Friday, November 09, 2012

Howlina - Day 9 - Language

"Write down some generic preferences for your languages...then go listen to what those things sound like. Write down the syllables you hear ... Those sounds will be your "root" syllables when making up your names for places and people and things.


Bonus Exercise:

If you want language to play a strong role in setting the mood of your story, ... sort out some of your names for your people, places, and things. Note that, in doing this, you will likely get a firmer grip on your character's background, as well as need to pull out your map to now fill in the names of some of your key landmarks and settlements. This will probably take an addition 15-30 minutes more."

Houla'nya''ta, is the name of the language and is an example of the spelling conventions.

The  language is similar to Ancient Greek.  Very tonal and musical.  Uses syllabary, and CV pattern on all syllables.  Accents indicate the tonal relationship of a syllable to the others in the word (' half tone up, '' two half tones up, ''' three half tones up).  Commas indicate half tones down (, one half tone ,, two half tones ,,, three half tones).  

There are no genders.  To indicate a gender you say what gender that person or thing is (male or female, for instance dog is skee'low, a female dog is fau,tee' skeelow, a male dog is mou,to, skee'low,).  Things that are neither male nor female obviously don't get any kind of gender.


There are no suffixes, and very few prefixes.  The word being modified follows its modifier.

The name of the island is Houla'nya''.  The people are called Hou''po (in English they prefer Howlers).

Names of the cities:
Pro''topo,lee (capital)
Cheeka'gopo,lee
Kau"rorapo,lee
Roko'fo,po,lee
Jolee"po,lee

The eastern mountain range:
Di'ka"bou'na 

The western mountain range:
Rista"ra"bou'na 

The Great Desert:
Ree'mo,ko,, 

The big bay that Pro"topo,lee sits on:
Me'galo,kopo 

Man:
Dre

Woman:
Neka' 

Water:
Ne'ro,

Land:
Gee

Yes:
Ne

No:
Hho

Please:
Pa''ra'ka'lo''

Thank you:
Fa,re,sto,, 

Their religion:
Kree"tana"

Their sacred book:
Veebee"lo

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