Marl Dictionary Format

[Yakima]

Need opinion to see how much work I have to do...

I'm putting together the Marl dictonary (the language of the winged wolves) and though I'll probably never be satisfied with how to use it, I'm still going to put it up so people can use it to name wolves and such. Vote for one of the methods below that you would find most usefull:

1: Put up three sets of pages: one for English/Common to both versions of Marl (Alskyrian/Reririan) for translations from Common to Marl and Marl to Common; I was thinking the later would be usefull to find out what people wrote in Marl if they don't provide translation. I know I provide the translations on Merlin Rheodd and Taliesin's stories...but some people might not...*shrug*

2: Just put up the Common to Marl translation - I don't need to know what the Marl means and if I do, I'll hunt through the 20 some pages.

3: Put up the Common to Marl with Alskyrian and Reririan but only put the Alskyrian to Common.

If you have any questions, ask. If you can help me with the grammer and such, please do! If you want to know if I have a word 'created' already, please let me know or suggest.

Okay...away you go and away I go to bed after getting a template page done for the dictionary...heehee

[Shard]

I voted 3 sets, but with a qualification.

I don't know that you need online all the nuances unless you've already got them *really* well down and finished.

A good "multiple language" comparison chart would suit me perfectly - a table with an english/common word on the side, and however many columns for its comparative word in the other languages. (they're really useful for things like 'old english' to 'middle english' and 'modern english', or for the stages of heiroglyphs, kana and the other kinds of scripts, and similar but slightly variant languages.)

And - doing that you could always just have one page, and we can just use "edit/find" to locate the word we're trying to define.

[Yakima]

True...but wouldn't having them all on one page eventually get really long? I mean, right now I have less then 10 words per letter in English but...hmmm...

[Shard]

For dictionary purposes, one long page is just fine. I hate having to switch around - and especially if you've got everything on one page, you CAN use the edit/find feature, to locate words. With multiple pages, that goes out the window and can be very frustrating.

[Neishai]

I have never tried to make my own language, because right away I found that to try to do so would be an insurmountable task. However, I have compiled lists of words and phrases on my own in order to learn a language (Japanese). YOU try to memorize the phrases used and Shogun (in seventh grade) without writing them all down... O.o; I digress.

My point is, the more features you have, such as part of speech, usage, how commonly it's used (is it old style, slang, totally obsolete, word root, etc.), and sentence examples...the better. However! What we need right away, of course, is a barebones guide if nothing else! :3

In other words, first more than anything, I would rather you do a small glossary with greetings, spells, *cough* profanities, slang, and other things that would be useful for writers and readers. THEN go back and flesh it out. Does that make sense? ^^

Because eventually, I would absolutely love to go back and look through the finished product and drool over the detail. I know how you love detail, as I do. :3

And... getting stuck on details is one of my biggest hurdles when writing and such. ><; I don't know about you. If it is not a problem of yours... you probably can disregard this post. ^^

</rant> <333

[Yakima]

I consider my ability to make a new language rather vague and lame in the attempt but it's mostly there for naming, if anything. I will include the commonly used terms, such as gatha (greetings) and dutha (farewell), curses and stuff like that. There is no written form of Marl as wolves don't need to write it. I also stink with using the fancy characters for some of the vowels, such as having two dots over the e and stuff like that.

I'll but them all on one page for now, Shard, until the size and bulk of having to update it drives me nuts... And as much as I would love to get that indepth, Neishai, I would be unable to becuase my knowlage of this type of stuff is very limited.

[Graeth]

I have almost no clue what you're talking about...can I vote anyways?

[Yakima]

Lol...

If you've heard or seen of the winged wolves around then all you have to know is that I have a language made up for two subspecies of them called Marl. I'm asking what would be the best way to organize it.

[Silver Midnight]

Why not just make one chart with the English and then the translations next to them?

[Graeth]

It might not be a word for word difference. There could be tense differences that change everthing, or positon in a phrase or even whole phrases that describe just one word. Not every language is seperated by just words. Grammatical composition and order plays a huge part.

But I don't know anyhting about this language so I could just be blowing smoke out my nose.

[Dray]

But it sounds like, for Yakima's purposes, one list with english and one list of the Marl-translation would work just fine. :3 She said herself that she wouldn't get too in depth on the way the language worked, so I'm assuming that a word-for-word translation would work just fine.

[Yakima]

Well, this is how I have it set up right now - this is English/Common to Marl with both dialects:

http://www.geocities.com/alair_wolfkeep ... _marl.html

I do want to figure out a way to put sentances together that isn't too complicated and not simply substiuting words...hmm...

[Shard]

Cool it's a nice start!

See all this trouble is why I simply stick to making up *alphabets* and *fonts* instead of actual languages. Even my most complicated alphabet for Zekira, I have only invented a few words in Zekiran as a language - because I assume that everything we'll be reading is *already translated* into whatever language is being read.