The languages of Atys

[gavos99]

Oren pyr, Deles silam, Lordoy, Kami'ata, Hello!

Here someone was asking where these words were coming from.

On Aniro (the french community) some players have created languages, one for each people. Here I can see "hello" in ancient fyros, mateis (matis language), tryker and taki zorai. The idea is that those languages were supposed to be used before the Great Swarming, and the homins are currently trying to rediscover them. So there is nothing official, the GM are simply reusing something made up by players. In case you are interested, here are a few links... but in french :-/

Fyros:

• One player (Skarn) created the basics: http://ryzom.kervala.net/Parler_Fyros.pdf
• Another one (Selyana) continued his work recently: http://le.doume.free.fr/fyros-lexi.html

Matis:

• A part of a guild's forum (Alkianes) forum is dedicated to the Mateis language: http://www.alkiane.net/ipb/index.php?showforum=28
• A dictionnary can be found the same forum: http://www.alkiane.net/ipb/index.php?showtopic=1750

Tryker:

• The tryker language has been build in the forum of a gathering of guilds: http://assemblee.lacs.free.fr/module...iewtopic&t=178
• They have created a small lexicon: http://onirim.free.fr/downloads/lexique-tryker.pdf

Zorai:

• A forum is dedicated to the creation of the Taki zorai: http://talzu.forumactif.net/

But don't you have the same sort of languages on Arispotle? If you have, then I would be very interested to hear from it!

[faedyne]

Since I can't read French very well, I can't tell if it's based on anything or completely made-up.

[suib0m]

Google has a pretty good translation tool. I believe it is all made up, though methodically. I'm not a fan of using language like this as a general thing, since it adds an awkward barrier to how a character acts, since the acting in an MMO is largely text based. It's good for reference though, such as documents found from long ago or for formal situations.

Peace,
- Sui

[katriell]

Originally Posted by gavos99

But don't you have the same sort of languages on Arispotle? If you have, then I would be very interested to hear from it!

Strangely, no. In the years I roleplayed on Arispotle I never saw the smallest scrap of homin language dabbling.

*bookmarks thread*

[elthunim]

Originally Posted by gavos99

Tryker:

• The tryker language has been build in the forum of a gathering of guilds: http://assemblee.lacs.free.fr/module...iewtopic&t=178
• They have created a small lexicon: thttp://onirim.free.fr/downloads/lexique-tryker.pdf

Said lexicon translated by yours truly here (PDF). In spite of strong Gaelic influence, the Tryker language isn't spoken much on Arispotle.

[seawe]

yea as i tried to say before for a language to be introduced into the game there needs to be a long build up including ingame npc references, events, libraries/missions, etc.. katriell has a very good link to the zorai language in her sig. This is what i mean. Some 'foriegn/ancient' word interjected all of a sudden with no connection other than someone wants to say it is just a bit silly and will have a hugely hard time to be accepted. "Dappers" is an example of a bit of language being truely implemented and accepted.

Players getting into creating their own lingos among the players is one thing (and neat), but getting a language into the game in a nonsupperficial way is much more complex, and I really don't see my self being able to learn an entire vocabulary language; unless its connected to actual actions, items, or missions in game.

[katriell]

Seawe's post reminds me that when I said I hadn't seen any homin language dabbling on Arispotle I was thinking of spoken language. We do have some Zoraï written language thanks to Komissar.

[acridiel]

Almost the same applies to Leanon.
A few others and myself, we regard these efforts with envious eyes, but aren´t able to make much of them for only one of us has a decent grasp on French.
But I also agree with Seawe and Suibom, that in creating a whole new set of languages the game gets even more complicated.
And while it being a great opportunity for nice roleplay, new players could be either hard pressed to get into a game with a whole new language or intrigued by it.
I recently started a collection of "normal" Atyssian InGame Lingo for New Players, with all the abbreviations and special words like "Trek" you don´t normally get in other games and was surprised at how many there were.

New players had complained about not being able to understand if someone was for example talking "Sup mats dig with aggro pats and some nuker to protect me."

A whole new language now... whew... that would have the potential to either make matters far worse, or truly generate interest from a more "sophisticated" kind of player

CU
Acridiel

[gavos99]

Originally Posted by suib0m

I believe it is all made up, though methodically.

The languages have been made up, but the players picked up what they could from the game, especially:
- cities
- crafts
- named animals
- PNJs

They often tried to interprete those names, they inspired them for the sonorities and the way words might be built (with particles, prefixes and so on). Craft names have actually been a good start since we have plenty of them. But PNJ names are too close to real languages (latin, chinese, gaelic, english, italian...) so the players did not use them too much. A matis language based on italien would have been to close to french for example. Also, when words had been created before these proper languages appeared (especially for fyros and zora), they have been included. But some other languages inspired the creators as well:

• The inventor of the fyros language is a linguist (maybe not professional, not sure). He tried to create an efficient and straightforward language that would fit in the tough life that fyros have. He said that the influences (nothing is really borrowed) come from japanese, korean, with a hint of akkadian, arabic and hebrew.
  
• The zorai language has some words that directly come from chinese, but I am not sure about the rest (possibly japanese). Religion is very present in this language, just like it is in arabic for example.
  
• The inventor of the matis language wanted word that would look and sound beautiful, so he search for inspiration in the Quenya language (spoken by elves in the Tolkien's novels) between other things.
  
• The tryker language is inspired from gaelic, as Hekla said.

Originally Posted by suib0m

I'm not a fan of using language like this as a general thing, since it adds an awkward barrier to how a character acts, since the acting in an MMO is largely text based.

Originally Posted by seawe

Players getting into creating their own lingos among the players is one thing (and neat), but getting a language into the game in a nonsupperficial way is much more complex, and I really don't see my self being able to learn an entire vocabulary language; unless its connected to actual actions, items, or missions in game.

Originally Posted by acridiel

But I also agree with Seawe and Suibom, that in creating a whole new set of languages the game gets even more complicated.
And while it being a great opportunity for nice roleplay, new players could be either hard pressed to get into a game with a whole new language or intrigued by it.

Well, don't misunderstand the purpose of these languages. I believe they have been created in order to help everyone to feel part of a people, and for fun as well :-) The lore let us think that every people had their own language before and the players reused this idea, since Nevrax would never want to create a language for them (it is a good example of the "power to the players"!). Practically, most RP players use these languages for greetings, which is a good start. For some reason the trykers are a bit more fan of their language so they use it more often, translating words like "yes", "no", "thanks", and they often use the "ny-" or "nair-" (giving different levels of respect) prefixes when talking to someone (especially in meetings).

Other uses include guild/alliances names, titles inside a guild (one of our fyros guild has four leaders called "Kun Bekun", one zorai guild has a leader called "Ma Da Kwai"), guild's mottos, war songs (saved in macros :-p) or longer salutations in beginning/end of letters posted on forums, etc. These languages exist, have a fair amount of vocabulary, they often offer simple ways to create new words, so RP players use them as long as it not boring and not too complicated. A newby would only have to learn the two or tree greetings and I think that RP newbies actually enjoy that because they feel more part of something.

[elthunim]

Even on Aniro, languages do not have the importance that they seem; a good number use the common greetings and little more. When I inquired about languages a while ago on Aniro, I was told that roleplay was going down a little, but that at one stage, there were a couple guilds conversing in the Tryker language fluently (didn't inquire much about the others).

What we see, however, is the creation of Atys-specific colloquialisms. My favorites: hominette (female homin), kincherous (evil), yubolike (perfect), Yubo dear (oh my).

The present lack of roleplay in general isn't conducive to a sense of identity, let alone the creation of languages. Aniro is well ahead now, though, with the recent establishment of the Tryker Federation, which shook things up a little. So perhaps the more active homin linguists will rise again to expand on their creation.