World Ancient Wynnic Language Rework

Now re-invent High Gavellian

 

it is planned, though we want to finish Wynn first

 

the year is 2030 and CT has adopted new wynnic for all relevant quests. 30 threads are immediately written on the forums to correct all the poor grammar used.

 

this is impressive but please don't put a 10-grammatical-gender language into the game, learning 2 for french was bad enough

 

it is not as bad as it seems, since there is clear distinction between them with no exceptions.

 

This is one of the best, if not the best suggestion on this forum.

 

I'd imagine that a "CH" glyph would represent a /x/ sound (that merged with or came from /k/), not /kʰ/, and a "TH" glyph would represent a /θ/ sound (that merged with or came from /t/), not /tʰ/.

 

Huh, that's an interesting way of looking at it!

You've likely seen how the stops were already undergoing lenition by the time the language died in "Common Allophones", so those new glyphs being inserted for the new fricatives as the digraph variants die out could very well have happened at human hands when they got ahold of the language. It would be an interesting shift, but I could see how that would be possible.

It could then make sense, if you squint, why these glyphs don't show up in the transcriber: That's for older Ancient Wynnic, and the neo-glyphs still have a very marginal use.

 

google translate for Wynnic when?

 

thought about it, might be possible if I figure out how to deal with verb mutation

If I get bored or motivated...

 

A week and change later, for anyone who didn't get to read through it the first time. Quite maybe my final bump?

Q: Why in General Suggestions, instead of Your Work?

A: Above all else, this is dead seriously a suggestion. Even if it's not with the exacting depth and precision of this project, Wynn's language situation is in dire need of clarification and expansion. Honestly, so is much of its worldbuilding, but language - even just a formal understanding of what languages are being used - is a core pillar of that.
(Also, in order to keep continuity with the previous Lore Reworks)

 

Since the "grammatical genders" in this language don't correspond to human gender, have clear distinctions, and there are a lot of them, would it be better to call them "noun classes" like those in Swahili?

 

Quite possibly, yes! Had the articles been agglutinated with the rest of the noun, the resemblance would be even more striking. In the end, holding off on that and treating it as grammatical gender happened for a few reasons:

• Reason the First: Verb mutation. Verbs have to agree with the absolute/patient case noun of a sentence, and had it not been for simplification of the language to reduce overhead, would probably have wreaked havoc in other parts of the clause as well.
  
• Reason the Second: The noun classes aren't strict. They're tendencies, not rules, and they're not even particularly strong for tendencies. The lexicon is a bit lacking, in this context, but the intention was always for those categories to be loose post-hoc descriptions made by Olmic and later Human scholars.
• Which leads into the final reason: Historical inertia. The "Deep/Clear" grammatical distinction is a vestigial remain of the language's ancestral dual-gender system from before it began splitting nigh-uncontrollably. This isn't touched on in the post itself because we wanted this to be a technical document moreso than lorewriting, but the likening of grammatical gender to the elements and cosmic/planar forces (and pruning - notes say there was a dialect at one point with over 20) was the last stage of all of this, with Y'ero in the context of "Primal X Substance" being a new graft onto a much older world.

Edit: Whoops, crossed wires on Te and Y'ero there.

 

Can the example text be glossed as well?

ird tel o

 

the year is 2022 and WT has adopted new wynnic for all relevant example text. Questions are immediately written on the forums that inadvertently point out all the poor grammar used.

Old text is unfortunately deleted because I accidentally closed the tab without saving and this is actually my second draft of this response. The new text is:

Nyalhn! Leyste Wynntheory, io leysteor wynteca le tel o kox urn phe kan le lenestepoc resaln. Lih neroenon orz iste ir maldernre, sayl ird rern es eryt misye egezydro. Ym ore! ird rern kox wynn vergon che y’ero wynterid!

The "ird" you mention is def a hanging article, and has gotten deleted. There were also a few typos and some word choices that were grammatical but I felt were a bit clunky.

It translates as:
"Hello! We're Wynntheory, and we've been working on something new for all of you. This isn't gibberish, nor is it some language from the real world. That's right! We've made Ancient Wynnic from scratch!"

I really don't have time for a full gloss, but a lower-level translation might look something like this:
"Hello! We Wynntheory (are), and we have worked to a new idea because to you all sharing. The words simultaneous with you gibberish not (are), nor a language inside the world existing. That undesirable not! A language of wynn from a nothing (we) have created!

Common words and affixes in that paragraph:
io - and
wyn - perfect aspect ("have x-ed")
le - to/towards

Hope this helps!

 

Here is the old text:
Nyalhn! Leyste Wynntheory, io leyste wyntaka le ird tel o kox urn phe kan resan le leneste. Lih neroenon ren iste ir maldern re, sayn ird rern es eryt misye egezydro. Imte ore! wynterid ird rern kox wynn vergon che y’ero!

 

This is unironically the coolest thread on the forums

 

this is a minecraft server

 

and?

 

which makes it an ideal place to put it in, don't you think?