yuk-tepat

[yuk-tepat]

Port it

@ Conlangers out there

who among the hordes of tumblr has developed their own conlang?

[yuk-tepat]

Yep me too.

@ Conlangers out there

who among the hordes of tumblr has developed their own conlang?

#conlang

[yuk-tepat]

Yan [jan], 'person; human being.'

#conlang #yuktepat #tepatic glyphs #writing system #logograph

[yuk-tepat]

Hey there! I've been trying to work on a logography recently (if you ever came across the Pan-Germanic runes thread on the cbb, it's in that vein) and I've really been struggling with coming up with the actual glyphs themselves. While there are other systematic problems to solve, I find tackling them more familiar and easier to approach than the task of coming up with individual glyph designs themselves (especially for abstract concepts that aren't as easily to represent pictorally). I have some academic background in Chinese, but I worry that this only serves to hamper me by making it easier for me to copycat their glyph origins. Do you have any recommendations for how to come up with original glyph designs? Is this a problem you've encountered in designing your own logograms? Any big tips for how to find inspiration?

Honestly, if I'm lost, I often go to Chinese to see what they do for abstract elements. I was completely lost on length in High Valyrian, for example, without being able to compare one thing to another—and especially with the whole "banana for scale" problem. The idea is so basic, though, I figured it would be a basic term in Chinese that would have its own glyph, and I was right! Turns out in Chinese the origin derives from hair. And that, of course, is brilliant, because human hair is something you can depict and has an absolute reference (i.e. at a certain point, all humans will agree that a certain length of hair is long).

At that point, though, I did my own drawing for a person with long hair, and used that as the source of the glyph in Valyrian. There's nothing wrong with using the same etymological source as long as you do your own work from there. It's a good thing to do when stuck.

As for other things, though, you go through the same process. It's easier to make images of concrete elements than abstract. When it comes to abstract concepts, think about what concrete elements in your world are most closely associated with those abstract concepts, then do glyphs based on those concrete things. You should also feel free to take combinations of elements and combine them into a single glyph (for example, maybe your glyph for "warm" is a combination of hot + cool, or hot + small). Always start with the concrete elements of your conlang's world. Also, the associations don't have to make perfect sense, so long as they make sense to your speakers. After all, the same thing happens with word etymologies.

Anyway, hope that helps! I also recommend following others who create logographies like my friend @yuk-tepat. He's really good, and you'll learn a lot by reading his stuff.

[yuk-tepat]

Flowchart-outlined skeleton history of the Swira (one of the nomadic barbarians who inhabit the steppe north of Tepat), viewed in mechanistic terms

Flowchart created with draw.io

Still can't seem to get those connectors to not be screwy

#conworld #conculture #worlbuilding #history #swira #historical determinism

[yuk-tepat]

Current task: whittling down my bloated, mis-knitted Yuk Tepat grammar into a presentable summary, while tinkering with AI stuff.

#conlang #yuktepat

[yuk-tepat]

In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff & Johnson assert that metaphor is not a special feature of poetry but inherent in everyday language. Related metaphors form overarching systems like GOOD IS UP or IDEAS ARE CONTAINERS which are embedded in our conceptual systems. Meanwhile, some metaphors like ARGUMENT IS DANCE, while possible, seem to go unused.

What conceptual metaphors are used by your conlang or conculture?

[yuk-tepat]

I should add, since I've input this all into the Lexique Pro file & categorized it, there are now 428 signs usable for phonetic values. It currently lists 217 'base glyphs' which are not analyzed into simpler components (similar to the number of Chinese radicals), and are often used for semantic value. There are more, because I haven't bothered to tally them all up yet, but they mostly overlap with the phonetic signs (most can be either, contextually). So the number of unique signs is probably under 250. The number of basic signs made by modifying those is probably 400-something - normal for logographs. The potential number of phono-semantic compounds is infinite, I guess? Every potential word is potentially spellable now, as I said, and the number in the dictionary is close to 1700, so ... How many glyphs do I have? Depends how you count.

Completing the Writing System

Well, sort of. But it’s good enough!

One of my goals for Lexember was to finally finish fleshing out the writing system. I did, although the cleanup and tweaking and stitching together loose ends extended a month into the New Year. I finished.

Until now, there were (possible) words in Yuk Tepat that couldn’t be spelled, but now it is possible to write anything by combining semantic and phonetic signs.

Above is a bunch of glyphs that can be used for phonetic value.

The whole chart depicts a range of onsets, codas, and combinations encompassing the range of syllable types in Yuk Tepat. I originally intended to fill all the squares like a bingo card. I didn’t fill it out completely. While not every syllable type has its own representation, each of them is only one degree of separation from another syllable that DOES have a sign.

By this I mean that any syllable without its own sign could be changed into a syllable with a symbol by a change of one phonetic feature.

For example, there is no sign representing /lʌj/, but /lɯj/ does have a sign. There is only one different phoneme, and /ɯ/ differs from /ʌ/ only in being high instead of low, so /lɯj/ is ‘close enough’ to work for /lʌj/.

This is very reasonable, and not too different from the ambiguity in many real writing systems. How many different sounds can English <e> make? Since Tepatic glyphs are logographic, semantic determiners can disambiguate the near-homophones.

Of course, this took years and years, and looking back I see now how I could have finished this years earlier, but whatever. I didn’t really understand how this worked when I started.

There could be, and will, be more glyphs created in the future. Most will be compound glyphs. As for ‘basic’ glyphs, the component parts, no more need be created. I may still make more if some good ones arise. But I don’t need to make anymore.There’s always more work to be done in the realm of “possible.” But also joy in fulfilling crucial criteria for a language and passing a milestone. I’m happy to say “I made” the writing system.

#conlang #tepatic glyphs #yuktepat #writing system #logograph #conscript #worldbuilding

[yuk-tepat]

Completing the Writing System

Well, sort of. But it’s good enough!

One of my goals for Lexember was to finally finish fleshing out the writing system. I did, although the cleanup and tweaking and stitching together loose ends extended a month into the New Year. I finished.

Until now, there were (possible) words in Yuk Tepat that couldn’t be spelled, but now it is possible to write anything by combining semantic and phonetic signs.

Above is a bunch of glyphs that can be used for phonetic value.

The whole chart depicts a range of onsets, codas, and combinations encompassing the range of syllable types in Yuk Tepat. I originally intended to fill all the squares like a bingo card. I didn’t fill it out completely. While not every syllable type has its own representation, each of them is only one degree of separation from another syllable that DOES have a sign.

By this I mean that any syllable without its own sign could be changed into a syllable with a symbol by a change of one phonetic feature.

For example, there is no sign representing /lʌj/, but /lɯj/ does have a sign. There is only one different phoneme, and /ɯ/ differs from /ʌ/ only in being high instead of low, so /lɯj/ is ‘close enough’ to work for /lʌj/.

This is very reasonable, and not too different from the ambiguity in many real writing systems. How many different sounds can English <e> make? Since Tepatic glyphs are logographic, semantic determiners can disambiguate the near-homophones.

Of course, this took years and years, and looking back I see now how I could have finished this years earlier, but whatever. I didn’t really understand how this worked when I started.

There could be, and will, be more glyphs created in the future. Most will be compound glyphs. As for ‘basic’ glyphs, the component parts, no more need be created. I may still make more if some good ones arise. But I don’t need to make anymore.There’s always more work to be done in the realm of “possible.” But also joy in fulfilling crucial criteria for a language and passing a milestone. I’m happy to say “I made” the writing system.

#conlang #tepatic glyphs #yuktepat #writing system #logograph #conscript #worldbuilding

[yuk-tepat]

Morphology Builder

Does anyone know a good morphology builder for conlangs? I know about phonology builders / generators, that allow you to put out a bunch of random wordforms from a list of phonemes and phonological rules. Is there a similar application that produces a random list of acceptable inflected words from a list of roots and affixes?

#conlang #morphology #app #ai

[yuk-tepat]

So the goblin thinks that making a conlang is a (slightly) harder task than writing a novel

[yuk-tepat]

Nga isingingusii tataššiupisa isat hanginguhiit isuun iaan'unit utlataapia nuutšivisa koqqanginguuš [We came into this world together legs wrapped around each other our cheek pressed against my sister's we were born like tangled vines] nu'aškivisa tuwassik uit huragaassutiik utš'imbaat a'isuroqik ngiinyurhit laanniiš iaant'anišitšipug [we lived beside the river where the dark clouds never lingered and the sunlight spread like honey through my sister's tiny hands]

ayaak qusanuungoq gariniiš aant'ap'alaq ngiipassii lalatlii iaan' tangqayasii tatšuušisa a'yut'oq p'asap'aangqiutša [but while picking sour blue berries in the waving grasses sister stumbled in the briar and was bitten by a snake]

amaaškeq tšurik taatšaleeq russ isuroqasoqitš'ii a'umutšurik sašiluutiilat russ ngiilaasii lalatlii tšiitinaqa* [every creature casts a shadow under the sun's golden fingers and as the sun sinks past the waving grass some shadows are dragged along]

at'ara puuvašiika asaipuunniit qusantšunni mbalutlip'ia astapaalasii ngiitšuuša yut'oq šaaqantatlaišiioq [so along I took to drinking bottles of cheap alcohol and I staggered through the woods along the river killing snakes with a sharp stick]

ayaak isiteetlii ngii'tuurhatšaap ngiilapaasii lalatlii iaant'anišitšil ngii'ipušatavit assik panitš'aasii anaš [but still I hear her laughing in the waving grasses sister's tiny hands go splashing at the river's sparkling shore]

ingugupap'aingoq kitš'iika a'taalaliiniinngoq a'palaasii yutavaišaap šašatlug assik araiyurhašaap [I took my jug of oil and an old shovel I set the woods to blazing choked the river with many stones]

amaaškeq tšurik taatšaleeq russ isuroqasoqitš'ii a'umutšurik sašiluutiilat russ ngiilaasii lalatlii tšiitinaqa [every creature casts a shadow under the sun's golden fingers and as the sun sinks past the waving grass some shadows are dragged along]

[yuk-tepat]

I’ve helped out with ~4 book projects with people who had already made place / character names before contacting me. None of them were clueless and they were OK with me adjusting stuff. I would try to reverse-engineer phonology and some morphology from names they gave me, that would fit as many names as I could, filling it out according to the “vibes” they wanted from it. In every case, I ended up changing some names because they simply did not fit into the system overall. Usually not huge changes, but yeah some main characters need makeovers. Of course, none of this stuff was published yet. I can’t imagine the headache from trying to shoehorn words from a book that was already in print already.

On my own sometimes I try to generate text from a word generator according to rules for my conlangs, but it’s much more back-and-forth - it spits out long words, I cut them up into pieces and assign meanings to them, then re-tack them onto other roots to create a new text, rather than simply analyze the original text.

Do you ever start with example sentences and work backwards to figure out the grammar? Like start with a pseudo conlang just to look at? Can you recommend any linguistic nonfiction for a hobbyist? I read the art of language invention and the language construction kit but I want something that has more focus on linguistic anthropology.

Thanks in advance

I’ve personally never tried that method. A few professional conlangers have had to work with significant amounts of canon gibberish made by a writer beforehand. And I have seen experiments where one person invents gibberish and the other acts as a field worker trying to analyze it.

The issue with working that way is it’s much harder to make a consistent system. Language is a complex system with a lot of parts. Trying to construct that system to fit something pre-existing means finding some kind of consistency within essentially random noise. Building from the ground up is easier, since you can make things consistent from the start.

On the linguistic anthropology angle, I have a couple of recommendations that might interest you:

The Last Lingua Franca by Nicholas Ostler is a fantastic book about different lingua francas throughout history. It really helps understand the different social dynamics that can lead to one language becoming dominant.

Language Death by David Crystal is all about the social power dynamics that cause languages to die (or that kill them, because there can very much be intent from dominant cultures to kill off minority languages).

Those won’t necessarily help you in the construction process, but they can help you understand the social dynamics of your language’s role in your world. Plus, it’s just valuable to understand this to live in society, especially if you’re a native English speaker like me and shielded by Anglphone privilege from seeing these things.

I’m sure the community can come up with plenty of other books for you to look into.

#conlangs #meta

[yuk-tepat]

Lexember 2023 Master Post

Lyak - Pay, Tûn - Swûl, Nôt - Tsaltep, Kyeng, Ngyûp - Ngôw, Lum, Lûn, Kôn - Klup - Lôy - Luke - Han - Neng, Mûl, Nôk, Lit - Swûq, Hyat - Xûl - Swim - Tsapay - Win, Wip - Kyuk, Mey, Ngan, Lin - Thung, Xhûp

(All posts tagged Lexember)

#lexember #conlang #yuktepat #tepatic glyphs #logograph #writing system #conworld #conculture #worldbuilding

[yuk-tepat]

New blog

My other blog is @yuk-tepat where I post my conlangs. I started that blog with the purpose of simply posting material from my conlangs - specifically Yuk Tepat. I always wanted to keep it ‘on topic.’ But there are lots of people doing great work that I feel obligated to reblog, because in Tumblr things don’t really work unless you reblog it. The side blog lets me post more stuff without feeling like it dilutes my Yuk Tepat blog.

[yuk-tepat]

wake up babe new IE language dropped

Yoooooo????

#not mine #hittite #history

[yuk-tepat]

And farewell to Lexember

https://yuk-tepat.tumblr.com/post/737763887830777856/the-tepatic-anti-claus

#happy new year #conlang #conculture #tepatic glyphs #conworld #lexember