Sep. 18th, 2009

marnanel: (Default)
Sorry to be spammy, but I was just thinking about this.

I don't design Nimyad by making up rules and then writing texts. I learn the rules through observation of the texts. In fact I was also the one who wrote the texts, but I wasn't aware of the rules when I wrote them.  Then when I've seen the pattern in at least two places, I use it in helping me make new words.

Two good examples of patterns I've learned this way:
  • caral = place, coli = city; taras = light, tasi = lightning.  So the zero-grade form of a word plus -i must mean "a coherent piece of something".
  • rejil = human, rejim = wisdom; joril = king, jorim = authority.  So if you replace final -l with -m it must mean "the quality which should be exercised by that entity".
In documenting the further application of these rules I need to refer to them somehow.  I'm not sure whether I should
  • just number them, or similar;
  • make up a name for the principle (like the name "lenition" is used for the mutation principle in Scottish Gaelic);
  • name them after the first place I saw the principle ("the rejil rule", "the coli rule");
  • something else...
I'm not sure.

marnanel: (Default)

Since several of you wanted to see it, here's an example of my current draft of the Amlin script, used to write Nimyad:
Sample of Amlin script
am soc caril tiricoth yalad far ac yoroden til
then the whole earth had one language and a common tongue

This is just to show you what it's supposed to look like.  Note that I slipped up on the first word and wrote a "rejim" for a "maran", so it says "ar" instead of "am".  Sorry.

Below is the current set of graphemes I'm working with.  It's not the first version by any means, but let's call it 1.0 because it's the first public release.  I am using the range U+E6D0 to U+E6EF in the private use area, but that might change.  I may submit this to CSUR when it's a bit more mature.

The "key" column gives a keyboard mapping, for typing Amlin letters on a QWERTY keyboard.

In the story, the script was created by Lififel of Rindal around the year 450 after the settlement, who taught it to the Lirimelen, the college of storytellers.  Lififel gave his letters the collective name "Amlin", after the sacred river where the reeds grew which were used to make the first pens.
Read more... )

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