zompist bboard

[quote="Rik"]1. On the culture front, I think the argument about preservation of language to preserve culture is disingenious. The British Isles are a good example: while the English language has come to dominate the landscape (often through some brutal repression), this hasn't weakened cultural div...

Quick question: why is the preservation of linguistic diversity important/necessary? More specifically: why is it important to preserve diversity within groups that are internally similar? (e.g. the regional languages of Italy, France, and Spain) The preservation of those regional languages is part...

http://www.miamihost.net/ims/u/epdvi/elkaril/zhompisht.JPG Is that how you'd write "zh?m-p?sht"? I got confused with "p?sht", because I didn't see a -t suffix, so I kinda just took the t- prefix's arrow and put it below the head rather than above to show that it's at the end of the word, but I thin...

ish-kun
hehe

This is great.

zompist wrote:Ah, her forearm is just twisted.

More interesting is the new graphic I added to the top of the Elkar?l page. It should be possible to figure out what it is...

hmm

Is it a giant?
That was a baseless guess.

I'm now looking all over the site for "green eyes."

[EDIT] Aha! Could it be an ilii?

My mental picture of Almea gets contradicted all the time! Before I really read anything about them, I thought the ilii were slender. I also first imagined elkari to be taller and broader than humans. I misunderstood the discription of ktuvoki being 'half again as tall as a man,' so I imagined them ...

Ah

I was under the impression that they were slender, as depicted in the illustration in The Descent of Les?asi.

zompist wrote:Verdurian males probably average 5' 6" (apologies to metric users); flaids average about a foot taller. (Ilii average a couple inches taller than flaids, but are much more heavyset.)

Hm, so, would that mean that ilii are tall but stout-looking at the same time?

Also, it would have been quite awkward to ask if Almea is governed by the laws of Christianity or any other Terran religion.

I'm interested in this, too. I'd be nice to hear the story of the Grey Years.

Des Moines, Detroit, St Louis and Illinois are obvious examples of French words with non-French pronunciations, but there are countless lesser-known ones, like Bois d'Arc, Missouri, pronounced "bodark", and De Blieux, Fortier, and Breazale, pronounced respectively "double-you", "foshee" and "brazil...

There's Baton Rouge (here in Louisiana), which means 'Red Stick' in a Native American language, thought it sounds oddly French to me...maybe it is French. I don't remember. But I don't guess that's a geographic term, unless it was maybe referring to red trees in the area.... "Baton Rouge" definitel...

Speaking of the map, I notice that you can decode the names of the islands with the lexicon: Bidmory simply means 'monastery'; so I suppose there is an important one on that tiny island? Of what religion? Mellboor means 'good wine'. Nammed means 'sunset''. Mellyez means 'good story'. I'm curious as ...

I doubt that, since Almean humans have only four toes on each foot.

Or Uytaian(sp?). God knows what that'll be like. I'm sure Z isn't even thinking of any of the extra-Erel?en languages now.

zompist wrote:I have a whole continent's worth of history to do first. Having a map is the first step, though!

What do you have done of the history already? Do you have any major events already planned out?

Jaaaaaa wrote:I'd vote for either Flaidish, Cuezi or the map of Arcel... I can't choose, durnit!

Arc?l is clearly the best choice! Imagine a whole new continent of Almea opened. There will be so many cultures and languages that may interest you more than Flaidish and Cuezi combined!

For what it's worth, I'm most interested in the map of Arcel. I love maps, and yours are always quite nice. I second that. Ever since I came upon Almea I've wanted to know what the other continents are like. The map of Arc?l should be the next project! And the Flaidish grammar should be right after...

zompist wrote:The 10th and last chapter is up. Whew...

Another major project finally finished! Time to start another!

Seriously, wow, it's hard to believe it's really been 11 weeks.

*ear-piercing scream*

Where's Chapter 9?? I can't survive without it!

zompist wrote:(Now I have to work out at least one surprise in the finished language!)

Holy cow! It's finished!? Will you be posting it soon?

The glottal stops are kind of awkward to pronounce, but then again I'm an English speaker. Either way, it has a very unique sound.

Are the [r]s alveolar approximants or are they trills?

Jaaaaaa wrote:Irreanism?

The philosophy/religion of the Flaids.

When you finish Flaidish you're going to have to add Irreanism to the Almean Belief Systems page!

By the way, what/who is Irrean (Irrea?)?