[and tumblr too] This post, we're taking a brief detour from other projects to talk about something slightly more mundane: Is there something in the Matoran Language that marks verbs as verbs and distinguishes them from non-verbs? I would like to propose that there is at least one verb-marker expressed as a suffix (or "derivative particle") -ya. What's the evidence? Admittedly, there is only one canon piece of evidence, since we have only one confirmed verb in Matoran: zya "to attack". This
WttV Entry 1.4 “Remember, creature.” “Perhaps then you will learn to listen...” The Hau faded into the starlight as Takanuva moved away, its eyes glittering with a knowing look as it flickered and vanished. The wind began to moan again as Takanuva jogged off down the ruined track of the road. His focus was now turned to a new duty—a new goal. He was running out of time. He felt the urgency of his plight keenly now. He would have to finish this task quickly if he was to continue. Befo
WttV Entry 1.3 It was a hau. It was a Hau. A Kanohi Hau was hanging in the night air before him, huge and spectral. A Hau made of light. The stars seemed to glimmer through its face, through its two huge eyes. They were deep eyes, ancient and tranquil. The pattern of the stars found an order in those eyes. “Wh-who are you?” Takanuva asked, finally finding his voice. His eyes were wide, almost disbelieving the image that hung before him. The shock of seeing such a familiar likeness in
WttV Entry 1.2: An hour went by. The gravel of the forest floor crunched under his armored feet. The stars shone down, unblinking. Takanuva was beginning to feel restless. Striding on through the endless darkness, there was no destination, no real direction. He had no goal, other than getting out of the forest, and now he felt as if he were going in circles. The trees seemed to gather more thickly around him as he went on, the branches lowering like twisted arms. It was an unsettling pla
WttV - Entry 1.1: A flash, and stars flickered across his vision, but not just the stars of shock or pain. Real stars. An unfathomable darkness opened beneath him, a gaping absence. The endless depth of the Void yawned, tearing at his being as he hurtled onward. Onward through the emptiness, through the black, reeling darkness... Onward! A thud, and the heavy weight of gravity seized his limbs as he collapsed to solid earth. It was over. Takanuva lay still, his lungs heaving, per
“Go.” The voice echoed in the dry air of the chamber. Helryx’s voice was terse, thick with urgency. She stepped forward and pressed something into his hand. It was the gnomon—a piece of the ancient sundial he had unlocked. What did it mean? He could not say. Takanuva glanced to his left. The Silent Toa still stood motionless, his eyes grim. Krakua was a strange Toa, Takanuva thought; but, of the three beings which surrounded him in this dim chamber, he trusted him the most. Krakua nodded
[oh a tumblr what] Treatise: Translating the Avohkii : Part 3 : Take a stroll through the previous posts for all the juicy, juicy previous details. For now, here’s where we’re at in the translation process: The bolded parts have been translated as follows: The string ke-whenu-ka consists of the word whenu(a) "hidden/secret underground" modified by two particles: the basic locative particle manifesting as ke- "in/at/on" and the origin particle manifesting as -ka "from, out of". Th
[ tumblr ya] Treatise: Translating the Avohkii : Part 4 : Whoa, hold on! It’s dangerous to go alone! First, read this, then this, then this. All done? Good – let’s get moving. Here’s the full transcription of the Avohkii-text once again: The bolded part of the transcription has already been translated in the previous posts. To recap: Mapaku ke-whenu-ka kitu ak-ila ... “Reader, seek out an individual originating from within a secret underground (place)” This portion of the passag
[hey look a tumblr] Treatise: Translating the Avohkii : Part 2 : Check out the previous post for the full lead-in. Here’s a summary: There is an inscription written on the Mask of Light. The Mask of Light film novelization provides the “text” of this inscription, while the Mask of Light film itself has a sequence of actual dialogue where the inscription is pronounced. The two versions are different, but are clearly related. Starting with the version transcribed from the film, I will at
[also hey look a tumblr] Treatise: Translating the Avohkii : Part 1 : It has come to my attention that the novelization of the Mask of Light film includes the following passage: This is supposed to be Nokama’s reading of the inscription found on the Avohkii. Interesting, no? Even if the novelization is only semi-canon, this could provide material for expanding our (admittedly completely made-up) knowledge of the Matoran language. Where to begin? I began by seeking out the scene f
The Language of Okoto Chapter 9 [crosspost] At this stage, we have reached what I think is, for all intents and purposes, “ground zero” for the language of Okoto. We have picked apart, decomposed, rendered down, and theoretically dismantled almost the entirety of the dataset established in Chapter 1 (to the near-exclusion of the names of the Masters, which continue to have an uncertain status). What more is there to do? Quite a bit, it turns out. This post will focus on tying up some loo
The Language of Okoto Chapter 8 [crosspost] For this post, let’s return to a part of the dataset that we haven’t discussed for a while: the reconstructed element *kui “agent”. Elsewhere, we’ve been successful in breaking down the words toa, ta, okoto by delving into their reconstructed history and making some comparative observations. Let’s see what we can do with *kui, shall we? First, note that the element *kui has been translated only as “agent” thus far, and that this is actually a
The Language of Okoto Chapter 7 [crosspost] At this point, I think we’ve pretty much eked out all the information we reasonably can from the topic of the words toa/ta/okoto without having to rely on anything other than the contents of the dataset and some basic hypothesizing. With that in mind, we could stop...or we could move into realms of more-or-less pure speculation. I’ll take the latter choice in this post for the sake of creativity and completionism. In particular, we still haven’
The Language of Okoto Chapter 6 [crosspost] In the previous post, we managed to break down the reconstructed term *toua into a few constituent parts and assign meanings to those parts. The element u translated to “skill, ability” and the element -a “general noun marker (person, object, thing)”, but the element to wasn’t fleshed out beyond the idea that it signified something like “greatness” and was somehow connected to the previously established word ta “?hoarding, ?grouping”. This post
The Language of Okoto Chapter 5 [crosspost] Let’s continue with the breakdown of the word toa (< *toua). In order to delve a bit deeper, we will need a point of comparison, and I think this can be provided by bringing in the remaining reliably-native word Okoto. Connecting these two terms—one a title and the other the name of an island—might seem tenuous, but with the background we’ve already set up, I’m confident we can make some important headway. However, unlike the previous inst
The Language of Okoto Chapter 4 [crosspost] That’ll do for the names Ekimu and Makuta for the time being. Now let’s turn to another part of the dataset, one word in particular: Toa. I’ve already hinted at how I intend to incorporate this term into the sketch of the Okotoan Language, so might as well get on with it: Assumption: The term toa translates to “master” or “hero”. Where do we go from here? Because we only have one term to look at, there isn’t quite the same opportunity for com
The Language of Okoto Chapter 3 [crosspost] Now that we’ve taken the first step in breaking down the dataset, it’s time to go a bit further. Recall that, thus far, we’ve decomposed the names ekimu and makuta into eki “maker” plus *mau “mask” (“mask maker”) and *mau “mask” plus kuta “hoarder” (“mask hoarder”). For this post, let’s focus on these newly-derived elements eki and kuta and try to break them down even further. First of all, consider their meanings: “maker” and “hoarder”. Both
The Language of Okoto Chapter 2 [crosspost] (Note that the material in this post is basically a culled-down/revised version of this post.) Now that we’ve collected a dataset, the next step in the project to construct an Okotoan Language is to take a part of that dataset and attempt to break it down into smaller units. The best way to do this is to assign some reasonable meanings to a few of the terms available and then use a bit of comparative methodology and some etymological know-how
The Language of Okoto Chapter 10: An Okotoan Grammar [crosspost] We have reached the end, so let’s go out with a bang, shall we? All of the previous posts have been solely focused on breaking down the small dataset available to us and fleshing out the form and meaning of various words/lexical items, which is basically just vocabulary-building. But if we want Okotoan to be usable in any form, we’ve gotta mix in a bit of grammar at some point, right? Right. The time has come. Table of C
The Prophecy of Heroes Hear now, my son, what the prophecy says: When times are dark and all hope seems lost, The Protectors must unite, one from each tribe. Evoke the power of past and future, And look to the skies for an answer. When the stars align, six comets will bring timeless heroes To claim the Masks of Power and find the Mask Maker. United, the elements hold the power to defeat evil… United, but not one. Toavakamaja Ro’o, aka
TOAVAKAMAJAI - THE PROPHECY I'akua, taka-kui rayaku. Amaja lhikai-na rokha: Toa Mata Nui haya. Ivaha, nga roraga-rhui. Still, all hope was not lost. Legends tell of six mighty heroes, the Toa, Who would arrive to save Mata Nui. Time would reveal that these were not simply myths... -- Toa imahra voya, kouya, Ceura, aku-rhui. Mata Nui'ai Matoroi Ikraaka hau takaya. For the Toa would appear on the shores of the island, it w
MATANUYAMAJAI - THE LEGEND Ivaha vahai, Mata Nui ini-wahi uvoya; Nohi-artakhai akoa, Matoran roya, karaya. In the time before time, The Great Spirit descended from the heavens, Carrying us, the ones called the Matoran, To this island paradise... - Oa kaitura, maitura; Mata Nui i-Haua-Ngavongu, Kaita, Maita, Vaita, Oai takaya. We were separate and without purpose, So the Great Spirit illuminated us With the Thre
The Language of Okoto Preface I’m afraid I have indeed succumbed to the secret vice once again. It was probably inevitable, even though the linguistic material incorporated into Generation 2 of Bionicle is admittedly quite a bit less than the material that was available in Generation 1. Ultimately, however, I decided that the lack of material shouldn’t deter creativity, and so this series of posts has grown and expanded to a pretty decent size (roughly 10 posts) over the past month or so.
