Monday, May 24, 2010

Messing About

Still messing about. Can't seem to be satisfied with the characters so I keep changing them. I want to be able to write them easily (with both hands as I am ambidextrous) and have a flow to them. I also really don't want to copy symbols I saw although I think I have without knowing it. LOL.

Grammar is FINALLY coming along. It's finally starting to take shape and I am starting to be able to write whole sentences. I've worked out some basic punctuation (full stop, question mark etc) and have begun managing to sort out the tenses.

Tenses....these have been a complete pain in the ass. I keep getting confused and having to change it. I don't want to do what Latin does which is add something to a word for every different tense, which gives you words which are 20 characters long, but I don't want to copy English either. The present tense has been interesting because I don't want to use that all the time so I've made the present tense 'indicator' (a prefix) only applicable for things which are non continuous.
ie. "I call" is different to "I am calling" Both are present tense but one is continuous and one only applies to the moment. In Selmari a specific present tense only applies to the non continuous. Something such as "I love you" doesn't have an intended time limit and so would be left plain (in it's neutral form).

Possessive & Passive...also a pain in the ass but slowly getting there. I can see why tips say "work on the grammar early". Because now that I have the grammar starting to get there I can begin to hear how the language sounds so speak and as I'm trying to get a softer, slower feeling than English I can adapt it to fit more easily.

Funny moment...
I've got a Latin exam soon, for uni, and found myself saying my word for "to be" instead of Latin's the other day. Realised I really can't work on both at the same time. LOL. Would be funny to put Selmari in my Latin exam instead though. Although I don't think it would pass. :D

Anyway...Latin to study so I'll leave it there. Getting closer and closer to the point of being able to put still, like actual words, up online. However I don't want to put stuff up and then take it down so I'm waiting until it's how I want it.

I can't believe how exciting this is! :) I'm loving this and am only slightly ticked off that I can remember Selmari fine...remembering Latin....no hope!

Happy Conlanging!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Grammar is getting there

Wow...the grammar for this project is coming along quickly at the moment. It's amazing how one minute you have no idea and the next you are writing whole sentences. I've now got about 100 words, a basic grammatical structure, tenses, pronouns and characters. I printed some stuff today and wrote down some basic sentences to get the feel for it. It was VERY cool. I can't wait for tomorrow but seeing as it's almost 3am it's time I went to sleep. Honestly I could work on this for another hour or more but I have class at 11am and have to be up at 9:30 so sleep is in order. Tomorrow I'll work on this some more.

I never thought that learning Latin would be so helpful but it has been. Seeing how a different grammatical structure can work has been priceless and now I can begin to use my knowledge to create Selmari.

I'll admit I'm reluctant to put words up here at the moment. I keep changing them because they don't feel right so if I put them online and I don't like them in two months then...what? Take them down? Edit them? No...I think I'll wait until later to put up actual words....but it's SO exciting to finally get something resembling a language down on paper.

:D

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Creating Selmarea

Selmarea, originally called Morgania, is a made up country made for my stories. It is completely fake and I created it simply to more effectively visulise my stories. The basic shape for the country was created a while ago and I had help making it look a lot more realistic.

The idea is that it is a country which is created after an alternative 'split' of the countries on Earth. So they break up a different way to create a unique country with unique animals, plants and people.

The name was changed only recently (this year) because I felt 'Morgania' was a bit too common. The name of the country is now Selmarea (pronounced like 'maria') and the language is called "Selmari".

The language is part of my own CONLANG project, which means constructed language. More about the language, the culture and the country is to come.

To be honest I have NO idea why I'm doing this but I don't care. I'm having so much fun that it doesn't really matter. However I have to admit I have thought (more than once) that the coolest thing EVER would be to walk down the street and hear a total stranger speaking YOUR language. How TOTALLY awesome would that be??!!

Whatever. Right now I'm just enjoying how fun this is. I'm SO glad I came across the CONLANG websites around. At least I know I'm not the only one who is totally crazy. LOL.