Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.12.08.15.25

I have decided to make a small reform in the orthography again, and this will affect the runes (if and when i finally create some) as well as the latin transliterations. It is becoming increasingly difficult at times to relate where the accent should fall on certain words, and, although i know where it should fall in my head, i need a way to express that. Henceforth, the main vowel of the accented syllable will be marked by a circumflex, and any other prominent (particularly non-iambic) syllables will be marked with an acute accent. Oh, hell, lets make it interesting. If the secondary syllable comes before the main syllable, it will be marked as acute; if it comes after, it will be grave. Therefore, words like "nahadberi§" would become "nahádberî§." The secondary syllable becomes important when a word is non-iambic, such as in the word "nahádâpten."

Hmmm...as lovely as that all is, it's not going to be totally possible until i create the runes, since there is no way in this font to put a circumflex over an å. How about for now using an acute accent for the primarily accented syllable, and a grave accent for the secondary? We'll worry about making it pretty later. Besides, crǻga doesn't look that bad, actually.

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.12.08.12.00

Mað is mother, since pað is father. It seemed only fair. Those seem to be words that are practically universal in nature; the word mother almost always contains a ma- while father almost always has some sort of bilabial or labiodental quality about it. (c.f. mother, Mutter, moder, madre, 媽媽, father, fǫðr, fader, Vatter, padre, 爸爸, and so on.)

Let's try another verse.

Ec man iǫtna, ár um borna
þá er forðom mic fœdda hǫfðo;
nío man ec heima, nío ívidi,
miǫtvið mœran fyr mold neðan.

New words we need:

giant	grålaga
year	avil
ago	-ið benþ
give birth	vercþid
there	ðraga
nine	nen
tree	victro
renowned	grava
ground	mo§ara

Sometimes it frightens me, the things that spring forth unbidden from my slightly misshapen cranium.

Jåg glacsi acgrålagaðul, vercþidwac acavilið benþ
ðraga parþ dyd cwarþ vercþid jågað
nen margað jåg glacsi, nen iviði,
e grava victraðulo mo§ariþ.

Some grammar here: since i've used it three times now, i think the suffix -wac will signify a past participle when it is used adjectivally (since, of course, there is no other sort of past participle in malt§egj). Also, the word benþ. This doesn't quite equate to "ago" as such, but emphasizes the -ið and together the two imply "ago." The word for "there" (ðraga) you may notice corresponds with its interrogative "where" (mlaga). I've decided that the ml- that denotes an interrogative word may be replaced with ðr- to indicate "this" or "that," and i may further extrapolate other grammar from these words in the future. Hence, we have several new words to look at:

mlåc	which	➨	ðråc	that, that thing
mlaga	where	➨	ðraga	there, in that place
mlaih	how much/many	➨	ðraih	that much, that many
mleð	who	➨	ðreð	that person
mlimiem	why	➨	ðrimiem	for that reason, because
mloc	which	➨	ðroc	wait, where did this come from?
mlumwe	when	➨	ðrumwe	then, at that time
mlycþid	how	➨	ðrycþid	that way, in that manner

Well, okay, i didn't realize that i had a mlåc and a mloc. I think i'll be doing away with the mloc. But moving on, since bleg means not, i'm going to rob the bl- and use it to create still more words...

mlåc	which	➨	blåc	nothing
mlaga	where	➨	blaga	nowhere
mlaih	how much/many	➨	blaih	none
mleð	who	➨	bleð	noöne
mlimiem	why	➨	blimiem	for no reason
mlumwe	when	➨	blumwe	never
mlycþid	how	➨	blycþid	in no way

I shall digress here for now, because it's going to take me a while to add these all to the lexicon.

I've come to this decision: diphthongs are fine and dandy, but in order to distinguish them from two distinct syllabic sounds, i and u when used in a diphthong will always become y and w, respectively. I've gone back and forth on this orthography a bit, but now as official decree of the High Council of Malt§egjaran, so mote it be. Anyway, back to updating the lexicon...

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.12.07.13.25

Well, the PDFification of the first two sections is complete. Well, it's nice to know that that works, anyway. I hate the Arial Unicode MS font, but she serves me well, so i shouldn't care if she's ugly. I made a few corrections to the lexicon. There were two places where i still had the letter k in place of c, and i also did away with the aa and replaced it with å, since it makes the orthography a little more standard. The first two parts of the malt§egj project have been sent off and subjected to public inquiry, so now i wait with bated breath for public response thereunto. In the meantime, i need a new direction to go with the language; another facet of its structure that i haven't yet explored. I suppose simple is the way to go now, for although i can put together grand constructions like "acdje§tiniulo" (with those rulers, or, literally, plural-rule-person-with-those), it occurs to me i am lacking certain key elements like, for example, "hello."

Oh. Before i forget, d'après a strange conversation the other night during Xena, the word for "love" is now "ðblewcþ."

Okay, i guess we'll go traditional with greetings:

Bjole'temet	good morning
Bjolet bara	good afternoon
Bjolet apten	good evening
Bjolet beri§	good night
Bjolet nad	good day

Nothing really new there, just recycled. The only new word is:

nad

day

Mlycþid melem ec?	How are you?
Bjolet, cwestrioþ, e melem?	Fine, thanks, and you?
Jåg blynþ Brauð.	My name is Brauð
Mlåcam melem blynþ?	What is your name?
Parþ blynwac jågað Aðramul.	They call me Aðramul.

New words:

cwestrioþ	thanks (c.f. cwestriem)
blynþ	to be named
blynwac	to call

I'm starting to realize that i have about all the grammar i need. My main lack at the moment is vocabulary. It's that time again to find something to translate. The vǫluspá worked well the last time around; it could work again. Only from the beginning this time, and with a slightly different approach:

Hlióðs bið ec helgar kindir,
meiri oc minni, mǫgo Heimdalar.
vildo at ec, Valfǫðr, vel fyrtelia
vorn spiǫl fira, þau er fremst um man.

New words we'll need to translate this passage: silence, child, big, small, son, battle-slain, father, old, tales, men, early, & remember. And he did reach into his magic bag and pull out words of speech, and yea he saw that they were good, for all that Syd said was sacred. So mote it be:

silence	aþ
child	rata
big	borga
small	pelci
son/daughter	ratacaþ
battle	blocþ
slay	clågeh
father	pað
old	velc
story	gu§e
man	hanac
early	temtið
most, -est	naran-
remember	glacsi

So Spake Syd. Now let's try this...

Aþ, cwestriem, bjolet acrata,
borga e pelci, ratacaþ Heimdalu
Parþ dyd gjot cleg jåg, blocþumul-clågehnacu pað, ðac melemat
velc gu§ul achanacu, calc ec narantemtið calcað jåg glacsi.

Well, that was tiresome, but i did run across another grammar point. Comparitive and superlative adjectives. I think i am going to use prefixes for these (because let's face it--i'm getting a little too suffix-happy). Naran- is the prefix for "-est" or "most;" i suppose now i have to come up with some more...

palan-	least
pal-	less
nar-	more, -er
naran-	most, -est

Well, that's a good set of words for today. More to come.

[Editor's Notes]

This is the end of what i've been calling "Malt§egj Project Part I," as this is when I published the first PDF, "for posterity," (a.k.a. you), in order to insure that nothing went haywire in my random changing of fonts.  (The original word document at this point is quite unintelligible.)

Part II coming up...

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.12.06.11.14

I've finally figured out the whole PDF thing; unfortunately that also meant getting rid of Times New Roman and changing everything over to Arial Unicode MS, which i think is a stupid looking font, but it has all the characters i need and doesn't seem to have the personality quirks of Times when i try converting it. Besides, this supports most of the characters i have been using without the need for different fonts. So here goes... I'll PDFify this one too and see how it goes with the malt§egj runes in there (even though i've decided firmly against using them by now).

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.11.07.14.20

I created a bit of a web page today for malt§egj verbs. A few new words were added:

blai	particle indicating progressive tense
laa	particle indicating subjunctive tense
cwelm	true, truth

E.g. Jaag bleg bliv cleg melem laa blai ðac jaaga cwelmaðul
I don't believe that you are telling me the truth.

The page can be found at http://meaddragon.sphosting.com/linguistics/maltschegj_verbs.html. [Editor's note: No, it can't!  I forgot I even had anything hosted there...]

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.10.20.13.25

A few new words today, since i posted in the Artificial Languages club a few translations in my various languages.

mala bleg acteflðapul cuestriem!!! (releb parþ nag barakoþ)
[sit not desks-on-the please!!! or they will collapse]

...is the bit i posted in the club.

New words:

mala	to sit
cwestriem	please
releb	or (i added this to the conjunctions above)
barakoþ	collapse

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.10.12.15.21

I need days of the week and months of the year and such. In fact, i need to create a nice little useful calendar system that i can use in practical situations as well as for malt§egj.

Thus is the calendar i propose:

Twenty-four months of fifteen days each, plus the four solstices/equinoxes and one cross-quarter day each year. The cross-quarter day will change each year, moving one quarter backwards, thereby giving us a leap year every fourth year in which there will be two cross-quarter holidays. The year will start/end on the winter solstice (blewcþulsom). The twenty-four months will correspond to the solar terms, the zodiac, the cross-quarters, the solstices, and the equinoxes.

Okay, as i was trying to map this out a bit i realized that my math was faulty--such a system would give me a leap year every three years. How about this? Every year, Samhain will count as its own month, and every fourth year so will Beltane? Nah, too boring. We need something more exciting than that. Every year will have a Moon Festival! The eleventh full moon of every year (usually the Hunter Moon or Blood Moon) will be considered its own month. This will be around Samhain anyway, and will be used for its celebration.

Every fourth year this month will last for two days, and a huge festival will be expected! Bloody pagans. But every twenty-fifth Double Moon Fesival will be skipped, in reverence for Hecate, or her malt§egj equivalent, and the eleventh new moon of the year will be reserved as a day of her celebration. The Moon Festival will not be held in those years.

Hmm, that's getting a little complicated and the Moon Festival would have to take place in the middle of other months. I don't like that at all. Okay, back to the original extra cross-quarter days, and then i'll figure out where to put the leap day later.

Okay, so here is an example of a four-year maltschegj calendar cycle: 

Ya know what? This is way too virgo for malt§egj. I'll use this for dlaci instead. Malt§egj is going to get a thirteen-month calendar of twenty-eight days each, with an extra day at the point between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice (technically Samhain) which will be the start of the malt§egj year. In leap years there will be an extra day at this point; one will end the old year, the next will begin the new.

And that being said, i don't have time now to come up with one. Stay tuned...

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.10.10.17.21

Okay, so i do have something to add after all. I have improved the runes a bit, but i’ve still been unable to come up with a suitable system for the vowels, but given the shape and æsthetic qualities of the runes, i’ve decided to use a system much like in Hebrew where the vowels will supercede the runes themselves. Diphthongs may occur and will be read from top to bottom. I will also add a character much like the Hebrew letters א and ע, although whereas in Hebrew these have a distinct sound, this rune will be silent and will act only as an indicator of a vowel. For instance, in the word “adina,” the runes would look something like this: אDN superceded by aia (which would look something like: ^ּ^). Until i figure out how to do that with my nifty little font creator, i don’t think i can explain it more clearly.

Vowel characters are the following (or as near as i can come to it without a font):

a	^
aa	c
e	<
i, y	˙, v
o	>
u, w	|
y	`

And i’ve dreamt up some pretty squigglies and swirls in there as well.

One problem remains, however, and that it the question of how to distinguish between voiced and unvoiced runes. Originally, as stated earlier, i used a vertical line on the left side of each character, but since none of the characters look right without this line, i must figure out another way to represent this. I was considering perhaps some sort of ˝ either above or to the left of the character to indicate that i was indeed voiced.

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.10.10.16.40

Well, after a slight break there, i’ve only created one new useful word lately, which is glaad, meaning language.

Okay, so where do i pick up?

I’ve been thinking i need to start revising some things, but i don’t remember what and i can’t recall what i wanted to revise it to. Something tells me i need to revise those prepositional suffixes a bit, although i already tried to do so. Okay, here’s another go at it.

-a	to, towards, at
-að	(accusative preposition) to, at
-alm	without
-alh	on, on the side of
-ap	on, on top of
-av	after
-e	in
-eci	until
-eð	around, about
-eloi	about, of
-em	over, above
-i	for
-ið	before, in front of
-ila	small
-ili	next to, beside
-it	behind
-iþ	under, beneath
-o	from
-oc	with
-om	before
-u	of
-ul	the
-uli	this
-ulo	that
-ut	out, out of

Okay, nevermind again. Looking at them again they all seem pretty reasonable, although –eloi might be a little long. I like the sound of it though.

Parac is too long. It is henceforth “pac.” Although “pac ec” doesn’t sound so pleasant. Okay, nevermind. It shall remain parac and parec.

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.29.16.44

Conjunctions:

Well, we already have e for and cleg for that.

and	e
but	reb*
or	releb
yet/however
because/for
when
if
whether
that	cleg
who/whom	mleð/að
which/that	mlaac/að
where	mlaga
why	mlimiem
how	mlycþid
how much	mlaih
although

In the case of certain subordinate conjunctions which also function as question words/demonstrative/interrogative adjectives when they are modified by a preposition, the preposition, as always, becomes its suffix. These interrogative pronouns can actually be seen as contractions here, and it may make more sense to extend them to their full meaning to better understand the grammar, using the word “which.” (who = which person, what = which thing, where = in which place, why = for which reason, how = in which manner, how much = which amount, and so on) I will not make a distinction between the interrogative forms and the demostrative forms, simply for lack of imagination.

* By the way, for the sake of giving full credit where it is due, i should include the following conversation that went on as i was typing this section.

mioethdrauci: okay, i need a good word for "but"...got any suggestions?
domotran: in what lang?
mioethdrauci: malt§egj
domotran: hmmm......reb?
mioethdrauci: hmmm, that's not bad. i like that...thanks :O)

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.29.13.39

Well, finally i get a chance to work on this a bit more. The lack of actively working on the language, however, has given me a lot of time to theorize about it and think about it. There are definitely some things i would like to change about it already. The first of which goes right back to the very beginning with the prepositional suffixes. I want to revamp them completely, because they’re a bit clumsey and i just plain don’t like the way they sound.

New word: yacni means black. (Ah, finally i get a chance to use that second value of y!)

New suffix: -ila is a diminutive.

As far as word order is concerned, it’s really not that important since we have all our nifty little suffixes, but i see no reason to make nouns precede adjectives. I may make a firmer rule about this later, but for now, stylistically, let us say that adjectives should precede nouns.

I've updated the runes a little bit, but i have yet to update the font.

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.27.16.30

I haven’t been around to add much to malt§egj lately, but i did add a word. The word for sister is “adina” because that’s my sister’s name, and it seemed only fair. However, the word for brother will not be “eduardo” or “matthew” or “valentin” or “vladimir,” for reasons i think should be self-explanatory.

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.21.13.02

Well, that little tangent got me off track for a day which i spent creating an IPA font only to find a better one for free download from the IPA website. But in any case it should allow me to spruce things up a bit.

I’m still mad that i wasn’t able to convert this into a PDF file—one of my fonts had a licencing restriction, and once i had taken care of that i noticed that any unicode characters i used showed up as garbled text

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.20.20.03

I've created some preliminary runes and the font face looks pretty good, but i have yet to develop a good system for the vowels. This seems the sort of language where vowels should be written separately as individual runes, but the runic system i had created uses diacritics to denote vowels, so i may have to create some. But here is a sample of some of the consonants:

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.20.17.53

I think i have the rune riddle solved. I created a set of runes about six months ago which were very æsthetically pleasing to the eye, and seem to fit the mood of this language quite nicely, although they are a little bit complex. They look a little like hangul and cuneiform had an orgy in a blender with heiroglyphics. They are very regal-looking, in my humble opinion, and easy to read, but a bitch to write. We’ll see—maybe i’ll simplify them as time goes on. Now i have to figure out how to make a font out of them; something which will not be as easy a feat.

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.20.12.00

Times of Day.

nahadberi§	dawn
temet	morning
nahadtemet	noon
bara	afternoon
nahadbara	dusk
apten	evening
nahadapten	midnight
beri§	night

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.18.17.40

Okay, i hate runes. I’m going to have to rethink this part of the malt§egj language. In the meantime, i think just to pass the time i’m going to start coming up with some significant words so i can incorporate some of its use into my already overly polyglottal BOS.

Seasons and Holidays.

blewcþ	winter
blewcþulsom	winter solstice (yule)
nahadblewcþ	imbolc
gðrantþ	spring
gðrantþulsom	vernal equinox (ostara)
nahadgðranþ	beltane
gjobj	summer
gjobjulsom	summer solstice (litha)
nahadgjboj	lughnasadh
cfidj	autumn
cfidjulsom	autumnal equinox (mabon)
nahadcfidj	samhain

Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.09.18.11.47

Okay, i’ve had the weekend to pore over this, and i’ve got a couple of changes i would like to make. Firstly, to some of the prepositions.

to, at (-at) is now –a
in (-um) is now –e
for (-ic) is now –i
from (-o) is still –o
of (-ul) is now –u

I have created a bunch of runes, but i have yet to assign values to any of them. This is where i let the virgo side out for a while and systematically and mathematically went through all possible variants thereof, deleted the ones i didn’t like, and ended up with approximately 112 runes, many of which still need to be weeded out. My project for today will not be quite as intellectual, but will mostly consist of drawing up the runes and creating a font out of them, which i will then be able to incorporate into this document.

Malt§egj Project, 04.20.00.09.15.15.20

Okay, i've reached that annoying point in a language when i must find something worthy of translating and try to translate it, making up new words as necessary, to see what new grammar kinks i've got to work out.  The biggest problem with this is always finding something to translate.
   
I thought briefly about using the vǫluspá, but i'm not sure that really has the right "mood" to it.  But since i'm not sure anything really has the right mood, i'm willing to try a few verses...

Here is the registry of dwarves from the vǫluspá.  It's a bit long, but mostly because of names, and the translation shouldn't be too complex.

Þá gengo regin ǫll    á rǫcstóla,

Oh my various gods, first line and i realize an enormous oversight already that i hadn't thought of before.  I suppose it would be good if things could be plural.  Okay, this is going to be a pre-prepositional suffix, i suppose.  Or should it be a prefix?  Hmm, that would be interesting.  Or a vowel shift?  Nah, that's what i've got tsœxisca for.  Prefix it is.  For now, let's say "ac-." 

e cului acdje§tinul dyd t§oc    acdje§tbvlacatul,

I think i may be using too many syllables with this bloody language!  Anyway, one tiny line and we're at a whole new level now.

New words:

e	and
cului	all
dje§tin	ruler
dje§t	rule, government
bvlaca	chair, stool

ginnheilog goð,    oc um þat gættuz,
craaga bjolet acblot,    e uleloi parþ dyd sembliv.

I had to fudge this one a bit.  "ginnheilog" i translated as "all-holy" which i then turned into "very holy."  "Sembliv" i kinda fudged as well.  "Sem" i just decided means "together" and "bliv," as stated earlier, means "think," so "think together" i thought worked nicely for "gættuz" (took council).

New words:

craaga	very
bjolet	holy, good
blot	god
sem	together

hverr scyldi dverga    dróttin scepia,

Uh-oh, interrogative pronouns!  Now, do i want to have a nice theme to them, like english and its wh's or french and its qu's or icelandic and its hv's, or do i just pull letters out of a hat for this one too?  I am quite fond of that gj sound—perhaps i'll use that as a basis.  Or how about the combination "ml"? 

mleð	who
mloc	what
mlaac	which
mlumwe	when
mlaga	where
mlimiem	why
mlycþid	how
mlaih	how much/many

mleð djogo§ acmalkiul    ga§agað mahat

New words:

djogo§	to ought, should
malki	dwarf
ga§ag	people, race
mahat	to make, to create

ór Brimis blóði    oc ór Blains leggiom.
Brimiul svarðoc§ul    e Blainul acsturðoc§ul

New words:

-oc§	out of, from, made of
svarð	blood
sturð	bone

Notice that i've decided to add the definite article in here as well.  It is easier to see why if you read it as "from the blood of Brimi" than "from Brimi's blood." (Lit: "Brimi's blood-from-the and Blain's plural-bone-from-the."

Well, just that one verse caused quite a lot of rearranging and thinking to be done.   It's been two hours, and i really should start doing some work.  Unfortunately they don't pay me to sit around and make up strange languages all day.  Actually, they do, but they don't know that, and i don't want them to find out.

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.15.11.11

I need a good negative sounding word for "not" and "no."  I'm tempted to follow most of the rest of western civilization and make it something with "n-," but this is going to require some thought.  Then again, of course, the greek "δέν and δέ-" play a large role as well in many latin-based english words (defragment, detract, decentralization, &c.).  The word "nag" sprang to mind immediately for some strange reason, but since nag is already the auxiliary indicator of the future tense, and since it means snake in hindi, and since it isn't far from "gam" backwards, i will have to think further.  Something negative-sounding but not necessarily related to anything in particular.  "blec"?  No, that doesn't sound right.  Because then "isn't" would be "blec ec" or "ec blec" (i haven't decided on word order yet).  How about "bleg"?  Yes, i do think i like that better.

yes	gam
no, not	bleg
maybe	vi§ivi§i

I don't know where vi§ivi§i came from; it just popped into my mind, and i liked it.  "And on the first day he said ‘Let there be vi§ivi§i!' And lo! he saw that it was good."  No, i'm not on crack.  Shut up.

"Oh, i didn't know that.  Maybe you could tell me about it."
"O, jaag dyd bleg apþan uloað.  Vi§ivi§i melem vlaad ðag jaagað paraceloi."

Okay, a couple new words there.

apþan	to know
vlaad	to be willing to

Something just occurred to me about those durned suffixes again.  Technically, the accusative form of "that" should be "ulað," but if i did that, there would be no distinction between ulo and uli in the accusative, or indeed with any suffixes added to them.

Official decision for the moment:  The french get by very nicely without that distinction, so should this language.  Ulo and uli will remain separate when they stand alone, but when they take an accusative form, they will be "ulað."  When they modify a noun, however, they will behave in the same way as the definite article, hence they will follow the suffix.

Jaag dyd culm ulað. I saw that.
Jaag dyd culm klagaðulo.  I saw that book

Totally new subject.  The preposition "from" is now "-o."

"I am from Minneapolis."
"Jaag ec Myniapolyso."

New idea here.  I'm having a hard time coming up with suitable words for certain things, so i'm going to try a little experiment.  It's time to create the runes, and when they're done, i'll do this the old-fashioned nordic way:  I'll throw the runes in a bag and pull them out, and create a word from the letters i've drawn.  Better still, i'll just draw out consonants, and fill in the vowels as i see fit.  Heck, maybe i'll do that anyway and pull out some vowels too.  It could keep things interesting.

Okay, i have 36 runes, which seems to be a nice number.  A, AA, B, C, CS, C§, D, DJ, DZ, Ð, E, F, G, GJ, GZ, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, §, T, TS, T§, Þ, U, V, W, Y, Y, Z.  Or, rather, those are the letters that will eventually become runes.  That will be a project for another day, or at least another hour.  Now for the drawing...

By the way, i've decided that "aa" will be pronounced as the IPA symbol ɔ.  Much like the o in dog, or the aw in awful.  The word jaag rhymes exactly with standard american pronunciation of the word dog.

I need a new name for this language, because calling it "New Language Project" is getting really obnoxious.  That will be the first word to come out of the hat.

And here it is folks... Aw, jeez, that's not impressive-sounding.  Fodzat§egj.  How about backwards, then?  Gjet§adzof.  That's not even fun to say.  Get rid of the fodza. Malt§egj.  Hmmm, now that sounds better.  By official decree of the High and Most Holy Ruler of the Kingdom of  Malt§egjaran, this language is called Malt§egj.

Maybe i should add a few duplicate runes of ones that i particularly like, or ones that sound good in this language.  I have a particular predeliction for Ð, GJ, R, L, M, J, and Þ.  Perhaps i should have runes for all plosive-fricative combinations.  Adding the labials and the dentals would then give us the following rune combinations:  BV, BÐ, BZ, BJ, DV, DÐ, DZ, DJ, GV, GÐ, GZ, and GJ; and their unvoiced counterparts: PF, PÞ, PS, P§, TF, TÞ, TS, T§, CF, CÞ, CS, and C§.  Not sure if adding 24 separate runes to an alphabet just to save space is really a good idea, but since i have not yet created the runes, i'll just wait a bit and work that out later.

A, AA, B, BÐ, BJ, BV, BZ, C, CF, CS, C§, CÞ, D, DÐ, DJ, DV, DZ, Ð, E, F, G, GÐ, GJ, GV, GZ, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, PF, PS, P§, PÞ, R, S, §, T, TF, TS, T§, TÞ, Þ, U, V, W, Y¹, Y², Z.  That is my alphabet thus far, although in the end it will not be an alphabet or futharc but its own order of things, which i have yet to determine.

I'm getting obsessive about this.  This whole project is to try and suppress my anal virgo side, so, moving on....

New words:

gjot	to want (Don't look at me—that's how they came out of the hat!)
t§oc	to go
badj	to have
t§aa§	to come
tamec	to need
guþeh	to like
t§ecmadð	to bring

This is tiresome, and these words are far from æsthetic.  I think i'm going to take a break for a while.

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.15.00.40

I've decided that klag is just going to have to be clag, and i'm getting rid of k altogether. I toyed with the idea of keeping k as an initial consonant and c a final or middle consonant, but it's too early in the game to be thinking about æsthetic and silly stylistic approaches to orthography, especially since they're all going to end up runes anyway.

Two new suffixes:

-uli	this
-ulo	that

When used as a subject, they stand alone.

"Is this the book you were telling me about?"
"Uli ec §ylþ clagul calceloi melem dyd ðac jaagað?"

"Yes, it's my favourite. I stole it from that library."
"Gam, parec jaagul bocuram. Jaag dyd fram paracað clagaranutulo.

A couple new things here. Gam is now yes, and i think it has a very affirmative air about it, despite the fact that it means vulture in swedish. Numbers, i have decided, are also going to be suffixive in nature. Here i say "bocuram" for favourite, while it should actually be "favourite one." the suffix -aran will signify a place for something, much like -ary in english.

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.14.19.15

I suppose i should start thinking about exactly what sorts of letters i am going to be using for this language. I will type up the preliminary structure of course in latin letters, but the language itself will almost certainly be runic, and i need to figure out what sounds i will be using.

A	fAther	a
B	Boy	b
C	Cold	k
D	Dog	d
Ð	THen	ð
E	Elf, dAY	ɛ, e
F	Frog	f
G	Gourd	g
H	εύΧαριστώ	χ
I	machIne	i
J	viSion	ʒ
K	Kite	k
L	Love, littLe	l (no distinction between narrow and broad)
M	Man	m
N	Need	n
O	Open	o
P	Pig	p
R	thRough	r (slightly trilled)
S	See	s
§	SHe	ʃ
T	Ten	t
Þ	THing	θ
U	dOOm	u
V	Very	v
W	We	w
Y	If, Yet	ɪ, j
Z	Zoo	z

I'll probably also have a couple of runes for combination sounds like ts, t§, ks, dz, dj, gz, and perhaps more.

I was planning to use y as a glide as in english, but i needed something to represent a short i (like in pig), so i'm going to have to find something else. I've already used j too, so that's ruled out. What's left? Q? X? No, that would just be wrong. I guess i'll also use y, and i suppose it should be obvious. After all, i don't think the short i sound would very often be found preceding another vowel. In fact, i can't even make that sound except maybe "Iu" which i guess would be roughly equivalent to the ever-disgusting "eew." I'll risk it for now, and if it shows up later i'll find another way around it. There will be two separate runes, in any case. I think, however, i will use only one rune for e, even though it can be short or long.

I like the word ðac. I think it will mean "to say" or "to tell."

Question words. Already feeling my feet slip on dangerous ground. I want an interrogative particle that will signify that a sentence is a question, like 嗎 in chinese or "ĉu" in esperanto. Chinese puts it at the end. Esperanto puts it at the beginning. I'm not going to have anyone say i'm just mimicking either of them, so i'm going to put it in the middle. How do you feel about the word "§ylþ"? I like it myself. It sounds almost dirty!

"Did you tell her about the book he saw on my table?"
"Melem dyd §ylþ ðac pulað klageloiul..."

Grammar alert! Okay, do i want a subordinate conjunction there or not? I think i do. Henceforth shall the word "which" or "that" be "calc." Thank you.

"...calcað pul dyd culm jaagul teflðapul?"

Speaking of subordinate conjunctions, i propose to make the other "that" "cleg." E.g. "I had thought (that) you told her about the book (which) he saw on my table." "Jaag dyd cwarþ bliv cleg melem dyd ðac pulað klageloiul calcað pul dyd clum jagul teflðapul."

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.14.18.00

"Jalc dyd gelc melemat teflðaðam, mal melemul garm dyd nahad paracað."
"We gave you a table, but your ferocious hell-hound broke it."

A couple new interesting things came up with that sentence. melemul apparently works well for a possessive pronoun, in this case "your." Having prepositional suffixes makes sentence structure less important. Garm isn't really a word in this language, it's the name of the dog that guards the gates of Gnipahell in Norse mythology ("Geyr nu Garmr miǫc fyr Gnipahelli..."), and i thought "ferocious hell-hound" a suitable translation.

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.14.17.00

By the way, j is equivalent to it's counterpart in french (ʒ, if you will). I'm not sure why the aa in jaag, but i'd like it to have a nice long drawn out sound, and i also don't want it to get confused with scandanavian languages (this would be pronounced "ʒɑ:g" rather than "ya[g].")

Okay, objective pronouns. I don't think i want them. Here's an idea—pronouns act in the same manner as nouns, and all objective nouns just get a bit of a prepositional suffix to show that something is being done to them. Since it seems to work for quite a few other languages, i think we'll use "at" as the accusative preposition. Hence, "he" is pul; "him" is pulat. If, however, the verb implies a different preposition, that preposition shall be used instead.

"I see him."
"Jaag culm pulat."

BUT:

"I think about him."
"Jaag bliv puleloi."

Ding ding ding! First major change of mind. I think i will invent a brand new accusative preposition, having no direct relation to anything else. "-að" will do for now. "Jaag culm pulað." That way i can get away with saying things like "I give the book to him" and not be too confusing. "Jaag gelc klagað pulat."

You know, some would argue that every new prepositional suffix i invent could be considered it's own case. Please just think of them as prepositions, though, because i don't want to admit that in the last two hours i've invented a language that already has 20 cases and counting. If you do choose to think of it like that, take comfort in the thought that they're at least all regular. So far.

I've decided there will be no conjugation beyond adding e to the end of plural verbs. All tenses will have to fend for themselves with auxiliary verbs. Wow, this is sounding more like english all the time, isn't it? But i'm going to go extreme about this one. Not even a past tense. I suppose i shall need a past participle eventually though. Maybe not...

dyd	past auxiliary verb
cwarþ	perfect auxiliary verb (followed by infinitive)
nag	future auxiliary verb

Melem dyd gelc paracað parþat. You gave it to them.
Melem cwarþ gelc paracað parþat. You have given it to them.
Melem dyd cwarþ gelc paracað parþat. You had given it to them.
Melem nag gelc paracað parþat. You will give it to them.

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.14.16.10

Okay, the lexicon so far is completed:

-alm	without
-alh	on, on the side of
-ap	on, on top of
-at	to, toward, at
-av	after
ec	is
-eci	until
-eð	around, about
-eloi	about, of
-em	over, above
-ic	for
-ið	before, in front of
-ili	next to, beside
-it	behind
-iþ	under, beneath
klag	book
-oc	with
-om	before
teflðu	table
-ul	the
-ul	of
-um	in
-ut	out, out of

I suppose since i have a definite article, i should consider having an indefinite article that follows the same ules. How about –am?

"The house is without a book on the table"
"Margul ec klagalmam teflðapul"

Where on earth do i dream up these sentences? Okay, time to expand our vocabulary a bit.

I'm using the letter c in place of k, because as everyone who has read about any of my languages knows, i have some strange aversion to the letter, except in dlaci, where i use the letter c occasionally in place of t§, and k must therefore fend for itself.

I take that back. I used k in the word klag, but clag just doesn't look right. I will resolve that one later on, then, i suppose.

This seems to be turning into an explorarory journal of sorts, which is cool i suppose. Maybe i can sell it and make a huge fortune and retire to that little house in upstate New York and live happily ever after on the proceeds. Yeah right. Okay, okay, vocabulary.

How about verbs? I didn't really want to think about them yet, but i need some. Let's conjugate "ec."

I suppose that would be silly without pronouns. I think i don't want to conjugate too much in this language. I overdid it in dlaci with a couple hundred conjugations of each verb, but no pronouns, so here i think i'll overdo it on the pronouns instead and not conjugate anything very much. Maybe a simple differentiation between singular and plural.

jaag	I
melem	you
pul	he/she (no differentiation)
parac	it
jalc	we
melem	you (no differentiation between singular and plural)
melmine	you (very formal)
parþ	they

I am trying to keep this language very simple and beautiful and basic. I think it may be a subconscious effort to conquer the obsessive-compulsive virgo in me and see if i can deal with the fact that there is only one form of "they" and that all the words i've chosen so far have been completely at random with no relation to anything whatsoever, except for the word melmine, which i tried to relate to melem. The chaos is smothering me! But i like it!

Okay, the conjugation of the verb "to be."

to be	ec
I am	jaag ec
you are	melem ec
you are	melmine ec
he is	pul ec
she is	pul ec
it is	parac ec (or parec in vernacular)
we are	jalc ece
yall are	melem ece
you all are	melmine ece
they are	parþ ece

I'm tempted to delve into the past tense now, but i'll control myself for the moment.

New Language Project, 04.20.00.09.14.15.05

Malt§egj Project

An Exploratory Journal into the Creation of a Neo-Ancient Runic Tongue.

I've decided to start a new project from scratch here. This will be a bit like dlaci, but more free-form, with room for creativity over mathematics, but not bound to a language subgroup as are tsœxisca and latinova.

Prepositional suffixes. I got this idea indirectly from Tolkein, not because of something he created but rather because i misread a little runic dwarf tablet, and thought "wow, that's cool," before i realized that i was reading it wrong. I'll present a list of the endings i've created here with a cross-reference in german, french, and esperanto for more specific accuracy.

about	über	de	pri/koncerne	-eloi
after	nach	après	post	-av
around	um	à l'entour de	ĉircaû	-eð
before	bevor	avant	antaû	-om
before	vor	devant	antaû	-ið
behind	hinter	derrière	post, malantaû	-it
for	für	pour	pro, por	-ic
in	in	dans, en	en	-um
next to	neben	près de	apud	-ili
of	von	de	de	-ul
on	auf	sur	sur	-ap
on	an	sur	al, apud	-alh
out of	aus	au dehors	el	-ut
over	über	au dessus	super	-em
to	zu	à	al	-at
under	unter	au dessous	sub	-iþ
until	bis	jusqu'à	ĝis	-eci
with	mit	avec	kun	-oc
without	ohne	sans	sen	-alm

This list is of course merely preliminary, and may and most likely will be changed many times, but this is just an idea for now. Prepositions will be added to the end of the word they modify, as in chinese or case endings in latin.

E.g., "The book is on the table"
"Klagul ec teflðapul"

Just in translating that last sentence, numerous chapters have been added to this log. Foremost is the definite article, which is the suffix –ul, and suffixed prepositions precede it. Why? Because i just said so. –apul sounds infinitely better than –ulap, don't you think? In the case of the phrase "of the," –ul will be used twice, only because i happen rather to like it. It has a lovely rolling sound, i think. (E.g. "of the table" "teflðulul")

New Words so far:

klag	book
-ul	the
ec	is (I don't want to start thinking about verbs yet. I like it for now.)
teflðu	table

I just decided that the word for table is teflðu, rather than just teflð, which would be monstrously difficult to pronounce, so henceforth, when a vowel ends in a noun, the noun will be supplanted by the adjoining suffix. (It's already hard enough to pronounce if you don't know that the l is broad.)

I'm going to be keeping a lexicon as i write this, because as i've already found with every other language i've ever worked on, if you don't keep up with it from the start it will quickly become a near-impossible task.

Welcome to the Maltcέgj Project

Maltcέgj is a language project i worked on some eight or ten years ago, really before i'd ever heard of a blog or anything similar, although since i did write it in the form of a blog, i thought it appropriate to import it as such.  Perhaps one day i'll carry on with the project, once i finish up with my other more pressing ones.

In short summary, Maltcέgj was designed to be an a priori, largely uninflected language with a sound similar to, or at least largely inspired by, Welsh, though completely unrelated to IndoEuropean.  As I gradually worked on more language projects, Maltcέgj was rolled into the "Baraqesh" language family, which included other language projects of mine like Dlatci, Lzhaxu, and Barak (and for the record, i invented Barak years before i'd ever heard of Mr. Obama:  Do not mistake it for an over-inflected tribute).

If you really want the full story of Maltcέgj, I'd suggest you start at the beginning, at the oldest post, and work forward.