I am a mad person. Sick.
My latest personal project is inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I saw Peter Jackson’s interpretation to the esteemed book. I have to admit, it was the one that got me going on this LOTR craze. It really is true that you should never judge a book by its movie. The LOTR movie is a good advertisement to the book. Of course, its show business! They really had to place elvish folk in the battle at Helm’s Deep and Saruman’s death was not even explained well nor is Glorfindel’s appearance graced by any famous Hollywood actor but heck, it was a great movie.
But the movie is quite nothing compared to the book. What really inspired me in my personal project which I am about to reveal later is the fact that Tolkien was quite daring enough to create a whole new world. He made a new civilization complete with its people, history and most importantly, its languages.
He made a language. The ancient language of elves Quenya, the noble tongue Sindarin, the Adunaic of the Numenorean people and even a guttural language of Dwarves. For the past few months, I have been researching through the net the different grammar rules of the said languages. I downloaded their lexicons. Along with these constructed languages, I also skimmed through the already existing languages like French, Spanish and Latin.
Now you may ask why I go to such trouble acquiring these seemingly irrelevant information. Well, this is the part when I reveal my personal project. Because of my fascination to the concept of language. The the fact that it governs everything as the root foundation of civilization has astounded me. And being a fanatic of Tolkien, I decided that I’d give it a shot to create my own language.
Now you can actually have two reactions on my project. You can say either “Interesting!” OR “You are one sick bastard!” I frequently get the second reaction from people.
In my seemingly impossible quest, I stumbled to the Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder in zompist.com . At least I’m not the only person who had the crazy idea. Rosenfelder has also created his own languages like Cuezi, Verdurian and Wede:i. He actually did it. I don’t exactly know why but heck, he did it. His kit was my Bible in my journey.
So I tried to do my own language. Oh yes, man, I tried. I wanted a language like Tolkien’s Quenya or Sindarin. I wanted it to be lofty and pretty to listen to. The first step I had to do was to decide on the different phonemes that I would want in my language. That part I really didn’t get at first. I experimented with the different phonemes there but my knowledge to linguistics is very elementary. I decided to go with the flow and skip that part.
My next step was to create a lexicon. This was to be my undoing. The ningas cogon habit kicked in proving my being a Filipino. I was very much into it at first. I even invented different words for simple and common words. But eventually I got tired. I didn’t want to be stuck in a step. I wanted to get into the grammar only. But languages can’t be made overnight. Rosenfelder stressed that in making a language, one must enjoy what he was doing. I skipped, which was really wrong.
With around 150 invented words, I tried to create a grammar. At first it went well but as I progressed to the complex rules, my lack of linguistic education, limited lexicon and laziness forced me to temporarily abandon my project.
But my energy didn’t allow me to abandon the idea of having a language of my own. My problem was my limited linguistic background and lexicon. I decided to solve that problem. If I can’t make my own words and grammar, then I simply had to borrow from existing languages and strategically make it sound foreign.
In the eleventh of November 2007, I actually finished my first rather obscure dialect. I used the term dialect as language doesn’t sound right to it. The dialect I created overnight is based on the one language I know by heart since it is my vernacular–Tagalog.
I call the dialect Eramento with me as the only person who writes and speaks it. It is basically junk. I took the name from the tagalog words hiram and imbento for obvious reasons. Eramento is substitutional to tagalog which means that I simply substituted the different participles, articles and prepositions with borrowed and invented words. Eramento is Tagalog. I just mixed it up a bit. No, I actually messed it up just to sound like a mixture of Spanish, Ilonggo, French and English.
Go ahead laugh. This post is not categorized under crazy ideas for no reason. Below is a poem I just found in the web. It’s from emanilapoetry.com. Under it is its translated form in Eramento to give you an example of the dialect.
Like I said, I am sick.
Dagat
by gdsuanjr
O kay palad mo tubig na maalat
Sa aming planeta ika’y nagkalat
Maraming nabubuhay sa iyong balat
Pusod mo’y may paraisong nakakagulat
Mangingisda at Pirata sayo’y umaasa
Hawak mo ang buhay ng barko’t balsa
Ang buo mong katawan ang syang kalsada
At ang hangin at alon ang maingay na banda
Sa sariwa mong hangin ako’y namulat
Asul mong kulay sa aking pagdilat
Sa malalaking alon natutong mag-ingat
Ikaw ang inspirasyon sa aming pag-angat
Tao, dapat mong pagka-ingatan
Wag mong palitan kulay ng karagatan
Isipin natin at wag kalimutan
Dagat ang salamin ng kalangitan
Dagat
by gdsuanjr
O la palad mun tubig en caalat
El amon planeta ecan es lacalatra
Marasen labuhayres el imon balat
Pusod mun es nel paraison nacacagulat
Taca-isda il Pirata el imon es laasares
Hawac mun la buhay en barcoil balsa
La buo mun catawan la sea la calsada
Il la hangin il alon la caingay en banda
El sariwa mun hangin eson es lamulatra
Asul mun culay el acon pagdilat
El calalacin alon latutoro en laingat
Ecan la inspirasyon el amon pag-angat
Tao, adra mun pagca-ingatan
Way mun paliton culay en caragatan
Isipon naton il way calimuton
Dagat la salamin en calangitan
