#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.
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!
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.