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JRRT

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  1. JRRT

    Final Chapter

    By JRRT,

    Chapter 11 of Mask Maker has been posted, and that's all folks! It's a pretty bittersweet ending...not just for the story, but also for myself, since this is actually the largest piece of Bionicle fanfiction I've completed, and it'll likely be the last (for a good long while at least).
     
    In a sense, this story is an attempt at bringing closure to the somewhat open-ended state in which G1 has remained since 2010, as well as a way of transitioning from G1 into G2 and beyond. That's what it is for me, at least. Thanks to everyone who has read it, and thanks to those who took the time to respond. =)
     
    JRRT
  2. JRRT

    Mask Maker

    By JRRT,

    As a final act in 2016, I've posted an epic entitled Mask Maker. It's a final take on the Bionicle G1 storyline that has been taking shape for a few years now. Here's the main topic and the review topic if you're interested in reading and/or commenting. It'll also be on my tumblr blog. See ya '16.
     
    Updates:
     
    CH 1 Labor
    CH 2 Deadline
    CH 3 Last
    CH 4 Embrace
    CH 5 All Wrong
    CH 6 Ages
    CH 7 Invert
    CH 8 No
    CH 9 Door
    CH 10 Goodbye
    CH 11 Mask Maker (Final)
  3. JRRT

    Survivors of the Red Star

    By JRRT,

    A while back (almost a year, actually) I posted a series of Bionicle short-fiction snippets over on this blog. Each post was an entry into a larger story, which was intended as an expansion of the Bionicle G1 storyline related to the nature of the Red Star (specifically, what if the Red Star fell out of orbit? Who might survive, and what would they do?)
     
    I got through five posts (and a sixth was in the works) before burning out, as happens, and they never generated much interest, so I let it rest. Lately though, I’ve been feeling nostalgic, so I thought I’d give it another plug.
    Here are links to each post, in order:

    1. When the Red World fell at last, there were few survivors…
    2. We continued our journey away from the great wreck the next day.
    3. How Yi Resolved to Reach the Sky
    4. Muru continued with his tale:
    5. How Yi Struggled Against the Red Below and the Dark Above
     
    JRRT
  4. JRRT
    [cross-post]
     
    Another year, another birthday, and today’s mine. Seems like a good occasion for gift-giving, so here’s one for you all.
     
    Several months ago, I posted a link on tumblr to an unfinished Matoran Language translation of the script of Bionicle: Mask of Light. At the time, it was only about 25% complete. Well, some time (and procrastination) has passed since then...and now it’s 100% complete.
     
    Link to the document
     
    There’s the link to the Google doc, with comments enabled. And just to give you a taste of what the document contains, I'll conclude with a few short snippets. Enjoy!
     
    ==========
     
    JALLER
     
    ENG: Toa Tahu, Takua? He didn’t…? You’re alive! Kohli-head! You could’ve been lava bones!
     
    MAT: Toa Tahu, Takua? Ai-rhu...? Ou ikau-pa! Kohlii-meki! Ou tanuzaki-nuse!
     
    TAKUA
     
    ENG: Could’ve been, but I’m not.
     
    MAT: O hi-nuse, fa o-rhu.
     
    ==========
     
    POHATU
     
    ENG: Always a pleasure Gali. You two still so ill-at-ease? Put your petty differences aside, rejoice!
     
    MAT: Ta o hiki-po! Avamu rukhapo, Gali. Ou-anga ihua uluraiwa-po? Kofo-khuhi’u ihiki kya, ladeya!
     
    GALI
     
    ENG: Ha, I think my brother is afraid of having his fire extinguished.
     
    MAT: Ha, o ge seyaga ge ro'o ge turyaga ge tahai gamayago.
     
    TAHU
     
    ENG: Hahaha! Sister, against me you’d be nothing but steam. Hot air as they say.
     
    MAT: Hahaha! Ro'o, o'i ou igalorhu-se. Lo-taui, ke ai rokha.
     
    ==========
     
    MAKUTA
     
    ENG: The earth shudders my brother. The seventh Toa has begun its approach. Again the prophecies of the Matoran oppose my will. Must I release those who should never see the light of day? I must preserve your slumber. Their Unity will be poisoned. Their Duty will be broken. Their Destiny I must shatter. Go my sons, use the shadows and keep my brother asleep.
     
    MAT: Onu voya, ro’o. Toa-Nanga hiki'i voyata. Anga imatoran-vakamaja atu'o rakha. O akai ki rhui avahi akuyasu ikuakaryasuka? O voko'u mayasu. Kaita'ai lerayako. Maita'ai guurayako. O vaita'ai panrayasu. Shi'o voya. Krahi maya. Ivoko'a ro'o maya.
     
    ==========
     
    LEWA
     
    ENG: Walk? Ha, not-never! If you ride with me, there be no foot-walking, just air-flying. Ever wind-fly a Gukko-bird?
     
    MAT: Odai? Eke, ru-ru! Oi usai-sa, odi-dai-koru, nga le-mirai. Vai Goko leki-mirai?
     
    TAKUA
     
    ENG: I’ve been a second, but I’ve never flown one myself. (MNOG ref ftw)
     
    MAT: O khanga-nu, fa o nga mirukhanu-rhui.
     
    LEWA
     
    ENG: Then today is for quick-learning. Stay sharp and follow well.
     
    MAT: Le iki-aku. Kee no yai-yai.
  5. JRRT
    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 Contents:



    1. Syntax



    2. Verbs



    3. Nouns



    4. Other



    5. Glossary


     
    1. Syntax
     
    There are two primary rules of syntactic composition (and semantic interpretation) that apply very broadly in Okotoan, as follows:
     
    Rule 1. A modifying element placed before the element it modifies receives an indirect/abstract/non-physical interpretation,
     
    Rule 2. A modifying element placed after the element it modifies receives a direct/concrete/physical interpretation.
     
    A couple of specific applications of this rule to note:
     
    Subjects are positioned before the verb. This expresses the concept that subjects are in an indirect/abstract relation to the action of the verb, since subjects can express various concepts, including “causer”, “initiator”, or just “thing about which the verb expresses an action/property” (depending on the verb).
     
    Objects are positioned after the verb. This expresses the concept that objects are in a dirrect/concrete relation to the action of the verb, indicating the entity which is directly affected by that action.
     
    Taken together, this means that the primary word order of Okotoan is Subject – Verb – Object (SVO), very much like English (and a large number of other human languages).
     
    2. Verbs
     
    Verbs are usually formed directly from basic stems (e.g. k- “to do, act”, e- “to originate, begin, exist”).
     
    A subclass of transitive verbs (verbs that require an object of some kind) is formed by the application of a marker -k (derived from k- “to do, act”; blatantly copied from Matoran -kha, which derives from kya “to do, act”). This can lead to related pairs of verbs such as e- “to originate, begin, exist” alongside ek- “to make smthg.; to cause to exist”.
     
    2.1 Subject-marking
     
    Subjects of verbs are marked by suffixes added directly to the verbal stem, indicating the person/number of the subject. Each suffix has two forms, depending on whether the verb stem ends in a consonant or vowel:
     
    Singular:
    1 -e (after consonants) OR -we (after vowels) = “I”
    2 -i OR -wi = “you”
    3 -a OR -wa = “she/he/it”
     
    Plural: Add the plural marker -to after the suffixes for 1st/2nd/3rd person.
     
    2.1.1 Examples
     
    1. ke “I act.” (= k- “to do, act” + -e “1st person”)
    2. keto “We act.” (= k- + -e + -to “plural”)
    3. ki “You act.” (= k- + -i “2nd person”)
    4. kito “You all act.”
    5. ka “She/he/it acts.” (= k- + -a “3rd person”)
    6. kato “They act.”
    7. owe “I exist.” (= o- “to exist, remain” + -we “1st person”)
    8. owi “You exist.” (= o- + -wi “2nd person”)
    9. owa “She/he/it exists.” (= o- + -wa “3rd person”)
    10. Ekimu owa. “Ekimu exists.”
     
    Notes:
    - The 1st person marker comes from the stem e “making, originating” (the stem o “place, location, point” was also considered, but this would make the Okotoan 1st person marker identical to Matoran!). The 2nd person marker comes from the noun marker -i, which indicates animate individuals, a common implication of the 2nd person in general (you generally address speech to animate, rather than inanimate, things). The 3rd person marker comes from the noun marker -a, which indicates general nouns--things, objects, and people.
    - The suffix-variants with -w- that are used after vowels derive from the addition of the stem u “skill, ability”, which covers the semantic domain of “instrument”, as well as “perspective”. This sound was eventually lost after consonants.
     
    2.2 Tense
     
    Tense is marked on verbs by prefixes added directly to the verbal stem, indicating present, past, and future tense. Each prefix has two forms, depending on whether the verbal stem begins in a consonant or vowel:
     
    Present: o- (before consonants), ok- (before vowels)
    Past: e- OR ek-
    Future: u- OR uk-, w-
     
    4.2.1 Examples
     
    1. Ekimu o-ka. “Ekimu acts.”
    2. Ekimu e-ka. “Ekimu acted.”
    3. Ekimu u-ka. “Ekimu will act.”
    4. Mu ok-owa. “The mask exists.”
    5. Mu ek-owa. “The mask existed”
    6. Mu uk-owa. OR Mu w-owa. “The mask will exist.”
     
    Notes:
    - The present-marker comes from the stem o “place, location, point”, specifying “(current) temporal location”. The past-marker comes from the stem e “making, originating”, specifying “temporal origination”. The future-marker comes from the stem u “skill, ability”, via metaphorical extension from “ability” to “possibility”, and eventually to “temporal possibility; future”.
    - The prefix-variants with -k- that are used before vowels derive from the addition of the stem k- “action”, under the assumption that, at an older stage in the language, tense was marked by a second “placeholder” verb (k-) which then fused with the primary verb stem.
    - Interesting: We can construct an alternate etymology for the name Okoto using a verbal template instead of a nounal one. The complex ok-o-we-to would translate to “we exist/remain” (ok- “present tense”, -o- “to exist, remain”, -we- “first person”, -to “plural”), and according to basic assumptions about sound change, it would undergo eventual phonological reduction along the following lines: okoweto > okoueto > okouto > okoto.
    - Also interesting: An alternate etymology for the name of Ekimu presents itself. The sentence eki mu would translate to “you acted (with respect to) masks”, with eki deriving from e- “past tense” + k- “to do, act” + -i “2nd person”, plus an object mu “mask(s)”.
     
    3. Nouns
     
    Nouns can be formed directly from basic stems (e.g. u “skill, ability”) as well as by the addition of derivative suffixes such as -a “general noun” and -i “animate noun”.
     
    Nouns can be marked for plural number via the suffix -to, which is attached directly to the noun-stem.
     
    Nouns can also be marked for possession by the addition of a set of independent markers for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person possessors, which are placed before the noun which is possessed, expressing that the noun bears a concrete relation to the possessor.
     
    1 we “mine” (pl. weto “ours”)
    2 wi “yours” (pl. wito “yours”)
    3 wa “hers/his/its” (pl. wato “theirs”)
     
    If the possessor is another noun (rather than just a pronoun), it is placed before wa, followed by the possessed noun: [possessor] + wa + [possessed].
     
    Lastly, nouns can be marked to express various spatio-temporal properties (location, movement, instrumentality, etc.). These markers can be expressed as affixes (suffixes/prefixes) or as independent words (prepositions/postpositions), as desired. Since, in most cases, they express direct/concrete/physical relationships, it is suggested that these markers be placed after the nouns they modify (not an absolute rule!).
     
    o “in, at, on (position)”
    e “from, out of, before (origin, startpoint)”
    u “by, with (instrument)”
    mo “to, toward (endpoint)” (< m+o, lit. “completion+location”)
    omo “after, following; outside” (< o+mo, lit. “location+endpoint”)
    wo “through, via, across” (< u+o, lit. “instrument+location”)
    owo “during (process); like, as” (< o+wo, lit. “location+process”)
     
    3.1 Examples:
     
    1. eki-to “maker-s”
    2. kuta-to “hoarder-s”
    3. oko-to “land-s”
    4. we oko “my land”
    5. wi ta “your group/hoard”
    6. wato mu “their mask”
    7. Ekimu wa mu “Ekimu’s mask”
    8. oko-o “in/at/on (the) land”
    9. ta-e “from/out of (the) group/hoard/collection”
    10. tu-u “by/with mastery” OR u-tu, because tu ends in a vowel
    11. toa-mo “toward (the) master/hero” OR mo-toa
    12. oko-omo “outside (the) land”
    13. oko-wo “through/via/across (the) land”
    14. e-owo “during (the) making”
    15. wato oko-to mo “toward our land-s”
     
    Note:
    - Interesting: Example 3 above offers an interesting alternative etymology for the word Okoto; one that is appropriate, considering that Okoto is divided into multiple regions or “lands”.
     
    4. Other
     
    4.1 Expressing Negation
     
    Negation (i.e. “not”) is normally marked on verbs by the prefix um-, which is added before the prefixes marking tense. (This prefix is derived from a combination of the stems u “possibility” and m- “covering; completion”, yielding a sense of “completion” or “limitation” of possibility, i.e. “no possibility, negation”).
     
    Alternately, negation can be marked by addition of the independent morpheme uma “nothing, never” (< um-a “negation+thing”) placed before the verb.
     
    4.1.1 Examples
     
    1. Umeke “I did not act.”
    2. Uma eke “I did not act. / I never acted.”
    3. Makuta umokewa “Makuta does not originate/begin.”
    4. Makuta uma okewa “Makuta does not originate/begin. / Makuta never originates/begins.”
     
    4.2 Questions
     
    Two types of questions (“interrogatives”) can be formed: Yes/No-Questions (“Did you get the mask?”) and WH-Questions (“What did you get?” “Where did you get it?” “Who are you?”, etc.).
     
    - Yes/No-Questions are formed simply by the addition of rising intonation at the end of a sentence (similar to English, Spanish, and numerous other human languages).
     
    - WH-Questions are also formed via rising intonation, but coupled with a special set of interrogative (pro)nouns derived from the base-form at- (a combination of the stems a “thing, object, person” and t- “non-specificity”, hence “non-specific thing/object/person”).
     
    ata “who/what”
    atomo “where”
    atowo “when”
    atowe “why”
    atu “how”
     
    The element ata should be placed before or after the verb based on whether or not it corresponds to the subject or object. All of the other elements are adverbial in nature and can be placed basically anywhere in the sentence.
     
    4.2.1 Examples
     
    1. Ekimu eka? “Did Ekimu act?” (Yes/No-Q)
    2. Ukeki mu? “Will you make the mask?” (Yes/No-Q. Verb = ek- “to make smthg.”)
    3. Ata ekeka mu? “Who/what made the mask?” (WH-Q)
    4. Ekimu ekeka ata? “What did Ekimu make?” (WH-Q)
    5. Atomo Ekimu ekeka mu? “Where did Ekimu make the mask?” (WH-Q)
    6. Ekimu ekeka mu atowo? “When did Ekimu make the mask?” (WH-Q)
    7. Ekimu atu ekeka mu? “How did Ekimu make the mask?” (WH-Q)
     
    4.3 Commands
     
    An imperative (command) is constructed by using the bare form of the stem, without any tense-marking, in combination with the 2nd person suffix -i. Negative imperatives are formed by adding either the negative prefix um- to the stem or by placing the independent negative element uma “nothing, never” before the verb.
     
    4.3.1 Examples
     
    1. Eki mu! “Make the mask!”
    2. Ki! “Do it!”
    3. Uma ki! “Don’t do it!”
    4. Ewi! “Begin/originate!”
    5. Umewi! “Don’t begin/originate!”
    6. Owi! “Exist! / Be!”
     
    4.4 Complex clauses
     
    4.4.1 Coordinating Conjunctions
     
    These independent morphemes are used to join together elements of the same type (e.g. nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs, clauses with clauses) in a symmetrical fashion, such that both elements are independent (“coordinated”).
     
    omo “and, plus” (< o+mo, lit. “location+endpoint”)
    me “but, except” (< m+e, “separation, exception”, lit. “completion+origin”)
    ome “or” (< o+me, lit. “location+separation/exception”)
    we “for, because” (< u+e, lit. “instrument+origin”)
     
    4.4.2 Subordinating Conjunctions
     
    These two morphemes are used to join together elements (usually clauses) in an asymmetrical fashion, such that one element is subordinate or dependent upon the other element. Respectively, they are used to turn a full clause into the object of a verb or into a modifier of a noun (a relative clause).
     
    mo “that” = Complementizer. This morpheme attaches to verbs, indicating that a following clause is the object (or “complement”) of said verb.
     
    ata “that” = Relativizer. This morpheme attaches to nouns, indicating that a following clause is a modifier of the noun.
     
    4.4.3 Examples
     
    1. Makuta omo Ekimu okowato ekimuto. “Makuta and Ekimu are Mask Makers.”
    2. Ekimu okeka, me Makuta otaka. “Ekimu makes, but Makuta hoards.”
    3. Okeki, ome otaki? “Do you make, or do you hoard?”
    4. Makuta ekoka ekimu, we ekeka muto. “Makuta was a Mask Maker, for he made masks.”
    5. Okike-mo Ekimu weka mu. “I want Ekimu to make the mask” (lit. “I want that Ekimu will make the mask.”)
    6. Mu-ata Ekimu ekeka... “The mask that Ekimu made...”
    7. Ekimu okika-mo Makuta uma weka mu. “Ekimu wants Makuta to not make the mask.” (lit. “Ekimu wants that Makuta will not make the mask.”)
     
    5. Glossary:
     
    Basic Stems:
     
    Note: The meanings of these stems are slightly expanded from those outlined in Chapter 9, and a few additional stems have been added.
     
    a |stm.| “thing, object, person”
    e |stm.| “making, originating; origination; past” (< *i-)
    i |stm.| “animacy, intentionality”
    iu |stm.| “sensation, feeling, sight, knowledge” (< *i-u)
    k- |stm.| “acting, doing; action”
    ko |stm.| “solidity, solid-ness; ?ice”
    m- |stm.| “covering; completion; past”
    o |stm.| “location, place, point; specificity; existing, remaining; present”
    t- |stm.| “plurality, mass; non-specificity”
    u |stm.| “skill, ability; instrument, perspective; possibility, future” (< *p-)
     
    Affixes:
     
    -a |aff.| “general noun (thing, object, person)”
    -i |aff.| “animate noun”
    -k |aff.| “transitive verb (verb taking an object)”
    -o |aff.| “general adjective (property, attribute)”
     
    Nouns:
     
    ata |n.| “thing, object”
    ati |n.| “person, individual”
    ati-ota |n.| “community, society”
    atu |n.| “crafted object, product; (piece of) art”
    atuki |n.| “crafter, producer” (< *atukui)
    ea |n.| “beginning, start, origin” (< *eo-a)
    eki |n.| “maker” (< *ekui)
    eki-atu |n.| “crafter, artisan”
    ekimu |n.| “mask maker” (< *eki-mau)
    ga |n.| “liquid, non-solidity; variety, variability, change; activity, movement; water” (< *k-a)
    gali |n.| “(ocean) tide, current; cyclicity, reactivity; humor, comedy; lit. ‘generation of variability/change’” (< *ga-li, see le |n.|)
    ianu |n.| “darkness; blindness; lit. ‘restriction of sensation’” (< *iua-nu)
    iawo |n.| “light; sight, vision; lit. ‘endurance/unrestrictedness of sensation’” (< *iua-po)
    i(w)a “sensation, feeling; discovery, knowledge, understanding” (< *iua)
    ka |n.| “(an) act, deed”
    ki |n.| “agent, causer, actor” (< *kui)
    ko |n.| “solidity, solid (substance), rigidity; structure, arrangement; ice” (< *k-o)
    kopaka “snow-drift, blizzard; slickness, slipperiness; lit. ‘wandering/drifting of ice’” (< ko-paka)
    ku |n.| “action”
    ku-ata |n.| “tool, weapon; appendage (arm, leg, hand), manipulator; lit. ‘thing/object of action’”
    kuta |n.| “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    la |n.| “diffusor, generator; teacher, elder; seed; lit. ‘thing of dispersal/growth/generation’” (< *le-a)
    le |n.| “diffusion, dispersal, circulation; generation, growth; jungle, plant-life; air, wind; lit. ‘multiplicity of origins’” (< *te < *t-i)
    leo |n.| “(a) generation, stage, step, link; lit. ‘point of dispersal/growth/generation’” (< *lea-o)
    lewa |n.| “chaos; lit. ‘freedom of generation/growth’” (< *le-pa)
    ma |n.| “covering, mask”
    makuta |n.| “mask hoarder” (< *mau-kuta)
    moka |n.| “protection, safety”
    moko |n.| “house, building, roofed dwelling-place; lit. ‘solid/stable covered-location’” (< m-oko)
    mu |n.| “mask” (< *mau)
    nu |n.| “restriction, limitation, boundedness; earth, ground; rest, sleep, inactivity; ability/perspective related to covering” (< *m-p)
    o |n.| “place, location, point”
    oga |n.| “body of water; lake, pond”
    ogato |n.| “ocean, sea”
    oki |n.| “inhabitant, dweller” (< *okoi)
    oko |n.| “land, place, home, region”
    okoa |n.| “city, town” (< *okoua)
    okoto |n.| “great land/place/home” (< oko-to)
    oku |n.| “constructed landmark, monument, temple” (< *okou)
    ola |n.| “tree, plant” (< *ole-a)
    ole |n.| “forested area; group of trees/plants”
    oleto |n.| “jungle, forest”
    oma |n.| “end, finish, completion” (< *o-uma)
    oni |n.| “miner, delver, cave-dweller; hermit, meditator” (< *onu-i)
    onu |n.| “underground, below-ground; refuge, resting place”
    onua |n.| “underworld, the deep; silence, rest, meditation” (< *onui-a)
    onuto |n.| “cave-system, subterranean world”
    opo |n.| “above-ground, surface”
    opoto |n.| “plain(s), overworld”
    ota |n.| “network, system, arrangement, organization; team; lit. ‘group/collection of points’” (< *otoa)
    otaga |n.| “volcano”
    otagato |n.| “volcanic region”
    otaki |n.| “organizer, networker; lit. ‘agent of network/systems’”
    pa |n.| “possibility, potential; freedom, autonomy” (< *p-a)
    paka |n.| “wandering, drifting; journey” (< *paki-a)
    paki |n.| “wanderer, rogue; lit. ‘agent of possibility/autonomy’”
    po |n.| “endurance, fortitude, strength; stone, rock; lit. ‘existing/remaining related to ability/perspective’” (< *p-o)
    ta |n.| “hoard, group, collection” (< *toa)
    ta |n.| “plurality; expansion, proliferation, consumption; fire, burning; lit. ‘multiplicity of things/objects’” (< *t-a)
    taga |n.| “magma; lit. ‘liquid fire’”
    to |n.| “largeness, greatness”
    toa |n.| “master, hero” (< *toua)
    toa-ota |n.| “Toa Team; team of heroes/masters” (< ota-toa)
    tu |n.| “mastery; lit. ‘skill of greatness’” (< *tou)
    tu |n.| “versatility, adaptability, application, usefulness” (< *t-u)
    tua |n.| “tool, device, instrument, implement; lit. ‘versatile/useful object’” (< *tuoa )
    tula |n.| “innovator, leader; lit. ‘teacher/elder of adaptability/versatility’ (< *tulea)
    tulaga |n.| “protector, preserver, caretaker; lit. ‘leader related to/against change/variability’”
    u |n.| “skill, ability; possibility”
    uma |n.| “nothing, absence”
    uwa |n.| “time” (< *upa)
     
    Verbs:
     
    Note: Because all verbs require the addition of prefixes and suffixes indicating tense and person/number, I have used the notation “-stem-” to distinguish verbs from other entries.
     
    -e- |v.| “to originate, begin, exist; to be (stative)”
    -ek- |v.| “to make/create smthg.”
    -ewo- |v.| “to go; lit. ‘to move away’” (see -wo-)
    -ga- |v.| “to vary, change; to flow”
    -i- |v.| “to intend, decide”
    -ik- |v.| “to cause, initiate”
    -iuk- |v.| to find, discover; to seek out; lit. ‘to know intentionally (abstract)’” (see -uk-)
    -k- |v.| “to do, act”
    -ki- |v.| “to want, wish, desire”
    -ku- |v.| “to change/become different, alternate, vary”
    -kuk- |v.| “to affect, influence, apply; to change smthg., manipulate”
    -le- |v.| “to disperse, spread, circulate; to generate, manifest”
    -lek- |v.| “to engender, spawn”
    -li- |v.| “to speak, say; to transmit, convey information” (see -le-)
    -m- |v.| “to complete, finish, establish”
    -m(i)k- |v.| “to stop smthg.; to end, cut off”
    -mowo- |v.| “to come; lit. ‘to move toward’” (see -wo-)
    -nu- |v.| “to restrict, limit; to rest, sleep”
    -o- |v.| “to be in/at location; to exist; to be (stative)”
    -ok- |v.| “to put/place smthg. (location); to locate, specify”
    -om- |v.| “to arrive; to end, finish, complete”
    -om(i)k- |v.| “to bring smthg.; lit. ‘to make arrive (with)’; to accomplish, achieve”
    -t- |v.| “to grow, increase, become larger”
    -tak- |v.| “to collect, group, amass, hoard”
    -uk- |v.| “to know, think; lit. ‘make possibility/perspective’”
    -uki- |v.| “to see, observe; lit. ‘to know intentionally (concrete)’” (see -uk-)
    -wo- |v.| “to move”
     
    Adjectives:
     
    eo |adj.| “first, initial” (< *eo-o, see ea |n.|)
    galo |adj.| “reactive; cyclic; humorous, comedic”
    go |adj.| “variable, changeable; flowing, watery” (< *gao, see ga |n.|)
    ko |adj.| “active, eventful” (< *k-o)
    ko(o) |adj.| “solid, stable, firm, concrete; frozen, icy” (< *ko-o)
    kopako |adj.| “slippery”
    lewo |adj.| “chaotic”
    lo |adj.| “dispersed; growing” (< *le-o)
    mo |adj.| “covered, separated; completed, finished; distant”
    no |adj.| “restful, sleepy”
    omo |adj.| “last, final” (< *oum-o, see oma |n.|)
    pako |adj.| “lost, direction-less”
    po |adj.| “above, over; unrestricted, free; resistant, strong”
    to |adj.| “great, large; plural, many”
    towo |adj.| “masterful, heroic; brave, courageous” (< *touo)
    wo |adj.| “skillful, competent, capable”
  6. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 9

    By JRRT,

    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 loose ends and looking forward to the next chapter (Chapter 10), which will conclude this series of posts by outlining a pretty extensive grammar for the Okotoan Language.
     
    For now, though, here’s what I’d like to do: In the interests of completionism, I’d like to reduce all of the lexical elements that we have so far down to their most basic forms and then define those forms as “stems” from which new words are/can be created. The meanings of these stems will be appropriately abstract, and it will be possible to define them as any word-category (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) depending on what they are combined with. This system will serve us well, I think, in the interests of future vocabulary-expansion, as well as the construction of a grammar.
     
    With this goal in mind, we have, luckily, already done most of this work. Elements in the glossary like k- “acting, doing”, e “making, creating” and m- “covering” already provide examples of what I have in mind, but there are a few entries that could be further redefined as stems (the noun-markers -a and -i, for example, might be raised to the status of basic stems indicating “thing, object, person” and “animacy, intentionality”), and there is at least one entry to “largeness, greatness” that can be further broken down. We’ll focus on the latter entry first, and then return to the former, concluding with a glossary of basic stems:
     
    Proposal 1: The element to can be dissolved into two elements: t- and -o. Let t- be a stem-element indicating the general concept of “plurality”, while o translates as “place, location”. Furthermore, let the semantic domain covered by o extend from “place, location” to the concept of “point, specific(ity)”, yielding, in combination with t-, t+o “plurality of points/locations; largeness/greatness”.
     
    With that done, we have exhausted the repertoire of undissolved lexical elements, and all that’s left is to redefine the bulk of the entries that we have derived as basic stems, with appropriately abstract/expanded meanings. These “extended” meanings are somewhat arbitrary, although I hope the connection with the originally-postulated meaning remains clear (e.g. o “location, place” > “point, specificity” > “existing, remaining”; m- “covering” > “completion”, u “skill, ability” > “instrument(ality)”, etc.). I think the following list of stems provides a sufficiently rich pool for future vocabulary construction:
     
    Proposal 2: The following entries constitute basic stems from which the majority of words in the Okotoan Language are derived:
     
    a |stm.| “thing, object, person”
    e |stm.| “making, originating; origination”
    i |stm.| “animacy, intentionality”
    k- |stm.| “acting, doing; action”
    ko |stm.| “solidity, solid-ness; ?ice”
    m- |stm.| “covering; completion”
    o |stm.| “location, place, point; specificity; existing, remaining”
    t- |stm.| “plurality, mass; non-specificity”
    u |stm.| “skill, ability; instrument(ality)”
     
    As mentioned, the next chapter will be the final chapter in this series. Stay tuned!
  7. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 8

    By JRRT,

    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 somewhat semantically complex concept. In order to get at the basic components of the word, we’ll need identify the semantic components of what it means to be an agent, and we can do that via paraphrase, as follows:
     
    Assumption: The concept of “agent” can be paraphrased as “an individual who is able to act intentionally”, which can be broken down into at least three parts: [intentional individual], [ability], and [action].
     
    With that in mind, let’s have an observation:
     
    Observation: The element *kui contains the sequence u, which has been elsewhere assigned an independent meaning of “skill, ability”.
     
    And now, a pretty straightforward proposal:
     
    Proposal 1: The element *kui can be decomposed into u “skill, ability” and the remaining elements k- and -i.
     
    With this proposal, we have assigned the [ability] part of the meaning of “agent” to u, leaving two units that have yet to be specified. Luckily, we also have two remaining word-units: k- and -i. At this point I will note that -i would fit nicely next to the general noun marker -a as a suffix capable of deriving nouns, but the question is, what kind of nouns? The following two proposals will flesh things out:
     
    Proposal 2: Let k- be a stem-element representing the general concept of “acting, doing” (similar to how e represents the general concept of “making”). Together with u “ability, skill”, these could form an independent complex ku “action”.
     
    Proposal 3: Let -i be a suffix which derives specifically animate (or “intentional”) nouns, contrasting with the general noun suffix -a, which does not specify animacy. In combination with ku “action”, this would yield a complex *ku-i “an intentional individual defined by action”, in other words, “an agent”.
     
    So the upshot of these proposals is that we have assigned the [action] component of the meaning of “agent” to the stem k- and the [intentional individual] component to the suffix -i.
     
    Recap:
     
    - Applying a variety of assumptions accumulated in previous posts, we have succesfully decomposed the reconstructed term *kui “agent” into three separate elements, corresponding to three semantic components of the meaning of “agency” ([action], [ability], and [intentional individual]): the stem k- “acting, doing”, u “skill, ability”, and a noun-marker -i “animate noun”.
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    -a “general noun (thing, object, person)”
    e “?making, ?creating”
    eki “maker” (< *ekui)
    ekimu “mask maker”
    -i “animate noun”
    k- “acting, doing” (basic stem)
    ki “agent” (< *kui)
    ko “solidity, solid-ness; ?ice”
    ku “action”
    kuta “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    m- “covering” (basic stem)
    ma “covering, mask”
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    mu “mask” (< *mau)
    o “place, location”
    oko “land, place, home”
    okoto “great land/place/home”
    ta “hoard, group, collection” (< *toa)
    to “largeness, greatness”
    toa “master, hero” (< *toua)
    tu “skill of greatness; mastery” (< *tou)
    u “skill, ability”
  8. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 7

    By JRRT,

    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’t defined the word oko in its entirety, but I think it’s still possible.
     
    Recall that we are unsure whether or not the names of the Masters (Tahu, Gali, Onua, etc.) should count as authentic Okotoan names. Thus far, I’ve attempted to flesh out an Okotoan Language without relying on these names for data, since their status is still up in the air. However, if we were to admit the Toa-names to some limited extent, it might provide us with further options for deciphering the word oko. I’m thinking in particular of the sequence /ko/ in /oko/ and its parallel in the name Kopaka (/kopaka/), the Master of Ice. Assuming that the elemental prefixes of the Matoran Language are, to some extent, preserved in Okotoan, this would mean that ko could be translated as “ice”.
     
    However, rather than simply copying Matoran wholesale, I’d like to put a slight twist on it: Instead of “ice”, why not think of ko as referring to a more general concept...something like “solid” or “solidity, solid-ness”, in the sense of ice being a solid form of matter (contrasting with liquid, gas, etc.)? This interpretation of ko seems a bit more reasonable if we’re trying to figure out how it would fit into a term like oko, which we’ve thus far assumed to mean something like “land”, “landmass” or “place”. A further benefit of this analysis is that it allows us to place ko alongside other “basic” or irreducible stems like to “greatness, largeness”. This leads naturally to a formal proposal:
     
    Proposal 1: The element ko is a lexical component of the Okotoan Language and may be translated as “solidity, solid-ness”.
     
    Of course, we can’t stop there! We’ve determined a plausible meaning for one part of the word oko, so that just leaves the remaining piece o- to be defined. Considering that we’ve thus far assumed that oko should refer to some kind of place or location (e.g. “land” or “home” in the previous posts), it might make sense to assign a similar meaning to o, which would imply a direct/concrete modifying relation between o (the primary element) and ko (the modifier), which is placed after the primary element. Here’s the proposal:
     
    Proposal 2: The element o translates to “place, location”. In combination with ko “solidity, solid-ness”, this means that the complex o-ko translates to “place of solidity (with direct/concrete relation); solid place, foundation; land, home”.
     
    Recap:
     
    - We made the decision to incorporate a small bit of data from the names of the Masters—the element ko from Kopaka—in order to derive a meaning for the as-yet-undefined element oko in Okoto. The stem ko is defined as “solidity, solid-ness” (referencing the status of “ice” as a solid, contrasting with liquids, gases, etc.). Furthermore, we have defined the remaining element o in o-ko as “place, location”, yielding a final meaning of “solid place, foundation; land, home”.
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    -a “general noun (thing, object, person)”
    e “?making, ?creating”
    eki “maker” (< *ekui)
    ekimu “mask maker”
    ki “agent” (< *kui)
    ko “solidity, solid-ness; ?ice”
    kuta “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    m- “covering” (basic stem)
    ma “covering, mask”
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    mu “mask” (< *mau)
    o “place, location”
    oko “land, place, home”
    okoto “great land/place/home”
    ta “hoard, group, collection” (< *toa)
    to “largeness, greatness”
    toa “master, hero” (< *toua)
    tu “skill of greatness; mastery” (< *tou)
    u “skill, ability”
  9. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 6

    By JRRT,

    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, we’ll try to get a bit more specific as to the meaning of this elusive element to in the contexts in which it arises. Let’s start with the following observation, which repeats what we already know:
     
    Observation: The sequence /t/ plus /a/ or /o/ occurs in *toua “master, hero”, ta “group, hoard, collection”, and the word okoto.
     
    Ideally, all of these surface forms could be related to a common root with a common meaning, thereby providing us with yet another lexical building block for our Okotoan glossary. With that goal in mind, we can use the regular sound change patterns we’ve already established to make a few deductions about what the “base form” of this /t+vowel/ sequence is. For example, the sequence /to/ shows up in both /toua/ and /okoto/, i.e. in the middle of a word and at the end of a word. If we decided to trace /to/ back to an older vowel-sequence like we did for /au/, /ui/, etc., we’d expect it to exhibit variation in these two positions. Instead, it’s identical (and in fact forms a part of a different vowel sequence /ou/ in /toua/). Now consider the sequence /ta/: it shows up only at the end of a word (cf. kuta); hence, if it traced back to an older vowel sequence, the sequence would have to be of the form /vowel+a/, since the other sound change rules all preserve the second vowel in word-final position. So it seems likely that /to/ in /toua/ and /okoto/ is the “base form”, while /ta/ is a form derived from an older stage /t+vowel+a/. Using these comparative deductions, we can arrive at the following proposals:
     
    Proposal 1: The element to in *toua “master, hero” and okoto translates to “largeness, greatness” (parallel to Matoran nui “large, great”).
     
    Proposal 2: The term ta “?hoarding, ?grouping” can be traced back to an older form *toa, consisting of the element to “greatness, largeness” combined with the element -a “general noun (person, object, thing)”, and can therefore be translated literally as “largeness of things (direct/concrete relation)”, or, more generally, as a noun signifying “hoard, group, collection”.
     
    Phonological Rule 4:
    Subpart 4a: /oa/ becomes /a/ word-finally. Example: /toa/ > /ta/.
    Subpart 4b: /oa/ becomes /o/ elsewhere. No example available.
     
    With that, we have managed to tie up the etymologies of both toa “master, hero” (< *toua, lit. “person of mastery [= ‘skill of greatness’]”) and ta “group, hoard, collection” (< *toa, lit. “largeness of things”) in a way that takes maximal advantage of their shared elements (e.g. to “largeness, greatness” and -a “general noun”) and follows the exact same phonological rules as every other etymological pairing.
     
    The only thing left to comment on is the composition of the word okoto. I’ve already proposed that to translates to “greatness, largeness”, so that leaves only oko to decipher. Admittedly, there are very few cues left to us, at this point, and because this post is becoming overlong, I’ll simply leave it with the following proposal:
     
    Proposal 3: The element oko translates to something that refers to a landmass or dwelling place, e.g. “land, place, home”, and it is modified by to “largeness, greatness” with a direct/concrete interpretation, hence “physically large”. This means that oko-to would translate roughly to “Great Land/Place/Home” (once again, parallel to the Matoran tradition of denoting placenames via the modifier nui “great”).
     
    Recap:
     
    - We have identified and extracted the common element to in the terms toa “master, hero”, ta “group, hoard, collection”, and okoto, defined this word-element as “largeness, greatness”, and provided an account of its appearance in each term.
    - Along the way, we’ve derived a fourth phonological rule affecting the vowel-sequence /oa/ (> /a/ word-finally, /o/ elsewhere).
    - Lastly, we’ve proposed a preliminary translation of the word okoto, consisting of the element oko and to: Okoto “Great Land/Place/Home”.
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    -a “general noun (thing, object, person)”
    e “?making, ?creating”
    eki “maker” (< *ekui)
    ekimu “mask maker”
    ki “agent” (< *kui)
    kuta “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    m- “covering” (basic stem)
    ma “covering, mask”
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    mu “mask” (< *mau)
    oko “?land, place, home” (unclear)
    okoto “great ?land/place/home”
    ta “hoard, group, collection” (< *toa)
    to “largeness, greatness”
    toa “master, hero” (< *toua)
    tu “skill of greatness; mastery” (< *tou)
    u “skill, ability”
  10. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 5

    By JRRT,

    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 instances where we were able to use comparison, this time we aren’t able to compare the meaning of these terms, since one of them (Okoto) doesn’t have a meaning (nor any clear indications as to what it could mean…yet!). So instead of starting with a comparison of meaning, we’ll have to start with a comparison of the surface form of these words only, and go from there:
     
    Observation: The reconstructed term *toua (and its modern derivative toa) exhibits a sequence /to/. The word okoto also exhibits this sequence in isolation.
     
    Based on these facts, we could conclude that there is a discrete unit to which is combined in various ways. This would imply that *toua is to be separated into at least two parts: *to-ua. Now, a further observation about the surface form of another word which has been previously assigned a meaning:
     
    Observation: The reconstructed term *mau “mask” incorporates /u/.
     
    Adding this into the mix, we might assume that -u in itself constitutes a separable element in both *mau and *toua, hence *ma-u and *to-u-a. As a consequence, this could further lead us to assume that the sequence /ma/ in *ma-u and the sequence /a/ in *to-u-a also constitute separable elements. Here’s a list of all the discrete units (whether they are independent words or some kind of affix) that we can derive, according to these assumptions:
     
    toua
    tou- (in *tou-a)
    to (in *to-u, oko-to)
    mau
    ma (in *ma-u)
    u (in *to-u, *ma-u)
    a (in *tou-a)
     
    Now at last we have a (tenuous) point of comparison in the form of the reconstructed elements *mau “mask” and *tou “???”, which forms a subpart of *tou-a “master, hero”. Using this comparison, we may be able to derive a meaning for each of the distinct elements, with a little creativity.
     
    For this, we’ll have to consider some aspects of Okotoan culture in order to come to a conclusion on what the concepts of “mask” and “master, hero” might have in common. First, let’s consider the concept of masks on Okoto. They are clearly special, but in a somewhat different way than the Kanohi of the Matoran were. Okotoan masks have power, but they are also clearly valuable as products of artistry and skill, as evidenced by the prestige of the Mask Makers. Next, let’s think about the meaning of *toua “master, hero”. It’s pretty uncontroversial to say that a “master” is someone who is maximally skillful at whatever it is they do. At this point, you may already see where I’m going with this, so let’s codify it into a proposal:
     
    Proposal 1: The element u translates roughly to “skill” or “ability”.
     
    Alright, now let’s see how this would apply to *ma-u and *to-u-a. In the first case, it seems reasonable to assume that u would be a modifier indicating that the mask-object (represented by ma) is a product of (the Mask Maker’s) skill or ability. This works quite well, since u is placed second, giving it a direct/concrete interpretation:
     
    ma-u = “a ?mask/object/ma with a direct/concrete relation to skill/ability”, i.e. something that is physically characterized by the application of skillfulness.
     
    As for *to-u-a, we still don’t have meanings for to- or -a, so it’s a bit more difficult to characterize the function of u here. At the same time, we know that the result should be a term meaning “master, hero”, and this might lead us to assume that u “skill, ability”, in this case, is actually the primary element, with to- and -a being modifiers of some kind that intensify the meaning of “skill” (i.e. to “great skill, mastery”) and add the meaning of “an individual” to the word (“an individual with great skill/mastery; a master”). It should be noted that we already have the word ta “?hoarding, ?grouping” available as a comparison for to, and we could, in a preliminary way, assume that to expresses “greatness” in some sense, since ta seems to be related to concepts of groups or plurality (I’ll leave that to explore in a later post). That just leaves -a, and here’s the proposal:
     
    Proposal 2: -a indicates a general noun (thing, object, person).
     
    So bringing everything together, the complex form to-u would, at this stage in our analysis, translate roughly to “skill of ?greatness” (u “skill, ability” is the primary element, modified by to “?greatness” with an indirect/abstract interpretation), and in combination with -a “general noun (thing, object, person)”, that would yield:
     
    tou-a = “a person/thing characterized by great skill/mastery; mastery-person”, i.e. a “master”.
     
    At this point, I am tempted to continue and apply this conception of -a to the element ma, which has thus far only been defined as “mask/object”. Let’s go for it! Here’s the proposal:
     
    Proposal 3: The element ma generally translates to “covering, mask”, and can be decomposed into the stem-element m- “covering” and the general noun marker -a.
     
    Recap:
     
    - Using comparative methodology, we have broken down the reconstructed terms *mau and *toua into the units ma, to, u and a, and then we have made an attempt to furnish these units with meanings. In particular, u is translated as “skill, ability”, -a is translated as a general noun-marker for persons/things, and ma is translated as “covering, mask” (derived from a basic stem m- “covering” combined with -a), whereas to has been assigned the intermediate definition “?greatness” to be fleshed out later.
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    -a “general noun (thing, object, person)”
    e “?making, ?creating”
    eki “maker” (< *ekui)
    ekimu “mask maker”
    ki “agent” (< *kui)
    kuta “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    m- “covering” (basic stem)
    ma “covering, mask”
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    mu “mask” (< *mau)
    ta “?hoarding, ?grouping”
    to “?greatness” (unclear)
    toa “master, hero” (< *toua)
    *tou “skill of ?greatness; mastery” (unclear; would become tu in the modern form of Okotoan)
    u “skill, ability”
  11. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 4

    By JRRT,

    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 comparative reconstruction that we’ve had previously. However, we can still apply some of the knowledge we’ve pieced together related to phonological rules.
     
    Observation: In all other instances of two-vowel sequences, phonological rules have reduced the sequence to a single vowel, so we would expect /oa/ to be subject to a similar rule (for example, /oa/ becoming /a/ at the ends of words, /o/ elsewhere). However, no such reduction applies in this case.
     
    It could, of course, be that /oa/ is simply “immune” to this class of sound changes...but that’s a bit of a dead-end if our aim is to actually make progress in constructing the Okotoan Language. So, instead, here’s another option to consider:
     
    Proposal: Reduction does apply to /oa/, but in a different way: The sequence /oa/ derives from an older sequence /oua/, which is indeed subject to phonological reduction, but in such a way that it results in the modern sequence /oa/. This means that the term toa derives from an older stage *toua.
     
    Phonological Rule 3:
    Subpart 3a: /ou/ > /u/ word-finally.
    Subpart 3b: /ou/ > /o/ elsewhere. Example: /toua/ > /toa/.
     
    Once again, we are able to use the exact same pattern of sound change that applies to sequences like /au/ and /ui/, this time affecting a postulated sequence /ou/ in such a way that it results in the preservation of a two-vowel sequence in the modern form of a word.
     
    Recap:
     
    - We’ve assigned the meaning “master” or “hero” to the word toa, and also reconstructed an older form of this word, *toua, based on observations about the occurrence of postulated two-vowel sequences elsewhere in the language.
    - Along the way, we’ve derived a third phonological rule affecting the vowel-sequence /ou/ (> /u/ word-finally, /o/ elsewhere).
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    e “?making, ?creating”
    eki “maker” (< *ekui)
    ekimu “mask maker”
    ki “agent” (< *kui)
    kuta “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    mu “mask” (< *mau)
    ta “?hoarding, ?grouping”
    toa “master, hero” (< *toua)
  12. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 3

    By JRRT,

    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 of these constitute “agentive” nouns, indicated by the English suffix -er. This common element of agentivity can easily provide us with a point of comparison, in the same way that we used the common element of “mask” in the previous post. Therefore:
     
    Assumption: The words eki and kuta both incorporate a morpheme corresponding to “agent”.
     
    And from there we can move immediately to an observation:
     
    Observation: There is a common sequence /k+vowel/ in both words, /e-ki/ and /ku-ta/.
     
    The variation between /ki/ and /ku/ presents us with a situation that is almost identical with the situation involving /ma/ ~ /mu/ in the previous post, in which case, to keep things maximally simple, we can apply the exact same methodology in order to derive /ki/ ~ /ku/ from a common etymological source, parallel to the derivation of /ma/ ~ /mu/ from the reconstructed *mau.
     
    Proposal 1: The sequence /ki/ in /eki/ and the sequence /ku/ in /kuta/ can both be traced back to an older common form *kui “agent”. Furthermore, the vowel-sequence /ui/ is affected by the following phonological rule, which has two subparts:
     
    Phonological Rule 2:
    Subpart 2a: /ui/ becomes /i/ word-finally. Example: /ekui/ > /eki/.
    Subpart 2b: /ui/ becomes /u/ elsewhere. Example: /kuita/ > /kuta/.
     
    This phonological rule is modeled on the first phonological rule affecting /au/ and operates according to the exact same principles, i.e. the first vowel in a sequence of two vowels is deleted in word-final position, while the second vowel deletes elsewhere. This kind of rule-based simplicity is desirable, I would say, on grounds of parsimony, so it’s fortunate that we can take advantage of it once again!
     
    Now that we’ve extracted *kui “agent” from eki and kuta, we are left with the challenge of assigning appropriate meanings to the remnants of these terms: e- on the one hand and -ta on the other. First, let’s consider the meanings of eki and kuta in relation to our new assumption about *kui “agent”: The term eki “maker” would derive from the complex e-kui, translating to something like “?agent of making; make-er”, while the term kuta would derive from kui-ta, translating to something like “?agent of hoarding; hoard-er”, in which case we can assign rough meanings to our remaining elements, e “?making” and ta “?hoarding”.
     
    This once again leaves the question of the syntactic/semantic difference between the two terms. In both cases, the primary element is *kui “agent”, with e “?making” placed as a modifier before *kui and ta “?hoarding” placed as a modifier after *kui. Here’s how these facts play out:
     
    e-kui = “agent with an abstract/indirect relation to making”, i.e. not a “direct” maker (creating things from nothing), but a builder or someone who makes things out of materials (one step removed from the initial process of creation)
     
    kui-ta = “agent with concrete relation to hoards/groups”, i.e. someone who directly/physically collects objects into definable groups.
     
    Recap:
     
    - We have decomposed the words eki “maker” and kuta “hoarder” into the reconstructed element *kui “agent”, modified in the former case by the element e “?making, ?creating” and in the latter case by the element ta “?hoarding, ?grouping”.
    - Along the way, we’ve derived a second phonological rule affecting the vowel-sequence /ui/ (> /i/ word-finally, /u/ elsewhere).
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    e “?making, ?creating”
    eki “maker” (< *ekui)
    ekimu “mask maker”
    *kui “agent” (would become ki in the modern form of Okotoan)
    kuta “hoarder” (< *kuita)
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    mu “mask” (< *mau)
    ta “?hoarding, ?grouping”
  13. JRRT

    TLoO: Chapter 2

    By JRRT,

    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 to decompose the words.
     
    Ekimu is referred to by the title of “Mask Maker”, while Makuta is referred to by the title of “Mask Hoarder”. As suggested in the original topic, these titles could work well as the meanings of the names Ekimu and Makuta, and I will adopt this idea in order to proceed:
     
    Assumption: The names Ekimu and Makuta translate, respectively, to “Mask Maker” and “Mask Hoarder”.
     
    The advantage to this assumption is that it provides us with a basis for comparing the names. Both titles contain a meaning-element (or “morpheme”) signifying “mask”, so by comparing the two Okotoan names, we should be able to identify and isolate the common element.
     
    Observations: There is a common sequence /m+vowel/ in both names, /eki-mu/ and /ma-kuta/. Both names also contain a sequence of /k/ between vowels, /eki-mu/ in the first case and /m-aku-ta/ in the second.
     
    Both of these options could work, although they both come with a different set of assumptions/consequences. In the first case, we’d have to postulate that the sequences /-mu/ and /ma-/ both map to the morpheme “mask”, and the remaining portions of these words—/eki-/ and /-kuta/—map to the meanings “maker” and “hoarder”, respectively. In the second case, “mask” would be signified by the sequences /eki-/ and /-aku-/, with the morphemes for “maker” and “hoarder” represented by the sequences /-mu/ and /m-...-ta/.
     
    I believe the first option is preferable on the following grounds:
     
    First, splitting the names into /eki-mu/ and /ma-kuta/ is, in general, more uniform than splitting them into /eki-mu/ and /m-aku-ta/, because it results in both names being reduced to two clear morphemic elements (/eki+mu/ and /ma+kuta/), matching the assumed English translations (“mask+maker” and “mask+hoarder”) in a straightforward manner. This contrasts with the second option, which would reduce one name to two morphemic units (/eki+mu/), but the second name to (at least) three (/m+aku+ta/), unless we make some further hypotheses about the composition of these names (e.g. /ekimu/ should be divided into /eki+m+u/ to mirror /m+aku+ta/). On grounds of parsimony (i.e. simplicity), therefore, I believe the first option is better.
     
    Second, assuming that the sequences /mu/ and /ma/ are connected requires only one unified phonological rule affecting a single vowel, such that the vowels /u/ (in /mu/) and /a/ (in /ma/) both originate from a common source. In contrast, assuming that /eki/ and /aku/ are etymologically connected requires at least two rules, since two vowels are involved: /e/ and /a/ must trace back to one common source, and /i/ and /u/ trace back to another. Therefore, I believe that the first option wins out once again on grounds of parsimony (i.e. wanting to assume the minimum number of rules).
     
    With that said, here is how the first option would play out:
     
    Proposal 1: The sequence /mu/ in /ekimu/ and the sequence /ma/ in /makuta/ can both be traced back to an older common form *mau “mask” (the asterisk denotes a reconstructed form). Furthermore, the vowel-sequence /au/ is affected by the following phonological rule, which has two subparts:
     
    Phonological Rule 1:
    Subpart 1a: /au/ becomes /u/ at the ends of words (“word-finally”). Example: /ekimau/ > /ekimu/.
    Subpart 1b: /au/ becomes /a/ everywhere else (“elsewhere”). Example: /maukuta/ > /makuta/.
     
    Now that we’ve accounted for the phonological differences between the manifestations of the morpheme *mau “mask” in the two names, one task remains: explaining the syntactic difference between the combination of elements in each name. In the case of /ekimu/, the element *mau is placed second (/eki-mau/), while in the case of /makuta/, *mau is placed first (/mau-kuta/). Why is this? Does it matter? Ideally, I think we should have an explanation available, and towards that end, I’ll put forward a proposal inspired in part by the rules which apply to how adjectives modify nouns in the Matoran Language. First, the proposal; then, an explanation:
     
    Proposal 2: A modifying element placed before the element it modifies receives an indirect/abstract/non-physical interpretation, while a modifying element placed after another element receives a direct/concrete/physical interpretation.
     
    Note that, while this rule of syntactic/semantic composition matches the rules of the Matoran Language in principle (i.e. in that the syntactic position of modifiers influences their interpretation), in application it’s actually the opposite! In Matoran, adjectives received concrete interpretations when placed before nouns and abstract interpretations when placed after. In Okotoan, the situation is reversed: before = abstract, after = concrete. Don’t worry: this decision wasn’t made on a whim, luckily. It was the result of some intense thought as to the appropriate characterization of the meanings of the names Ekimu and Makuta, as well as a few other names/terms (which will be discussed in later posts). Furthermore, this proposal is a reversal of the proposal I made in the original post, which matched up with Matoran exactly. Ideas change. Pay it no mind! =P And anyways, it feels a bit more appropriate to have a distinct difference between Okotoan and Matoran, rather than having Okotoan be an exact replica.
     
    Now, let’s see how these ideas apply to the composition of our two names:
     
    First of all, we need to determine for both names what is the modifying element and what is the “primary” element (the “head”) in order to determine the interpretation (indirect/abstract vs. direct/concrete). In both cases, the elements representing “maker” (eki) and “hoarder” (kuta) are clearly the primary elements, meaning that the element *mau “mask” is the modifier for both terms. Here’s how this plays out:
     
    eki-mau = “maker with concrete/direct relation to masks” (the modifier *mau is placed after the primary element eki)
     
    mau-kuta = “hoarder with abstract/indirect relation to masks” (the modifier *mau is placed before the primary element kuta)
     
    Recap:
     
    - We have assumed that the names Ekimu and Makuta translate to “Mask Maker” and “Mask Hoarder”, respectively.
    - We have decomposed the names Ekimu and Makuta into the elements eki “maker” and kuta “hoarder”, both modified by the reconstructed element *mau “mask”.
    - Along the way, we’ve derived one phonological rule affecting the vowel-sequence /au/ (> /u/ word-finally, /a/ elsewhere), as well as a rule of syntactic/semantic composition (modifiers are interpreted as indirect/abstract when placed before the thing they modify, direct/concrete when placed after).
     
    Current Glossary:
     
    eki “maker”
    ekimu “mask maker”
    kuta “hoarder”
    makuta “mask hoarder”
    *mau “mask” (would become mu in the modern form of Okotoan)
  14. JRRT
    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.
     
    Before getting to the issue at hand, I’ll note that I am indebted to this topic for some of the inspiration, so credit where credit is due! I posted a first sketch of these ideas in that topic, and I encourage others to join in on the conversation there. The reason I’ve decided to splinter this off into a series of blog posts is...well, there’s a lot of material here, and I have no desire to squash other people’s creativity, which this material would threaten to do if I just flooded the topic with it. Instead, consider this my personal take on the language of the inhabitants of Okoto. These posts will proceed in a series of stages or “chapters”, each building on the proposals and conclusions of the last, and they will continue for as long as I feel like I have something to say. Also, as usual, I’ll be cross-posting everything on my other blog for the perusal of the tumblr community. Alright, enough chit-chat. Enjoy!
     
    Chapter 1
     
    Let’s start with a brief discussion of the data that is available for the language of the Okotoans. First, there is the name of the island itself, Okoto. Secondly, there are the names of the two brothers Ekimu and Makuta. These three names/terms are presented as authentically Okotoan in all G2 media sources, even though Makuta clearly mirrors the Matoran term from G1. For our purposes here, let’s assume that the match-up between the Matoran Language and the Okotoan Language when it comes to Makuta’s name is an homage/coincidence.
     
    Next, we have to consider the names of the G2 Toa/Masters: Tahu, Gali, Lewa, Kopaka, Onua, and Pohatu. These are also definitively Matoran names, but they could be included as authentic Okotoan names via the same criteria by which Makuta can be included (i.e. coincidence). However, there is one problem: we don’t yet know anything about the connection that these Toa have—if any—with the Toa Mata of the G1 universe. If the G2 universe is indeed somehow connected to the G1 universe (which remains a possibility given the hints about the Mask of Time), and, hence, the Masters are actually the same beings as the G1 Toa Mata, then this poses a problem for the inclusion of these names as native to the Okotoan Language, since they would still be Matoran in origin—simply transferred from one universe to another.
     
    It has, of course, been noted that the Protectors clearly gave the Masters their names shortly after the Masters crashlanded, and this might be seen as an argument for the native-status of these names. Then again, it could also very easily be that these names have been passed down to the Protectors in connection with Ekimu’s Prophecy of Heroes (or some other prophecy); hence still non-native. Only time will tell, in this case.
     
    The last thing to consider is the term Toa itself. To me, this word seems to fall more-or-less under the same criteria as Makuta’s name, but that’s mainly because the title of Toa seems to already have a uniquely Okotoan meaning of “Master” (note: seems to—not necessarily confirmed, but I think it’s a pretty solid hypthesis).
     
    Okay, with that out of the way, here is the dataset that is available to us and from which we can begin to assemble a language:
     
    Native terms:
     
    Okoto
    Ekimu
    Makuta
    Toa
     
    Possibly native terms (unconfirmed):
     
    Tahu
    Gali
    Lewa
    Kopaka
    Onua
    Pohatu
  15. JRRT

    The Glyphs of Okoto

    By JRRT,

    Since the release of the Bionicle 2015 media, various people have taken note of the system of symbols or glyphs that consistently appear throughout the island of Okoto. They show up in nearly every one of the story animations--on ruins, statues, the Temple of Time...even the Mask of Creation is covered in them. This has, unsurprisingly, generated questions about whether or not these symbols are purely decorative or if they in fact constitute a functioning writing system, along the lines of the G1 Matoran Alphabet. After a good deal of discussion, however, the consensus (which I agree with) appears to be that these symbols are purely aesthetic and do not carry any linguistic significance.
     
    But even so, using a bit of creativity, it may still be possible to derive something meaningful from these symbols for use by Bionicle fans. My goal here is not to construct a complete "Okotoan Alphabet", but instead to simply take a first step in that direction and see where it leads; hopefully inspiring the creativity of others along the way. With that said, let's begin:
     
    There are two main sources from which I will draw examples of the relevant symbols: those found on the Mask of Creation and those found in the Temple of Time. This is because these sources provide very clear and consistent examples of the glyphs, without heavy modification due to, e.g. the simplified style of the animations, and also because the primary string of symbols that can be derived from these sources shows up only in bits and pieces elsewhere (sometimes partly obscured), rather than being attested in full, as it is in these two contexts.
     
    So, first, here is a facsimile of the symbols found on the Mask of Creation (click here for a hi-res version of the original picture).
     
    1.

     
    Next, a facsimile of the block of symbols found on the interior of the Temple of Time (see this image--specifically the symbols on the left side of the temple, middle row, far right column). The lefthand vertical column of this block is a full 180-degree rotation of the righthand vertical column, and the righthand column partially matches the central vertical crest on the MoCr.
     
    2.

     
    It’s pretty clear at this point that there is actually only one string of symbols involved in both cases. This string is modified/truncated/mirrored/rotated in various ways to fit whatever space is required. Here is the primary string in isolation (basically identical to the righthand column of the Temple of Time version, but mirrored horizontally to match that on the MoCr):
     
    3.

     
    Next, let’s focus on how this string is implemented on the Mask of Creation, since the MoCr provides good examples of repetition of specific sequences of glyphs and truncation of the primary sequence. My goal is to use whatever patterns of repetition/omition that can be found in order to decompose the primary string into individual units, which might then serve as independent “letters” (or graphemes). Here we go:
     
    - The central vertical crest exhibits the full primary string, plus a partial repetition. I have coded the repeated segment in blue, the non-repeated segment in green:
     
    4.

     
    - The two lesser vertical crests exhibit a non-repeating version of the full string which is nevertheless truncated via removal of the largest symbol (marked in red on the original string). Note that the left crest is oriented identically to the central crest, and the right crest is a horizontal mirror of the left.
     
    5.

     
    - The two internal vertical sequences on the “forehead” of the mask include the entire segment that is repeated twice on the central vertical crest, plus one additional symbol. I have preserved the blue-green coloring from (4) to illustrate this.
     
    6.

     
    - The four horizontal crests on the lower edges of the mask all make use of the primary sequence rotated 90 degrees, but with nearly half the sequence omitted. The upper horizontal crests have one glyph more than the lower horizontal crests, which are also flipped vertically. Once again, I have preserved the blue-green color-coding to better illustrate the extent to which certain sequences are preserved and/or omitted.
     
    7.

     
    With these observations in place, here is an updated version of the full schematic of the MoCr with blue-green color-coding.
     
    8.

     
    Now, as stated previously, my goal here is to figure out which symbols are independent and separable and which symbols form “blocks” with each other in order to dissolve the primary string into its constituent units. The patterns of omition on the MoCr give some good clues about this. For example, the fact that a symbol can be omitted from the primary string on the lesser vertical crests (the symbol marked red in (5) above) shows that this symbol is a separable glyph. Likewise, the individual glyphs that are added to fill space on the internal vertical crests (see (6)) and the horizontal crests (see (7)) show that these specific glyphs are also independent and separable. All of these observations lead to the following:
     
    9.

     
    And now, to bring us full circle, we can apply the color-coding to the primary string only, as follows:
     
    10.

     
    As can be seen, my assumption here is that the glyphs that are colored identically form a unit with one another, and based on this assumption, I have broken up the primary string into 8 separate units. Note that the decision to separate 1 and 2 was my own, since, if these symbols had been combined, it would make for a very complex symbol indeed. In addition, the decision to include the single horizontal line as a part of symbol 2, rather than a separate symbol, was made based on the observation that (1) these two components are never separated, and (2) that the two components are clearly printed as a single unit on the lesser vertical crests of the MoCr.
     
    Now the question is, where to go from here? I don’t really know. As a fun creative exercise, we could, of course, assign an alphabetic value to each of the eight “letters” represented here—preferably values that together form some significant eight-letter word without any repeating letters (assuming that this is an alphabetic writing system, similar to the G1 Matoran alphabet). A couple of ideas occur to me:
     
    First, there is the word CREATION. It has eight letters, non-repeating. If we do the value-assignment as suggested, that would make our primary string spell out as follows (Note that, because we have no indications as to which way to read the glyphs (upwards or downwards), either way could work, and so I have provided both up-down and down-up value-assignments):
     
    11.

     
    Secondly—and perhaps more interestingly—there is the word BIONICLE, which is also eight letters, but has a repetition of the letter <i>, which makes it not quite as practical if we want to maximize the number of letters we have at our disposal. However, this problem can be partly resolved by the following observation: The word does have a repetition of the letter <i>, but both occurences have completely different phonetic values, i.e. the first <i> is the sound in “bite”, while the second is the sound in “bit”. If we can withstand this slight complication, this version might very well work.
     
    12.

     
    I will leave it at that. I hope you enjoyed this detour into possible Okotoan orthography, and I also hope that the ideas sketched out here--legitimate or not--serve to generate further creativity on the subject. Have fun.
     
    JRRT
  16. JRRT

    Auld Lang Syne / Ivaha Vahai

    By JRRT,

    [
    don't forget]

     

    I wanted to do one final Matoran Language translation for the year, and what better text to translate than
    "Auld Lang Syne"? In fact, the theme of the song feels doubly appropriate for the Bionicle fandom this year, with the final closure of the original line and the exciting rise of the new generation of sets and story. With that in mind, I decided to translate the titular Scots refrain Auld Lang Syne "Days of Long Ago" using the familiar Matoran phrase Ivaha Vahai "In the Time Before Time".


    May it always be remembered.


     
     

    “Auld Lang Syne” / “Ivaha Vahai”


     

    =====


     

    Should auld acquaintance be forgot,


     

    and never brought to mind?


     

    Should auld acquaintance be forgot,


     

    and auld lang syne?


     
     

    o vau-aiye inuuryaska,


     

    avarumu-sehai?


     

    o vau-aiye inuuryaska,


     

    no ivaha vahai?


     

    =====


     

    For auld lang syne, my jo,


     

    for auld lang syne,


     

    we’ll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,


     

    for auld lang syne.


     
     

    ta ivaha vahai, ro'o,


     

    ta ivaha vahai,


     

    o ilahi-vano kyako,


     

    ta ivaha vahai.


     

    =====


     

    And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup!


     

    and surely I’ll be mine!


     

    And we’ll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,


     

    for auld lang syne.


     
     

    ou vano'u wijeyako


     

    no o anga rodai!


     

    no o ilahi-vano kyako,


     

    ta ivaha vahai.


     

    =====


     

    We twa hae run about the braes,


     

    and pou’d the gowans fine;


     

    But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,


     

    sin' auld lang syne.


     
     

    o-anga numu aodyanu,


     

    no boki kyanu-lai


     

    va jaui-odhi-na vyanu,


     

    nu ivaha vahai.


     

    =====


     

    We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,


     

    frae morning sun till dine;


     

    But seas between us braid hae roar’d


     

    sin' auld lang syne.


     
     

    o-anga igava vyanu


     

    avahi kravahai;


     

    va mahri omu dekyanu


     

    nu ivaha vahai.


     

    =======


     

    And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!


     

    and gie's a hand o’ thine!


     

    And we’ll tak' a right gude-willie waught,


     

    for auld lang syne.


     
     

    hiki maki'o, pauhi'o


     

    ouhi 'ko kya-angai!


     

    o gahi-laui voryako,


     

    ta ivaha vahai.


  17. JRRT

    The Prophecy of Heroes

    By JRRT,

    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, akai deya ki vakamaja roya:


     

    Vahi kraui-ika no taka rayase


     

    Mangai kaitayasu, ikoronga,


     

    Vuna no vaka naya


     

    No ivanto-akee akuya


     

    Ni kaitaya-ika, duni-na Toa-vahikhu kyako


     

    Ta ai Kanohi kyase, ta ai Ekimu eleyase


     

    Kaita, nahi vuata ki rawa maya huya…


     

    Kaita, va nga-ru.


     
     



     

    [
    link]

  18. JRRT

    Naming the Toa Mata

    By JRRT,

    Naming the Toa Mata


     

    [
    over there]

     
    Assumption #1: The names of the Toa Mata were constructed at the very beginning of the Matoran Universe and have preserved their forms throughout history; hence, they provide a window on the form of the Matoran Language in its earliest stages.
     
    Assumption #2: The names of the Toa Mata should be subjected to only the most limited of sound changes (if any), in contrast to other Bionicle names/terms, which are more likely to have been systematically altered in the course of linguistic history.
     
    tahu |n.| fire (substance); combustion; lit. “process/activity of fire” [tahu < ta-hu, from ta “fire” and hu “process, activity”]
     
    gali |n.| water (substance); ocean, tide; lit. “repetition/pervasiveness of water” [gali < ga-li, from ga “water” and li “repetition, habituality, pervasiveness”]
     
    Etymologically, the names given to Tahu and Gali form a natural class in that both indicate relatively straightforward manifestations of their respective elements: the natural activity of fire (with hu “activity, process”) and the natural activity of water or liquid protodermis (with li “repetition, pervasiveness”): ta-hu “fire, combustion” and ga-li “water, ocean”.
     
    lewa |n.| air, wind (substance); atmosphere; lit. “mass/quantity of air” [lewa < le-wa, from le “air” and wa “mass, quantity”]
     
    onua |n.| earth, ground (substance); lit. “mass/quantity of earth” [onua < onu-wa, from onu “earth” and wa “mass, quantity”]
     
    The names given to Lewa and Onua also form a natural class, as they are both derived in an identical manner via the stem wa “mass, quantity”, which is used primarily to form nouns indicating physical/abstract substances: le-wa “air (substance)” and onu-wa “earth (substance)”.
     
    pohatu |n.| stone, rock (substance); foundation; lit. “uniformity/constancy of stone” [pohatu < po-hatu, from po “stone” and hatu “uniformity, constancy, homogeneity”]
     
    kopaka |n.| ice (substance); glacier; lit. “steadfastness/coherence of ice” [kopaka < ko-paka, from ko “ice” and paka “steadfastness”]
     
    The names given to Pohatu and Kopaka likewise form a natural class, but for different reasons than the previous names: They are slightly more complex and abstract, one being derived by compounding with hatu “uniformity, constancy” and the other with paka “steadfastness, coherence”:
     
    hatu |n.| uniformity, constancy, homogeneity; lit. “essence of system-normality” [hatu < ha-atu, from ha “system-normality” and atu “will, intention; essence”]
     
    paka |n.| steadfastness, coherence, solidity; lit. “energy of stone” [paka < pa-ka, from pa “stone” (see entry po) and ka “power, energy, fundamental aspect”]
     
    Semantically, however, both of these words indicate very similar concepts (solidity, steadfastness, reliability, etc.), which serve to characterize the physical manifestations of both of the respective elements: po-hatu “stone, foundation” and ko-paka “ice, glacier”.
  19. JRRT

    CHIKTCHIKTCHIKT

    By JRRT,

    [it must be cleaned]
     
    The Bohrok have remained shrouded in mystery since the earliest stages of Matoran history, their origin and purpose the subject of much superstition. The first Bohrok nests were discovered by Onu-Matoran mining beneath the city of Metru Nui in the period shortly after the Coming of Mata Nui . The nests were already quite ancient and were at first assumed to be the tombs of the original founders of the City of Legends (It would be another hundred thousand years before this initial hypothesis was shown to be much closer to the truth than anyone suspected).
     
    During the initial phases of exploration, the nests were mapped extensively and a wealth of archaeological information was recovered, including the distinctions between the six Bohrok-types and various revealing inscriptions, such as the original engraving b-h-r-k (reconstructed variously as as bo-ha-ro-k or ba-ha-ro-k "unit of system-normality of life/balance", construed by historical linguists as "life-cleansing unit" or "unit of restoring balance”.
     
    Investigation of the nests continued for several centuries, until the discovery of even deeper vaults containing what appeared to be purely organic protodermic organisms, all held in stasis. The revelation that organic protodermic life could exist independent of a mechanical component changed the Matoran understanding of biology significantly, and the similarity that the organisms bore to Kanohi masks generated questions about the origins of these creatures, especially in light of the inscriptions which labelled the stasis chambers: k-r-n-h, reconstructed as ka-r-no-hu "hidden/internal application of power", construed as "internal controller; brain" (later kranohu > kranau > krana), paralleling the oldest inscribed forms of the word kanohi itself, (k-n-h).
     
    Researchers managed to successfully exhume many of the Bohrok-units from their pods, and they made similar progress with freeing Krana from stasis. Unfortunately, in the ensuing period of experimentation, a series of incidents occurred which eventually led to the nests being declared off-limits and sealed by the authorities of Metru Nui. Among these incidents were several occasions where artificially-powered Bohrok were united with Krana and responded with violent and erratic behavior, some reacting by flinging their Krana at nearby researchers. In two cases, the Bohrok managed to dislodge a researcher’s Kanohi and replace it with a Krana. In these instances, before the Krana could be removed, the victims became completely unresponsive and instead began to compulsively repeat a distinctive set of phrases: "ta-hya. Hya-ta." The phrases were clearly archaic, but could be translated as "clean (the) essence (of smthg.)" (ta hya) and "make (it) clean" (hya-ta).
     
    Afterward, the victims suffered debilitating psychological effects and obsessive behavior, many times carving the phrase ta-hya hya-ta into walls and surfaces. It was for these and other reasons that active experimentation on Bohrok and Krana was shut down and the nests were sealed off. Nevertheless, some researchers persisted. Most notably, a Ce-Matoran linguist named Roaku became interested in studying the vocal systems of the Bohrok-specimens that had since been transferred to the Onu-Metru Archives. Roaku noted that, when active, Bohrok made a particular repetitive utterance, which was originally thought to be simply a meaningless mechanical reflex (transcribed as chikt or chkt in the literature).
     
    She hypothesized, however, that this utterance might in fact bear meaning and also that there might be a connection between this repetitive Bohrok-utterance and the utterances made by Matoran under the influence of Krana. After extensive study of Bohrok anatomy, she concluded that the Bohrok vocal tract reflected a design similar to that of the Matoran, but with a much smaller articulatory range.
     
    Roaku then performed a series of experiments: She meticulously replicated Bohrok vocal organs and fed streams of recorded Matoran speech through the fabricated system. Results were inconclusive initially, until Roaku finally perfected the design. The culminating experiment occurred when Roaku fed the original utterance made by Krana-controlled Matoran – ta-hya hya-ta – through the system. The result astounded her: The translation through the Bohrok vocal-tract had the effect of applying a series of phonological reduction-rules whereby the input speech was heavily (but systematically) modified and truncated. The input and output speech is represented informally as follows:
     
    Input: ta-hya hya-ta
    Reduction: tahyahyata > tǝhyǝhyǝt > tǝkshǝkshǝt > t'kshǝksh't > tshǝkt
    Output: chikt, chkt
     
    Roaku formalized the following set of rules to describe the phonological reduction from Matoran to Bohrok:
     
    Original Matoran: ta-hya hya-ta
    Phonetic transcription: [ta.hya.hya.ta]*
    Rule 1: Vowel reduction of [a] > [ǝ] and final vowel deletion: [ta.hya.hya.ta] > [tǝ.hyǝ.hyǝt]
    Rule 2: Frication/phonetic reinforcement of [hy] to [kS]**: [tǝ.hyǝ.hyǝt] > [tǝ.kSǝ.kSǝt]
    Rule 3: Deletion of unstressed vowels: [tǝ.'kSǝ.kSǝt] > [tkSǝkSt]
    Rule 4a: Reduction of [kS] to after [t]: [tkSǝkSt] > [tSǝkSt]
    Rule 4b: Reduction of [kS] to [k] before [t]: [tSǝkSt] > [tSǝkt]
    Spelling: [tS] = <ch>, [ǝ] = <i>
    Final form: chikt, ch'kt/chkt
     
    *[y] here signifies the equivalent of [j], i.e. a palatal glide or approximant in human articulatory terms.
    ** signifies the equivalent of a palatal fricative in human articulatory terms, while [tS] is the equivalent of an alveopalatal affricate.
     
    Roaku brought her results before the leading council of Metru Nui: the Bohrok were somehow connected to the Matoran, not only anatomically, but also in that the Krana which served as the minds of the Bohrok were clearly imbued with some communicative ability, in particular an ancient form of the Matoran Language which was conveyed (though imperfectly) through Bohrok vocalizations.
     
    She implored the council to lift the ban on further archaeological research, arguing that the Bohrok might shed light on areas of Matoran history that had long been forgotten, including the origins of Matoran prior to the Coming of Mata Nui. Sadly, the council rejected Roaku's request, and much of her work was deemed classified.
     
    However, one quote remains from Roaku’s initial public appeal to the council, in which she condemned plans that had been put forward by others to destroy or otherwise interfere with the Bohrok nests. After denouncing these intentions as immoral, she concluded her speech with the following phrase:
     
    Ai ro'o-pa . . . no o akai zakihukya-su-rhu ki o akai urhaya!
     
    Translated: “They are our brothers (ro’o, lit. ‘our comrades/sisters/brothers’) . . . and we dare not oppose them! (akai urhaya (> Modern raya), lit. ‘cause them system-abnormality’)”
     
    Although her primary appeal to the council was rejected, Roaku’s initial condemnation of any destructive interference with the Bohrok was instrumental in the council’s decision to reject such plans. Instead, the nests were simply sealed off to the public, and information about them was restricted.
     
    Little did Roaku know that her words would echo the sentiments expressed by the Bahrag Queens themselves nearly 70 millenia later in their initial battle with the Toa Mata (as recounted by Toa Gali):
     
    Bahrag: Ou akai zakihukya-nu ki ou ro'ou urhaya!
     
    Translated:
     

    “You dared to oppose your brothers!”


  20. JRRT
    Irnakk the Fearsome: As real as pain and death


     

    [
    yikes]

     
    Although Matoran culture doubtless remains the most widely recognized and influential of the cultural systems which arose within the Matoran Universe, it was not the only culture to exist. The various non-Matoran races created by the Great Beings eventually formed their own individual cultural variations, although the imprint of Matoran culture remained. One interesting example of this interplay between cultural concepts – especially an interplay represented in language – can be identified in the earliest stages of Skakdian society.
     
    While the Skakdi were equipped with their own individual language, they were also competent to communicate in Matoran, and as such there was extensive language contact during the millenia preceding the arrival of Makuta Spiriah on the Skakdian home-island of Zakaz, after which Skakdian society underwent a series of drastic changes, as has been recorded elsewhere.
     
    One of the core principles that characterized Matoran behavior and values – perhaps on par with the Three Virtues – was the concept of "system-normality", expressed in the Matoran language by the morpheme ha. This concept constituted an important lynchpin of early Matoran morality, and it was opposed by an antonymic concept of "system-abnormality", expressed by the complex morpheme ur-ha "not-system-normal" (ur- "negative, not"; ur-ha > rha > ra). This moral binary has observable correlates in most non-Matoran cultures throughout the Matoran Universe, including the Skakdi.
     
    However, the Skakdian variation of ha was slightly different: Some of the central values of early Skakdian society lay in concepts of "power", "strength", and "physical/mental prowess", rather than the more general category of "system-normality". Accordingly, the Skakdi co-opted the Matoran stem na "elemental power/energy" as their own equivalent of Matoran ha-system-normality, with a correspondingly antonymic concept expressed by the complex ur-na (parallel to ur-ha): "powerlessness, wrongness, weakness, fear".
     
    Interestingly, the word-form urna ultimately passed into Skakdi vernacular as the word irna (with unrounding and fronting of Matoran to [i ] in accordance with Skakdi dialects), more commonly as a constituent of a word [i]irnakk [/i]"creature of irna" (irnakk < irna-ki "lit. 'component of powerlessness/weakness/fear'", from irna and the Matoran morpheme ki "piece, part"). Initially, irnakk was used as a general term for "wrongdoer/criminal", "coward", or "dangerous ('fearsome') one". However, after Makuta Spiriah initiated his program of experimental mutation on the inhabitants of Zakaz and Skakdian society quickly dissolved into savagery, the term irnakk took on a different significance as part of a newly-innovated mythology:
     
    Although few historical records survive, it is known that Skakdian rulers developed an extensive mythological tradition designed to enforce a modicum of order and maintain their authority over the populace, primarily through fear of punishment. At the center of this mythology was the figure of (the) Irnakk, a monstrous embodiment of all anti-Skakdian ideals, including "weakness" and "loss of strength/power", but even more centrally, archetypal fear and terror. In some sense, therefore, Irnakk is an etymological parallel to the Matoran word Rahi: rahi < ur-ha-hi "thing of system-abnormality; 'not us'" vs. irnakk < ur-na-ki "thing of fear; 'not us'" (-ki and -hi both originating as noun-markers from a similar source), and as such, Irnakk came to hold a significant place in the Skakdian psyche: a nightmarish reminder of the fate suffered by those who exhibited weakness or succumbed to fear.
     
    A final point of interest comes in the form of a folk-etymology that arose in the period after the Irnakk-myth had been fully established. It involved an almost ritualistic phrase which was used as an imprecation to silence and condemn any Skakdi who expressed doubt about the existence of Irnakk: Ei iradi irai na kho, literally "He is as real as pain and death". Given the brutal societal conditions faced by most Skakdi, concepts of pain and death were familiar and naturally effective as a means of quelling any disbelief, since the expression carried with it an unspoken threat of punishment. Translated into Standard Matoran, the phrase would be glossed as follows:
     
    ai e-rode e-rahu no khu
    he as-real as-pain and death
    "He (is) as real as pain-and-death."
     
    The folk-etymology is based on the claim that the name irnakk is actually a contraction of the latter portion of this phrase: Matoran e-rahu-no-khu, Skakdi irai-na-kho "(as) pain and death" > iranako > irnakk. Interpreted in this sense, the malediction takes on further dread significance, as it is essentially the equivalent of responding to someone who doubts the existence of Irnakk by saying "He (Irnakk) is as real (as) irnakk".
     
    It is fitting, therefore, that the only eyewitness account of Irnakk – as a manifestation created to test the six Skakdi known as Piraka in the labyrinth beneath Mt. Valmai – reports the following exchange between the creature and the Skakdi Thok and Avak, in which Irnakk symbolically invokes himself as a means of rebuking the Skakdi's expression of unbelief (as witnessed by Toa Matoro and recounted afterward by his surviving comrades):
     
    Thok:
    Dialogue: Skino ei-si? Na skai akoka ski skiro Irnakk-ro!
    Translation: "How can this be? Everyone knows there's no such thing as Irnakk!"
     
    Avak:
    Dialogue: Skai roka. Ai skai akokasi ski ei-ro.
    Translation: "Tell it that. Maybe you can get it to agree that it doesn't exist."
     
    Irnakk:
    Dialogue: Skiro, ai roka? Iradi irai na kho, a roka…
    Translation: "No such thing, says you? As real as pain and death, says I..."
  21. JRRT
    Nuparu and the Dakhi-Na Vahki / The Six Commandments of the Law


     

    [
    also there]

     
    The Onu-Matoran engineer-inventor Nuparu is well-known as the creator of the last generation of law-enforcement automatons to be implemented in the city of Metru Nui prior to the Great Cataclysm. This was the culmination of a series of attempts to control crime-rates and unrest spanning the period after the tragic events of the Matoran Civil War.
     
    While it is true that Nuparu was primarily responsible for the conception and mechanical design of these automatons, he also played a role in articulating the socio-political philosophy behind their implementation. In the aftermath of the Civil War, many leaders sought to implement safeguards to prevent any future uprisings in the city—not simply because they desired to control the population, but because they also wished to prevent the reoccurrence of a state of affairs where the bloody intervention of the Makuta once again was threatened.
     
    Various schools of thought arose, all centered around the concept of Vahki – "the Law" – and its application. Accordingly, Nuparu named his creations the Vahki. Furthermore, he consulted the Ko-Matoran Scholar and Historian Ihu about the history of Matoran legal systems. The oldest codified set of laws, said to have been transmitted directly from Mata Nui, was the Dakhi-Na Vahki "Six Commandments of the Law" (dakhi "(a) law, rule, commandment"), which articulated many of the basic principles of Matoran ethics.
     
    vahki |n.| (the) Law; lit. "measurement of limitations" [vahki < vahiki < vdahiki < fata-hiki, from fata "restriction, limitation " and hiki "measurement"]
    dakhi |n.| (a) law, rule, commandment; lit. "component of order" [dakhi < dakihi < zdakihi < zata-kihi, from zata "order" (see entry da) and kihi "part, component"]
     
    Each of the six individual laws was eventually characterized by a single lexical compound, which stood as the "name" of the law. Drawing upon this historical material, Nuparu created six variations on the original Vahki-design, each specifically tailored to the enforcement of one of the Dakhi-Na and equipped with corresponding abilities. The laws are as follows:
     
    I - Zadakh: "Thou shalt follow the plan."
    zadakh |n.cmpd.| (the) law of schematic [zadakh < zadakhi < za-zatakhi, from za "schematic, structure, plan" and zatakhi "(a) law, rule, commandment" (see entry dakhi)]
     
    II - Bordakh: "Thou shalt not betray life-integrity."
    bordakh |n.cmpd.| (the) law against decay/failure/betrayal/disloyalty [bordakh < bordakhi < borzdakhi < bor-zatakhi, from bor "decay, failure; lit. 'opposite of growing/living/remaining'" (< bo-ur) and zatakhi "(a) law, rule, commandment" (see entry dakhi)]
     
    III - Vorzakh: "Thou shalt not obstruct movement/vital-energy."
    vorzakh |n.cmpd.| (the) law against obstruction of movement/energy [vorzakh < vorzakhi < vorzdakhi < vor-zatakhi, from vor "obstruction (of movement/energy); lit. 'opposite of movement/transmission'" (< vo-ur) and zatakhi "law, rule, commandment" (see entry dakhi)]
     
    IV - Rorzakh: "Thou shalt not be idle/cease communication."
    rorzakh |n.cmpd.| (the) law against idleness/non-communication [rorzakh < rorzakhi < rorzdakhi < ror-zatakhi, from ror "idleness, non-communication; lit. 'opposite of unit/word'" (< ro-ur) and zatakhi "law, rule, commandment" (see entry dakhi)]
     
    V - Keerakh: "Thou shalt not injure/disassemble."
    keerakh |n.cmpd.| (the) law against injury/disassembly [keerakh < keerzdakhi < keer-zatakhi, from keer "injury, disassembly; lit. 'opposite of unity-of-parts'" (< kee-ur) and zatakhi "law, rule, commandment" (see entry dakhi)]
     
    VI - Nuurakh: "Thou shalt not forget."
    nuurakh |n.cmpd.| (the) law against forgetfulness [nuurakh < nuurzdakhi < nuur-zatakhi, from nuur "forgetfulness; lit. 'opposite of memory'" (< nu-ur) and zatakhi "law, rule, commandment" (see entry dakhi)]
     
    In addition to the choice of name for each Vahki, Nuparu also equipped each Vahki-type with abilities appropriate for the enforcement of the individual laws they represented:
     
    - The Zadakh were equipped with Staffs of Suggestion, allowing them to enforce the commandment that Matoran should follow the plan or programming provided.
     
    - The Bordakh were equipped with Staffs of Loyalty, enforcing the commandment against decay, failure, or betrayal by generating a strong sense of loyalty in the target.
     
    - The Vorzakh were equipped with Staffs of Erasing, which inhibited higher mental function, enforcing the commandment against the obstruction of movement or transmission of energy by causing Matoran-units to revert to base-programming.
     
    - The Rorzakh were equipped with Staffs of Presence, allowing the Vahki to monitor the senses of subversive individuals and enforce the commandment against idleness (not performing a particular labor for some reason) or non-communication (i.e. withholding information).
     
    - The Keerakh were equipped with Staffs of Confusion, allowing them to enforce the commandment against injury (of another unit) or disassembly (of some structure) by disorienting and subduing the offender.
     
    - Lastly, the Nuurakh were equipped with Staffs of Command, allowing them to enforce the commandment against forgetting or abandoning some task or purpose by directly forcing a command-directive upon a target and imposing obedience.
     
    While Nuparu originally intended for the Vahki to represent the Unity of the Law (Vahki Kaita) by working as a whole throughout the city of Metru Nui, they were not implemented as such. Instead, each of the six Vahki-types became separately associated with one Metru and were largely restricted to working within that Metru, subverting Nuparu's original ideal.
     
    Accordingly, as the role of the Vahki became more and more oppressive under the increasingly totalitarian leadership of Turaga Dume, Nuparu came to believe that, in spite of his good intentions for bringing about a final age of peace for his city, he had ultimately failed, and the revelation that Turaga Dume was in fact the Makuta Teridax in disguise only reinforced that belief. Despite the efforts of those who strove to establish the rule of law in Metru Nui, in the end, history repeated itself with the intervention of the Makuta, and the universe suffered the consequences...
     
    Etymological Notes:
     
    Five of the words listed above are derived via a common pattern: stem+ur+zatakhi. After standard processes of phonological reduction have applied – namely -urzata- > -rzada- > -rzda- – this results in a triconsonantal cluster [rzd]. This cluster is further reduced according to the application of three different phonological rules, as follows:
     
    - Rule 1: [rzd] > [rd] / V__
    This means that, when the cluster [rzd] is preceded by a short vowel, it reduces to [rd]. This rule applies in the word bordakh (< borzdakhi).
     
    - Rule 2: [rzd] > [rz] / C[+cont]V__
    This means that, when the cluster [rzd] is preceded by a short vowel and a consonant which is a continuant, it reduces to [rz] (i.e. instead of [rd], as in Rule 1). This rule applies in the words vorzakh (< vorzdakhi, [v] = continuant consonant) and rorzakh (< rorzdakhi, [r] = continuant consonant).
     
    - Rule 3: [rzd] > [r] / V:__
    This means that, when the cluster [rzd] is preceded by a long vowel, it reduces to [r] (most likely with an intermediate stage [rd] or [rz]). This rule applies in the words keerakh (< keerdakhi < keerzdakhi) and nuurakh (< nuurzakhi < nuurzdakhi).
  22. JRRT
    [boo]
     
    rakha-su-hakha |idm.| trick or treat [From rakha "to trick; lit. 'make smthg. system-abnormal'", su "or (conj.)", and hakha "to treat; lit. 'make smthg. system-normal"]
     
    ======================
     
    The origin of this phrase can be found in the development of a relatively recent Matoran holiday, originally celebrated in Metru Nui and later transplanted into the Matoran-Agori culture of Spherus Magna. The holiday began as a memorial marking one of the greatest losses of life that occurred during the Toa-Dark Hunter War in Metru Nui: "The Night of Life and Death", popularly termed the Ikukravai or alternately Ikhukravai.
     
    The variation in the name of the holiday is actually an intentional pun: i-ku-kravai translates as "night of life/living-things" (i- "of, from", ku "life(-process), spirit", kravai < kravahi "night"), whereas i-khu-kravai translates as "night of death/dead-things" (khu "separation", related to kaukhu "death; lit. 'separation from life'").
     
    The phrase rakha-su-hakha is connected to the events of Ik(h)ukravai as follows: During the various nighttime ceasefires that were established throughout the course of the war, the sentries guarding Toa-controlled portions of Metru Nui would routinely use the phrase rakha-su-hakha as a watch-word, equivalent to "Are you friend or foe?" or "Do you intend us good (hakha) or ill (rakha)?"
     
    On the night of the Ik(h)ukravai, a substantial force of Dark Hunters broke the ceasefire by ambushing sentries along the western edge of Ta-Metru and making an incursion toward the Colisseum. Initially caught off-guard, the forces of the Toa eventually rallied and managed to repel the invaders, but not without sustaining massive casualties, including many Matoran. According to legend, the twin moons of Metru Nui – referred to superstitiously as "the eyes of Mata Nui" – dimmed to blackness in the aftermath of the carnage, and it is said that the spirits of slain Toa and Matoran wandered the ruined streets for a time, clutching their broken masks, until an ominous Red Star appeared briefly in the sky where the moons had shone.
     
    Historians count the Ik(h)ukravai as one of the culminating battles of the war, which precipitated the final resolution of the conflict. In modern times, however, the holiday has shifted to become a festival celebrating spiritual horror and the Matoran concept of the macabre, as well as the mystery of Matoran death. Participants traditionally wear specially-crafted Kanohi which are forged to appear broken or ruined in some way, and continue to greet each other with the phrase rakha-su-hakha. Tradition prescribes that if someone you do not know greets you with rakha-su-hakha, you must exchange masks with them temporarily, in order to "ward off the Red Star" ("initoi hauya")...
  23. JRRT

    Roots & Stems

    By JRRT,

    Oh hi. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? At least, it’s been a while since I posted anything of substance here. I’ve actually been pretty freakishly active on my tumblr blog over the last couple of months, although not so much in recent weeks. That’s due to the fact that the academic year has once again begun, and my time is now mostly consumed by a combination of teaching and coursework. woo
    But, in spite of that, I have managed to eke out something that might be of interest to the Matoran language enthusiasts that still lurk hither. It’s something that has been in development for a long time, and it’s bound to continue developing in future, as usual, but I felt like it had reach a sufficient stage of maturation to post. So here it is:
     

    ROOTS & STEMS


     
    One of the most difficult (and yet, most satisfying) parts of thinking about Matoran etymology is seeing just how far we can reduce the set of original root-stems that might have formed the lexical inventory of the Matoran language in its most ancient state (i.e. the state of the language as programmed by the Great Beings). This has pretty much been a constant preoccupation of mine, since every additional stem that we have to posit in order to sufficiently derive all known Matoran words is technically an additional departure from the canon. Ideally, we’d be able to derive every Matoran word by relying solely on a small pool of well-motivated stems which are combined in consistent and logical ways to create the complex forms we see. Over the past several years, this pool has fluctuated wildly, but overall I’m happy to say that it has grown consistently smaller. In fact, at this point in the project, I can say with pretty good certainty that it is possible to derive every known Matoran word from a pool of stems consisting of about 16 elemental stems (ta, ga, le, (o)nu, po/pa, ko, vo, fa, bo, de, fe, ce, su, ba, av, kra, no/na) plus roughly 16 additional stems with varying semantic values. An entire lexicon and grammatical system derived from the combination of ~32 primitive items? Seems like a pretty good result to me! =p
    And that finally brings me to the point of this entry: a provisional list of the ~32 stems coupled with the semantic domains that they (supposedly) cover. I won’t attempt to provide any justification for these other than to direct you (as always) to the Matoran Dictionary and the Matoran Grammar, where most, if not all, of these stems manifest in one form or another.
     
    ELEMENTAL STEMS:
     
    TA -- fire; courage/bravery; essence, being; cause/initiation, inception
    GA -- water; purity; progression
    LE -- air; cohesiveness, accuracy; habituality
    (O)NU -- earth; firmness, steadfastness; past-orientation, memory
    PO/PA -- stone; strength, stolidness; reliability, friendliness; present-orientation
    KO -- ice; clarity, knowledge, sight; foresight, future-orientation
    VO -- lightning; energy; movement, conduction/transmission; ability
    FA -- magnetism; field, range, limitation; perfectivity
    BO -- plant-life; permanence; patience, stativity
    DE -- sonics; ?sensitivity, ?precision
    FE -- iron; metal; invention, innovation
    CE -- psionics; mind; (epistemic) possibility
    SU -- plasma; consumption, conversion; (deontic) necessity
    BA -- gravity; weight, balance
    AV -- light; enlightenment, ?revelation
    KRA -- shadow; obscurity
    NO/NA -- protodermis, substance, matter; the protodermic Elements
     
    NON-ELEMENTAL STEMS:
     
    KA -- unity; power, energy, potential; ?system-normality (?> HA)
    MA -- duty; control, use, mastery
    VA -- destiny; time
    HA -- system-normality; ?activity, process (?> HU)
    HI -- thing, object (> hi); part (> ki); intensive (> -k)
    HU -- activity, process
    RO -- unit, individuation
    ZA -- schematic, plan, structure
    AR -- affirmation, presence, realis (ar-); application, realization (> ­-ar)
    UR -- negation, absence, irealis (ur-); antonymy (> -ur)
    WA -- mass, quantity, magnitude; ?relation, property
    AI -- basis of deictic grammatical affixes (> ai-, -ai, i-...-a; > ai-ai > i-ai > yai > YI)
    IA -- basis of non-deictic derivative affixes (> -ya, a-...-i; -a-wa-i > -aui > -ui)
    YI -- contact, connection, together(ness) (< AI+AI)
    ?LA -- positivity, goodness (?< LE)
    ?NI -- ?being, star (?< NO/NA)
    ?SI -- possibility, variation (?< CE)
  24. JRRT

    star-spangly

    By JRRT,

    July 4th? Independence Day? This seemed appropriate:
     
    "The Star-Spangled Banner" (first verse)
     
    O say can you see / by the dawn's early light,
    What so proudly we hailed / at the twilight's last gleaming,
    Whose broad stripes and bright stars / through the perilous fight,
    O'er the ramparts we watched, / were so gallantly streaming?
    And the rockets' red glare, / the bombs bursting in air,
    Gave proof through the night / that our flag was still there;
    O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
     
    Matoran Translation:
     
    "Ni'uma Runa"
     
    Ou avahima / ki i'akuyaka,
    Ki o maui ilo- / -ma'a-ngu akuyanu,
    Wairho ni-avaui / raui-i'azaia
    Akuwi-maikoro, / akakui movyaganu?
    Koradak-toiavka / ile'a krayaga,
    Akramu ki akya / ki runa'o boya,
    'ko-rya, ni'uma-runa ivyaka-lei
    Rokua-miwahi no roaki-mirei?
     
    Time to go eat good food and watch some fireworks with the fam. Happy 4th.
  25. JRRT
    I've posted a few examples of texts in the Matoran language on this blog so far, and if you lurk elsewhere on the internet, you may have seen quite a few more. Most of these translations make use of a particular model of Matoran grammar, one that has undergone many alterations over the years. At this point, I thought it might be useful/interesting to share that grammar in its current state. So here's a basic overview—a cheatsheet, if you will. Have fun with it.
     
     
     

    ==============================



    Matoran Grammar: A Primer



    ==============================






     
    1. Syntax I:

    Before getting into the nitty-gritty details of nouns, verbs, inflections/affixes, etc., here are some general principles governing how words are organized syntactically in Matoran. Keep these rules in mind as you encounter examples of clauses and other syntactic units in the following sections!
     
    - Rules for clauses

    #1: The verb goes last. That's basically the only rigid rule.
    #2: The subject goes first.
    #3: Object(s) go after the subject (but before the verb).
     
    The combination of these three rules yields the following overall syntactic pattern for clauses in Matoran: Subject – Object – Verb (SOV).
     
    - Other rules
     
    #4: A modifier (an adjective/adverb) that is placed before the unit it modifies will yield a concrete/physical meaning:
     
    nui – jaga "big scorpion"
    kofo – jaga "small scorpion"
    nui – rama "big flying-insect"
     
    #5: A modifier (an adjective/adverb) placed after the thing it modifies will yield an abstract/evaluative meaning:
     
    mata – nui "great spirit"
    rahi – nui "great Rahi"
    mana – ko "silent/still monster"
     
    ==============================
     
    2. Verbs:
     
    Verbs are generally distinguished by the presence of a derivative suffix -ya or -kha attached to the stem. All other inflections are added after this suffix. Verbs are inflected for tense and negation, as well as aspect/mood (not discussed here). This section will also provide information on the formation of interrogative clauses (questions).
     
    - Tense
     
    Tense is marked on verbs by a series of suffixes added to the verbal complex, as follows:
     
    Past: -nu
    Present: -pa/-po (optional)
    Future: -ko
     
    Examples (check Section 6 for a glossary with full definitions—all words used in examples are marked with * in the wordlist):
     
    (1) Matoran voya-nu. "The Matoran went/travelled."
    (2) Toa zya(-pa). "The Toa attacks."
    (3) Turaga akuya-ko. "The Turaga will see (it)."
     
    **Note: You can also form imperative constructions (i.e. commands) by using the basic, uninflected form of the stem: Manas zya! "Attack the monster!"
     
    - Negation
     
    Negation (English "not") is marked on verbs by adding the suffix -rhu (can be reduced to -ru) to the verbal complex after all other suffixes have been added.
     
    Examples:
     
    (4) Matoran voya-nu-rhu. "The Matoran did not go/travel."
    (5) Toa zya-rhu. "The Toa does not attack"
    (6) Turaga akuya-ko-rhu. "The Turaga will not see (it)."
     
    - Questions
     
    Three types of questions are distinguished in Matoran. Two of them correspond to "information questions" (or "wh-questions" in English); they are used to question the subject (Who did that?) and object (She did what?) of a verb, respectively. The remaining question-type is the standard yes/no-question ("Did you do that?").
     
    Info-Q Subject: ke-
    Info-Q Object: -ki, -kai
    Yes/No-Q: i-...-ka
     
    Examples:
     
    (7) Rahi ke-zyanu? "Who/what attacked the Rahi?"
    (8) Toa zyanu-ki? "Who/what did the Toa attack? / The Toa attacked who/what?"
    (9) Toa i-zyanu-ka? "Did the Toa attack?"

    - "To be" (the copula verb)
     
    There is no Matoran equivalent of the English verb "to be"! Instead, English constructions such as "X is Y" or "Y is X" (basic equative or copula constructions) are simply expressed as "X Y" or "Y X" in Matoran. Such constructions can involve a noun and an adjective (N+A), two adjectives (A+A), or two nouns (N+N).
     
    But if there's no overt verb corresponding to "to be", you might ask, how is tense (or negation, or a question) marked in such constructions? Simply put, the necessary affixes (tense, negation, etc.) are attached to whichever element (N or A) is placed in final position (where the verb would normally go).
     
    Examples:
     
    (10) Matoran kofo. "The Matoran [is] small." (N+A)
    (11) Nui kofo. "Big [is] small." (A+A)
    (12) Rahi jaga. "The Rahi [is] a scorpion." (N+N)
    (13) Toa matoran-nu. "The Toa was a Matoran."
    (14) Manas rahi-pa. "The Manas is a Rahi."
    (15) Matoran toa-ko-rhu. "The Matoran will not be a Toa."
    (16) Ke-matoran-nu? "Who was the Matoran?"
    (17) Toa-pa-ki? "Who is the Toa? / The Toa is who?"
    (18) Toa i-matoran-nu-ka? "Was the Toa a Matoran?"
     
    ==============================
     
    3. Pronouns:
     
    Pronouns stand in for full nouns. They come in three different flavors: first person, second person, and third person. Number (i.e. singular vs. plural) is not marked. Pronouns are inflected according to their function in the clause, subject or object:
     
    - Subject form
     
    1st o, oa "I, we"
    2nd ou "you, you all"
    3rd ai, oi "she/he/it, they"
     
    Examples:
     
    (1) o voya. "I/we go/travel."
    (2) ou zya. "You/you all attack."
    (3) ai akuya. "She/he/it/they sees."
     
    - Object form
     
    1st ako, akoa "me, us"
    2nd akou "you, you all"
    3rd akai "her/him/it, them"
     
    Examples:

    (4) Matoran ako zyanu. "The Matoran attacked me/us."
    (5) Toa akou zyanu. "The Toa attacked you/you all."
    (6) Turaga akai zyanu. "The Turaga attacked her/him/it/them."
     
    - Possessive form
     
    Pronouns are also used to denote possession relationships, in which case they are suffixed to the noun that is possessed.
     
    **The third person affix -ai/-oi can also be used to indicate possession when a full noun possesses another full noun. In such a case, it is suffixed to the noun which is possessed, and the possessor noun is usually placed directly before the possessed noun (see examples 10 and 11).
     
    1st -o, -oa "my, our"
    2nd -ou "your"
    3rd -ai, -oi "her/his/its, their"
     
    Examples:
     
    (7) ni-o "my/our star"
    (8) koro-ou "your village"
    (9) madu-ai "her/his/its/their tree"
    (10) Toa rahi-ai "the Toa's Rahi; lit. 'The Toa, her/his/their-Rahi"
    (11) Matoran koro-ai "the Matoran's village; lit. 'The Matoran, her/his/their-village"
     
    ==============================

    4. Nouns:
     
    Nouns come in many different forms! They can be modified by adjectives (see Section 1) as well as by an array of different affixes. Affixes can be suffixes (attached to the end of the noun-stem), prefixes (attached to the beginning of the noun-stem), or circumfixes (attached "around" the noun-stem, basically a combination of a prefix and a suffix). I include four different categories of affixes, containing twelve affixes total.
     
    **All of the affixes discussed in this section can also be added to pronouns!
     
    - Basic location/direction
     
    #1 - of, from; after: i-, ai-
    #2 - in, on, at; during: i-...-a
    #3 - to, toward; before: -i, -ai
     
    Examples:
     
    (1) i-ni "of/from a star"
    (2) i-koro-a "in/at a village"
    (3) madu-i "toward a tree"
     
    - Upward orientation
     
    #4 - up away from (motion): mi-, mai-
    #5 - up at (location): i-...-ma
    #6 - up toward (motion): -ma, -mai
     
    Examples:
     
    (4) mi-ni "upward, away from a star"
    (5) i-koro-ma "up at a village"
    (6) madu-ma "upward, toward a tree"
     
    - Downward orientation
     
    #7 - down away from (motion): u-, au-
    #8 - down, under, below (location): u-...-a
    #9 - down toward (motion): -a, -au
     
    Examples:
     
    (7) u-ni "downward, away from a star"
    (8) u-koro-a "under/below a village"
    (9) madu-a "downward, toward a tree"
     
    - Transitional/instrumental
     
    #10 - through away from (motion): mo-, mua-
    #11 - through, via (location): a-...-mu
    #12 - through toward (motion): -mua
     
    Examples:
     
    (10) mo-ni "through, away from a star"
    (11) a-koro-mu "through/via a village"
    (12) madu-mua "through, toward a tree"
     
    ==============================
     
    5. Syntax II:
     
    Now that you've got a sense of the possibilities for nouns and verbs, we can get a bit more detailed on how to put them together. While SOV is the standard word order for clauses in Matoran, the order of subject and object (Rules 2 and 3 from Section 1 above) can be subverted. For example, if you want to put the object first, you can add one of the affixes from section 4 to explicitly mark it as the object. This makes for a lot of potential variation. We'll start with the following standard sentence:
     
    (1) Toa rahi zyanu. "The Toa attacked the Rahi."
     
    Now, if we wanted to switch this sentence up by placing the object first, we might add an affix like #3, -i "to, toward", to the object:
     
    (2) Rahi-i toa zyanu. "The Toa struck at/toward the Rahi."
     
    From the paraphrase you can see how this alteration might subtly change the meaning of the sentence as a whole. Let's try some other affixes, such as #4, -mi "upward (movement)", #8, u-...-a "down, down on (location)", or #9, -a "downward (movement)".
     
    (3) Rahi-mi toa zyanu. "The Toa struck upward at the Rahi."
    (4) Rahi-a toa zyanu. "The Toa struck downward toward the Rahi."
    (5) U-rahi-a toa zyanu. "The Toa bore down on the Rahi."
     
    **Final note: All of these variations with nominal affixes could also be expressed using the standard SOV order! An object-first ordering could, however, be used to emphasize the object.
     
    ==============================
     
    6. Glossary:
     
    This glossary should provide you with a basic vocabulary to start with. Check out the volumes of the Matoran Dictionary for a (slightly) wider selection.
     
    **All of the words used in the examples above are marked with *!
     
    - Verbs
     
    akuya* "to see, sense; know"
    aruya "to take"
    boya "to grow, live; remain"
    haya "to protect, maintain systems-normality"
    kokha "to cool (smthg.), calm (smthg.) down; clarify"
    kya "to do, act, take initiative"
    mya "to control, use"
    orukha "to build, construct"
    oruya "to work, labor"
    pakuya "to read; lit. 'to see carvings'"
    peya "to carve"
    rokha "to speak (to)"
    roya "to determine, single out; name"
    s(a)uya "to consume, convert"
    seya "to think"
    takha "to make, craft; forge"
    v(a)ukha "to conduct, transmit"
    vokha "to empower, energize"
    voya* "to go, journey, travel"
    zya* "to attack, strike; plan, scheme"
     
    - Nouns
     
    aki "valor, courage, initiative"
    bohi "plant; form of vegetation"
    dau "direction, extension; route"
    dehi "mouth; lit. 'sound-thing'"
    fani "sky; lit. 'star-field'"
    gadu "pool (of water/liquid)"
    gura "disintegration, disruption"
    hahi "shield; guardian"
    hau "shielding, protection"
    hiki "measurement; deception, trickery"
    jaga* "(Rahi) scorpion"
    ka "power, energy"
    kanohi "mask; lit. 'object-of-power/energy'"
    kau "breath, spirit; lit. 'life-process'"
    kini "temple"
    koro* "village"
    kua "(Rahi) bird; freedom"
    kura "anger, rage"
    ledu "wind, breeze"
    lera "poison, toxicity"
    madu* "tree"
    mana(s)* "monster"
    mata* "spirit; lit. 'master-spirit'"
    matoran* "Matoran-unit; lit. 'builder/worker-of-Mata'"
    mehi "head, skull"
    metru "city"
    ni* "star"
    nohi "object (of protodermis)"
    paka "strength, sturdiness"
    panura "fragmentation"
    peki "shard, fragment, pebble"
    rahi* "wildlife, beast"
    rama* "(Rahi) flying-insect"
    ro "unit, individual; name; (honorific) sister/brother/comrade"
    rua "wisdom"
    tahi "flame (substance); spirit"
    taka "light, illumination"
    taki "spark, ember; lit. 'part-of-fire'"
    toa* "hero, protector"
    tura "fear, cowardice"
    turaga* "elder"
    vahi "time"
    vora "hunger, energy-draining"
    wahi "region, place"
     
    - Adjectives
     
    baui "measured, balanced"
    gaui "blue, watery; calm, peaceful"
    kofo* "small, little; lesser"
    koui "white, icy; silent, clear"
    laui "good, positive, happy"
    leui "green, airy; light, cheerful"
    noui "black, earthy; deep, secret, hidden"
    nui* "large; great"
    nuva "new, original"
    paui "brown, stony; strong, firm"
    taui "red, fiery; spirited, lively, living"
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