The Fan Language of Splatoon

[PiyozR]

The third volume of the Splatoon manga is now viewable in Inkling!

Lesson #1 of Inkopolis University is coming soon!

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

I'm loving these translations! Keep up the good work!

 

[SurrealSquid]

posting for notifications. this looks very interesting.

 

[PiyozR]

The first lesson is up and running!

 

[PiyozR]

The second video lesson is now available.

 

[PiyozR]

Video lesson number three is ready to go!

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

Nice! These are coming along pretty smoothly. Just need to check the credits for typos every now and then, though.

 

[Ikaheishi]

(Wow. It's been awhile… All because of personal issues, sadly.)

I've got another collation question: Where do the digits go in the sort order? Do they come before or after the letters?

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.

A little typo I made in the source code of the custom program I'm been using caused it to eat all of my data. So after having to re-type the data for every character I noticed this time that {fu} and {fi} are flipped. You probably also want to look at {eya}/{eyu}/{eyo}, {uye}/{uya}/{uyo}, and the like.

I tried to check over the guide to look for other spots like this, but I'm not sure if I missed something. (It's a bit after 3 in the morning for me, and I'm far from well rested.)

 

[PiyozR]

I've got another collation question: Where do the digits go in the sort order? Do they come before or after the letters?

You mean like numbers? Sort order? What?

 

[Ikaheishi]

You mean like numbers? Sort order? What?

Yes. That's what I meant. I can boil down my question to this: “Is the sort order 0, 1, 2, {a}, {be}, {ga}, or the other way around: {a}, {be}, {ga}, 0, 1, 2?”

However, I've realized that I've already inherently defined it:

The first task is to create an 8-bit super-set of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII).

This encoding has no room for any inkling specific digits or punctuation, so instead the punctuation and digits that are in ASCII are used. And since the encoding is a direct super-set of ASCII, the ASCII characters come first, putting the digits before the inkling letters.

 

[PiyozR]

Yes. That's what I meant. I can boil down my question to this: “Is the sort order 0, 1, 2, {a}, {be}, {ga}, or the other way around: {a}, {be}, {ga}, 0, 1, 2?”

However, I've realized that I've already inherently defined it:

This encoding has no room for any inkling specific digits or punctuation, so instead the punctuation and digits that are in ASCII are used. And since the encoding is a direct super-set of ASCII, the ASCII characters come first, putting the digits before the inkling letters.

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about right now.

 

[Vylion]

First of all, congratulations on how far you've come. I remember reading the Inkling Guide when it was only 3 pages long and thinking: "this would be cool to check after a while". Then I completely forgot about it until youtube told me that you had uploaded the third Inkling lesson. Since then I've been reading the whole thread. There's so many things I wanted to say while reading, but most of them were already sorted out a few posts later. It's a shame that I only caught up when the project is dying. I even created this account just to be able to comment.

The Tumblr page was never set up, was it? Not that I could help, I just wanted to follow it... Although right now I'm trying to keep away from all my free time eaters (mainly Facebook and Tumblr) so it wouldn't do much.

I'm surprised nobody noticed the typo in the Inkling for Squid Sisters: it's spelled "waikotígo" but it's romanized as "waikitígo". I guess after a certain point you guys just jumped ahead to search for mistakes only in the new sections. It happens in the best families.

Nobody stated anything about it, but since there is no word for "anything" I'm going to assume that Inkling, unlike English, allows for "negative redundancy". Am I wrong?

Also, I know this was mainly a conlang focused on allowing talk about Splatoon, but do you think we could expand it to somewhat day-to-day talk, or you don't have the time you had to dedicate to it? It's okay if you don't.

Edit: before I forget again: in the Urban dialect section you mention suffixes and show "-be" as an example, but the only section explicity stating suffixes doesn't include it. For a newbie that hasn't read this thread and hasn't been following the derivational process, what the difference between a word with an unknown suffix and a compounded word is may go over their head.

 

[PiyozR]

Hey, I saw your comments on the videos! How's it going?

The Tumblr page was never set up, was it? Not that I could help, I just wanted to follow it... Although right now I'm trying to keep away from all my free time eaters (mainly Facebook and Tumblr) so it wouldn't do much.

There was going to be much more of a social media presence for this project considering Splatoon's popularity on the internet. Sadly, I've scrapped that idea. Partly because I've never used Tumblr or Twitter before. But mainly it's because I'm going to be moving to another country and starting a full time job soon and really don't have the time to spend building a presence for this fan project as much as I'd like to. I wanted to help Inkling ascend as a conlang to a relatively viral fan project. But sometimes real life happens.

I'm surprised nobody noticed the typo in the Inkling for Squid Sisters: it's spelled "waikotígo" but it's romanized as "waikitígo".

I'm looking at the guide now and it's reading as {waikitigo}. Which section are you looking at?

Nobody stated anything about it, but since there is no word for "anything" I'm going to assume that Inkling, unlike English, allows for "negative redundancy". Am I wrong?

I created something for that! "Anything" is {hegaro}. "Anyone" is {hegazoi}. "Anytime" is {hegada}. They're here in my notes. Not sure why I never added them to the PDF. I punched them in and will upload the new version of the guide when I get the chance.

Also, I know this was mainly a conlang focused on allowing talk about Splatoon, but do you think we could expand it to somewhat day-to-day talk, or you don't have the time you had to dedicate to it? It's okay if you don't.

I'd love to expand Inkling to include everything needed for fluent, day-to-day conversation. It's a problem of time (something I don't have so much of anymore) and manpower (something we've never had with such a small project). It's easy to throw darts at the board and pick letters to create whatever vocab we need. However, the time, patience, and attention needed to create an active, breathing language with enough love and care into letting the lives of the Inklings come alive in our script is an undertaking of huge proportions. That's something that could take years to realize. As much as I'd be willing to throw a few years of my life into something so monumental, it's not really in the cards.

Edit: before I forget again: in the Urban dialect section you mention suffixes and show "-be" as an example, but the only section explicity stating suffixes doesn't include it. For a newbie that hasn't read this thread and hasn't been following the derivational process, what the difference between a word with an unknown suffix and a compounded word is may go over their head.

{be} is the third suffix example in Section 22 of the PDF.

 

[Vylion]

Hey, I saw your comments on the videos! How's it going?

Ayy! Yeah, that was me rediscovering the project.

There was going to be much more of a social media presence for this project considering Splatoon's popularity on the internet. Sadly, I've scrapped that idea. I'd love to expand Inkling to include everything needed for fluent, day-to-day conversation. It's a problem of time (something I don't have so much of anymore) and manpower (something we've never had with such a small project). (...) Sometimes real life happens.

(...)

I'd love to expand Inkling to include everything needed for fluent, day-to-day conversation. It's a problem of time (something I don't have so much of anymore) and manpower (something we've never had with such a small project).

I understand that. I myself have started many projects that I've left midway because real life happened and I'm probably never going to resume. I may or may not have a project in the works (I don't like to state if I'm really working on something because that tends to magically kill the project). Anyway, if it's ok with you, if I need non-existing words I may make up some and post them for your approval, and you can update the pdf at your own pace. The project would be something small though, so I don't promise much. I'd work at my own pace too. Mostly just to keep this moving along until someone more active comes that can truly revive this.

I'm looking at the guide now and it's reading as {waikitigo}. Which section are you looking at?

(...)

{be} is the third suffix example in Section 22 of the PDF.

Nevermind me, I'm apparently blind; I see {be} now. Also my mind is playing tricks to me and for a moment there I mentally had swapped around the glyphs for "ke", "ki", and "ko".

I created something for that! "Anything" is {hegaro}. "Anyone" is {hegazoi}. "Anytime" is {hegada}. They're here in my notes. Not sure why I never added them to the PDF. I punched them in and will upload the new version of the guide when I get the chance.

Ah, cool. So negative marking works like in English then? My main language is Spanish and I must know if I have to be careful with double negatives or if I'm allowed to be repetitive. :p

A question: is there a "default vowel" when transcribing clusters from foreign names into Inkling? Like how japanese often uses "u" (with a few exceptions); you transcribed Pioz as "paiyóza". Is "a" the "default" or "filler letter" or is it up to the transcriber?

 

[PiyozR]

I understand that. I myself have started many projects that I've left midway because real life happened and I'm probably never going to resume. I may or may not have a project in the works (I don't like to state if I'm really working on something because that tends to magically kill the project). Anyway, if it's ok with you, if I need non-existing words I may make up some and post them for your approval, and you can update the pdf at your own pace. The project would be something small though, so I don't promise much. I'd work at my own pace too. Mostly just to keep this moving along until someone more active comes that can truly revive this.

That's totally fine. After the video lessons are all done, I likely won't be checking this forum anymore. You can just send me a message on the FB or send me an email from the website that hosts the PDF.

A question: is there a "default vowel" when transcribing clusters from foreign names into Inkling? Like how japanese often uses "u" (with a few exceptions); you transcribed Pioz as "paiyóza". Is "a" the "default" or "filler letter" or is it up to the transcriber?

My name Piyoz is notated as {páiyoza}. The one uniform rule for stress is that the stress is placed on the vowel sound that is assimilated between to letters (like {pai} and {iyo} in my name) unless there is a suffix attached. Then it goes on the suffix.

But to actually answer your question, {a} is generally the vowel sound used as the "default vowel" when choosing to transcribe foreign words or names, though it's not a formal rule.

 

[Vylion]

My name Piyoz is notated as {páiyoza}. The one uniform rule for stress is that the stress is placed on the vowel sound that is assimilated between to letters (like {pai} and {iyo} in my name) unless there is a suffix attached. Then it goes on the suffix.

Woops, I always manage to mess something up.

For now I'll keep posting here, and when you upload the last video I'll move onto the FB page.

Now, it seems that, when conlanging, I love to derive by "compounding and compressing"... And then keep the uncompressed form too. So you can stop me from doing that whenever you want. I'm mentally explaining this to myself by assuming that compounded words are technical vocabulary that gets shortened in informal register and then reinserted into the language with a slight semantic drift.

I did not see a word for "anemone" or the species Annie belongs to, so I made up one. If I again did just miss it, please correct me. I had the crazy idea of having "anemone" as an homophone of "happening" {anero}, but with {ane} written like the {ane} in {anéna}; and the species would be {anerozoi}. Colloquially, {a-nero} would also mean "hairy" or "busy/wild head", not restricted to {anerozoi}. Lionfish-based characters would probably also qualify as {a-nero}; sea hedgehogs would specially hate to be called {a-nero}: they don't like to be mistaken for "punk anemones".
Note: I'm writing a "-" just so you know to which {anero} I'm talking about, but in normal speech context should be plenty enough to know.

If you don't like the idea of homophones written differently we can just get rid of {ro}.

On a different subject, I did some derivations from {hazhu} and {éyome}:

• {Hazhiero}, meaning "writing, script" (also "alphabet", "syllabary").
• {Anerohazhu}, meaning "log" or "recording" (be it in actual text or in another medium, like audio)
• {Aneroshaizhu}, meaning "chronicle" and the like; from {aneroshai hazhu}
• {Anézhume}, meaning "log book, journal"; from {aneroshaizhu éyome}
• {Teshízhume}, meaning "diary"; from {teshi anézhume}. Can also be linked to {teshi hazhu eyome}

About landscape formations:

• {Hunagaeda}, meaning "mountain range", literally "mountain line".
• {Shumadinaga}, used to refer to a cold, high mountain that has snow on its peak all year long. From {shumadi hunaga}
• {Shumanagéda}, a mountain range made exclusively of mountains with eternal snow. From {shumadinaga eda} (I honestly don't know if we ever will use this one but I got excited about having a word for an specific kind of mountain)
• {Shaeruro}, meaning "barrier". Any kind of barrier.
• {Rusimara}, meaning "fence"; from {rusiro} and {mara}.
• {Shaenaga}, meaning "geographical barrier".

The missing accents on made up words are up to you. The missing accents on already existing words is because I can't check the correct accent but it can be easily looked up.

Now, if you didn't dislike the homophone idea, do you think there would be some kind of convention among anemone people of having {a-ne} in their names (like anéna)?

I was going to go with {birióno}. Do you think {birióna} is more euphonic, or do you prefer {birióna} for any other reason? Why? I don't really care much so don't feel guilty when rejecting {birióno}.

 

[PiyozR]

Woops, I always manage to mess something up.

That's nothing. I mispronounced the name {paiyoza} in the actual Inkopolis University introduction video! Now that's embarrassing!

I did not see a word for "anemone" or the species Annie belongs to, so I made up one. If I again did just miss it, please correct me. I had the crazy idea of having "anemone" as an homophone of "happening" {anero}, but with {ane} written like the {ane} in {anéna}; and the species would be {anerozoi}.

{anena} is simply the Inkling transcription of the English name "Annie". It's not tied to sea anemones at all. Your logic for creating Inkling vocabulary is great. I just think it's best to create stuff from scratch or else rip it from game assets.

On a different subject, I did some derivations from {hazhu} and {éyome}:

[vocab snip]

That's some great vocab! If you want, I can add that to the PDF. You know, if I ever get the chance.

Now, if you didn't dislike the homophone idea, do you think there would be some kind of convention among anemone people of having {a-ne} in their names (like anéna)?

Because {anena} comes from the English, I'd say let's not.

I was going to go with {birióno}. Do you think {birióna} is more euphonic, or do you prefer {birióna} for any other reason? Why? I don't really care much so don't feel guilty when rejecting {birióno}.

{birióno} sounds very much like a word for "sea anemone" to me. I can add that to the PDF, too, if you like.

 

[Vylion]

That's some great vocab! If you want, I can add that to the PDF. You know, if I ever get the chance.

Yeah, at your own pace. There's no rush. Just list me the words you like and omit the ones you don't, with the accent you read them with; and specify if you plan to change, trim or expand some word's meaning.

Because {anena} comes from the English...

I was just playing with the idea of "what if it was the other way around"; like how localization sometimes changes things completely, if Annie sas just "localization from her Inkling name". I wasn't very sure about the thing myself either.

I did like the idea of having homophones distinguished by the use of 1 multisyllabic glyph vs 2 monosyllabic glyphs with the same sound. I will probably pester you again with something like that in the future.

{birióno} sounds very much like a word for "sea anemone" to me. I can add that to the PDF, too, if you like.

I was going to go with {biriono} *for myself. You know, as in Vylion. As much as I'd like to have my pseudonym for a whole species, I don't have much more to go by. ...Actually I do, but Vylion is my favorite.

I will think for a new word to describe "busy/wild head"/"hairy". Or maybe a new pseudonym. I'll keep you informed.

 

[Ikaheishi]

I'm getting close to finishing the character mappings. Well… Technically I finished the mapping already. I'm working on things like charts and weeding out mistakes.

I've attached a small sample of my progress sofar. Hunting down each of the glyphs one-by-one for all of the 127 letters and putting them in my program (and correcting the inevitable mistakes I'll make) is going to take time.

Spoiler: Work-in-progress chart

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about right now.

Sorry. I didn't exactly choose the best way to explain things.

What I was wondering had to do with sorting bits of mixed text like “woomy01”, but I realize now that what I'm asking about probably hasn't been decided on before I started doing anything. I also had made the decision about it without realizing it at the time.

 

[PiyozR]

I'm getting close to finishing the character mappings. Well… Technically I finished the mapping already. I'm working on things like charts and weeding out mistakes.

I've attached a small sample of my progress sofar. Hunting down each of the glyphs one-by-one for all of the 127 letters and putting them in my program (and correcting the inevitable mistakes I'll make) is going to take time.

What I meant to ask is what you're creating. Character mappings for what, exactly?