Re: Language of Tetril

Your mention of "Venice, Italy" prompts me to ask a question I have been
wondering about for a while. Does anyone know the origin of this practice
(i.e., naming the Country as well as the City)? I've never heard it used on
this side of the pond (UK) but it seems to be standard in the US. "Paris,
France" for instance, sounds highly weird to me - what other Paris is there?
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Almaran Dungeonmaster" <dungeonmaster@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 6:50 PM
Subject: Language of Tetril


> Hi everybody,
>
> I have been reading and posting on this list for a while, but I have never
> really posted anything about any of my conlangs. As a matter of fact, I am
> more of a conculturalist than a conlanger per se, so my need to create
> languages comes forth from adding flavor and consistency to my world.
>
> On the world of Almaran, on one of the southern continents, there lives a
> seafaring elven people. They live in small towns near the shores, which
are
> build like a roomy version of Venice, Italy, with canals and waterways
being
> more numerous than streets. Their entire cultural background is founded on
> the principle of worshipping the air and water deities.
>
> The language used by these elves comes one of the most important religious
> rituals known to these elves: the Rite of the Waterbowl. During this rite,
> water is poured in shallow metal bowls. Using various techniques,
including
> calling gusts of wind, these bowls are struck so that they produce
different
> sounds. This is said to be a way to communicate with the gods.
>
> The sound produced by a waterbowl is determined by the type of bowl used,
> the amount of water in it and the way in which the bowl is struck. Expert
> priests can read the meaning of the waterbowl by watching the shape and
> pattern of the waves in the bowl. Since all the sounds are sonorants, most
> of the phonemic inventory of the language of these elves, in an attempt to
> mimic the sounds of the waterbowl, consists of vowels and semi-vowels, and
a
> few non-obstruent consonants. Most sounds are nasalized, mimicking the
> sounds of the ringing metal bowls.
>
> The elven script features all kinds of wave-shaped symbols, which when
spun
> together form wavy lines that are hard to read for outsiders. An example
of
> the writing can be found in a PDF file at this location:
>
> http://www.almaran.net/world/language/scriptexample.pdf
>
> I haven't worked out the language yet, so I don't even know the phonetic
> inventory etc., except for the limits described above (many vocalic
sounds),
> let alone words or grammar.
>
> Maarten

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