Looking good so far, the only one that really gets into my head is the X consonant which feels, to me, a cross between a 'z' and a 'ks' when pronounces. Perhaps replacing it with such would be in order since few of the words you have shown have a characteristic X consonant present.
Perhaps I missed it and the X is written everywhere else as h as in sah (which to me is pronounced as is read (as in English "Saw"), apologies if I screwed that up).
I think a language for the villagers would be a great feature, it would give Notch a new challenge, but I think we should leave it to Notch to create the language.
Minecraft is becoming star trek...
This is amazing though, did you take Latin?
I am truly amazed at what you have here but it would just be easier for them to speak English or whatever the downloader had it on.
Excellent work so far, but it doesn't feel Minecrafty to me. I think what would send it over the edge, for me, is if every world generated a new random language. I think there's enough here for a common substrate; now just throw a random phoneme generator on top of the whole thing.
Perhaps even each village could have its own dialect, slightly different from the next one over.
And rumored to exist, but never confirmed: the legendary Ur-tongue, Herobrinish.
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I think you are going to love my Survival Let's Play series on YouTube! It's called Spaceboot1's Garden. I make pretty things.
This puts in as much character into Minecraft as the Creeper did. You should email this to Notch, he should over and over and over, and this should be implemented into the final game.
Excellent work so far, but it doesn't feel Minecrafty to me. I think what would send it over the edge, for me, is if every world generated a new random language. I think there's enough here for a common substrate; now just throw a random phoneme generator on top of the whole thing.
Perhaps even each village could have its own dialect, slightly different from the next one over.
And rumored to exist, but never confirmed: the legendary Ur-tongue, Herobrinish.
This is what I'm talking about! Talking! Get it? Haha! *cough* Ah...it'll be pretty hard to implement the code, but it really makes Minecraft much more realistic, like in some countries in the world have dialects, or slang, in specific parts.
I know I'm sort of spamming this wall right now, but what about this: due to the random languages that'll almost certainly be implemented into the final game, why don't we have a...
TRANSLATOR!!
This applies to two things: One, you can give gold ingots to a specific person in the village to translate the villagers' language for you.
OR...
An object crafted from (mostly) Redstone that allows you to hear what everybody else is hearing! Maybe we'll make it rarer, even implementing Diamonds in the crafting recipe.
Well, now that there's enchantments, this game is BEGGING for its own language. Most people take the lazy route and create a cipher for the english alphabet. Notch just used a pre-existing cipher from another game (I hope he doesn't get in trouble). The look of the words in the spell boo does fit the style of the game though. The next step is to crate a spoken sipper for english, like Al Bed in ff x. All they did was shuffle the letters around.
I'm pleased to see that someone else is interested in my hobby. Conlanging isn't usually something that non linguists can enjoy. It's not like a model train or anything, you have to like language as such to really enjoy it.
BTW, I've got a writing system set up for the language, but I haven't managed to sketch it out on paper yet. It's what you might call a moraic writing system. The only other system I know of like this is the japanese Kana. Each symbol represents a single mora. A mora might be thought of as the time needed to utter one sound. The first consonants of a syllable are 0 morass, the vowel takes one mora if it is short (all vowels are short in minecraftian) and each final consonant takes one mora. A minecraftian syllable can be either one or two morass.
Here's a VERY rough outline of the writing system. It's based on braille patterns. A while ago I created a language written only in braille because I was sick of people mistaking braille for a language when it's really a code that represents letters of the roman alphabet.
Anyway here it is.
it goes like this
pi ti ki fi si hi mi ni li ri
pe te ke fe se he me ne le re
pa ta ka fa sa ha ma na la ra
po to ko fo so ho mo no lo ro
I forgot to add the final consonants, but each of the these would get it's own letter:
-p -t -k -f -s -h -m -n -l -r
since words can start with a vowel, there are letters for /i/ /e/ /a/ and /o/ as well
This means that sah uses three letters <sa> and <h>. Sessan uses 4, <se> <s> <sa> <n>
I wish I was good at teaching, I'd love to write an intro on this for non linguists, but after trying to teach my dad to use iTunes, I have reaffirmed my lack of teaching ability.
ohh really awesome! :biggrin.gif:
a question: what do you think of genders? (i hope i didnt forget to read the lines)
i think it would be better if there were non, just because the npc's dont have any ^^
furthermore it would be much easier :wink.gif:
Gender adds nuance and redundancy to a language. In case you're wondering, redundancy is a good thing. I wasn't planning on using a gender system here, though.
Unfortunately, the only stable random word generator available online is now gone, and all other programs work for windows. While I'm dabbling in Objective C, I don't feel like I'd be able to cobble together a word generator by myself. This means the language is on hold until i can find a program to help me.
BTW, minecraftian is a stress accented language (like english) where the stress falls on the first syllable of the root, so mofnelan (nether-mob) would be stressed on the first syllable.
A note on plurals: Most compound words will reduplicate only the root completely if the root is two syllables or less, but if the word is "old" enough, it will act like a single morpheme and only the first syllable minus the final consonant will be reduplicated. Mofnelan would be one such word. The idea is it expresses a base concept, so speakers are more likely to see it as a single morpheme rather than a compound. Thus we get momofnelan and not mofmofnelan.
However, I'm thinking of changing the rules for making plurals to be based on morae rather than syllables. sessansessan, sounds like a mouthful, but that'll have to wait and see.
Also, a note on the spell book, I'm rather sad that Notch just used a 1:1 cipher for the latin alphabet, from another game no less, to write the spells. I get that he may expect you to find out what it says, but when someone transliterated the words in the spell books, they didn't really make sense.. so that means 1) the spells you can use are randomly picked when you access the enchanting table. 2) they're written in a non latin alphabet and 3) even when the alphabet used in the book is transliterated, the words don't make sense, and based on the way he's got potions working, there may be negative enchantments as well. I don't get that... but that's off topic.
Well, now that there's enchantments, this game is BEGGING for its own language. Most people take the lazy route and create a cipher for the english alphabet. Notch just used a pre-existing cipher from another game (I hope he doesn't get in trouble). The look of the words in the spell boo does fit the style of the game though. The next step is to crate a spoken sipper for english, like Al Bed in ff x. All they did was shuffle the letters around.
I'm pleased to see that someone else is interested in my hobby. Conlanging isn't usually something that non linguists can enjoy. It's not like a model train or anything, you have to like language as such to really enjoy it.
BTW, I've got a writing system set up for the language, but I haven't managed to sketch it out on paper yet. It's what you might call a moraic writing system. The only other system I know of like this is the japanese Kana. Each symbol represents a single mora. A mora might be thought of as the time needed to utter one sound. The first consonants of a syllable are 0 morass, the vowel takes one mora if it is short (all vowels are short in minecraftian) and each final consonant takes one mora. A minecraftian syllable can be either one or two morass.
Here's a VERY rough outline of the writing system. It's based on braille patterns. A while ago I created a language written only in braille because I was sick of people mistaking braille for a language when it's really a code that represents letters of the roman alphabet.
Anyway here it is.
it goes like this
pi ti ki fi si hi mi ni li ri
pe te ke fe se he me ne le re
pa ta ka fa sa ha ma na la ra
po to ko fo so ho mo no lo ro
I forgot to add the final consonants, but each of the these would get it's own letter:
-p -t -k -f -s -h -m -n -l -r
since words can start with a vowel, there are letters for /i/ /e/ /a/ and /o/ as well
This means that sah uses three letters <sa> and <h>. Sessan uses 4, <se> <s> <sa> <n>
I wish I was good at teaching, I'd love to write an intro on this for non linguists, but after trying to teach my dad to use iTunes, I have reaffirmed my lack of teaching ability.
I agree. Since there's enchantments with their own language, Minecraftians should speak their own language, too. It's a new world. Hey, what about this: Zombies and Skeletons=Undead...Undead=Once Living...maybe Notch/C418 can implement more sounds so that mindless groans and clicks turn into something else-broken language. +1.
I was thinking about a Minecraftian calendar when I found this post and realized there was no better place to ask the following questions:
Since the names of the seven days in a week come from the names of Germanic, Greek, and Roman deities, would the days of the Minecraftian week be named after Minecraftian deities?
I would assume that a Minecraftian week would be eight days long, a Minecraftian month four weeks long and a Minecraftian year 16 months long, since these numbers are close to our own and are each divisible by eight (with the exception of four, which is a factor of eight), which seems to be an underlying theme in Minecraft.
Also, what would the moths be named? Months get their names from many sources, from festivals to prefixes representing numbers to deities, so how could we determine that?
The Standard Galactic Alphabet, which is used in enchanting, is as follows:
Though it is not shown in the image, the symbol that represents periods, exclamation points, and question marks looks something like this: ._.
This blew right over my head. But I like the sound of the first words and sentences you've come up with. It would be awesome if there was a secret minecraft language... okay so what it might be a bit nerdy but it would be awesome
redstone1337, as you probably know, the names of the days of the week represent deities. Sunday is the Sun's Day, Monday is the Moon's Day, Tuesday is Tui's Day, Wednsday is Woden's Day, and so on.
We can probably get the names of the Minecraftian days by taking the names of the Minecrfatian deities (Notch, Jeb, etc.) and putting the Minecraftian word for "Day" after them, and if necessary modifying the deities' names. Sice you have not provided the Minecraftian word for "Day", I now ask you to please provide us with it soon.
As for the months, I have no idea what to do since the names of the months have roots that are extremely varied. And when I say varied, I mean ridiculous. Google "How did December get its name" and you'll see what I mean.
Perhaps I missed it and the X is written everywhere else as h as in sah (which to me is pronounced as is read (as in English "Saw"), apologies if I screwed that up).
OFFICIAL POSTING/REPLYING GUIDELINES
UNOFFICIAL POSTING GUIDE (PRT)
UNOFFICIAL REPLYING GUIDE (FTC)
This is amazing though, did you take Latin?
I am truly amazed at what you have here but it would just be easier for them to speak English or whatever the downloader had it on.
The only noises hey can make are grunts and moans.
Perhaps even each village could have its own dialect, slightly different from the next one over.
And rumored to exist, but never confirmed: the legendary Ur-tongue, Herobrinish.
Want to play Minecraft SSP like Spaceboot1? Try my modpack, all mods made by me, Spaceboot1!
This is what I'm talking about! Talking! Get it? Haha! *cough* Ah...it'll be pretty hard to implement the code, but it really makes Minecraft much more realistic, like in some countries in the world have dialects, or slang, in specific parts.
TRANSLATOR!!
This applies to two things: One, you can give gold ingots to a specific person in the village to translate the villagers' language for you.
OR...
An object crafted from (mostly) Redstone that allows you to hear what everybody else is hearing! Maybe we'll make it rarer, even implementing Diamonds in the crafting recipe.
I'm pleased to see that someone else is interested in my hobby. Conlanging isn't usually something that non linguists can enjoy. It's not like a model train or anything, you have to like language as such to really enjoy it.
BTW, I've got a writing system set up for the language, but I haven't managed to sketch it out on paper yet. It's what you might call a moraic writing system. The only other system I know of like this is the japanese Kana. Each symbol represents a single mora. A mora might be thought of as the time needed to utter one sound. The first consonants of a syllable are 0 morass, the vowel takes one mora if it is short (all vowels are short in minecraftian) and each final consonant takes one mora. A minecraftian syllable can be either one or two morass.
Here's a VERY rough outline of the writing system. It's based on braille patterns. A while ago I created a language written only in braille because I was sick of people mistaking braille for a language when it's really a code that represents letters of the roman alphabet.
Anyway here it is.
it goes like this
pi ti ki fi si hi mi ni li ri
pe te ke fe se he me ne le re
pa ta ka fa sa ha ma na la ra
po to ko fo so ho mo no lo ro
I forgot to add the final consonants, but each of the these would get it's own letter:
-p -t -k -f -s -h -m -n -l -r
since words can start with a vowel, there are letters for /i/ /e/ /a/ and /o/ as well
This means that sah uses three letters <sa> and <h>. Sessan uses 4, <se> <s> <sa> <n>
I wish I was good at teaching, I'd love to write an intro on this for non linguists, but after trying to teach my dad to use iTunes, I have reaffirmed my lack of teaching ability.
Gender adds nuance and redundancy to a language. In case you're wondering, redundancy is a good thing. I wasn't planning on using a gender system here, though.
Unfortunately, the only stable random word generator available online is now gone, and all other programs work for windows. While I'm dabbling in Objective C, I don't feel like I'd be able to cobble together a word generator by myself. This means the language is on hold until i can find a program to help me.
BTW, minecraftian is a stress accented language (like english) where the stress falls on the first syllable of the root, so mofnelan (nether-mob) would be stressed on the first syllable.
A note on plurals: Most compound words will reduplicate only the root completely if the root is two syllables or less, but if the word is "old" enough, it will act like a single morpheme and only the first syllable minus the final consonant will be reduplicated. Mofnelan would be one such word. The idea is it expresses a base concept, so speakers are more likely to see it as a single morpheme rather than a compound. Thus we get momofnelan and not mofmofnelan.
However, I'm thinking of changing the rules for making plurals to be based on morae rather than syllables. sessansessan, sounds like a mouthful, but that'll have to wait and see.
Also, a note on the spell book, I'm rather sad that Notch just used a 1:1 cipher for the latin alphabet, from another game no less, to write the spells. I get that he may expect you to find out what it says, but when someone transliterated the words in the spell books, they didn't really make sense.. so that means 1) the spells you can use are randomly picked when you access the enchanting table. 2) they're written in a non latin alphabet and 3) even when the alphabet used in the book is transliterated, the words don't make sense, and based on the way he's got potions working, there may be negative enchantments as well. I don't get that... but that's off topic.
I agree. Since there's enchantments with their own language, Minecraftians should speak their own language, too. It's a new world. Hey, what about this: Zombies and Skeletons=Undead...Undead=Once Living...maybe Notch/C418 can implement more sounds so that mindless groans and clicks turn into something else-broken language. +1.
"test-test"
"TESTIFICATE!"
sorry, i just can imagine them as pokemon...
super effective... >.>
Since the names of the seven days in a week come from the names of Germanic, Greek, and Roman deities, would the days of the Minecraftian week be named after Minecraftian deities?
I would assume that a Minecraftian week would be eight days long, a Minecraftian month four weeks long and a Minecraftian year 16 months long, since these numbers are close to our own and are each divisible by eight (with the exception of four, which is a factor of eight), which seems to be an underlying theme in Minecraft.
Also, what would the moths be named? Months get their names from many sources, from festivals to prefixes representing numbers to deities, so how could we determine that?
Though it is not shown in the image, the symbol that represents periods, exclamation points, and question marks looks something like this: ._.
also, Jeb sounds like a cool month or day to me.
We can probably get the names of the Minecraftian days by taking the names of the Minecrfatian deities (Notch, Jeb, etc.) and putting the Minecraftian word for "Day" after them, and if necessary modifying the deities' names. Sice you have not provided the Minecraftian word for "Day", I now ask you to please provide us with it soon.
As for the months, I have no idea what to do since the names of the months have roots that are extremely varied. And when I say varied, I mean ridiculous. Google "How did December get its name" and you'll see what I mean.