirisean linguistic alphabet, and it sounds as it’s spelled. Some letters have a string of consonants, and those are more easily spoken by the Tiriseans than non-Tiriseans. It’s a dialect thing. Think of sharp, clicked sounds against the roof of your mouth and it hits close.
Letters of an individual word are separated by ‘ and whole words in a sentence are separated by ~ so as not to drive anyone insane. In terms of how that sounds, the apostrophe between letter is silent, but the tilde between words invokes a pitched inflection at the end of word (so therefore, the last letter of that word is pitched). The result is somewhat musical. Punctuation follows as usual: capitalization, commas, etc.
That's cool, you say. But what does that actually look like?
Like this:
Foo’dai~bdybya’feeuh’dai’ddee’foo! Dehn’dai’bsea’feeuh~gbey’eyew’ftee’ftee~eeff’foo’barr~eaye~eeff’eaye’bsea’feeuh.
Now like with most languages, sometimes rules are broken. There’s an “underspeech” that has seeped into the cant proper, colloquially employed for ease, profanity, or simply defiant slang. These are common words that defy the strict structure of the higher tongue (called Swoshu), and since they’re more similar to human language in form CAN be identified by ANYONE regardless if you’re a panlinguist or if you’ve figured out the Swoshu language code.
Keep in mind that any crucial “high art” or “lore” aka things you should decode will never be spoken in lower cant. Darn!
Some words to help you get by:
Swoshu = the main, higher tongue. Yes it’s an incredible irony that the very name of the language proper itself has been repurposed into a lower cant word.
Gottala = city-ship.
Deswirr = fuck.
Ter = unruly pork fetus born from the rotten loins of a boarlike, hairless creature.
Ther = lover.
Aedako = thief/pirate.
Aedaka = politician.
Aedake = whore.
Aedakei = brother/sister/friend.
Ghuyiq = shit.
Veog = ale.
Uiyem = food.
Raeward gode = sir you appear to speak aggressively to me, so I challenge you to a duel.
Ruo = yes.
Fhegi = no.
Poy = servant.
Uuhndar = liar/cheat.
Empoortah = devil.
Skrool = godlike being.
Tew = you’re welcome.
Giol = thank you.
Yuior = fuel/energy.
Erpe = fish.
Dewu = clamfish.
Qup = sea.
Xes = storm.
Uou = heinous deep ocean monsters that will grant you a screaming death.
You are free to NPC these words as something your character might overhear, even if they do not understand Swoshu proper. These are often literally fighting words, so, take heed! And again, feel free to incorporate this slang if you want to use an NPC for your purposes. You are allow to have your character engage, attack, or defend themselves with or against NPCs of your own device. This means you can kill NPCs. If you do, however, please incorporate realistic consequences as appropriate for the setting.
Now I know I said "somewhat" before, but I was understating. This is a very MUSICAL language. That's a REAL BIG HINT about the "higher tongue" code, and the only one I'll give.
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Skrool = godlike being.
heh
i love how easily set up it is for misunderstanding
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