Re: I need advice

On Wednesday 04 June 2003 02:18 am, Sarah Marie Parker-Allen wrote:
> I am going to write a story about insane auxlangers.
        "Insane auxlangers" is redundant. :)

> Well, it's not JUST
> about the auxlangers, but the auxlangers and their legacy are featured
> prominently.  I need to come up with two things: first, a more-or-less
> universal alphabet that can represent more or less all of the sounds in
> English, Chinese, Arabic, Hindu, and Russian (as well as 12 other alien
> languages I haven't had time to really think through) and will be extremely
> easy to read.
        Good luck! I mean it--if you succeed, that will be quite a feat. :)

> Second, two lists of absolutely vital words (one for
> emergencies and really critical operations in an interstellar commercial
> transportation environment, the other for really common words that won't
> make it to the first list but will still be useful).
        Hint: think about airline travel. All commercial pilots use English
internationally. Maybe there's something out there that describes common
English terms related to flying.

> I thought about going
> to that auxlang list, but it sounds like a frightening place.
        There be dragons...

> Anyway, I'm
> pretty sure that I can use the Basic English and universal concepts word
> lists that have been talked about here and elsewhere, but I need some kind
> of information about how to interpret th! ose crazy sound charts
> (X-SAMPA???) and what kinds of sounds exist, made by living beings, that
> aren't quantifiable using those charts.
        Well, grab ahold of an IPA chart and look at all the blank boxes; the grey
ones mean that the sound is (humanly) impossible, while the white ones mean
that the sound is possible, but not very common. Think of Czech "r-hacek," as
in "Dvorak." (BTW: pharyngeal trills are fun, although difficult to image in
a stream of sound.)

> I'm hoping that I'll need less
> than 200 symbols for that part -- anyone care to dash my hopes early enough
> in this game that I can come up with some other key plot point?
        Well, since it's about insane auxlangers, you can always have a bit of a
back-history that explains that the auxlanger who is responsible for your
system was a bit myopic in imagination, but with the strong political
connections necessary to push his[1] proposal through without much peer
review. So any gaps in the "essential" vocabulary are his fault. For example,
let's imagine that he created a perfect philosophical auxlang like Ro, where
every letter represents a concept or idea. Unfortunately, he (being
philosophically minded, of course) neglected to include much more than a base
root that covers all the range of human and alien emotions (modified with
"good" or "bad" and so on), which makes it rather easy to say "The warp core,
she's gonna breach!" in a single syllable, but difficult to confess your
undying love to a pretty young Klingon while explaining that you don't like
the way that Klingons "do it." So your characters could constantly be
muttering under their breath all sorts of curses and imprications against the
auxlanger, while keeping an eye out for the political officer, who would
throw them in the brig if they say one word that isn't Received Auxlang.
        Hmm...if you don't write this, I think I will. Could be interesting (without
the Klingon, naturally, since they're © Paramount, with big, hulking lawyers
who would like nothing better than to grind my bones into bread).

> Also, for
> those who are into either space stuff or sci-fi stuff, is there a list out
> there of the kinds of terms and parts-of-a-ship that are necessary for a
> sci-fi author to know?  I'm thinking "pitch," "yaw," "power core," and
> "hull integrity" type terms...
        Step 1. Forget you ever watched "Star Trek" and that anyone by the name of
"Scotty" or "Geordi" ever existed. Step 2. Create an auxlanger who grew up on
the stuff, and thinks that's how it really ought to be. Step 3. Step back and
watch the good times roll. :) Lots of words for "power core," "hull
integrity," "hull breach," "warp core breach" (even though they don't have
anything resembling warp technology), and "antimatter injector," but the
words for "screwdriver," "hammer," "wrench," and "fishing pole" differ only
by a single vowel. If at all.
        Evil...
        :Peter

[1] Does anyone know of a _female_ auxlanger? Perhaps this particular malady
is restricted to men only...
--
Oh what a tangled web they weave who try a new word to conceive!

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