The Fan Language of Splatoon

[theFIZZYnator]

I've been thinking about this recently. Let's use your suggested rule and build on it. How about this:

• Two syllable words place the accent on the second syllable.
• Words longer than two syllables place the accent on the second to last syllable.
• Exceptions are {'daoyu} and {'oide}. To me, {da'oyu} and {o'ide} sound kind of rough.

I'm not big on ultimate stress and I prefer penultimate stress. Here's what I think would make Inkling flow much better:

• |Eya|, |Oye|, |Ena|, and other letters with two syllables is to be treated as one "letter-syllable", and the accent is placed on the first vowel.
• One letter-syllable words are to be pronounced with weak stress.
• One letter-syllable words with two "true" syllables are pronounced with accent on the first vowel.
• 2+ letter-syllable words have penultimate accent. e.g. |czi·wu|, |te·ena|, |ena·pa|, |tzu·ro·zhi|
• Exception: Suffixes and prefixes are not to be included in the accent's calculation. e.g. |mu·uyo-zoi|, not |mu·uyo·zoi|

 

[PiyozR]

• |Eya|, |Oye|, |Ena|, and other letters with two syllables is to be treated as one "letter-syllable", and the accent is placed on the first vowel.
• One letter-syllable words are to be pronounced with weak stress.
• One letter-syllable words with two "true" syllables are pronounced with accent on the first vowel.
• 2+ letter-syllable words have penultimate accent. e.g. |czi·wu|, |te·ena|, |ena·pa|, |tzu·ro·zhi|
• Exception: Suffixes and prefixes are not to be included in the accent's calculation. e.g. |mu·uyo-zoi|, not |mu·uyo·zoi|

For #1, I like the idea of that, but it's leading me to some difficult pronunciations. For example, "king" or "queen" is {iya e zoi}. Now, {zoi} does not receive the stress because it's a suffix. Because we're treating {iya} as one syllable, the {i} syllable will receive the accent (because it is then the penultimate syllable). Do we say {iya e zoi}, then? That sounds strange. To me, {iya e zoi} sounds natural. But that would involve splitting a two-syllable letter. Same goes for {ša oyu} for "bowl". To me, {šaoyu} sounds better than {ša oyu}. Treating {oyu} as one unit puts the accent on the {ša}, which simply sounds bizarre to me. Following these rules, words for "boy", "girl", "jellyfish", "shoe", "bread", "friend", "water" and many others sit weird with me. And all these two-syllable two-letter words sound so much more natural to me with the accent on the second letter. Yeah, something's...not quite clicking with me about our system.

I'm gonna sit and think on this some more.

My family's going to hear me muttering Inkling to myself all night. They're probably going to think I'm possessed by the devil or something.

EDIT: Let's throw some examples out there just to be clear...
{pekoi} or {pekoi}?
{diu} or {diu}?
{ayomai} or {ayomai}?
{eyapaboi} or {eyapaboi}?
{daoyu} or {daoyu}?
{nežuzu} or {nežuzu}?

 

[theFIZZYnator]

I think in long words like {íya·e-zoi} it should be permissible to put a second accent on {zoi}, like in the English word "op·e·ra·tor". I have no problem with {šá·oyu}, and I feel {ša·óyu} is less natural.
Following the rules, the accents are {Pé·koi}, {dí·u}, {áyo·mai}, {eya·pá·boi}, {dá·oyu}, and {ne·žú·zu}. If you aren't happy with the stress rule, we could add a rule that dictates that three letter-syllable words have the accent on the third-to-last letter-syllable.

 

[EclipseMT]

For #1, I like the idea of that, but it's leading me to some difficult pronunciations. For example, "king" or "queen" is {iya e zoi}. Now, {zoi} does not receive the stress because it's a suffix. Because we're treating {iya} as one syllable, the {i} syllable will receive the accent (because it is then the penultimate syllable). Do we say {iya e zoi}, then? That sounds strange. To me, {iya e zoi} sounds natural. But that would involve splitting a two-syllable letter. Same goes for {ša oyu} for "bowl". To me, {šaoyu} sounds better than {ša oyu}. Treating {oyu} as one unit puts the accent on the {ša}, which simply sounds bizarre to me. Following these rules, words for "boy", "girl", "jellyfish", "shoe", "bread", "friend", "water" and many others sit weird with me. And all these two-syllable two-letter words sound so much more natural to me with the accent on the second letter. Yeah, something's...not quite clicking with me about our system.

I'm gonna sit and think on this some more.

My family's going to hear me muttering Inkling to myself all night. They're probably going to think I'm possessed by the devil or something.

EDIT: Let's throw some examples out there just to be clear...
{pekoi} or {pekoi}?
{diu} or {diu}?
{ayomai} or {ayomai}?
{eyapaboi} or {eyapaboi}?
{daoyu} or {daoyu}?
{nežuzu} or {nežuzu}?

Well, in English, we got "controversy" vs. "controversy" and "advertisement" vs. "advertisement," and that's mostly based off region.

Perhaps in fanon there's the Inkopolis dialect and the Gladiusburg (I can't come up with any squid-based city names, so I just thought of a random squid-related term) dialect, akin to the Kanto and Kansai dialects of Japanese.

Of course, the Inkopolis dialect (the Kanto-ben parallel) is considered the standard.

EDIT: A third dialect can perhaps represent the Tohoku dialect of Japanese, and its repping city is equivalent to Sendai.

 

[PiyozR]

Well, in English, we got "controversy" vs. "controversy" and "advertisement" vs. "advertisement," and that's mostly based off region.

That's exactly how I'm starting to imagine it. We'll probably never all agree on how to accent our Inkling words. At this point, I think that we can justify different emphasis in Inkling words (i.e. {TEno} versus {teNO}) as unique pronunciations by different people in the Splatoon world. They're still the same words. I'm going to just go and fix them in the PDF with a note about pronunciation. Then I will finally...finally get to work on those lesson plans.

 

[theFIZZYnator]

Well, in English, we got "controversy" vs. "controversy" and "advertisement" vs. "advertisement," and that's mostly based off region.

Perhaps in fanon there's the Inkopolis dialect and the Gladiusburg (I can't come up with any squid-based city names, so I just thought of a random squid-related term) dialect, akin to the Kanto and Kansai dialects of Japanese.

Of course, the Inkopolis dialect (the Kanto-ben parallel) is considered the standard.

EDIT: A third dialect can perhaps represent the Tohoku dialect of Japanese, and its repping city is equivalent to Sendai.

Perhaps we can have my penultimate rule as the Inkopolis accent (New York equivalent, maybe?) and a different stress rule that sounds right to PiyozR could be the equivalent of British English? I mean, if PiyozR wants to create a more complex rule for stress, we could have a parallel like US English simplifying UK English. (colour, dialogue, manoeuvre)

 

[EclipseMT]

If they are going to be accents, then would they also prefer certain allophones over others as well as stress pattern?

Also, we could note that in the PDF where regional accents would stress certain syllables over others, like the earlier-stated "CONtroversy" vs. "conTROversy" example.

EDIT: On a side note, distinction between "wont" vs. "won't" should be avoided. One is an adjective meaning "inclined;" the other means "will not."

ANOTHER EDIT: If they are to be dialects over languages, then the vernacular equivalent to quite a deal of words would need to be created. Some particles would need to be modified as well; in Japanese, you have the informal copula 「だ」 in the Kanto and Tohoku regions, 「や」 mostly in the Kansai region, and 「じゃ」 in Kyushu.

 

[EclipseMT]

Oh, and some words (mostly for characters):

to judge/to evaluate/to grade (Guess where I am going with this): |tsubi|
Judd: |Tsubi-zoi| (lit. Mr. Judge, direct translation of 「ジャッジ君」)
Sheldon: |Pejuki| (derived from (edit: added derived word) |peju| "weapon" as 「ブキチ」 is from 「ブキ」)

 

[PiyozR]

Perhaps we can have my penultimate rule as the Inkopolis accent (New York equivalent, maybe?) and a different stress rule that sounds right to PiyozR could be the equivalent of British English? I mean, if PiyozR wants to create a more complex rule for stress, we could have a parallel like US English simplifying UK English. (colour, dialogue, manoeuvre)

Sounds good to me. I'll write up a small explanation about this stating that the accent notation in the PDF is not the end-all-be-all way to pronounce these words. How about this guide is the "textbook" Inkling and the kind spoken in Inkopolis is a more "street-wise" Inkling?

@EclipseMT Adding those tonight. I'll also cook up names for Spyke, Jelonzo, Annie, Moe, and Crusty Sean.

 

[EclipseMT]

Adding those tonight. I'll also cook up names for Spyke, Jelonzo, Annie, Moe, and Crusty Sean.

If you're going my route (deriving them from the Japanese names), here are the Japanese names:

Spyke = Downey (「ダウニー」, has the word for urchin, 「ウニ」 in it)
Jelonzo = Echizen (cf. a term for a genus of jellyfish)
Annie = Anemo (cf. anemone)
Moe = Kumano (term for a clownfish).
Crusty Sean = Rob.

EDIT: When do you plan on posting the new PDF?

 

[theFIZZYnator]

How about this guide is the "textbook" Inkling and the kind spoken in Inkopolis is a more "street-wise" Inkling?

I don't think they teach UK English in American schools, though. Although, I have yet to hear your variation on the stress rule.

Edit: While we're at it, can we agree that we notate accent with an acute accent between braces like so: {šáoyu} |száoyu| but /'ʃɑ o jɯ/?

 

[PiyozR]

I don't think they teach UK English in American schools, though. Although, I have yet to hear your variation on the stress rule.

For Inkling stress, I'm speaking them out loud and choosing the one that comes out the easiest. Plenty of these can go either way. So far, I've been happy (generally) placing stress of two syllable words on the second syllable. I also find myself placing stress on the first syllable when two letters whose vowels get assimilated (e.g. {mu uyo} into {muyo}).

Edit: While we're at it, can we agree that we notate accent with an acute accent between braces like so: {šáoyu} |száoyu| but /'ʃɑ o jɯ/?

I've been using apostrophes. IMO the acute accent marks look better and are shown right above the vowels that they're accenting. I'll go with this.

 

[Inunah]

I don't think they teach UK English in American schools, though.

Can confirm. I live in the US, went to American school, and they never taught UK English. I didn't encounter UK English until nearly high school.

 

[EclipseMT]

Eventually I would start work on the Octoling language.

The idea and backstory I have for it is that it is the standard language of residents of Octo Valley, but not the vernacular of most of them, like how Black Speech is to Orkish (they are seperate tongues).

In this matter, the Octarian and Octoling languages are seperate, and Octarian is very crude and for the most part unintelligible to any Inkling listener (I will not work on that; they can keep their crude tongue). Octoling might have only little similarity to the Inkling language.

I will come up with grammar rules, phonetics, and character readings myself. I already constructed a few words and made them like euphemisms of the culture:

|hankai| = Foreigner (originally derogatory term for Inkling)
|orukku| = Low-ranking soldier (originally a word meaning "stupid person") (EDIT: this might be the other way around).

EDIT: @PiyozR Can you supply me with the supposed "Octarian glyphs?"

 

[theFIZZYnator]

This quickly made diagram is my idea of how the Inkling dialects and the Octoling language fit in the big picture:

Can we all agree on this view, or would any of you like to object? I personally picture there being that one guy who always says "Inkopolis Inkling is not real Inkling, Gladiusburg Inkling is the only norm" when in every other place that teaches Inkling outside of Gladiusburg they teach Inkopolis Inkling because it's already the de facto standard

 

[EclipseMT]

Well, I have never been to Osaka to see this myself, but they do a lot in the local Kansai dialect. Standard Japanese, however, is the Kanto dialect, specifically the dialect associated with Tokyo.

EDIT: So in Gladiusburg (btw, the gladius is the hard internal pen-shaped bodypart found in squids), they widely consider their dialect standard within the area (a la Japan's Kansai region). Everywhere else in the nation of Cephalo, however (I am so uncreative when it comes to names) uses the Inkopolis dialect, the de facto standard.

Unlike Japanese, however, there is no parallel to the Tohoku dialect up north (partially because I am not willing to create another funny sounding squid-based name) and no Kyushu or Chugoku dialect for the same reason, so use of Kansai-ben or Kanto-ben in the Inkling language is pretty much based on residency east or west of the barrier, i.e. the <insert name here> Mountain Range.

In the barrier, several dialects are used with transitional features to the two primary dialects.

EDIT: Another distinct feature of the two dialects is the use of |n| by itself in the west, a letter not used in the East. The letter is simply |na| with a stroke below. (EDIT: It did not become the described letter; see below)

 

[EclipseMT]

This is the glyph I propose for the Western dialect's |n| character.

EDIT: Made edges more uniform.

 

[ZuloeSixx]

This is the glyph I propose for the Western dialect's |n| character.

Should we also have characters for |ks|, |la|, |le|, |lo|, |lu| and |li|?

 

[EclipseMT]

Should we also have characters for |ks|, |la|, |le|, |lo|, |lu| and |li|?

L is virtually an R for the most part.

|ks| is not really a combination that would occur in this language.

 

[PiyozR]

Guys guys let's finish one language before we start another.

I like the idea of different accents, but what the heck is Gladiusburg? Is that mentioned in game?