Re: Teach Yourself ... Shirahlat?

Hi Herman!

--- Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
> I've been considering the idea of doing an
> introduction to Czirehlat in
> more of a "Teach Yourself" style ... but it just
> seems a bit odd. The
> language really needs a culture to go with it.
I'm far from an expert, but it sounds like a good idea
to have a conculture with your conlang.  Then, if you
choose to do a "Teach Yourself Czirehlat" book, you
can put in those cool little tips & ads & inserts
about the culture, like their signs on the streets and
their holidays...

> Otherwise you'd end up with
> chapter after chapter of Zelda hints and thoughts
> about microtonal tuning;
> after all, Czirehlat is a personal language.
I like the analogy to Zelda, cute, hehe.  Although,
wasn't that whole world of Zelda fantasy really cool?
Gosh, I haven't played it in over a decade, but I do
remember being intrigued by the cool little melodies
and the graphics and all...  Anyhow, if Czirehlat is a
personal language, how are the weasel-folk related?
Do they communicate through you, sort of like a
medium?  Or is it just that, for now, as you don't
have a conculture defined yet, you label the language
a personal one?

> So I was thinking about who
> might possibly be the native speakers of the
> languages of the Tirelat
> family (of which Czirehlat is just one dialect), and
> I came up with the
> weasel-folk. They're not literally weasels, but the
> weasel is an animal
> they admire and closely identify with. They wear
> animal masks in their
> private gatherings, but in ordinary life, they put
> their "human masks" on.
Maybe you could embellish your description of the
reason for such a custom of weasel masks in your book?
 Sounds quite fun, this one.  Maybe they could view
the weasel as a diety or holly entity, like I believe
the Indians sort of do with the elephant?  But, then
you would need to explain why they take the weasels
and use the heads/fur as masks?  (sounds a like
risque', due to save-the-animal people)  You did say
they would put on their human masks later, which
suggests to me that the weasel-folk are neither human
nor weasel.  What exactly would they be?

> It's possible they may be kin to the fairies, but no
> one knows for certain,
> and they're not telling if they are.
Oh...  A bit of suspense... maybe it can be like the
Blair Witch 2 movie and have clues hidden through your
book to imply what the heck they are.  Maybe they can
be trolls who disguise themselves as humans/weasels
due to bigotry?...

> The idea of the weasel people came to me early last
> year, when I had more
> ambitious plans for my web site.
Boy, I do understand that!  Lack of motivation, esp.
if you hold a full-time job and are at work over 12
hrs per day!

> You'd get masks
> from the weasel folk and
> use them as keys to enter various areas of the site.
So the masks, in a way, work like keys (and possibly
even currency)?

> But all the job searching and moving got in the way,
> and I never got back to it.
"Eventually" is my motto.

> The Czirehlat word for weasel is "szira", thus the
> weasel folk are
> "Szirajahr" and the weasel language "Szirahlat". But
> I spell [S] as "sz" to
> make alphabetic sorting easier; there's no reason
> not to spell it "sh" for
> a "Teach Yourself"-style book.
Wow, sort of reminds me of Hungarian... how it's spelt
at least.

> And it's likely that
> their language will
> eventually diverge from Czirehlat, as Czirehlat
> itself has diverged from
> the other Tirelat branches. But for now, it'll
> probably start out very
> similar (with perhaps a few phonological changes).
How many of the Tirelat langs have you formulated?
I'm still trying my first...

Matt33

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