Lessons in Okrand's Atlantean

Discussions about the Atlantean language and culture can go here. Think of it as a one-stop reference guide for fanfics.
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Keran_Shadlag
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YOO-teh-pohs SHAHD-luhg TEH-nit-leh-toat

#16 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:24 pm

YOO-teh-pohs SHAHD-luhg TEH-nit-leh-toat
Lesson 5 Continued

The Distributive Suffix

This one comes up once in the movie, too. Distributive numerals “distributes” or “deals out” how many of a thing should go to each person, box, whatever. As TAH-neb-mil KEE-duh, TAH-neb KAH-sheh-kihm, and TAH-neb “MAH-tihm” take cover, the peace-keepers of the city give the following directions:

Script Sequence 1.5: Atlantis Destroyed :o
Atlantean Cop #1: WEH-shek-mohl! dihn-NOAKH! (Don't panic! One at a time!)
-NOAKH is the suffix and it translates to, “One at a time!” here and possibly, “One a piece” elsewhere as in, “Give each child one piece of candy each.” In Atlantean, it’d be, “LOOD-mil-tem MAHN-nuh-luhg TOOR-tem dihn-NOAKH behr-NOAT.”
“Person-little(child) / mouth-shell(candy)/ one-a-piece/ give.”

So just add –NOAKH. Note that the emphasis will always be on the –NOAKH.
kwahm-NOAKH 0 a person, nobody gets any
dihn-NOAKH 1 a piece/ per person
doot-NOAKH 2 a piece
say-NOAKH 3 a piece
kut-NOAKH 4 a piece
shah-NOAKH 5 a piece
luk-NOAKH 6 a piece
tohs-NOAKH 7 a piece
yah-NOAKH 8 a piece
niht-NOAKH 9 a piece
eh-khep-NOAKH 10 a piece

And so, just for fun:

lu-dehm-NOAKH 5.5 a piece; 5.5 at a time
You could probably also make it easier and say, luk-dehm-NOAKH, if you prefer.

Okay, using the English-Atlantean Dictionary and what you know about word order, translate these sentences into Atlantean:

Kida gives five bats a piece to her Atlantean tigers.

The lava whales get here nine at a time.

Make up some of your own sentences. Bonus points for using vocabulary from the above lessons! KWEE-yim!

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#17 Post by Blueoriontiger » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:42 am

Ah, fun so far. I'm now trying to read everything in detail and try it out, but finals just around the corner is casting a very threating shadow over that thought. But keep at it, I look forward to it!
Yayap: Hey look!! My Alpha-Bits are spelling a secret message!! Its says, "Ooooooo!!!"

Janeil: Yayap, that's Cheerios.

-Excerpt from a Halo Crossover

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#18 Post by Pharoah » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:24 am

i will have to re-read some of the past posts, i have been busy with getting over an illness, removing my own foot-stitches and kittens. so i have been rather busy with things here, let me re-read some of that.

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#19 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:55 pm

Yeah, that's cool, guys. I'm really busy too now with finals until about the 7th of May.

The week of the 7th I should put up some more stuff and be available for chats in Atlantean or whatever.

But the week of the 14th is going to put me on an archaeological dig (a treat for the amateur archaeolinguist!) that'll last 'til about the 24th of June. Who knows if I'll be able to post between the 14th and the 24th!

Keep at it, though. It's rewarding and and a lot easier than most other languages (except Pig Latin).

DEEG-tem AHD-luhn-tih-suhg KWEE-yih-muss-ess gihm kwahm LEH-weh-guss-ess ES-leh-toat!

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#20 Post by Kidagakash85 » Wed Apr 25, 2007 4:34 pm

Keran_Shadlag wrote:But the week of the 14th is going to put me on an archaeological dig (a treat for the amateur archaeolinguist!) that'll last 'til about the 24th of June. Who knows if I'll be able to post between the 14th and the 24th!
Cool! Where are you going? My school does a lot of field schools, but I can never afford them. :cry: I really wanted to go on one this summer to Easter Island through the University of Hawaii, but it was like $8000! I was SOOOO sad!

Have fun on your dig!

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#21 Post by Pharoah » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:46 am

sorry i have not been on like i should, i have had kittens to take care of, bills to help pay, business to handle and debts to collect ($$$$ for me) anyway i should be on more often (provided the people at Duke Energy don't shut our power off again) long story of unpaid bills and ignorance, it seems when my dad went to make a payment VIA creditcard the auto voice says CLEARLY "enter the 5 didgit number of the billing address for THIS credit card, (he lives at his bros house) and that is the billing addy, so he entered THIS house's Zip, and kinda got the info wrong and thus, the payment could not be recieved and our power was cut off for awhile... other then that ignorance... all is well here.

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More lessons after Monday August 6th

#22 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:44 pm

SOO-puhk, TEH-wuhn-toap!

For sure I'll have free time to give more lessons come August 6th. I'm going to get paid to stay an extra four weeks after field school and (presumably) re-bag artifacts and the like. So it'll be a bit longer.

For Kidagakash: I'm in Cold Spring, New York for the dig. In fact, for housing, the crew is in Beacon, New York, which is only a couple towns over from Fishkill, New York, where "The Journal of Milo Thatch" says that he was born. Maybe I should take a trip over there (and petition City Hall for a memorial!).

We're doing the style of digging called "industrial archaeology". We do use shovels and picks at times for multiple feet. That's exciting. We also do the sterotypical methodical soil-peeling as well, but it's not so bad. Still, I'd rather be a linguist than an archaeologist. Digging and material culture without writing is just sort of boring and slow. Show me a Mayan stela and I'll glady pop out some history.

Anyway, news from me: The dig's kept me busy and really tired. I haven't done much with anything outside it. However, I finally felt comfortable about it and invested in the "Atlantis the Lost Empire" media which I think relevant to the language codification:
Collector's DVD
Subterranean Tours*
Welcome to My World
Journal of Milo Thatch*
Illustrated Script
Complete Guide*
So now I'll no longer be bound to second-hand Internet sources. I'll own the entirity of canon, save Disney Adventures May 2001. The ones with asterixes I've already got. ST has a lot more new-to-me words than I thought it would. Now I can put them all online so that others don't have to buy the books to contribute to the effort. I might even make a site.

I also plan for the August 6-Aug 28(?) before-school interum to make a final draft of my book, Atlantean Grammar. Maybe I'll make a site, too. I've also got to look up schools that I might transpher to for the fall.

Finally, on a more fun note, KOAM-tih-bohs-tem GOH-nuhg
KWEE-yim-yoak! That's "Happy Atlantean Summer Harvest!" in New Atlantean. From page 12 of ST, Summer Harvest is a national holiday in Atlantis that is sometime in June of our calandar. The New Atlantean is literally "Find of-grow enjoy-y'all!" and is "GOH-nuhg" is short for "DEH-neh-teh-nuhg GOH-nuss-ess", lit. "of-trees growing", my neologism for "summer". Havest is a noun form of the verb, "to find", KOAM-tib. See how it works? I just sort of make it up as I go along.

GAH-moak!
KEH-ruhn SHAHD-luhg
Hello ! Supak ! Good-bye ! Gamok !
Success ! Badeg ! Fail ! Karok !
Please. Beket. Thanks. Pag.
I speak a little Atlantean. Ad tip. (do "little" gesture)

Photo Credits:
"Atlantis-The Lost Empire Model Sheets" The Disney Informer. Ed. Tim Montgomery, 1996-2007. 27 Feb. 2007
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#23 Post by Pharoah » Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:35 pm

i think we may be the last ppl left active on the forums.... but ya i am still reading up on your last few posts, (it's been a crappy month.)

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#24 Post by Kidagakash85 » Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:13 pm

I'm here, I'm here. I just don't think to post all that often, heheh. Sonja just left for Greece, I think, so she probably won't be around for awhile.

But anyway, Keran_Shadlag, your dig sounds really cool! I didn't realize Fishkill actually existed! Although, I guess it makes sense that it would. I hope you're enjoying yourself, even if it's hard work!

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#25 Post by Pharoah » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:03 pm

Fishkill NewYork? ya it is a real place, Google Earth it, Btw some leet news, i am able to get a whole bunch of ATLE stuff now (including some VERY rare stuff that ONLY Disney World Staff members where able to get ahold of.) Yes, i got a checking acct and my debit card. if anyone wants any rare findings holla at me and i will link ya! Looks like i will be having to update my list again.

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#26 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:14 pm

:hug:

I got off my dig a week ago last Saturday. I stopped by my parents' on the way out to my university --- and as of next Saturday, it'll be a 2 week visit! The internet's slow here and there's been much cleaning, so there hasn't been any Atlantean yet. Things will improve when I return to academia.

The last few days I've begun an earnest study of Mayan hieroglyphs (logo-syllabic, ~800 characters, VOS, Mesoamerican, AD250-AD1100, reads in paired columns, being diciphered). One of my life goals is to make more accessable beautiful, ancient languages to the general public. The current state of affairs, in particular for Mayan, has left me so frustrated that I'm going to flesh out the lessons a bit more with a few hours today.

Someday, hopefully I'll have free lessons on a horde of other exotic, archaic languages online, and in print (for a cheap price). But this is my beginning, my roots. I'm still very young and uneducated for epigraphy, linguistics, and archaeology.

:dance: Good news: I may be transphering to an in-state linguistics B.S. for the Fall! I'm now friends with Dr. Grover Hudson of Michigan State University. He's a historical linguist who knows the ancient Ethiopian liturgical language of Ge'ez. He refuses to publish a book on it! He thinks no one will buy it. I'll beat him to it.
Hello ! Supak ! Good-bye ! Gamok !
Success ! Badeg ! Fail ! Karok !
Please. Beket. Thanks. Pag.
I speak a little Atlantean. Ad tip. (do "little" gesture)

Photo Credits:
"Atlantis-The Lost Empire Model Sheets" The Disney Informer. Ed. Tim Montgomery, 1996-2007. 27 Feb. 2007
Image

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#27 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:19 pm

One additional, more sobering note:

Tim Montgomery's "The Disney Informer" is completely offline. Disney sued him or something. I think I'm going to have to be very careful in trying to get my book published. I've never published anything, but my mom tried. It seems hard. Oh well.

But I'm sure it's perfectly legal for me to teach people about it.

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YOO-teh-pohs LUK-luhg Lesson Sixth

#28 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:33 pm

7-9-2007 Monday Afternoon

YOO-teh-pohs LUK-luhg
Lesson of-Six

First, some big news: I finally found Paul Sherrill and he made me moderator of The Atlantean Language Group, the Yahoo Tech Group devoted to Atlantean’s discipherment. Paul’s about our age. He’s a linguistic prodigee who the paper trail credits with the first and greatest effort toward Atlantean discipherment. I think he’s at Yale (!) for his B.S. and he lives in Michigan. He’s on Wikipedia under “Masily Box”. He encouraged me to put every bit of real Atlantean from the published sources online on a website. I hope to do this some unknown time in the future (this summer perhaps!?).

Okay, it’s been awhile since I last wrote a lesson. So, I quickly reviewed the old lessons and I’d like to speed things up. I’m going to try to get in the most important elements of the language today, so that after this lesson, you’ll be able to say and write things in Atlantean. It sounds like a task, and it is, but Atlantean is also a very small language.

------------------Calendrics Sideshow-----------------------
There are no holidays this month. For today’s Atlantean date, however, we are (counting from the AHG MAH-kihj-teh-nuhg SOH-luss-ess (All King’s Day) nearest to the release date of Atlantis: The Lost Empire) in yuh-NUT(year) 6, KHAH-ruh-muhk(18 days) 20, AHG (day) 8, kwohd (1.2 hours) 14, SAH-ruhb (3 minutes) 16.

So in Atlantean Script it might be something like
(->)YANUT LUKLAG HARAMAK DUHEPENLAG
(<-)AG YADLAG KWOD KUHEPAG SARAB LUHEPLAG
(arrows that indicate text order.)

See how it works? Ask questions if you don’t.

----------------The Main Event---------------------------

Atlantean is a highly inflected language with a fixed word order of SOV or InstrumentalObject Subject IndirectObject DirectObject Verb. More rules:

1. Nouns before Adjectives
2. Adverbs before Verbs
3. Verbs before Modal Verbs
4. Verbs before Questions Words
5. Post-positions before their Objects or Phrases

“Inflected” means that it uses many suffixes, little word endings, to get the point across or to indicate grammatical function.
NOUNS
These suffixes fall into 5 categories for nouns, called “grammatical cases”. A “grammatical case” is an idea in human languages. It means that nouns or pronouns play certain roles in sentences. The different roles fall under different cases for each language. German, Italian, French, and Russian all may use grammatical cases because they descended from Proto-Indo-European, what Atlantean’s based off of. Any role a noun can play in a sentence falls into one of these roles, whether or not it makes sense:

1. Nominative (The noun is a subject.)
2. Objective (The noun is an object.)
3. Genitive (The noun describes another noun.)
4. Vocative (The noun is being called.)
5. Instrumental (The noun is being used.)

Here’s the suffixes for each:

For nouns:
1. (none)
2. -tem
3. -uhg
4. -toap
5. -esh

For pronouns: Pronouns only use a few cases:
1. (none)
2. –iht/-it
3. –ihn/-in

-No examples, to save time.-

Some nouns (SHAH-yoad, KOO-net, and TAH-mar) don’t take suffixes, even though they must have a grammatical case. That’s called being “indeterminative”.
The plural suffix for nouns is –en.

Suffix order is (noun)(plural suffix)(case suffix). A few nouns take multiple cases. Be familiar with them and unafraid to make mistakes. Mistakes means you’re getting it and on the way to being perfect at it. Not trying means not growing.

VERBS
The suffixes for verbs fall into 2 categories: verb tense and verb subject. So a verb’s suffixes tell you when and how an action is being done and who did it.

Here’s each tense, its suffix or suffixes or lack of a suffix, and an explaination of the tense:

imperative present singular: no suffix
imperative present plural: -yoakh
simple past tense: -pih-/-ih-/-gih-
present perfect tense: -lih-
simple present tense: -eh-
present progressive tense: -leh-
past perfect tense: -ib-
simple future tense: -goa-/-goh-/-loh-/-poh-/-toh-

In the examples in the movie and books, certain verbs get certain tense suffixe. But it really doesn’t matter which one you use.

imperative present singular and plural:
“Imperative” means that a verb expresses a command: Come here! Follow me! Close your eyes! If the command’s to one person, it’s singular. If it’s to more than one, use plural.
simple past tense:
The action occured in the past: “We stopped at the stop light.”
present perfect tense:
Perfect is a different idea. It means that an action is like a snap shot, whereas other tense are like a video sequence: it’s perfect or completed, seen at a single instant, not over a period of time. Present perfect actions occured in the past and is either a single, completed event or has on-going effects in the present. “People have studied Atlantean.”
simple present tense:
This occurs in the present or indicates something that isn’t happening in past, present, or future: “I say “Hello” to you. The train leaves every day at 7:16pm.”
present progressive tense:
This occurs in now, but there’s an emphasis that it’s going on right now (!).
I am writing in Atlantean (this very minute!).
past perfect tense:
Occurs in the past and occurs before another action or before a specific time. “Before I wrote this, I had been reading the history of the Maya Civilization and their marvelous script.”
simple future tense:
Has yet to occur but is expected: “I will finish this lesson.”

So subjunctive or anything like that has been found to exist in either English translation or Atlantean text thus far. These verb tenses are very controversial. Yet they are my best and founded on many hours of careful scrutiny. I find they can be used to express any action possible.



All pronouns are “evil twins” to a subject suffix:

KAHG means “I” and its verb subject suffix is –ik/-ihk/-ick
MOAKH “you” –en
TOOG/TOOKH/TOHK “he/she/it” –oat
GWEES “we” –kem
GEHBR/GAHBR “you-all (unfamiliar)/you-all (familiar)” –ekh
SOHB “they” –tokh

So usually the pronoun doesn’t need to be used if it’s in Nominative Case, cause the subject of the sentence is already in the verb. But if the subject is given a real name, it becomes a noun, not a pronoun, and so it contains information not in the verb.

-If this is all going too fast for you, ask questions or just stick around. I hope to explain this stuff and give examples.-

There’s also a lack of suffixes that is used for verbs that have a modal or helping verb like “can” in “I can read Atlantean.” Infinitives are verbs that can be “used for anything”, like a “boxed form”: “to love” is the infinitive form of “love”. In Atlantean, it’s just an –e. A verb without any suffixes is called a “Verb Base”.

NEW WORDS

I make new words out of old words by adding and subtracting a few other suffixes:
1. Get rid of all suffixes then:
Noun to Adjective, visa versa:
Get rid of –nos/-os if it’s there and add –uss-ess
Noun to Adverb, visa versa:
Get rid of –nos/-os if it’s there and add -in
Noun to Verb, visa versa:
Done. Now add suffixes for the verb.
Adjective to Adverb, visa versa:
Get rid of –uss-ess if it’s there, and add -in
Adjective to Verb, visa versa
Get rid of –uss-ess if it’s there.
Adverb to Verb, visa versa
Get rid of –in or –ig or –il.

So the “transformation suffixes” are:
Noun: -nohs or –ohs
Adjective: -uss-ess
Adverb: -in
Verb: (none)

Then I just compound and reuse different words to get new words.

PHONETICS AND SOUNDS
And here’s the alphabet and how Atlantean should sound:

A B G D E W H I Y K L U M N O P R S SH T
(Epigraphist Script, represents Atlantean Alphabet using Roman Alphabet.)
a b g d e w kh/h i y k l u m n o p r s sh t
(Writer’s Script, Okrand’s prefered way of writing Atlantean.)
a,ah,uh b g d e,eh w kh i,ih,ee y k l u,oo m n oa,oh p r s sh t
(Reader’s Script, used by Okrand for the actors. We use this.)
a, ah like the a in father
uh a feta cheese
b b boy
g g girl
d d doggie
eh ay way
e e pet
w w wipple
kh foreign sound. ch in Scottich “loch”, ch in German “doch”
-Sounds like “hawking a loogie” before you spit
ee ee feet
i,ih i pin
y y Mongolian Wilder Yak
k c Capt’n Crunch
l l luminous lamps
oo u Luke Duke fluke puke
u u put
m m mumbly Joe
oh, oa oa soap oh-no
p p punk
r r rip (may be rolled)
s s sister
sh sh sharp
t t tap shoes

These are based on the Atlantean text in the book and movie, as is the rest of the stuff I just wrote. If you would like the exact examples, just ask me for them by name. I kept a record of some and of others I know where to look.

That’s really pretty much it for Atlantean. With practice, examination of the texts, and the looking up of grammatical terminology, all this will be clear and easy for you. What now remains is vocabulary. I put one dictionary on this site and others on The Atlantean Language Group. I will also soon be able to e-mail you, for free, any of the dictionaries that I’ve made for Atlantean, so that you can translate or make up a word for just about anything. Owning the books will help, but is not essential. What’s essential I have written. There are many details, like how the calendar works or how syllables are stressed, but these things can be discovered later. Finally, do not overlook the all-embracing concept of Atlantean writing and culture: “WEH-shek-mohl”, “Peace”.

I will write more lessons, but they will just be commentary, explanation, and details to all of the above lessons.

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#29 Post by Pharoah » Sun Jul 15, 2007 11:50 pm

make sure when you go to publish anything that you contact disney first, beacuse most of things used for movies might be copywrited. But since it's a language, you might need a permit though Disney.

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#30 Post by Keran_Shadlag » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:53 pm

PAH-gen, ROASH-toap. Poh Teeg! DOAT-tem SAH-tib-loh-mick.
Thanks, Pharoah. Sure! I will do that.

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