Notes de Voyage

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...

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".

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 during the Meiji era, 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.
• Graphical Etymology of sinograms, a selection of few graphical etymologies.

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

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!

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

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).

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.

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!

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 :

It's time to get this out of my to-do list: a constructed language that came to my mind in September last year!

(Click on the picture to see the introduction PDF.)

The challenge is to develop a language in the frame of the samples already present in the games of The Legend of Zelda. The universe of the games contains a lot of names (characters, places, items, events, etc.) which serve as basis for the vocabulary of Hylian here. It would therefore be relatively easy to learn for a fan, already familiar with the world of Zelda.

Here is the ad-hoc alphabet:

(Click on the picture to get the TTF font.)
"C" is pronounced like "Sh".

In short, words are based on Roots, formed of 3 consonants. These Roots can be derived with vowels. For example:
Zelda => ZLD, which can give :

• Zolud: wisdom,
• Zoldi: wise,
• Zalod: sage,
• Zilud: temple,
• Ezoulud: to get wiser,
• etc.

Here is another set of examples:

And here is an example of text:

Fans can discuss it on the Zelda Universe forum. For the language specialist forum, it's here: Hylien sur l'Atelier.

Some of you might remember a similar project, my first constructed language:
Laramin

22 jan 2015 Shanghai

Je réagissais à un panneau chinois indiquant un passage adapté aux handicapés : 无障碍 C'est une définition par négation signifiant "sans contraintes", impliquant que les handicapés perçoivent davantage d’élément d'environnement comme des obstacles.

Suite à cette observation m'est venu cette pensée: Le monde descriptif semble pouvoir se séparer en deux catégories: les définitions par présence et par absence.

Celle par présence perçoit l'existant, comme un don.
Celle par défaut note le manquant, comme un du.

Celle par présence considère chaque chose comme disponible, reçue, et envisage COMMENT les combiner. C'est l'approche pragmatique/pratique.
Celle par défaut requiert une anticipation de ce qui devrait être, forgée par l’expérience, et cherche naturellement le POURQUOI du manque inattendu, causalité ou responsabilité. C'est une approche plus scientifique et juridique.

More than 15 years ago, I came across a book called "Dictionary of Roots from Proto Indo-European (PIE) Languages". Back then I had been slightly into Greek roots, but not so much into languages as a whole. I much preferred spending time on exotic alphabets, which I believed where more harmonious and easier encompass. Languages, on the contrary, looked like immense and chaotic jungles, calling for a never ending journey... rather discouraging!

In 2006, I've met Esperanto, which became familiar to me within few days (as it would for anyone, that's the beauty of it!). Esperanto has totally changed my perception of grammar and lexicon, in a word, my perception of languages. It exemplified both a methodical construction and a harmonious simplicity. From then, languages have become a fascinating topic: Chinese, Malay, Persian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Japanese, Spanish...

Last year I've suddenly rediscovered this dictionary and how it can wonderfully link words with unexpected connections. Here is a summary of the main PIE roots... I'm slowly preparing it and will update progressively. It's now filled until letter E!

Indo-European Roots

Some remarkable examples of kinship in English:

• Art, harmony, arithmetic, article, arm
• Fate, fable, infant, fame, symphony, profession
• Physics, future, proof, be, build
• Day, joy, divine, journal, Jupiter, Zeus
• Educate, duct, duke, tie, team,
• Police, dictate, index, digit, condition, avenge, attach, teach, take, toe
• Fact, theme, thesis, difficult, factor, artificial, fashion, effect, profit, defect, facility, do, deed

In the provided DOCX document, examples are taken from these languages: Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, English, German

This Wikipedia article provides a broader spectrum of languages, covering each slice of the big PIE...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary

Un poème sur un thème linguistique inspiré par le Laramin: une voûte comparable à celle du Panthéon sur laquelle sont disposés les 100 symboles idéographiques, espace de la pensée, sanctuaire de l'esprit. Le locuteur se tient au centre de la salle pour parler à ce ciel, dont les étoiles scintillent au rythme de la composition du discours. Par la suite, la voûte s'est assimilé au firmament de la création, retenant les eaux d'en haut, au dessus duquel j'avais imaginé un palais, accessible par un tunnel vertical formant un orifice dans le centre du dôme céleste.

Je compte aussi le mettre en musique, et y ajouter un dessin pour former un autre triptyque !

J'ai reçu ce matin un mail de mon ami iranien Reza. Comme il y avait un peu de texte en persan, je me suis essayé à le déchiffrer. Cela m'a rappelé un table résumé que j'avais fait il y a quelques années, organisant phonétiquement les lettres du script arabe, ainsi que les lettres ajoutées dans les script farsi (Persan d'Iran, ou Urdu du Pakistan) et jawi (Bahasa de Malaysie).
A toutes fins utiles, le voici !

En couleurs sont marqués les groupes se ressemblant visuelement.
Les lettres latines en rose indiquent les caractères introduits par le script jawi: Ny, Ng, V.
Les lettres latines en marron indiquent les caractères introduits par le script farsi: P, Z, J, Ch.