Fantasist's Scroll

Why is this fun?
Because, it’s an American military German Phrasebook from World War II and it contains phrases like:
“You will be rewarded”, though they translate it to the German for “I will give you money”.
But it also has, “Don’t try any tricks!”, “Don’t shoot!”, and vocabulary for everything from “goggles” to “undershorts” to “a laxative”.
Yes, indeed, everything that a soldier could need to know in one tidy, little phrasebook.

Where was this when I put together my own conlang phrasebooks? Ah, well, at least it’s out there now. Have fun!

A very geeky Friday Fun Link.
Ever wonder about languages that use something other than alphabets or close analogs to alphabets? Ever wonder how those languages are going to survive in a modern world where technology developed for very different languages dominates? Yeah, me, too. I’ve often tried to imagine what a kanji typewriter-keyboard might look like, for instance. Well, now I don’t need to wonder. Thanks to the website Japanese in the Age of Technology, I know what it looks like! This: Japanese Keyboards.

Well, it might not be as “freaky” as my usual Friday Fun Link fare, but it’s still cool, so click the link!

A favorite topic of mine.
Of course, you poor people who are regular readers here, besides being often frustrated at my lack of content, know that I love invented worlds. In fact, I’ve been playing a game in one called Ghyll. The game, as you might be aware, involves creating a fictitious world by way of writing a fictitious encyclopedia. It’s been loads of fun. But, we’re not the first folks to do it. I know of at least one other invented encyclopedia that describes a world other than our own: the Codex Seraphinianus.
Not only did the somewhat mysterious author invent a world as vast as his imagination, but he also invented a language and script to go with it. So, this entire book, which is now quite rare, is in an unknown language. A dead language of dreams. The entire book is like an artefact from aother world. And it’s quite beautiful.

I hope that makes up for last week’s less than spectacular Friday Fun Link!

I got the strangest e-mail last week.
I’m not sure if it was failed spam or if it was someone trying to communicate to me in their conlang or what. Here, take a look:

Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ….
That which brings the highest happiness!!

Interesting, isn’t it? Well, if anyone recognizes what the devil this means, let me know, okay?

Finally!
Well, after all the requests I’ve gotten for translating someone’s name into Tengwar, Sindarin or Quenya, finally someone has come up with an automatic transliterator. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to explain to someone in e-mail that I don’t know how to speak any form of Elvish and, therefore, cannot translate their favorite [Insert Relative Here]’s name into said language. So, imagine my reliefe and delight when I saw the Elvish Transliterator at 17 Web Place!
Now, I can just send everyone there. Of course, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of their application, but, frankly, I don’t care. I’m just overjoyed to have somewhere to send everyone who wants an Elvish name for their tattoo or boat or whatever, but doesn’t care quite enough to actually learn how to write in Tengwar themselves.

Besides, it’s Friday and an Elvish Transliterator has got to count as fun! So, go ahead, click the link and check it out.

This is the coolest book since the first encyclopedia!
To me, it is, anyway. I’ve been borrowing a friend’s copy of Facts About The World’s Languages and really enjoying it. I saw it on the shelf at his house back around Thanksgiving time and fell in love with it. It’s a little rich for my blood, right now, but I know that I’ll eventually get a copy. In a nutshell, Facts About The World’s Languages has basic phological and morphological thumbnails of virtually all the world’s known languages. It is super, super cool to see the phonogical analysis of major languages all laid out in easy-to-read tables and summarized in neat, little paragraphs. For one thing, it pretty well shows people making up their own languages how to layout such a description. For another, it’s providing me fodder for my own ideas about language creation. Best of all, it’s helping me do the hard parts, choosing a phonology and displaying it for others to read! That, for some reason, is the hardest damn thing for me. I just have a really hard time getting my head around the different labels for the syllabic descriptors. Frankly, I just can’t remember the difference between a labiodental consonant and a straight labial consonant and all that sort of thing. I guess it doesn’t really matter that much, but it bothers me.
In any case, this is the coolest bit of language-related inspiration that I’ve seen in a very long time. It neatly lays out complicated morphological systems in a way that makes sense to me. And, the short histories of the various languages are fascinating, as well. But, these thumbnails go into fairly good detail. For instance, they include influences from other languages, the probable evolution of the language, as well as the geographical history of the language. Really, it’s completely captivating.
In short, Facts About The World’s Languages is a great book that will be the object of lust and envy of every conlanger who sees it on your shelf. Go buy one!

The title says it all!
Okay, so what I finally decided on was simply reducing the datasets for the troublesome WordGenerator apps. It doesn’t seem to have reduced their functionality at all and, so far, has not resulted in the same server-crashing error. Of course, some of the problem may stem from the immense popularity of the applications. You conlang nuts really hammer those apps!
I suppose I should really figure out how to do it all in a more “modern” language, like PHP, but PERL is still my first web programmging love. And, I can use the same scripts locally on my machine without the restrictions. But, no, I won’t make them available to the general public because I don’t really want to support PERL on your local machine.

One final word on this. Remember, these are free resources, so sometimes they go off-line without much warning. If my ISP has issues, I kill the app first and and questions later. My webhost, Amzia.net, is really patient with me, because he’s a cousin of a friend of mine, but I’d rather not push it. And, if your really, really like the apps, buy something from the Ye Olde Shoppe or at least click on an ad. Anything to show your support. Thanks!

Well, there’s been a bit of a problem with some of the word generators.
Apparently, one of them has been sucking up too much memory on my webhost’s server, so I’ve temporarily disabled it until I’m home from the road and cna deal with it. (Damn! That was one long sentence!) I’ll get it straight sooner or later, but it’ll take a bit.
Sorry for the inconvenience!