The Fan Language of Splatoon

[Adam.the.Squidder]

Here I couldn't wait any longer (5 mins) The picture is here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz8YZ46j_lxZV3ZiZVhtbDh6NUU/view?usp=docslist_api

 

[PiyozR]

Thanks a ton for that image of the Splatfest shirts, Adam! That was instrumental in the new vocabulary list that I attached. Joseph, I also took your new vocabulary and added them to this list in addition to new words for "roller coaster", "water slide" and all the components involved. It may not be much, but it's helping us get a hand on how word structure works in Inkling. Plus it's more fodder for YouTube lessons.

Considering the lack of font at this point, this was still hand drawn by me in the same cruddy way as usual.

 

[MissingNumbers]

That makes me wonder if anything could be made out of the writing on Tower Control's pillar... which I only now realized has writing on it.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

Well, from what we have it can possibly be read as /dureo mawai/, with the /mawai/ being a sort of square abbreviation like what exists in Japanese through Unicode. At any rate that's what SquidForce's internal name would be.

 

[EclipseMT]

EU Splatfest title adjectives (most of these are invented, but some are based on already-established words):
Normal: oyo
Full-On: gigai
Super: zetsa
Charismatic: kashijepai (contratction of kashino "beautiful" and jepaiiyo "skilled")
Eternal: joputsuko (lit. "cannot [be] killed")

Like how the word for super is close to "zettai," (絶対) the Japanese word for "absolute(ly)".
Honestly, the word for "to defend/protect" could be "mamo," but that's just me.

Well, from what we have it can possibly be read as /dureo mawai/, with the /mawai/ being a sort of square abbreviation like what exists in Japanese through Unicode. At any rate that's what SquidForce's internal name would be.

If you are talking about 回り (read "mawari"), that's a word meaning "rotation."
As for pronounciation, this language and Japanese share phonology for the most part.

 

[EclipseMT]

However, in all seriousness, I believe one field that I'm sure would consist mostly, if not entirely, of Japanese loanwords is rail transport, considering that the Inklings' rail transport is similar to Japan's IRL, and can be considered to be what little remains of Japan's rail transport.

The problem is how we can get tons of phrases to fit in. For sure, a form of "densha" (/dɛnʃɑ/) can be used for "train," and the words for "up" and "down," "nobori" (/nɔbɔɽi/) and "kudari" (/kɯdɑɽi/) can be used for inbound and outbound trains, respectively.

For those wondering, "densha" is 「電車」, "nobori" is 「上り」, and "kudari" is 「下り」 in written Japanese.

But then, there are how announcements would fit in, specifically the words in these announcements. Inevitably the Inklings would have heard them in the raw Japanese at the early stages of civilization, but these would have been phased out by their language in the later stages. Some words might as well have been retained as so-called "railroad slang" and the like. Also, there is a standard series of announcements, but as you get farther out of town, one would hear variations of that standard series (but not in regional dialect).

I might provide some examples of such announcements in a future post so you guys can fit it all in.

Also, if they don't fit with script regulations, it may be a case of using the other glyphs we do not know about.

The IPA was me doing the nearest approximate - I did not pick up the standard vowels to use when transcribing into IPA. I only know that this and Japanese share phonology to some degree.

--------------------------

EDIT: Train types can be loanworded from Japanese too.

"Local" trains (A train that stops at all stops): "Futsuu densha" or "kakueki teisha" (/fɯtsɯ:dɛnʃɑ/, /kɑkɯɛkitɛiʃɑ/) (abbr. "kakutei" 「各停」 /kɑkɯtɛi/) (In real Japanese, these are 「普通電車」 and 「各駅停車」, respectively, meaning literally "Regular train" and "stops at all stations")

"Rapid" trains (skip some stops): "kaisoku (densha)" /kɑisɔkɯ/ (/dɛnʃɑ/) (Japanese 快速, lit. "high speed")

"Special Rapid" trains (yet more stops are skipped): "tokkai (densha)" /tɔk:ɑi/ (In real Japanese, this is a contraction of "tokubetsu kaisoku" (「特別快速」, lit. "special high speed"), and is written 特快. Lit. "special high")

I don't want to be the one who dominates this thread, so...........

 

[doop]

this is probably harder than french

 

[EclipseMT]

this is probably harder than french

Constructing a language is much harder than learning it.

 

[PiyozR]

Constructing a language is much harder than learning it.

Then again, French verb conjugation. Anyone who says they understand what the conjunctive is and when it's used is a liar.

Attached is a folder of every letter in the Inkling syllabary as PNG's. These were taken from the PDf made by @Joseph Staleknight with all the Inkling letters as vector art from the old thread. I am going to start using these in Word to type out an all-inclusive educational PDF with all of our conlang's content. It will be updated every once in a while as we create more words and things.

@EclipseMT I like your reasoning for using those loan words from Japanese in Inkling. I could imagine such specific words about transportation finding their way into Inkling. I'm just not sure how useful transportation vocab is at this point. You're welcome to take the vocab we have so far and build your own words for trains and such. I can add them to my PDF.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

Nice! These came out pretty well. I'm especially liking the sample word /oei/ as rendered in the syllabary; it's a neat example of how to put the letters together.

 

[EclipseMT]

@EclipseMT I like your reasoning for using those loan words from Japanese in Inkling. I could imagine such specific words about transportation finding their way into Inkling. I'm just not sure how useful transportation vocab is at this point. You're welcome to take the vocab we have so far and build your own words for trains and such. I can add them to my PDF.

Then again, we might need to modify them so that they can be written in script. Also, were the IPA vowels I used the right ones?

Also, does the language distinguish between vowel length and consonant length, and if so, how?

 

[PiyozR]

Then again, we might need to modify them so that they can be written in script. Also, were the IPA vowels I used the right ones?

I'm not sure. I don't know Japanese.

Also, does the language distinguish between vowel length and consonant length, and if so, how?

No, but I had some sort of idea.

Here is what I was thinking. Let's that the word /ki ise/ "to come" and the phoneme /ki se/, the word for the English name "Christian". In /ki ise/, those two phones would blend together into one vowel sound, making it spoken like "kee-say". But "Christian" is also pronounced "kee-say". One way to help distinguish the difference here would be vowel length, using those IPA little triangle things. Another (my preference) would simply be emphasis. "To come" would be pronounced "KEE-say", with the emphasis on the combination vowel sounds in the first syllable. In "Christian", you would say it "kee-SAY", with the emphasis on the end. Doe that make sense? Putting the stress on the assimilated vowels is something I've naturally been doing when I speak these words out loud. I may make this a formal rule about Inkling phonetics unless anyone else has some input.

 

[EclipseMT]

Considering Japanese does place stress emphasis and emphasis on vowel and consonant length, certain words that were loaned might need to be modified. I already see how @PiyozR would handle vowel length, but I haven't picked up what he said in terms of consonant length distinction (i.e. gemination).

I have already noticed that "zetsa" (super, /zɛt͡sɑ/), the Inkling false cognate of the Japanese word "zettai" (絶対, meaning absolute) /zɛt:ɑi/, uses /t͡sɑ/ instead of /t:ɑ/ - more or less a form of mutation. However, I cannot do a similar thing with "tokkai" /tɔk:ɑi/ (Japanese word for "Special Rapid," a train type - a proposed loanword) and mutate it into some other sound without making it sound funny and distinctively different than the source word.

Good examples of geminate consonants in Japanese are the words "kita" /kitɑ/ and "kitta." /kit:ɑ/ One is the past tense form of "to come" (Depending on character, it also means "north," but that's a different matter) and the other is the past tense form of "to cut." In written Japanese, gemination is represented by this character, 「っ」 or 「ッ」 (a small version of the language's "tsu" characters, 「つ」 and 「ツ」, in hiragana and katakana), before the geminated consonant (e.g. "kitta/cut" would be written 切った). The version used is dependent on the situation, but it is not used for words written entirely in kanji, like how "tokkai" is written in Japanese: 「特快」.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemination

This article on Wikipedia explains what gemination is and how it is utilized by different languages.

I edited this post several times to clarify things before anyone saw it.

Oh, and when I mentioned IPA, I was talking about Inkling rendered in IPA. I was using the closest approximates of the Japanese sounds.

 

[PiyozR]

Ah! Gemination. It's been a while since I studied that one. Right now, for this project, I'm leaning away from adding anything like gemination to our Inkling conlang. It's just that I don't want to make this language just for linguistics nerds like us. Seeing a lot of weird-looking notation described with bizarre words like "affricate", "alveolar", "morpheme", or "diacritic" might scare away people who might not have studied this stuff or don't know more than one language. I want to make our conlang as accessible as possible to all Splatoon fans. All they should really have to know is basic IPA and basic grammar terms, both of which they could find in seconds online. I don't want Splatoon fans to have to work to understand our language. An all-inclusive PDF (under way as we speak) and some cool YouTube videos (specifics pending) should make this something that any Splatoon fan can learn and enjoy and be creative with.

EDIT: "Super" or /zɛt͡sɑ/ we have written as /zet͡sɑ/ with a close-mid front unrounded vowel instead of an open one. Again, I'd rather casual browsers didn't have to sift through Wikipedia's IPA charts just to be able to pronounce our Inkling.

 

[EclipseMT]

Very well - like we did earlier I can find a way to fake it. I'll come on with the list at my next writing (I have the phonetic chart).

On a side note, what about terms for color?

EDIT: The list will just cover transportation-related loanwords (to be specific, railroad terms). I'm posting it tomorrow once I figure out what the alternative for /tok:ɑi/ is. (edit: I actually posted it today and made that decision).

I also changed vowels with...simpler characters.

For now:

* Train: /denʃɑ/
* Inbound train (trains that head towards city center): /nobori/ (/denʃɑ/)
* Outbound train: /kudɑri/ (/denʃɑ/)
* Station: /eki/
* "Local" train: /kɑkuekiteiʃɑ/ (abbr. /kɑkutei/)
* "Rapid" train: /kɑisoku/ (/denʃɑ/)
* "Special Rapid:" /tokɑi/ (/denʃɑ/)

This list covers loanwords only (which are all nouns and adjectives).

The words for "to arrive," "to depart," etc. (pretty much verbs) should most definitely be constructed. My best option is to use the /pɑi/ character (vehicle/vessel on, in, or through which an action occurs) and put the verb for "to come" and "to go," respectively.

 

[BaristaoftheCafe]

If you guys are still looking for points of reference for original words, these might come in use:

Very interested in this project, can't wait to see what comes next :D

 

[PiyozR]

I have finished my Inkling Language Guide!

Attached is the official totally unofficial language of the Inklings! All our vocab so far, all the grammar points, and the complete syllabary now available on any device that can run a PDF! Note that I added another letter and changed some of the specific words on our lists (mostly to correct little mistakes). Everyone check it out and let me know what you think!

@RadioactiveMoth ,if you want to include this in the OP, go right ahead.

EDIT: Keep in mind that I may edit this PDF as changes come up. I will post when I make any modifications.

Inkling Language Guide modified 2/26/2016

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

Oh, this is very nice! I'm especially liking the cleanliness of the PDF. If you want, though, I can add bookmarks to the thing to make it easier to navigate.

Also, I should probably make vectors of those numbers for convenience's sake.

 

[PiyozR]

Oh, this is very nice! I'm especially liking the cleanliness of the PDF. If you want, though, I can add bookmarks to the thing to make it easier to navigate.

Also, I should probably make vectors of those numbers for convenience's sake.

It's short enough to not need a table of contents, but long enough to use bookmarks. And yes, numbers roughly similar to the ones I drew up would be an excellent addition. So yes to both.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

It's short enough to not need a table of contents, but long enough to use bookmarks. And yes, numbers roughly similar to the ones I drew up would be an excellent addition. So yes to both.

All right then!

For some reason file upload isn't working properly, so have a Dropbox link here. Nevermind, it works now.