The Fan Language of Splatoon

[Ikaheishi]

Exactly how are the characters encoded currently? I haven't found anything in the guide regarding a character encoding, and I only found one post (#121) mentioning character encodings at all. Has there even been a decision on character encoding?

Also, how is text collated? I didn't see that in the guide either.

 

[PiyozR]

Exactly how are the characters encoded currently? I haven't found anything in the guide regarding a character encoding, and I only found one post (#121) mentioning character encodings at all. Has there even been a decision on character encoding?

I'm not the one who created the systems used to generate the Inkling text in the guide. Those were done by @theFIZZYnator and someone else way earlier in the thread. I'd ask them but those two haven't visited in a long, long time. Hence why I plan on wrapping up the project.

Also, how is text collated? I didn't see that in the guide either.

I'm afraid I don't quite know what you mean. Can you be a little more specific?

 

[Ikaheishi]

I'm not the one who created the systems used to generate the Inkling text in the guide. Those were done by @theFIZZYnator and someone else way earlier in the thread. I'd ask them but those two haven't visited in a long, long time. Hence why I plan on wrapping up the project.

I remember seeing something awhile back where different combinations of the basic Latin letters would result in a single Inkling character. Is that the system you're mentioning and/or currently using?

I'm afraid I don't quite know what you mean. Can you be a little more specific?

Sorry about that… I should have elaborated on that question a bit more in the first place. What I was particularly asking about is the sort order and rules for sorting, if any exist. For example, I'm thinking about something like alphabetization of English text.

Anyway, the reason I've asked is because I'm thinking about implementing support for Inkling in software as an experiment and a self-challenge.

 

[PiyozR]

I remember seeing something awhile back where different combinations of the basic Latin letters would result in a single Inkling character. Is that the system you're mentioning and/or currently using?

For this guide, yes. I am not sure exactly where to find it, though. It's actually a unique character table of Japanese with Inkling and the complete re-assignment of Latin letters to all 130~ Inkling characters. The spacing was never readjusted, sadly and the character {be} appears upside down for some reason.

Sorry about that… I should have elaborated on that question a bit more in the first place. What I was particularly asking about is the sort order and rules for sorting, if any exist. For example, I'm thinking about something like alphabetization of English text.

The alphabet shown in the PDF is the official order of characters in Inkling. That's how little children in school would learn and memorize it. Arranged by similar beginning phones sort of in the same order as the English alphabet but with the "e" and "Q" characters at the end with other miscellaneous letters.

Although looking at it now, they're not in an exact order that you'd expect from an alphabet. Realistically, characters of one opening consonant sound should be arranged in sequence based on their vowel sounds. {ba}, {be}, {bi}, {bo}, {bu}, {da}, {de}, {di}, {do}, {du}, {ga}, {ge}, {gi}, {go}, {gu} or some order like that. I should probably fix that tonight.

Anyway, the reason I've asked is because I'm thinking about implementing support for Inkling in software as an experiment and a self-challenge.

I see. That's pretty interesting! Unfortunately, I'd be of no help to you on that front. But I'd be interested in more effective word processing in Inkling. In fact, if it's that good, I'll probably spend a few days typing the PDF from the ground up for consistency. Let me know what you come up with, okay?

 

[Dùath]

As this project seems to be drawing to a close and I created this account solely because of it, I think I better start posting!

First off, thank you all for this amazing piece of work! A few weeks ago I did a google-search to find out if there was any meaning to the cool symbols in Splatoon. I would not have thought to find THIS!

I spend some time reading through the thread from the start and having a look at the files. I'm much more a lurker by nature and usually reluctant to make my opinion known, but I was intrigued and thought I might be able to make a contribution, however small. So here goes...

@PiyozR: Your PDF was the first thing I read and although I like it, I also think that the formatting could use some work. Since you wanted feedback on errors and you said in your latest post that you might actually rework it from the start, here are my two cents (in no particular order):

[Everything in regards to PDF version 2/11/2016]

• The guide appears crammed to me at times. Sometimes a heading follows so close to the description of a letter, that I find it hard to identify it as such. Example: The weather descriptors on page 38.
  
  
• New 'chapters' could start on a new page. I think that using manual page breaks could improve readability and make it easier to see where one topic ends and another begins. If someone prints the guide out, they will need more paper but a digital document shouldn't need to worry about 'wasted' space.
  
  
• I think it would be much easier to understand the system behind the syllabary by ordering the letters in columns of five instead of four. The 'irregular' letters could go into incomplete lines. Example:
  {ba}__{be}__{bi}__{bo}__{bu}
  {bai}______{bie}__{boi}____
  {da}__{de}__{di}__{do}__{du}
  (The 'e's and 'Q's obviously do what they want though...)
  
  
• You accidentally used "ό" (Greek Small Letter Omicron With Tonos, U+03CC) instead of "ó" (Latin Small Letter O With Acute, U+00F3)(both identified with MS Word). They look exactly the same, at least in the font used here and in the guide. But if I search the PDF for words containing accented "o"s by typing them out with my keyboard, I obviously don't get any results...
  
  
• Sometimes LETTERS and their {transcription} or WORDS and their {transcription} and their Translation are separated by a page break, which is a little confusing to read.
  Examples between pages: 7/8, 10/11, 11/12, 13/14, 16/17, 17/18, 20/21, 23/24, 29/30, 30/31, 35/36, 37/38, 44/45, 48/49, 52/53, 57/58, 58/59
  
  
• The same sometimes happens with the title of topics and their content:
  S4 p9/p10, S5 p22/p23, S7 p23/p33, S9 p41/p42, S15 p49/p50, S24 p55/p56, S28 p59/60, S31 p64/p65
  
  
• Sometimes the size of the Inkling letters as well as the number of examples used in the word lists change dramatically from row to row. Compare pages 10 or 13 with pages 15 or 20. I think that pages 15 and 20 are much calmer and easier to read.

The spacing was never readjusted, sadly and the character {be} appears upside down for some reason.

I'm not much of an artist, but I'm not afraid to use FontForge either. If there are still problems you would like to see rectified, tell me and I will see what I can do.

But I'd be interested in more effective word processing in Inkling.

When I first saw the letters, I thought that it might be a good idea to apply them to the keyboard like the Tolkien Font Gods did with Tengwar; ordering them into colums and rows by shape (and basically following Tolkien's own design) and using shift-states to create 'related' letters. But I quickly realized that there are far too many Inkling letters for a normal qwerty-keyboard.

I now have another idea in mind: keyboard layouts. There is a tool called Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator which – surprise – lets you create your own keyboard layouts. It also allows the creation of multiple shift states. With this you could, for example, press 'b' to get {ba}, 'b'+shift to get {be} and 'b'+shift+ctrl+alt to get {bu}. This wouldn't be a natural way to type either, I guess. But if you have a document prepared with lines or tables with different fonts, you could type something in one language, navigate to wherever you want to type the other and simply use 'windows-key'+space (at least in Win10) to change the keyboard layout and continue typing.

Pros: You could type anywhere, not just a word processor, although the font would have to be applied to the typed text to create anything legible.

Cons: Would only work for windows. I don't know if there are similar programs/functions available for other operating systems, although I strongly suspect so. Secondly, the shift-states could cause conflicts with keyboard shortcuts.

If you or anyone still following this thread would be interested in (at least trying) this, I can try and see what I can come up with.

P.S.: I hope this wall of text isn't too much at once, but I amassed quite a number of things to say over time.

 

[PiyozR]

Thank you for your feedback, Dùath! I was planning on spending tonight on this guide. You've given me a lot to chew on as we wrap this project up. I'll reply to your items one by one.

The guide appears crammed to me at times. Sometimes a heading follows so close to the description of a letter, that I find it hard to identify it as such. Example: The weather descriptors on page 38.

It looks cramped because I never organized the spacing of each section. I never did this because of how often we would add new vocabulary and sections. Now that that's basically done with, I should spend some time starting a new section on a new page and fitting words, notation and translation all on to one page.

Speaking of which, I noticed a long time ago that I was inconsistent with Character + Notation + Translation and Character + Translation + Notation. I just put it on the backburner until now. I will spend some time tonight organizing everything into CNT format once we address something that I'll mention below.

I think it would be much easier to understand the system behind the syllabary by ordering the letters in columns of five instead of four. The 'irregular' letters could go into incomplete lines.

That's not a bad idea. I already plan on shifting the alphabet order anyway. I'll fiddle around and see what looks best.

You accidentally used "ό" (Greek Small Letter Omicron With Tonos, U+03CC) instead of "ó" (Latin Small Letter O With Acute, U+00F3)(both identified with MS Word). They look exactly the same, at least in the font used here and in the guide. But if I search the PDF for words containing accented "o"s by typing them out with my keyboard, I obviously don't get any results...

I had no idea. I have never searched for notation, only the English. Is every "ό" actually the Greek omicron or only some? I think that's an easy fix either way.

Sometimes the size of the Inkling letters as well as the number of examples used in the word lists change dramatically from row to row. Compare pages 10 or 13 with pages 15 or 20. I think that pages 15 and 20 are much calmer and easier to read.

I'm not much of an artist, but I'm not afraid to use FontForge either. If there are still problems you would like to see rectified, tell me and I will see what I can do.
...
If you or anyone still following this thread would be interested in (at least trying) this, I can try and see what I can come up with.

I had this same thought above. Perhaps a new way of generating Inkling characters would help me unify the PDF and make it look a bit more professional. Better yet, we can include it here to let any Splatoon fans interested in this conlang download our font and create their own text for whatever project their heart desires.

I personally don't have the skills to create something like this. At first, my way of creating Inkling words in the PDF was to drap and drop PNGs one at a time. For real. It took hours. If you have the know-how and the interest, a new, streamlined system for typing Inkling could bring this language guide to the next level! Anyone willing to try this, let me know!

 

[PiyozR]

Double post because I'm so cool.

Here is the newest version of the Language Guide. I fixed all the spacing oddities I could find. Shouldn't be a problem unless we want to add more vocab or something. I also revamped the alphabet section. Now all the characters are arranged in order of vowel sound ("a" to "e" to "i" to "o" to "u") with the dipthong characters (ai, ie, oi) shown below their variant for clarity. The "e" and "q" characters are now arranged by the same vowel order also for clarity.

Tonight is a bit of a late milestone for the Inkling Conlang! Thanks to all this editing, the Inkling Language Guide is now 75 pages long! Hilarious to think that I only planned twelve pages last summer. Look how far we've come, sensei!

 

[Ikaheishi]

I'm putting this in spoiler blocks as it's rather long, especially the latter part.

@PiyozR

Spoiler: Regarding character encoding

So I'm going to have to define a proper character encoding. I don't mind; I've actually wanted to create an encoding before, just for fun.

I so did a count of the letters in the guide, and came up with 127. It's a perfect amount except… That is just the letters. Once the ten digits and punctuation are accounted for, we're looking at somewhere between 138 and 146 characters, depending on how much punctuation is encoded as being unique to Inkling.

I'm planning on doing two things:

The first task is to create an 8-bit super-set of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). This would only be for embedded and obsolete systems, but it's good to have around just in case anyone wants to do something that needs it. Unfortunately, it wouldn't include unique designations for the numerals or punctuation, but it's still worth doing as it's barely any more work beyond the next task…

The second task is defining code points for Inkling in the Private Use Area (PUA) of Unicode, specifically the PUA in the Basic Multilingual Plane. This would make Inkling support in software simple, as Inkling would then usable in every program that already exists with Unicode support, as long a font providing the proper glyphs can be specifically used. Then the only difficulty should be inputting text in Inkling.

Additionally, I'm planning on creating the PUA assignments such that, when this is complete, the Inkling script can be included in the Under-ConScript Unicode Registry. It would be nice to also do this for the Octoling language project as well.

Perhaps a new way of generating Inkling characters would help me unify the PDF and make it look a bit more professional.

Have you considered using desktop publishing software instead of a word processor? They're a bit different than word processors are, but they're much nicer to use for anything that isn't just a bunch of boring paragraphs. (At the least, that's in my opinion.)

The most notable desktop publishing programs would be Adobe's InDesign, and Scribus, the latter of which is free, in both meanings of the word (No monetary cost and unconstrained in actions).

@Dùath

Spoiler: Regarding Inkling text input

I see a few different possible ways for Inkling input: keyboard layout definitions, input method editors, and even custom designed keyboards.

Looking at the keyboard layout approach as you mentioned, on a US layout IBM Model F, IBM Model M, and Windows keyboard (“101-key” keyboards), ignoring the optional keypad, there are 47 keys that produce a visible (printable) character. When you add the second level via the Shift modifier key, that doubles the amount of available characters to 94. That is how many printable characters can be directly typed on the typical 101-key keyboard, and the exact number of printable characters in ASCII.

Adding a second modifier key, specifically Alternate Graphic (Which is usually labeled “Alt Gr”), doubles that count again, for a set of 188 possible character inputs. However, if there are 127 Inkling letters alone, that leaves only 61 character inputs for the printable ASCII characters. Clearly not an option, as proper ASCII input is needed for controlling the computer. It's not even enough room for just the capital and lowercase letters and the ten decimal digits.

Now, a way to make this work is eliminating the direct entry of Inkling letters that could be considered a syllabic composition (Ones like {oi}, {bie}, and {ayo}, of which I counted 40), that brings the number of characters that can be directly typed to 87. This leaves 7 keystrokes unused if only two levels are used for Inkling, in which two of those strokes (one from each of the two levels used, both being the same key) could become a compose key.

So, if just two levels are used for Inkling input, the other two levels would be the same ASCII input as usual. Definitely doable from the user perspective.

The problem with this is typing anything would be inconvenient. For example, even typing {totó kiyokáno} would be annoying as the keys would have to be pressed while holding down the Alt.Gr. key the whole time. That would be rather hard on the right thumb, and painfully prohibitive of pressing the H, T, Y, 6, and 7 keys normally (I tried it just to make sure). Obviously, that's not very conducive to proficient typing.

There's also other keyboard layouts to be accounted for like Dvorak, or variations of QWERTY like QWERTZ and AZERTY. And then there is the fact that the backslash/vertical bar key (\ and |) can be found in different places on different QWERTY keyboards.

However, there is the possibility of defining an Inkling-only layout, and the user switching between Inkling and their normal layout. This is doable on Windows using the language bar (Which I know is in XP, Vista, and 7), but it's not really feasible on any other graphical systems without some kind of layout switcher.

Another option is writing up an input method editor (IME). I imagine that Inkling input using an IME would be a lot like Japanese input with an IME. Without the difficulties of kanji, of course.

However, as most of my programming work has been server-side programming for websites, writing an IME is out of my area of expertise. (At least, for now.)

Finally, hardcore fans could make their own keyboards. I have no idea what this would entail; I only have a very basic knowledge of electronics.

(My apologies if I started becoming incoherent or something somewhere in this post. I've been working on research and this post for the past 15 hours with little interruption. It's now 6:20 in the morning here and the sun is starting to come up. I haven't been able to sleep tonight for some reason.)

 

[EclipseMT]

Try a Japanese keyboard layout derivative.

Or, use Microsoft IME to input the text, press spacebar to convert and then it would automatically convert to hiragana. Press spacebar to convert to kanji equivalents, and then the F-keys to convert to other presets (katakana, and alphanumeric).

EDIT: I wasn't reading carefully when I made this post and just now, as of this edit, realized that this was already mentioned.

 

[Dùath]

Sorry for the late reply, but I have been struck down with a cold and my brain feels more like producing headaches than coherent thoughts at the moment.

@PiyozR & @Ikaheishi
Wow... I'm not sure what I expected to follow as a reaction to my post, but it seems I got people thinking. I will try things out when I'm feeling better and might reply more extensively then, too.

@Dùath

Spoiler

I see a few different possible ways for Inkling input: keyboard layout definitions, input method editors, and even custom designed keyboards.

Looking at the keyboard layout approach as you mentioned, on a US layout IBM Model F, IBM Model M, and Windows keyboard (“101-key” keyboards), ignoring the optional keypad, there are 47 keys that produce a visible (printable) character. When you add the second level via the Shift modifier key, that doubles the amount of available characters to 94. That is how many printable characters can be directly typed on the typical 101-key keyboard, and the exact number of printable characters in ASCII.

Adding a second modifier key, specifically Alternate Graphic (Which is usually labeled “Alt Gr”), doubles that count again, for a set of 188 possible character inputs. However, if there are 127 Inkling letters alone, that leaves only 61 character inputs for the printable ASCII characters. Clearly not an option, as proper ASCII input is needed for controlling the computer. It's not even enough room for just the capital and lowercase letters and the ten decimal digits.

Now, a way to make this work is eliminating the direct entry of Inkling letters that could be considered a syllabic composition (Ones like {oi}, {bie}, and {ayo}, of which I counted 40), that brings the number of characters that can be directly typed to 87. This leaves 7 keystrokes unused if only two levels are used for Inkling, in which two of those strokes (one from each of the two levels used, both being the same key) could become a compose key.

So, if just two levels are used for Inkling input, the other two levels would be the same ASCII input as usual. Definitely doable from the user perspective.

The problem with this is typing anything would be inconvenient. For example, even typing {totó kiyokáno} would be annoying as the keys would have to be pressed while holding down the Alt.Gr. key the whole time. That would be rather hard on the right thumb, and painfully prohibitive of pressing the H, T, Y, 6, and 7 keys normally (I tried it just to make sure). Obviously, that's not very conducive to proficient typing.

There's also other keyboard layouts to be accounted for like Dvorak, or variations of QWERTY like QWERTZ and AZERTY. And then there is the fact that the backslash/vertical bar key (\ and |) can be found in different places on different QWERTY keyboards.

However, there is the possibility of defining an Inkling-only layout, and the user switching between Inkling and their normal layout. This is doable on Windows using the language bar (Which I know is in XP, Vista, and 7), but it's not really feasible on any other graphical systems without some kind of layout switcher.

Another option is writing up an input method editor (IME). I imagine that Inkling input using an IME would be a lot like Japanese input with an IME. Without the difficulties of kanji, of course.

However, as most of my programming work has been server-side programming for websites, writing an IME is out of my area of expertise. (At least, for now.)

Finally, hardcore fans could make their own keyboards. I have no idea what this would entail; I only have a very basic knowledge of electronics.

I'm not gonna lie; at least half of what you wrote went WAY over my head. Though I'm not sure if that is because of your 'rambling' (apologies accepted anyway) or my brain cells' current inability to connect in series. I'll read it over again later and see if I can take away anything more form it then.

Though you got me thinking already: Creating custom keyboards...? What about custom on-screen keyboards or custom keyboards for smartphones? Hmm...

 

[PiyozR]

Does anyone here know anything about video editing? Even a little? PM me if you do.

 

[EclipseMT]

Does anyone here know anything about video editing? Even a little? PM me if you do.

I do, but I don't have the software to do it (i.e. Premiere or Sony Vegas).

 

[PiyozR]

I do, but I don't have the software to do it (i.e. Premiere or Sony Vegas).

I see. Any luck on that Ludicrous Speed scene?

I'm talking to some other friends about putting together a demo of the introduction. I'm sorry it's taking so long (I wrote this stuff in August) but real life can get in the way sometimes.

In other news, I will be translating the three available chapters of the official Splatoon manga sometime soon. I have the raw Japanese of issues two and three, but not the first one. Anyone who can find that for me would be my super best friend forever.

 

[PiyozR]

Demo for the introduction to the video lessons is ready.

Let me know if that link doesn't work.

 

[calthax]

There's a typo;
Credits say "Inklopolis"

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

This is looking good! Kinda misspelled my name at the end there, though.

 

[PiyozR]

With all of the audio lessons organized, I present the audio versions of the Inkopolis University YouTube Inkling Language Lessons!

 

[PiyozR]

Tonight I have for you all the Inkling translation of the first volume in Nintendo's Splatoon manga! You can read it here!

Volumes Two and Three are translated and in the works! Keep an eye out for those.

 

[PiyozR]

As though that weren't enough, here is the video introduction to our fan language! How long has this been in the works? Since August, you say? Well, better late than never! I may or may not make a separate thread for these videos as they come out.

 

[PiyozR]

Volume Two of the Inkling translation of the Splatoon manga is up!