Ancient languages

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idolcrash
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Ancient languages

Post by idolcrash »

I'm thinking it would be a good idea to try and set up a structured system for Mythos grammar and language, such as that spoken by the Deep Ones. Since we (AFAIK) only have a few words and phrases, I'm assuming we can create a language of sorts to centralize further writings and allow a new level of immersion.

Here are a few ideas I'm using now:
ga=to
-'ifwri = suffix attached to words to make them in the 'we' form (such as mord'ifwri, meaning together, from mord meaning alone). Pron. mored if ree.
Fhtagn (obviously) = wake
the? = using articles tends to bulk up a language, so I've decided not to worry about them and plurals (I'm getting quite a but of influence from Japanese, which I'm a student of).
Questions will be formed as in English, with a pitch change.
Isu = Earth
Songoma = the universe(s), the cosmos
Word order same or similar to English, Subject-Verb-Object.

This is for the language of the deep ones. Please help and add vocabulary and grammar rules.
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Adrian
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Post by Adrian »

Whats the point? It was not even a language, it was random mumbo-jumbo mostly. If they would have spoke in Ouranian, then maybe there would be a point, but the 'language' of the Deep Ones was just author's random words that he writed down as they were singing their anthem while coughing and probably what they heard was the 'language'.
Anyway.
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Post by MikeFS »

But you see, Adrian, with a language made up for the Deep Ones (and other), someone writing a story about them can include them speaking in this language, and it would actually have coherency in it. Plus, you can annoy people on other forums by posting with your friends using the language (our teacher did this with her friends using Dark Elvish from AD&D).

Besides, it could be fun! :P
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Post by idolcrash »

That's the point, to make sense of it and have a little continuity between authors and stories, and to make it where authors can have a small reference.
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Post by Aleister »

But are we sure there was ever continuity in the languages in the original works to begin with?
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Adrian
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Post by Adrian »

If you feel the need to annoy people on forums speak in a random language that others dont know and anywhoo youre making a mistake thinking that the Deep Ones have speech patters of humans. They dont even think like us, they sure dont have any coherency in their speech.
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Post by MikeFS »

Kyorl'zil usstan xuat yaith ptau'al dosst waele telanth. There, now don't you feel annoyed? :D

Getting back on topic, if you're still interested in a bit of help, idolcrash, I've got an idea for the 's form (ex. the dog's bone. Damned if I know what that form's called). How 'bout instead of a suffix, it'd be a really guttural prefix added to the subject (or to the object, if we want to make the language really alien). Something like gwhal'-. Just my two cents.
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Post by Aleister »

The possessive form I believe.
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Post by SplatteredAndScattered »

How does "Fhtagn" translate into "wake?" "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." There's no "wake" in there. If anything, wouldn't it mean "wait" or "dream?"
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Post by Aleister »

I think "Cthulhu Fhtagn" would translate loosely into "Cthulhu the dreamer" or "Dreaming Cthulhu".

Even if it was a real language, like most real languages, you cannot always simply compare words in that manner anyway. Since they could represent concepts rather than just simple nouns, verbs, etc..

They could very well have alltogether different meanings when one looks at the words around them..
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idolcrash
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Post by idolcrash »

SplatteredAndScattered wrote:How does "Fhtagn" translate into "wake?" "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." There's no "wake" in there. If anything, wouldn't it mean "wait" or "dream?"
Looks like a stupid mistake on my part (tyopgraphical or what, I don't know), you'll find a bit of those ;)
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Post by nyarsetna »

I don't think you can call your creation a language until you have Shakespeare translated into it. That MADE the Klingon language :-D
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Post by JJ Burke »

everyone knows that klingons are just eskimos with pituitary disorders. i heard about half of all klingon phrases translate to 'give me that seal blubber sandwich.' i think shatner said it.
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Post by nyarsetna »

Shatner couldn't bear to have a scene start without the camera pointed at him, even if he wasn't speaking the first line. I wouldn't put much faith in a guy that went from being the biggest thing in Star Trek to advertising breakfast cereal. Especially as he wasn't invited to a certain civil ceremony because he was such an ass.
Besides, everyone wants a pet Klingon. Even if every second sentence IS "Give me that seal blubber sandwich".
On another note, I always thought the Klingons with their guttural pronunciation would be able to pronounce Cthulhu the way it should be.
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Post by JJ Burke »

true enough, i suppose
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