Sinnish Update

[vaxjedi]

I have an update or two, some thoughts and some actual sounds.



I decided to change the sound of the X to a ch sound, like in 'church'. The other sound was just not working for me at all.

Also, I've changed my idea on stress for the words. I used to have it that most words are stressed on the last syllable. But I decided I didn't like the cadence. And most of all, I didn't say it that way. So I'm not going to worry about stress for now and just say it how it feels good. Do I HAVE to have stress rules? Anyone know?

I was listening to some sound bytes of Quenya and was impressed by the sound of it. So I wondered if Sinnish would sound stupid. I recorded some sentences in Sinnish and put them up on the web. One note: they are made using a crappy mic and I stumble a bit on some of them - I'm still getting the hang of speaking Sinnish.

uZ ropex sodar utoam. uZar XumuXus.
"I can eat glass. It does not hurt me."

yu amaZda xar@m@karaka
"May you cry out like a thunderstorm"

sax asapak. @pa ruSalal ogora eyowar bolar rotawas ko otabar roZadzi ototab ad
"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech." (roughly)
(This is the first line from the Tower of Babel story in the Bible. My recitation of it leaves a lot to be desired - the cadence is all wrong. Plus now that I look at it, I think one of the Sinnish nouns should have a different ending)

I like the sound of it. Not quite was I was intending. Sounds a lot like a Romance language. Of course, I tend to favor Spanish pronounciations.

---

I'm slowly tackling the basic vocabulary for Sinnish. Lots of basic words, from table to garlic to drink.

The next trick is some of the specific vocabulary. I want to have a diverse number of terms for types of love, types of attraction, types of sexual activities.

Does anybody have any ideas on how I should divide things?

I wanted to have different terms for how you love a child, or love a parent, or love a sibling, or a lover, or a good friend.

I was also thinking of having a wide array of terms for sex. Sexual activities, sexual attitudes, etc. Suggestions are welcome ;)

Comments

[alaindan.livejournal.com]

Is it too early to give msome more suggestions on the writing system? I saw the sheet with the preliminary idea for the writing system, I thought of a couple ideas...
leave it to me to think of only the pretty pictures. :)

[vaxjedi]

Not at all. I've asked Eleri to help me with that.

The version that Eleri worked out is a sort of 'Linear B' version of written Sinnish. It'll be the base for the script version, which will be a lot less angular.

I also want to have a sort of kanji-like version of it. Probably a glyph for each word with a host of diacritical marks and adders for expressing grammatical functions.

[byronium.livejournal.com]

Do you have to have stress rules? Probably not. But it lends a consistency to the language that makes it easier to understand. Right now, you're the sole arbiter, so it makes it pretty easy to say, "This is the right way to say this word." :-) Consistent stress rules are nice when it comes to thinks like poetry, where they lend a pleasant cadence to the phrases. Personally, I'm with David Mamet: he tends to write the dialogue in his plays in iambic pentameter, which has a very definite structure, but one that is very easy to relate to.

You could always come up with a set of certain phrases you could see being used often, or ones that you just like personally, and then base the stresses for the words you used on what sounds the best.

[byronium.livejournal.com]

Oh, and on a separate, but related note, it seems like the ongoing development of the language is something that just begs for a Wiki (http://www.wikiweb.com/).

[vaxjedi]

Actually, I was thinking of doing it that way. In some areas, I've dropped back to 'how do I say it' and figuring it out from there. For instance, there are all sorts of subtlites to the phonology that I haven't mapped out becuase I do them reflexively and I don't know exactly how to do it. ;)

As for stress, I'm gonna give it a miss for now. Maybe I'll come up with specific rules. Maybe I'll just have marked syllables for how the stress is. I dunno.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

gundo has Wiki stuff. Ask him
:)

[xiombarg.livejournal.com]

That so rocks!

I agree on the Wiki thing another poster mentioned. And is there an artificial language group on LJ? These stuff would be so cool there. Or a Sinnish LJ group would rock. :^)