Re: CHAT: I'm back!

daniel andreasson wrote:

> Matt Pearson wrote:
>
> > For those of you who are new to the list(s):  My name is Matt Pearson,
> > and I've been on Conlang since 1993. I have a couple of minor projects
> > to my name (including an alien language for the short-lived--and very
> > bad--TV show "Dark Skies"),
>
> Hey! Was that you? I thought it was a very competent alien lang for such
> a tv show. (total x-files ripoff). You wouldn't mind sending some info on
> it to the list? Or did you already, and I missed it? Or perhaps there is
> a website somewhere out there?
No website--at least, not on the language.  I posted quite a bit about it
when I was working on it back in the fall/winter of 1996, so there may be
something in the archives about it.  A couple tidbits:  The name of the
language was Thht-Maa (where the "hh" is a syllabic voiceless velar
fricative), although the producers and writers just called it "Hivespeak"
(the aliens were a Borg-like collectivity called the "Hive").  The root _maa_
meant "us (inclusive)" or "collectivity", while _thht_ was a classifier
prefix used for 'matrices', or interconnected systems of
knowledge/representation, including neural networks, hypertext documents,
circuits, and languages.  Thus _thht-maa_ means "the matrix/network/language
of the Collective".

Some unusual features of the language included:  syllabic fricatives and
trills, the absence of a noun/verb distinction, a high degree of
centre-embedding, an elaborate noun-classifier system (about 40 noun classes,
each with a separate agreement prefix), and an extensive system of 'light
verb' suffixes (with meanings like "exist", "become", "go to", "use", etc.)
for forming complex predicates from roots..

Here's a small sample of words and phrases from my original notes.  The
morpheme-by-morpheme glosses are only educated guesses, as I've forgotten
quite a bit about how the language works.  (Note that COLL = collective
plural [all together] and DIST = distributive plural [one at a time].  CL
stands for "classifier", so CL:time is the classifier/agreement marker for
time-related words.)

  suu-haar-wo  yu-taa-aa
  brain-approach-TOPIC  CL:time-now-3s(EMPHATIC)
  "the time of merger is now"

  ma-gu-yaagh-ush-lu
  COLL-CL:human-destroy-3s:FUT(ENEMY)-necessary
  "the human enemies must be destroyed"

  bz-jaap-w-u-gh
  CL:weapon-eliminated-become-3s:FUT-imperative
  "get rid of that weapon!"

  ngoor  la-tmuugh-z-u-gh
  headquarters  CL:place-returning-go.to-3s:FUT-imperative
  "return to headquarters!"

  thht-maa-mhht  ma-b-a-z?
  CL:matrix-collective-knowledge  COLL-exist-3s-yes:or:no
  "do they know about the existence of the Hive?"

  hhoosh-wo  dzoo-d-at?
  threat-TOPIC  what-accomplish-2s:PAST
  "what have you done about the threat?"

  nuul-aa-a-wash
  child-EMPHATIC-3s-dismissal
  "it is only a child"

Of course, the snippets of Thht-Maa that made it into the show were 'mangled'
rather severely by the sound editors, who processed and filtered the dialogue
to make it sound more 'alien'.

Matt.