Process Reflection 1 So far, I have been reading about two main topics: texts in Tolkien’s elvish languages, and Hawaiian poetry, specifically the Kumulipo. I have learned several things about how poetic elements such as rhyme schemes and metaphors can vary in different languages, and I have also learned more about a language can be intentionally built to allow for better poetic devices. Internally, I plan to speak to Ms Crowell, to discuss what the most important aspects of literature are, so that I can focus on those instead of spending too much time researching and constructing less important devices. My next questions are going to involve researching further into elvish literature and what makes it different from natural languages, as well as choosing another natural language to study that has some linguistic element in common with my conlang (possibly mandarin). To continue, I currently need to research more languages and do deeper research in Tolkien’s language construction. I believe that I currently do not need to focus on exactly what I am going to write as my artifact, as that can come at a later date.
Capstone project proposal (revised) My capstone project will focus on artistic literature in constructed languages (conlangs), and on applying that concept to my own conlang, Asato. I plan to research how the types of figurative language and emotional depth necessary for artistic literature are created in languages with varying phonological, morphological and syntactic structures. Some questions that I plan to pursue in the scope of this project are, in no particular order:
What steps have previous language creators taken in order to create artistic literature?
How does the aesthetic impact of rhyming change in languages with very many or very few possible word-final syllables?
How can the creation of new words in synthetic agglutinative languages be used to carry special meaning or emotional significance?
How is literature different in highly analytical languages, or highly synthetic languages?
In languages with variable subject object verb order, can the ordering convey significance?
How is literature created in languages with very small vocabularies or a high number of compound words?
In order to research this topic, I plan to investigate notable constructed languages and writing created in them. Although it is perhaps the best known conlang, I do not plan to study Esperanto because it’s purpose as a very simple lingua franca does not align with the more nature mirroring style in which the subject language, Asato, was created. Instead I plan to study well known constructed languages created for fictional universes, such as Klingon and Quenya. Because both languages I speak fluently are indo-european, I will not be able to use them as good sources for linguistically exotic literature. Instead, I will need to read texts with translations from languages on the extreme ends of the varying Linguistic spectra, such as Finnish, and Mandarin.
For a Galloway subject matter expert I intend to use Ms. Crowell. As an english teacher, she will be able to help me with the parts of my project concerning literature and composition. Because Galloway does not have a Linguistics teacher, I believe I will have to rely on my own research for information on that aspect of my project. Questions to ask a Galloway expert on the topic of artistic literature in constructed languages:
Which literary devices are the most important?
How does the genre, purpose, or tone of a text change which literary devices are important?
Are there examples of texts created without literary devices that we would consider crucial (such as metaphor)?
Which literary devices complement each other or work well together?
Which don’t?
Can too many different literary devices in one work take away from its aesthetic or rhetorical value?
In terms of constructed languages, the well accepted master is of course, J. R. R. Tolkien. I plan to use translations of elvish works as my main source for examples of figurative language in conlangs. By using the work, the translation, and documentation of the languages morphology and syntax, I believe I will be able to grasp the way the construction of the language affects the way it conveys meaning in artistic ways. For my research into natural languages, I plan to use a similar process, but with works that have been heavily analyzed by scholars previously. This will allow me to be sure I am grasping all points of significance within the work. I am not sure what works I am going to use, because I am still not sure what set of languages will help give the broadest possible view of human language as a whole.
Schedule of personal project due dates. 2/7 Process reflection 1 2/13 Research components 3/12 Thesis + Outline 3/19 Process reflection 2 4/2 Draft of written components 4/9 Artifact proposal 4/16 revised written component 4/23 Artifact progress Update 5/4 All components finished
Initial thoughts:
Having a small vocabulary and a small sound inventory work well together, because the lack of word options makes it hard to find rhyme, but the lack of sounds makes more of the options work.
In english we are somewhat accustomed to both rhyme and rhythm, or at times rhythm without rhyme. But what about rhyming without rhythm? Just similar sounds but in no particular pattern. Or what about a rhyme scheme that we would consider strange, like ABAAB, or ABCBA?
Many languages literary corpus consists almost entirely of yths from an animist or pantheist point of view. How can I apply what I learn from studying those languages to my goal of creating a more lyric, philosophical artifact?
Some languages seem to use metaphors in a momentary way, like within a sentence or two, whereas other languages use a metaphor in a way that carries over multiple passages or even an entire work. Which style of figurative language do I want to use?
Because the presentation of language can change based on formality/genre, I will need to research writing systems (possibly traditional chinese and kanji) in order to make decisions about how to formalize the writing system I have created for my conlang.
Works Cited Chapman, Don. "POETIC COMPOUNDING IN THE VERCELLI, BLICKLING, AND WULFSTAN HOMILIES." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, vol. 103, no. 4, 2002, pp. 409–421. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43344058. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. This source discusses poetic compounding in several old english Homilies. Fixating on the part of that important to my topic, poetic compounding, we can take away that poetic compounding can be used to assist with many other kinds of literary devices, including alliteration, dualism, metaphor, and rhyme. By being able to replace one word with two others, you can not only add more information to a phrase, but you can make the length, stress, and sound patterns of the word fit with what a verse requires.
Because the constructed language I plan to use to write my artifact creates nouns mainly through compounding smaller morphemes, understanding how to use compounding in a poetic manner is of the utmost importance to me. This source has shown how I can use compounding to assist with poetic devices I use. this source also described certain subjects being described with a changing set of compound words, instead of one consistent compound word. this directly answers one of my original questions which was whether denoting an important concept with a metaphorical compound word could help to fortify its importance and add background and depth to its meaning. This article Contributors, Glaemscrafu. "Markirya." Glaemscrafu, 30 July 2019, glaemscrafu.jrrvf.com/english/markirya.html. Accessed 3 Feb. 2020. This source is the text, translation, and commentary of a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien in one of his constructed languages, Quenya. The poem itself asks, in a metaphor rich manner, questions like "who shall see a white ship, and "who shall see the last evening". As best i can tell the poem is asking who will be around when the end of days arrives, and who will escape from middle earth, and who will not. The commentary on the poem describes the history of its writing and versions, and the linguistics of the poem, such as the etymology of its title ("mar" meaning home or dwelling, and "cirya" meaning ship). this source also provides a recording of someone reciting the poem in Quenya.
Because this is an example of artistic literature in a constructed language, it has provided solid information about my topic. Insights this source has provided me about the Quenya language:
By using a constructed word and one of its constituent words, you can get a free alliteration or rhyme example: wilwarin wilwa - butterfly fluttering
The rhyme schemes that we are accustomed to in english are not universal. example: ABCDDEFCD in the poem
When a language has phonemic vowel length variation, rhythm has to be adjusted for it.
assonance works better when the instances of the vowel in question have the same stress. Donahue, Thomas S. "A Linguist Looks at Tolkien's Elvish." Mythlore, vol. 10, no. 3 (37), 1984, pp. 28–31. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26810573. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. This source discusses the basic linguistic elements of Tolkien's main elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin. the first section of the article gives an in work history of the elves, in order to inform the coming discussion as to the languages development. Then the article describes some of the sound changes that made Quenya and Sindarin two different languages, but with a common root. It also discusses how the rules used by Tolkien mirror those present in real life, such as Grimm's and Verner's laws. The article then goes on to discuss where Tolkien got inspiration for his words and how he built certain very important words like "hobbit" very carefully to give them a lot of meaning.
Because this article discusses intentional construction of a language meant to sound natural and changing, it applies very well to my topic. The article also shows how the etymology of words can grant them meaning that they didn't have before. When I work on my artifact I plan to use etymology to give words important to my story extra meaning and emotional weight.
insights into constructing naturalistic languages:
The sound of words or phrases can relate directly to their meaning (stops for things that are abrupt, liquids for things that are liquid, unvoiced fricatives for things that are rough)
The etymology of words can import them extra meaning
Using extant phonetic changes can make a language sound more natural and more believable, rather than building it from a pre-created set of phonemes. Ho'omanawanui, Ku'ualoha. "He Lei Ho'oheno No Nā Kau a Kau: Language, Performance, and Form in Hawaiian Poetry." The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 17, no. 1, 2005, pp. 29–81. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23721931. Accessed 3 Feb. 2020. This source discusses, very generally, poetry in the Hawaiian language. The part of the article from which insights were drawn analyzed lines of the Kumulipo, the poetic creation story of the Hawaiian people.The article points out poetic devices such as internal rhyming, repetition, and dualism, and how they relate to the meaning of the work, and how it is able to be read. Although this source does not involve constructed languages, it does involve Hawaiian, and language with one particular linguistic extreme that relates to the conlang in which I wish to create my artifact. Specifically, Hawaiian has a very small sound inventory. Although my conlang's sound inventory is significantly larger, its word final options are limited to a similar degree as Hawaiian. Because rhyming depends on the last syllable, that similarity becomes important Insights into Hawaiian poetry: rhyme is often focused more on the same vowels than the same consonants. repetition is common, not really of single words, but of patterns of phrase, with certain parts exchanged in different lines. Duality is a constant factor, between earth and sky, land and sea, etc. extra thought: Having a small vocabulary and a small sound inventory work together, because the lack of word options makes it hard to find rhyme, but the lack of sounds makes more of the options work. Kahananui, Dorothy M., and Alberta P. Anthony. E Kama'ilio Hawai'i Kakou. Rev. ed., U of Hawaii P, 1974. Yu, Pauline. "Metaphor and Chinese Poetry." Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), vol. 3, no. 2, 1981, pp. 205–224. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/495429. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. This article focuses on the incredibly broad topic of metaphor in Chinese poetry. the actual conclusions and contested discussion within the source are not where its merit lies as it pertains to this project. Instead, the pre-accepted facts, quotes and other building blocks of the arguments of the source convey a lot of information about how metaphor functions, and how it functions differently in Chinese. The ones that I plan to apply to my project are the relationship between metaphor and the amount of information transmitted by a phrase, and the amount of prior or cultural knowledge necessary to understand a metaphor, and how that varies between Chinese and English.
Chinese is a language with a well known linguistic extreme: it is highly analytic, that is, it does not combine or change morphemes, each morpheme is its own word. The conlang I plan to use to construct my artifact has some very analytic elements as well, which is why metaphor in Chinese will be able to inform metaphor in my conlang. The two biggest insights I have gained from this source are:
Metaphor in Chinese requires an immense amount of prior cultural knowledge. In the source, this is shown through a poem in which the phrases "hare and toad", "Cloudy towers" and "cassia-scented" are supposed to inform the reader that the moon is the current subject of the poem, despite the word moon never being stated. The metaphors there rely on a strong background in Chinese mythology. This style of metaphor allows for a broader range of possibilities for comparisons, as a comparison can be connected through this prior knowledge, not through the actual language of the text.
Metaphor can be thought of as a way to convey more information than by just stating something outright. by comparing something to something else, you can suggest that the two things share traits of some sort, thereby saying more about the object than you would otherwise.
Ian Smith Holt English 12 colon the Bard March 20 2020 Capstone Process Reflection 2
So far I have not moved on with the written draft beyond the thesis statement and outline. I have been swamped with work or other classes and I have not sat down to write my draft yet. However, I do have a very good grasp on what I am going to talk about in my written component, and what ideas I want it to convey. Mainly the idea that the linguistic elements of the language within which one creates literature heavily affect how that literature can be constructed and what building blocks can reasonably be used. I plan to show this through case studies in various languages, constructed and natural, including Quenya, Mandarin, Old English, and Hawai’ian. I am already 100% sure about what I am going to create for my artifact, it is going to be a work of literature in my own conlang, using the poetic techniques most suited to the language itself (as I will show in my written component). I have looked at several works of literature in Quenya and will use those as part of my basis for my artifact, as well as some prior world building I have created around the people who speak my conlang.
An Analysis of the Three Most Important Poems in the Asato Language By Ian Smith
Introduction What follows are a group of various short works of literature written in a constructed language (conlang) called Asato. What is first presented is the work as it would sound when spoken, represented by the IPA (international phonetic alphabet) a linguistic tool meant to assign a character to any sound present in any human language. At the end of this introduction you will find a guide to pronouncing IPA hand tailored to this language, for American English speakers. Below the IPA transcription can be found the translation of each work into English. These are not direct, word for word translations, but instead have taken some license in order to sound like more natural English and to better convey underlying meaning. Because of the connection between language and people, we are stuck with an inevitable intertwining of conlangs and worldbuilding. Thanks to this connection, this language and these stories do not exist in a vacuum, but are instead a part of the literary repertoire of a small tribe of humans living in the rocky mountains in a world very different from our own. The facts of their existence shape the facts of their language, and vice versa. The analysis section of each work will provide context for it within the history and tradition of the Asato people, which is arguably equally as important as the text itself.
IPA Pronunciation guide
How to read this guide: The letter is pronounced like the underlined letters in the english word given. Dialect is presumed to be standard American English.
Asato IPA letter English
a rock*
e bet*
i feet
o hose*
u flute
p pan
b barn
β van*
φ farm*
m man
v van
f farm
t tap*
d dip
r butter
s save
z zip
n nap
ð the
θ thistle
∫ shame
ʒ jacques
j yellow
k kid
ŋ hang
g game
x No equivalent in standard english, closest Challah, Mexico (Spanish pronunciation) * represents an inexact approximation
E Tsai
E dʒi navla xe e kekil, me vi navla beskeo Ube e beskei ne vi, vi kʃa tsao ske dzezi Dze ki xuo e xuitsi ne vi Dze tsimaosi suo e suitsi ne vi Me dzedʒi, ube kte vivilnabeuda
Me xe dre betuai, vi nadvita e nadvitai ne kemnaidʒi Vi nadvita fre dzezi nasa vlao Vi nadvita fre dzezi ʃivisakʃa Vi nadvita fre dzezi nasa ne pjao xekʃa
Me vibenavla e xekʃa ne vi Me vibenavla e vlai
E ubi ne vi ʃi kil tsa Se kʃa tsao
“Connection”
The man lived in the mountains, alone Despite his solitude, he felt connected with everything Every rock beneath his feet Every gust of wind above his head And everyone, even though he never saw them
And in this silence, he sang the long forgotten song of fools He sang that everything was alive He sang that everything could feel He sang that everything was of one soul
And he did not live his soul And he did not live life
His dust still clings to us To feel connected
Analysis:
This piece is one of the “Ancient songs”, a group of short stories, or arguably parables that have been passed down orally by the Asato from before they recorded their history. Many of these works make points about philosophies of living one’s life, in this one, we are taught that those who seek out connection over all else, lose themselves, and forget to look within. One of the main poetic devices used in this work is ironic dualism. It is thought that this work was originally conceived at the late end of the Asato historical period, when dualism was falling out of favor as a poetic device. By using really strong examples of dualism to emphasize not the point of the work, but the exact opposite, the foolishness of the main character, the dualism becomes ironic. Most of the poem is written in what would be considered what would be fun language, with enjoyable rhythm and poetry. However, the last line drops all of those devices and returns to a more pedestrian form, in order to quickly create a somber mood for the last line. This last line is a great example of a common aspect of ancient Asato poetry, in which the most metaphorical lines are the least poetically dense.
Uda ʒue
E dʒi kekenao nazouda ʃi fre kasja Ve e ʃepsi ne vi, vi nazouda repsi vinakamvla Me vinavla vlai nske ntozai Vinavla vlai nske bri
Mve vi nauda e piʒi E mao ne e sitsil ne ʃi ʃivinamvra rezi vibenazouda E piʒil nasa mnao, fe vi
E repsi vivilnata e dʒil fre dʒi natanvla beskeo, E dʒi kekenao natauda dre nvlai, de vibenazouda e piʒil, mve nazoa ske udatsi E piʒil nagja e dʒi nvlao Me e kekena nauda e mbri ne dzezi Me e kekena nava vla ske dre nao.
Vi natabeuda dre nvlai, fe vi natabeuda e piʒil ʃilvinagja pjao
To Look Ahead
The wisest man could see what would happen. From his childhood, he could see when he would die And he lived a life without mistakes, He lived a life without beauty.
Until he saw the butterfly. The movement of its wings showed him something he could not see The butterfly was a mystery to him.
one time, he told the people of the village that a man had died alone, unnoticed He could see this death, but he could not see the butterflies, until he could with his eyes The butterflies were eating the dead man
And the wisest man saw the ugliness in everything And the wisest man decided he did not want to live
He did not see this death, because he could not see the butterflies.
They ate him too.
Analysis
Another of the ancient songs, this one tells the story of a man who could read the world well enough that he could predict the future. It’s moral is usually interpreted as “everything good, and everything bad in life are the result of uncertainty, and the only outcome of certainty is boredom. However, this interpretation seems to ignore what happens after the man discovers the truth about the butterflies. Another, more recent interpretation is that the story is more of an expression of bitterness at the world, and that the moral was applied after, once it was incorporated into the ancient songs. This text is considered one of the most unique of the ancient songs because of it’s almost complete lack of poetic devices. The only example of dualism in the work occurs when we are told the focus of the text has decided to stop living. By only applying poetics in this moment, The author puts this moment forward as the most important of the work, which supports the theory that this entire text is the emotional outpouring of someone in a lot of pain. The choice to use butterflies as the “unpredictable animal” in this story has been the focus of a lot of discussion. Very few butterflies live at the altitude where the Asato reside, and the ones that do are not particularly interesting. It’s possible that the only reason butterflies were chosen is because of their tendency to flock and scavenge on recently deceased bodies. Another thought is that the sharp movements in varying directions that butterflies make in the air seem more unpredictable than those of any other creature. Either way, the work has colored the Asato’s view of butterflies through to the present day.
Tjato Kinama Me E matsui ʃiʃisva Me E bri ne e gdipsipi tla Fre vi ŋka
Kinaŋka briuʒi Briuʒi fre dzedʒi betaudi Briuʒi ske tai Pja e dvitai Ne maosi ne kevi
Briuʒi fre gia Pya e θemβasi Pya dze tsi ne kixi Fre uma xuo
E matsui kibetamvra De ʃi sa ŋkaxao ʃi sa fe e ntsui tlao I walked decisively And I lost my way And The beauty of the darkness gives What one lacks
I lacked a flower A flower that no one had seen A flower with a voice Like the song Of the wind on the sea
A flower that shines, like the moon and the sun Like every drop of magma That sleeps below
I have not found the path But It is forgotten It is given to the void Analysis: This poem describes how the speaker, instead of following the path laid out for them in life, chose to follow their heart. It is generally agreed upon that the flower referenced refers to a person, the speaker’s beloved. The end of the first stanza is considered the first example of the Asato trope known as the “poetic crisis”, in which the end of the beginning of a work is marked by some event that sends the subject into sadness or depression, and causes them to reevaluate their life. In this work, the crisis is caused by the speaker losing their way on path that they had previously been confident in (the Asato phrase for this is “lenamatsuio ntozai” usually translated as “surefooted blunder”), and as a result of this mistake they find that what was missing from their life was love. The way the speaker describes their love has influenced Asato romantic culture in a very visible way. First, despite the Asato homeland being hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, the metaphor of the sea features prominently in modern Asato romantic literature. It is unclear exactly why the sea was on the mind of the author of this poem, especially in a time where Asato contact with other peoples was extremely limited. One theory is that the author was also an explorer, who traveled west and saw the sea with their own eyes, and, struck by its beauty, decided it as an appropriate descriptor of their love. The third stanza highlights a very interesting difference between Asato culture and the majority of other cultures. In most cultures describing positive aspects of something through the metaphor of light is very common; we call things brilliant, and we say they shine to simply represent them as good. However, the Asato assign no positive or negative connotation to light and dark. By describing their love using light, they are actually providing insight into the personality of the one they are describing, as an open, optimistic, friendly person. On the other hand, this interpretation is slightly undercut by the use of the term “θemβasi” which, although translated above as simply “the sun and the moon”, really represents a coalescence, or a conjunction of the two. The term is meant to describe something that embodies aspects of both the day and the night, being open and happy, while also being introspective and perhaps melancholy. In fact, all three of the metaphors used to describe the speaker’s beloved (the song of the wind on the sea, the sun and the moon, and the magma sleeping below) would seem to say somewhat different and sometimes contradictory things. It’s likely that the contrary metaphors are meant to represent the beloved as someone indescribable, or someone who can be many things at once. In other more recent Asato works, there are examples of people being described in contradictory ways in order to give them a sense of complexity, a trope probably based off of this poem. The final stanza, which describes how the speaker gave up on their previous path and no longer cares about it, is unique because of a quirk of Asato language. Despite not being a religious people, in Asato, when a noun is given to an abstract concept, in this case the void, there is a connotation that the noun is an offering, like to a deity. This stanza would seem to suggest that the speaker is offering their path as a tribute to the void. It is unclear whether this is meant as a small bit of dry humor, or it is meant to say that by giving up their previous life, the speaker has somehow done service to the void, perhaps by going against societal order, and by experiencing in the inherently chaotic emotion of love.
The untitled poem, written in a decorative version of the Asato script