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Learning Matoran: Lesson 1


JRRT

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Ke ovahi o kii vahi,

Mata Nui uamo.

inihe ka usmo ia ngie,

ke orna hu Matoran,

lhe ii arta.

 

In the time before time

The Great Spirit descended

Out of the Heavens carrying we,

The ones called the Matoran

To this paradise.

 

--First lines of "The Legend of Mata Nui"

 

=l Preface l=

First, I must make a confession. For the past ten (or so) years, my primary hobby has been an obsession with constructing languages: "conlanging". In the words of J.R.R himself, it is the "secret vice". And, as might be expected, I have not been able to keep it from spilling over into my interest of Bionicle. This is the result: an attempt to formulate a grammar of the Matoran Language (using the basis of the dictionary already posted elsewhere in the blog).

 

As a basic principle, I have attempted to imitate some grammatical structures common to Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian, Māori, and Samoa. Ultimately, however, the majority of the grammar is more or less arbitrary (or "a-priori"). And, of course, this means that (almost) the entirety of the grammar presented here is non-canon.

 

But now to the point! This grammar will be posted in a series of lessons designed specifically for "beginners" (or, at least, "people who aren't hard-core linguistics-people"). A good general knowledge of "grammar" and "phonetics" will be an advantage to any reader here, but I will aim to present linguistic concepts in the least jargon-heavy manner I can come up with (no promises tongue.gif). I'll be starting out with a discussion of phonology in this post, followed by posts on Nouns, Verbs, the Matoran Alphabet itself, Adjectives, Syntax (Sentence Structure), etc.

 

Enjoy, if you will.

 

Or as the Matoran say:

 

A kanga ri o'atukhe.

 

=l Lesson 1 l=

Basic Pronunciation

 

First, it's best to establish that, while Matoran obviously don't have the same vocal organs as humans (teeth? tongues? what?!), they are capable of producing a similar array of sounds; or, at least, similar enough that we humans can come pretty close.

 

With that said, here's a basic list of the principal sounds of Matoran with English equivalents where necessary. Unless otherwise specified, all sounds are pronounced as in English:

 

-Consonants:

 

b

c – as <k>, except at the beginning of some words, where it is pronounced as <s> (an unfortunate hold-over from English orthography...>.<)

ch – always <k>

d

f – also spelled <ph> (a more archaic orthographic convention in Matoran)

g – always as in "dog"

h

kh –like the German <ch>, harsher than English <h> (would be called a "velar fricative")

j – optionally pronounced as in "jar" or "yard" (like <y>)

k

l

m

n

ng – as in "sing" at the beginning of a word; as in "finger" in all other positions

p

r – trilled, as Spanish <r>

rh – not trilled, more like English <r>

s

sh

t

th – as in "think" (very rare)

v

w

y

z

 

-Vowels:

 

a – as in "all"

e – as in "rate"

i – as in "machine"

o – as in "go"

u – as in "loose"

y – as German <ü> (rare sound). Pronouncing <i> ("machine") while rounding the lips like <u> ("loose") gives a close approximation.

 

All vowels can be either short or long. Long vowels are written simply by doubling the letter (aa, ee, oo, etc.) and are held twice as long as short vowels.

 

If you haven't dealt with spelling systems other than English before, the most important thing to remember is that every letter represents a sound—every letter is pronounced. There are no "silent letters" in Matoran, and there are only a few "digraphs" (two consonants with one sound: th, ch, etc.).

 

-----

 

And that concludes Lesson 1. Thanks for reading if you got this far. Next up: Lesson 2--Intro to Nouns, which will hopefully be a little more interesting.

 

JRRT

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Guest kopakanuva13

Posted

This is... really awesome. I'll try to keep up with these posts. Something like this must have required tons of work and research.
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Out of curiosity, what other conlangs have you made?

Well....I could name some of them, but it wouldn't really mean anything to anyone. :P Most of them have been "experimental", playing around with various linguistic characteristics, but there are three or four that are pretty well-developed. Are you a conlanger yourself, Waffles?

 

This is... really awesome. I'll try to keep up with these posts. Something like this must have required tons of work and research.
Glad you're interested!

 

JRRT

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And now we proved the true depths of our obsession. We may now compete with Trekkies and Potterdom.

 

Anyway, having a guide to Matoran phonetics is a huge help. Ach, some of those sounds are hard for me, though.

 

Myself, I'm excited to get into Matoran morphology. Recent discussions over the morpheme "Ka" have lead to some interesting potentials.

 

Heh, I should be getting back to my own conlanging... Haven't touched it in a while, because the fantasy history that's supposed to be tied to it has been getting to Tolkien-esque; it desperately needs a dose of originality...

 

But I digress.

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Wait a minute... I recognize those first five vowel sounds... Japanese-derived, if I am not mistaken.

 

But this is pretty cool. I've been wondering when someone would do something like this, and now I can finally speak Matoran. :P

 

When you've taught us the entire thing, of course.

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I like this so far!

 

I'm not certain about the specificity of some of the phonetic descriptions, seeing as--for example--Lewa is pronounced leh-WUH. Also, the trilling of "r" is...wierd to me, since there are no indications from any of the movies or official pronunciaiton guides.

 

Still, I'm going to follow this. Nice work.

 

~ BioGaia

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Guest kopakanuva13

Posted

Wait a minute... I recognize those first five vowel sounds... Japanese-derived, if I am not mistaken.

 

But this is pretty cool. I've been wondering when someone would do something like this, and now I can finally speak Matoran. :P

 

When you've taught us the entire thing, of course.

More like Spanish, IMO. In Japanese, the "e" sound is a bit more like the English "e", as in "extra". But in this Matoran conlang the "a" is a bit more like an "awh" sound, unlike the sounds found naturally in most languages.

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I'm not certain about the specificity of some of the phonetic descriptions, seeing as--for example--Lewa is pronounced leh-WUH. Also, the trilling of "r" is...wierd to me, since there are no indications from any of the movies or official pronunciaiton guides.

As I mentioned in the preface, the grammar and phonology are not meant to be entirely canon (although I have tried to keep aspects of the lexicon at least semi-canon). The pronunciations given thus far for Matoran words are all heavily influenced by English phonology. Your pronunciation of "Lewa" with a schwa (technical name for "uh") serves as a good example, since, in English, there is a marked tendency toward reducing vowels in unstressed syllables to schwas. The conception of Matoran that I've posted here is more of an "ideal" system, and is instead based more upon Polynesian phonological systems.

 

Wait a minute... I recognize those first five vowel sounds... Japanese-derived, if I am not mistaken.

More like Spanish, IMO. In Japanese, the "e" sound is a bit more like the English "e", as in "extra". But in this Matoran conlang the "a" is a bit more like an "awh" sound, unlike the sounds found naturally in most languages.

Actually, the vowels are, more or less, based on a synthesis of Hawaiian and Māori vowel systems.

 

JRRT

  • Upvote 1
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Stop being so awesome, Tolkien. =P

 

But seriously, this is awesome. I really wish I was good with languages and such -- that's probably my favorite thing about J.R.R. He doesn't just create a world, he creates a world.

 

I mean, languages, history, etc., etc.

 

But yes this is awesome and you are awesome.

 

newso1.png

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Other than a few things I would change (either make all c's sound like in 'car' or change the ones that don't to s's, get rid of some apostrophes [a personal pet peeve]), this is awesome. In fact, I had the same idea and was working on a complete Matoran language myself when I saw yours.

 

Again, this is awesome.

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I wonder how you're going to tackle the connection between written and spoken Matoran language, because there are so many contradtictions you have to avoid whle figuring that out. I wish the people at LEGO had thought about this, instead of just making an alphabet that is simply based on the English language. I mean, it doesn't make any sense that the word for temple (kini) and spirit (mata (or ka)) is pronounced the way it does, if it's written as it is. I mean phonetically it just contradicts itself. I mean Onu-Koro means Earth Village, or Village of Earth, correct? But sometimes it's written in the Matoran letters that actually correspond with O, N, U and K, O, R and O again. But then you'll happen upon a sentence with "village" in it, where it's written with the letters that correspond with V, I, L, L again, A, G and E. How does this make sense? It doesn't... I mean what is correct? Using the letters that correspond with O, N and U, or the ones that correspond with V, I, L, L, A, G and E? And if you write it in the latter way, is it then still pronounced as "koro"? So inconsistent... Man, this is such a brainteaser, right? Or should we just take this with a graint of salt, as non-canon, and hear what you have to say on the matter later? :) It would be interesting if you could come up with a system that would throw everything we know about the written language out the window.

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