Tag - Language

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Tuesday, May 17 2022

Hylian language : Complete Legend Translated

Hylian becomes more real! After an extensive re-harmonisation of the script and a full development of the prefixes, I have finally translated all the legend of Zelda 5, Ocarina of Time.

Open the article to see the 7 pages!

Continue reading...

Friday, June 5 2020

Learning Patterns on Duolingo

This is a graph I made using Gephi to show the number of Duolingo users learning which language from which. Colours represent language families.


English of course stands out as a hub. Duolingo users can learn any language from English, except Catalan and Guarani (from indigenous around Paraguay) which are learned from Spanish. Asymmetric drains are seen towards French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Italian to some extent. The network rather follows geographic proximity, with the notable exception of the Arabic>Swedish stream, accounting for the great effort of migrants to integrate Swedish society.


(click on the graph for a bigger picture with explanations)
Data review on June 2021 didn't show much change.

This is an example of semi-structured graph based on a data matrix. The interesting aspect of it is that the shape of the graph emerges from its inner structure, by optimizing the proximity and arrangement of the nodes linked together. Like letting the data spontaneously express itself and grow into a particular pattern.

(Shared here on Facebook Duolingo group)

Monday, February 3 2020

Bible lexicon: Strong Concordance with whole KJV in spreasheet

Here is my worksheet about biblical lexicon, a clean compilation of various treasures i've found: Strong concordance lists for Hebrew and Greek with translation counts for KJV and NASV, along with the complete KJV with Strong numbers. All in all, this allows word counts through the use of excel functions. Enjoy!


(Click on the picture to open the XLS worksheet)

Thursday, September 26 2019

Etymology - Esperanta Vortorigino kaj Komprenebleco

Esperanto:

Mi kunhavas chi tie kelkajn datumojn pri la vortorigino de Esperanto. Mi surbazis de la laboro de Andras Rajki el jaro 2006. Li studis grupon de 4000 vortoj kaj serchis la similajn vortojn el la latina, franca, itala, germana, jidisha, nederlanda, angla, rusa, pola kaj lituana lingvoj. Tiuj lingvoj estas konsideritaj tiel "lingvoj de Zamenhofo" char estas la lingvoj kiuj Zamehof pli-malpli kapablis kaj vershajne uzis por krei la internacian lingvon.

Andreas Rajki studas per sia vortprovizo la kompreneblecon inter tiuj lingvoj. Lia samecaj kondichoj estas iom striktaj (priskribitaj chi tie) Ekzemple li jughas ke "perfekta" ne sufiche similas "perfetta", "distanco" ne sufiche al "distanza" aw "distantia", "historio" al "istoria", kaj "havi la "haben", aw "trinki" al "drink". Do oni povus rekalkuli pli grandajn porcentojn de interkomprenebleco se inkluzus tiajn prununcajn variajhojn.

En tiu bilda rezumo ni povas vidi kaj la granda plejparto de Esperanta vortorigino estas la franca kaj latina. Preskaw 80% devenas de la romanaj lingvoj. Sed plej interesa estas ke tiu vortaro tamen tre bone kompreneblas de la parolantoj el la germanaj aw slavaj lingvoj.

English:

I'm sharing here some information about Esperanto etymology. The work is based on data published by Andra Rajki in 2006. He studied a set of 4000 words for which he looked for similar words from Latin, French, Italian, German, Yidish, Dutch, English, Russian, Polish and Lithuanian. Thos languages are considered "Zamehof languages" since Zamenhof knew them and probably used them to create the International Languages.

Andras Rajki studied the mutual intelligibility between these languages. His similarity conditions are somewhat strict (details here) He decided that "perfekta" wasn't similar enought to "perfetta", "distanco" neither to "distanza" or "distantia", "historio" to "istoria", and "havi to "haben", or "trinki" to "drink". We could then recalculate larger percentages of intelligibility if we'd include those variations of pronunciation.

In the picture we can see that the vast majority of Esperanto vocabulary comes from Latin and French. Nearly 80% come from Romance languages. However it is even more interesting to see that this lexicon is still well intelligible to speakers of Germanic or Slavic languages.

Discussion ici en Français sur l'Atelier

Tuesday, September 10 2019

Hylian language : Legend verses 1 and 2

Here is a new translation, taking piecemeal the famous legend from Zelda 5 "Ocarina of Time".

This short text is full of interesting paradoxes. It puts together the ideas of beginning and what was before. The concept of origin is rendered by SMR (from Somaria, creation or start), and that of antecedence by the preposition KR, derived from KKR (from Kokiri, youth or morning roost). That antecedence is part of a cycle imitating the sun and four cardinal points: Est-South-West-North, NotYet-Already-Still-NoMore, Before-Inside-After-Outside. These two contradicting time models, the linear and the cyclical, are closely knit together like a primal bomb ready to expand.

Time is rendered by BRN (from Labrynna, the oracle of Time), with its abstract sense. The concrete one would be "moment".

Finally, "the chaos that was Hyrule" is paradoxical since Hyrule, the cosmos, basically means harmony. Hence "chaos" is constructed as "un-hyrulish". A cosmos yet very un-cosmic, a formless nothing yet to become something.

(Also posted on the ZeldaUniverse forum)

Thursday, May 16 2019

A Phrasebook of Vietnamese Walls

Here is a compilation of pictures and notes, about Vietnamese walls and inscriptions. Posters, ads, mysterious glyphs and undecipherable symbols. My notebook of Indiana Jones in Vietnam!


Click on the picture to open the pdf

Facebook post

Tuesday, December 4 2018

Old Persian Text in Miyazaki's "Laputa, the Castle in the Sky"

Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 anime "Castle in the Sky" uses old Persian cuneiform script for the design of Laputa civilization.

The Ghibli museum at Mitaka also features a cube with a text which I have transcribed and tried to analyse...

Continue reading...

Friday, September 8 2017

Compo : La Espero

Esperanto was born in the late 19th century, and traditional customs back then was to give it a flag.. and an anthem! During the 100th congress in Lille in 2015, i've noticed with a friend of mine that the music of this anthem is quite military, a coulour in serious contradiction with the peacefulness of the lyrics.

Here is an arrangement with a new melody, slightly similar to the original, but in a form of waltz:


Click on the picture to listen (to the nasty piano-flute duet of mine!)

And here is the music score.

Tuesday, June 6 2017

Hylian language update !

The introduction booklet now includes a selective dictionary, words class for animals and plants, and a comparison with ancient Hieroglyphs !

Monday, May 15 2017

Laramin is turning 10: Happy Birthday!

10 years ago at 10pm in a swimming pool of Kuala Lumpur, the idea of what would become the constructed language Laramin loomed in a mind... :)

Saturday, April 1 2017

Etymologie Indo-Européenne en Dictionnaire

Voici enfin une copie intégrale en PDF de ce dictionnaire plein de révélations, pour 10Mo seulement. Le texte est passé en reconnaissance de caractère et peut donc être recherché par mot-clef avec CTRL+F.

Grandsaignes d'Hauterive, Dictionnaire des Racines des Langues Européennes (1948)


(Cliquez sur l'image pour ouvrir le pdf)

J'avais posté dans cet article un début de résumé de ce dictionnaire.

Thursday, March 9 2017

Etymologie chinoise : Livre de Leon Wieger

Voici une copie du livre écrit en 1916 par le père jésuite Dr. Léon Wieger, qui discute de l’étymologie chinoise, essentiellement sur la base du dictionnaire antique Shuowen 说文解字, avec quelques distances critiques.

Léon Wieger, Caractères Chinois (1916)


(Cliquez sur la photo pour ouvrir le pdf)

Une lecture fascinante, qui tord le cou à quelques mythes. Par exemple 明 qui est en fait la combinaison de 囱 + 月, la lumière de la lune à travers une fenêtre, et donc pas de soleil comme on le croit à la vue de la forme moderne. Oncle Hanzi est du même avis..
Wieger propose aussi que 字, représentant un enfant dans une maison, signifie d'abord "enfanter", puis "caractère d’écriture composé", considérant les 字 comme descendants des caractères simples 文. (voir p298) C'est le sens de 说文解字 : "discuter le 文 simple, et analyser le 字 composé".

Continue reading...

Saturday, February 4 2017

Link back Vietnamese and Chinese with Neo Nom

Neo-Nom a method to transcribe Vietnamese into modern Chinese characters, in order to immediately show the equivalences between the two languages. The aim is to help people learning either language to make connections with the other. It also indirectly draws connections with Japanese and Korean.

pdf here: Introduction to Neo-Nom

Example:
Tất cả mọi người sinh ra đều được tự do và bình đẳng về nhân phẩm và quyền lợi.
调特自由平等人品权利。

Continue reading...

Sunday, January 1 2017

Around Chopstick Languages (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean)

Here is a list of articles and documents related to Chinese or Vietnamese:

  • Etymology of Chinese Characters, with proposes and illustrates 3 more sinogram generation mechanism, on the top of the 6 traditional.
  • Neo Nom 新喃 , a Japanese-inspired reconstruction of the ancient script Nôm, for learning purpose! If you know a bit of Chinese, that will gives you some keys to consolidate Vietnamese with what you know.
  • Chinese Etymology with Dr. Wieger's book (French), an in-depth etymological introduction, based on the seal script, the Shuowen and critical views of it.
  • Waseikango 和制汉语, a list of the Chinese words created by Japanese, Chinese and westerners during the XIXth century to describe new western concept. I’ve compiled the list myself from 2 sources.
  • Shuowen 说文解字 , an online XLS copy of the ancient etymological dictionary, with 11,100 entries. I’ve heavily customized it to analyze the text through excel functions and extract data systematically.
  • KoreoViet 韩越南字 , A Korean-inspired phonetic script for Vietnamese.
  • Voc Pro, a vocabulary list for professional context (technical, office) with translations in Vietnamese, Chinese, German, Spanish, and Bahasa.

Tuesday, November 29 2016

Poème : Psaume 2 sur musique de Tallis

Le psaume 2 est particulier par son intensité et sa concision en 12 versets. Plusieurs mises en musiques ont été réalisées, et c'est la mélodie de Thomas Tallis qui m'a inspiré cette traduction versifiée :

  1. Pourquoi ce bruit dans les nations? Ces peuples aux projets vains ?
  2. Pourquoi les rois ont défié l’Éternel et son Oint ?
  3. Brisons, disent-ils, leurs liens, leurs chaînes ! Du joug, soyons sauvés!
  4. Mais Dieu dans les cieux se moque bien d’eux, de leur orgueil insensé.
    .
  5. Puis il leur parle en sa colère, fureur et épouvante !
  6. C’est moi qui ai sacré mon roi, sur Sion, montagne sainte.
  7. Décret du Seigneur : Tu es mon fils, engendré en ce jour.
  8. Demande-le moi, je te donnerai les nations pour toujours.
    .
  9. Sceptre de fer, tu les bris’ras, tel le vase du potier.
  10. Maintenant, rois, devenez sages ! L’instruction recevez !
  11. Servez l'Éternel avec crainte, tremblez de joie suprême.
  12. Embrassez le Fils, craignez sa colère. Heureux qui l’aime !

Voici le chant original, en anglais :


Another choir video , and here a cello version.

(1) Why fum'th in fight the Gentiles spite, in fury raging stout?
Why tak'th in hand the people fond, vain things to bring about?
(2) The Kings arise, the Lords devise, in counsels met thereto,
against the Lord with false accord, against His Christ they go.

(3) Let us they say break down their ray of all their bonds and cords
We will renounce that they pronounce their laws as stately lords
(4) But God of might in heaven so bright Shall laugh them all to scorn
The Lord on hie shall them defy they shall be once forlorn?

(9) With iron rod as mighty God, all rebels shalt thou bruse:
And breake them all in pieces small, as sherdes the potters use
(10) Be wise therfore ye kinges the more, Receive ye wisdomes lore:
Ye judges strong of right and wrong, advise you now before

(11) The Lorde in feare your service beare, with dread to him rejoyce:
Let rages be resist not ye, him serve with joyfull voyce
(12) The sonne kisse ye lest wroth he be, lose not the way of rest:
For when his ire is set on fire, who trust in hym be blest!

 

Voici enfin la flamboyante version de Heinrich Schutz , baroque, sur les paroles de la bible Luther :
(1) Warum toben die Heiden und die Leute reden so vergeblich?
(2) Die König im Lande lehnen sich auf und die Herren ratschlagen miteinander wider den Herren und seinen Gesalbten.
(3) Lasset uns zerreißen ihre Bande und von uns werfen ihre Seile.
(4) Aber der im Himmel wohnet lachet ihr. Und der Herr spottet ihr.
(5) Er wird einest mit ihnen reden in seinem Zorn und mit seinem Grimm wird er sie erschrecken.
(6) Aber ich habe meinen König eingesetzt auf meinem heilgen Berge Zion.
(7) Ich will von einer solchen Weise predigen, dass der Herr zu mir gesagt hat: Du bist mein Sohn, heut hab ich dich gezeuget.
(8) Heische von mir, so will ich dir die Heiden zum Erbe geben und der Welt Ende zum Eigentum.
(9) Du sollst sie mit einem eisern Zepter zerschlagen, wie Töpfe sollst du sie zerschmeißen.
(10) So lasst euch nun weisen, ihr Könige und lasst euch züchtigen, ihr Richter auf Erden.
(11) Dienet dem Herren mit Furcht und freuet euch mit Zittern.
(12) Küsset den Sohn, dass er nicht zürne und ihr umkommet auf dem Wege. Denn sein Zorn wird bald anbrennen. Aber wohl allen, die auf ihn trauen.

Sunday, October 2 2016

Polyglot Adventures

This week I've got some ideas about playing cards to stimulate multi-lingual workshops! The principle is basically to tell stories using several languages..

It is played with "Story cards" showing pictograms suggesting several ideas and words, "Language cards" indicating the tongues to be used, other "Mode cards" indicating tense (past present future) or focus (work jargon, emotions, slang, formal, etc.), and "Action cards" consumed to switch languages and modes.

Several playing styles came to my mind as i was crafting the first items:

  • Circle of Interpreters: players form a circle, languages are chosen as link between each player of the loop. Each has 3 story cards in hand. One by one, they lay a story card, and tell the scenario to the player on their left according to the required idiom. The next one adds another story card to the sequence and translates the whole narrative again to his neighbor. This game is rather collaborative, but we may give penalties to incorrect interpreters! This playing style only requires each player to speak 2 languages.
  • Free for All: players sit around 3 central decks of cards showing Languages (those that all players can speak), Modes, and Story. Each player has 5 story cards and 3 action cards. A first speaker is selected randomly, and starts telling a (logical!) scenario by laying down his story cards on the story deck. At least one sentence must be made for each card. At any point of time, another player can raise one of his story cards, and will take over the speaker at the end of his sentence. Logical junctions and grammatical correction are necessary, but complains from other players must be made in the same language! If the contribution of the contender is proven incorrect, he takes back his card. Any player can use action cards to switch tongues and modes, even in the middle of a sentence! The winner is the one using up all his story cards.

Practically speaking, printed paper was fixed on beautiful poker cards with tape. Kings Queens Jacks are kept to serve as "Action cards". Jacks and Queens switch to the next language of the pile, while Kings allow to select any tongue directly.

Here are all the graphics !

Facebook post

Saturday, October 1 2016

How many languages do you speak?

Here is an embarrassing and wonderful question! Language is about sharing, listening and talking, and that implies inviting the others to speak one of these languages, but crossing the thin line between sharing and showing off is quick…

A fair answer should quantitative, giving the gradual levels of mastery. For me it would be between 3 and 8. Mwaaahaha!

Wednesday, July 27 2016

Etymology of Chinese Characters

Like other written languages, Chinese has built a system of connections between meaning, sound, and shapes. Its partly ideographic nature enables some direct links between meaning and shapes.

It has been proposed in one of the earliest Chinese dictionary (Shuowen 說文解字) that Chinese characters are created following 6 methods (LST 六書通). Here I'm proposing 3 more!

Continue reading...

Tuesday, July 12 2016

Further Improvements to Esperanto / Plibonigi Esperanton !

Esperanto, the most successful created language for international communication, has been a wonderful encounter for me! It is the easiest language I know, while still being very accurate and elegant. But above all, its simple and powerful structure gave me the passion of learning foreign languages (and also create some..)

As a living language, it is subject to evolution, under the guidance of the Akademio.

Below are few ideas. Some are reasonable evolutions <Konsentebla>, others are downright utopias <Revolucieca!>

Continue reading...

Monday, May 2 2016

Chinese Characters with 亼

亼 represents an inverted mouth, pointing downwards, while 口 is an upright mouth. The characters using it generally bear the idea of gathering and harmony.

  • 合) . . 合he2 means "conjunction, to fit, together". Here 2 mouths are meeting to talk, hence the idea of union. Characters using 合 for its meaning include: 答da2 "to reply, respond" (where 合 can mean "correspond", with the bamboo key used in 符合), 答da1 "to be in agreement", 翕xi4 "to agree", 㒆chi4 "to gather together", 洽qia4 "to blend with, be in harmony", 䆟ke4 'corresponding, appropriate", 恰qia4 "just, proper", 拾shi2 "to pick up, collect, tidy up", 拿na2 "to take, hold" ("close one's hand on something?" since 合 can mean to close by joining two corresponding parts, like windows.) The idea of closing might have generated these variations keeping both the sound and idea: 盒he2 "small box", 蛤ge2 "clam", 颌he2 "jaw".
  • 侖) . . In the character 侖lun2, the mouth 亼 reads a book 册, meaning "discussion, consideration", and nowadays "logical coherence". The variations are: 论lun4, "debate, discourse" (giving 理论 "theory" and 论文 "thesis"), and 伦lun2 "normal human relationships, coherence". They use 侖 both for its sound and meaning.
  • 龠) . . 龠yue4 is an ancient flute, with the mouth 亼, a bamboo flute body which became 冊, and 3 holes 品. The Shuowen comment underlines the multiplicity of sounds and musical harmony: "樂之竹管三孔以和眾聲也 從品侖侖理也". 龠 is also a unit of volume (50ml) worth half of 合ge3 (100ml). 龠 serves as semantic part for the idea of "blow" in 龡 chui4, the archaic form of 吹.
  • 和) . . 和 is today an homonym and nearly a synonym of 合. 和 means "and, union, peace, harmony", with an archaic writing 龢he2 = 龠yue4+禾he2. 禾 is used for the sound. Just like in 龡, 龠 was simplified into 口.
  • 龤) . . 龠 is also used to write 龤 xie2, which is homonym and nearly synonym of 谐xie2 and 协xie2, "harmony and agreement". We can note here the phonetic proximity between 和, 合, 协, 谐, and 龤, close to the middle Chinese pronunciation preserved in Vietnamese as Hiệp (合, 协, 谐, and 龤).
  • 集) . . 亼 can also be read as an archaic variant of 集 ji2, meaning "collection, to gather". In 集 we see birds 隹 gathering on a tree 木.
  • 令) . . In 令 ling4 "order, to command, to cause", the summoned order, the mouth 亼 is giving order to a kneeling man 卩from above. Here "order" bears the dual meaning of "command" and "organization".
  • 命) . . 令 has its variation 命 ming4 "life, fate, command, to assign", same as above, like a cinema director assigning roles.
  • 會) . . 會hui4, traditional form of 会, is composed of 亼, 曰 (yue1: speak), 丷, and 日. Following these components, we can trace back the logical connections of the various meanings: 聚会 to meet up, 会议 to discuss, 理会 to understand, 会 to know how, can, and future certainty. An archaic form of 会 is 㣛ta4 "to walk, to meet, to gather, to be able, to realize". 会 can also be pronounced kuai4 and mean "accounting, to balance an account", again: gathering and harmonizing!

That's it for now!
If you see some mistakes or important missing things so far, let me know. Thanks!

PS: I call (improperly for sure!) "Variations" of a character the combination of a given source character used both for its meaning and sound, together with a specification key. E.g. :
仑 => 论, 伦
合 => 盒, 蛤, 颌
令 => 命
分 => 份
In cases where the sound changes significantly, the resulting character becomes some kind of 会意字 (compound ideogram), although the construction is clearly in 2 steps (first 亼 + 口 => 合, then 合 => 答, 洽, 䆟, 恰, 拾, 拿, etc.)

References:

  • http://www.chineseetymology.org
  • Pleco Chinese dictionary app

Saturday, March 12 2016

Alfuni script: Universal, but not too much

After the 2 scripts of last September, which were adapting the principles of Alfuni to specific situations, here is the latest version balancing a wide range of sounds, with minimalist graphical variation. Some will blame a lack of contrast, but i do like the regularity and harmony it gives!

(as usual, the table links to the TTF font, for those who'd like to write with it, or tweak it further!)

One key originality of this script is to propose a logical link between consonants and vowels. This idea first came in 2008 with the Phono-Braille.

It also proposes a selection of tones and punctuation, but the table is already big..

Sample in classical Chinese:

Link to the language creation forum: Alfuni

Monday, December 14 2015

Hylian, now in the hands of Nintendo

Version 1 of the tutorial of my Hylian language was sent to the Nintendo staff in Kyoto last October. The release CC license allows utilization of the language even partially and modified, including for commercial purpose. An inside contact is following up what they're doing with it. :)

Monday, December 7 2015

Cardinal Cycle, a universal cultural framework?

Through the creation of the Hylian language, I've drawn correspondences between space (cardinal points) and time (sun, moon, seasons, life). More recently with the attempt to encompass all fields of education into 4 groups, I've been suggested a comparison with the European 4 elements. That triggered an extension of the initial "cardinal cycle" into something connecting all the Eurasian continent!

The Chinese cardinal points introduces a 5th item, central to the 4 others. This suggests similar central points, with transcendent character compared to the 4 others.

One thing at least is not universal: the link between the cardinal points and the moments of the day (through the position of the sun), which is only valid in the northern hemisphere. North-South is reversed in the southern hemisphere!

We see that Chinese culture is built between cycles of even and odd number. On one hand the Yin-Yang duality, the cycle of 4 seasons, and 4 cardinal points, often combined with the 8 combinations of the Taoist trigram. On the other hand, the cycle of the 5 agents, 5 music notes, 5 tastes, and then extended into the cycle of the 10 heavenly roots through multiplication by Yin-Yang.
However with the 5 agents, the "earth" holds a status similar to the others, not central.

For those who saw the movie "Divergent", we can also match the 5 factions following this order: Amity (farmers), Dauntless (fighters), Candor (judges), Abnegation (selfless servants), and Erudite (scientists).

Friday, November 20 2015

Éducation Totale - Mapping out Education

The recent reading of the Wikipedia article on Jedi (the Star Wars frenzy can spark meaningful thoughts!) has lead me to realize how various fields of teaching and education can complement each others. Jedi are said to be "Polymaths", a word implying the mastery of many fields of knowledge, and at the Renaissance, mastery of arts as well. Since Jedi, like most Asian monastic traditions, blend rather physical training and wisdom, I came out with the following map of education:

The 4 fields of learning (Sport, Art, Science, Wisdom) are linked to 4 components of the person (Body, Heart, Mind, Soul), and nurture them with 4 types of food or accomplishment (health, beauty, science, peace).

Further, 4 types of historical teaching are proposed, giving emphasis on pairs of fields.

  • Sport+Art : Antique education as proposed by Plato
  • Art+Science : Renaissance polymath, like Da Vinci
  • Science+Wisdom : Medieval scholastic
  • Wisdom+Sport : Asian monachism

It is to be noted that back then, the definitions of the 4 fields were not as restrictive as shown here. For instance, Asian monks haven't excluded science but have been including part of it into their wisdoms.

  • The horizontal axis is about Power: Can and Know, "Pouvoir et Savoir". By combining horizontally Sport and practical Sciences, we could also imagine another very pragmatic education model: a nation of robots with no emotions (Equilibrium) nor conscience ! (Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World)
  • The vertical axis is about Feeling: Conceive and Receive, The combination of Art and Wisdom: people alternating between nerdy passionate creation, and peaceful selfless bounty to one another.

Maybe an accomplished man has to explore and balance all these fields?

I've integrated this map into the broader cardinal cycle.

Facebook post

Tuesday, September 15 2015

Alfunepta script: Alfuni on 7 segments

Here is a version of my universal script Alfuni, simplified to fit a 7 segment digital display. This script is not strictly phonetic as it is mostly meant to offer a panel of characters to write most languages of the world. Letters can bear several phonetic values. The script can even be used with simple literal match, eg: write "Fountains" instead of the phonetic "Fawtenz", especially when Alfunepta doesn't have the required sounds.

The TTF file is available by clicking on the picture.

Here is the usual 1st article of the universal declaration of human rights, as sample text (literal match is used):

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Saturday, September 5 2015

Alfunanto script: Alfuni for Esperanto

In the wake of some discussions about new Esperanto writing systems, I had the idea of recycling my old Alfuni script for the reduced scope of Esperanto sounds.


(click on the picture to download the TTF font)

  • Plosives are tall, fricatives are deep, africatives are therefore both tall and deep.
  • Mute are straight, voiced are crooked.
  • Nasal and approximant are marked by a hook
  • Vowels are small

Letters within a word can be grouped without ambiguity, which saves space. I also introduce the consonant Dz, for the sake of symmetry.

Simplifications include the combination of vowels into the consonant table, a feature that i tend now to always keep (W and U, Y and I, clearly match. H and A match in Arabic)

Here is the 1rst article of the universal declaration of human rights:

Ĉiuj homoj estas denaske liberaj kaj egalaj laŭ digno kaj rajtoj.
Ili posedas racion kaj konsciencon, kaj devus konduti unu la alian en spirito de frateco.

Sunday, August 2 2015

100th Esperanto Congress

100th esperanto world congress in Lille, France, with over 2700 participants. Wonderful experience of friendly encounters, presentations, debates (fully in esperanto!), concerts, and dances :)
Mirinda sperto de amikemaj renkontoj, prezentadoj, diskutadoj (tute esperante!), koncertoj, kaj dancadoj !

Wednesday, July 1 2015

Hylian, a language with musical roots!

My constructed language now explores the possibility of links with the melodies of the Zelda universe, looking for known words and roots, and then extracting new roots to create new words!

Friday, June 19 2015

Around the Vietnamese Language

Here is a quick summary of several creations around Vietnamese:

  • A Korean-inspired phonetic script: KoreoViet
  • More recently, a Japanese-inspired reconstruction of the ancient script Nom, for learning purpose! If you know a bit of Chinese, that will gives you some keys to consolidate Vietnamese with what you know : Neo Nom

Laramin now goes fully ideographic !

Since 2012, a new script has been developed for Laramin, my first constructed language. More than ever it fits the project since it's purely ideographic.

Laramin has always put the emphasis on "meaning in itself" as far as such thing is possible. That is, all derivations, declensions, and conjugations are done using radicals with independent meaning. The targeted reading experience is to have a very analytical language structure (all words and grammatical aspect can be broken down to few fundamental ideas) only using direct visual symbols. (not like: "A" is a deformed ox head loosely pronounced "a", which in some contexts is an indefinite article..)

Larasem (for LARAmin SEMantic script) is made of simple visual components shared by all human civilizations: hand, foot, eye, tree, branch, cup, etc. Most Larasem combine several components to form an ideogram. This method can be compared to the Chinese 会意字 which also puts together ideographic components. More explanations can be found in the introduction PDF.

Here is a sample with the original text, translation with Latin script, phonetic script, and finally the ideographic script :

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