Great New York Times Column
A March 10, 2010, column from the New York Times has been posted to the Newspaper Articles in TCL. Arika Okrent and Paul Frommer have responded to readers’ questions about “invented languages” and provided some very in-depth answers. Enjoy!
Cthulhu fhtagn, Part II
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been playing around with the Cthulhu invocation from H.P. Lovecraft:
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
“In his house at R’leyh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
Here is my personal interpretation of that phrase:
- Looking at Lovecraft’s translation, it appears to me that the sentence should be read “backwards” as in Fhtagn wgah’nagl R’lyeh, Cthulhu mglw’nafh ph’nglui. Stick a comma between R’lyeh and Cthulhu for good measure.
- fhtagn then becomes a participial construction meaning something like “waiting; lying in wait (as a predator)”
- wgah’nagl becomes “in (his) house/abode”
- R’lyeh, the proper name of the sunken city, modifies wgah’nagl, making the phrase R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn something like “Waiting in his R’lyeh abode”
- Cthulhu is, of course, Cthulhu, the agent of the sentence.
- Sticking to my idea of modifiers coming after their words, mglw’nafh should mean “dead”. But Cthulhu cannot actually die (at least in the human sense). Therefore, I’m making mglw’nafh mean something like “potentially active, physically inactive, dormant bodily manifestation”.
- ph’nglui on the other hand is translated by Lovecraft as “dreaming”. But we know that Cthulhu can influence humans with his mind. ph’nglui I am translating then as “active mental state” in contrast to mglw’nafh, “a dormant physical state”, but the word in some verbal state.
- Furthermore, take the words ph’nglui and wgah’nagl. Note the same consonant root in both nglui and nagl (n-g-l). Using this similarity, I’m saying that nagl refers to something “inside or within”, and nglui is an “interior mental state”. By this reasoning then, wgah’ should mean “house, abode”.
Using this reasoning then, we get:
| Ph’nglui | mglw’nafh | Cthulhu | R’lyeh | wgah’nagl | fhtagn. |
| “dreaming” active mental state (verb) | “dead” dormant physical state (participle) | (agent) | (proper name) | “in (his) abode” | waiting (participle) |
Comments?
Cthulhu fhtagn!
Cthulhu, as envisioned by the Conlanging Librarian
I don’t know how I did it, but I’ve gone several decades without reading the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Don’t ask me how or why, but I just recently “discovered” his writings and now I’m hooked…especially his stories of the Elder Gods, Great Cthulhu, the Great Race of Yith, Yog-Sothoth and his kids Wilbur and the “horror”, etc. Very cool stuff!
“But why bring him up in a conlanging blog” you may ask. The only “extensive” piece of conlanging (used in the broadest possible sense) by Lovecraft is the invocation of Cthulhu: Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn which Lovecraft translated in “The Call of Cthulhu” as In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. There are also snippets of this language in “The Dunwich Horror” and other stories. I’m not saying that Lovecraft was a conlanger. Far from it. These phrases were purposefully put together to appear as alien and unhuman as possible. Lovecraft also talks about the Great Race of Yith’s language as a “consisting of a kind of clicking and scraping” of their “huge nippers” (“The Shadow out of Time”).
It strikes me that Lovecraft is a huge untapped inspirational field for conlangers. In searching the Internet, I did find one site with a sizable dictionary and some grammar here. Even with this work, who’s to say this is the “right” one. I’ve been toying with the Cthulhu invocation and some other snippets and having an enjoyable time trying to puzzle out some sensible syntax.
Lovecraft’s prose provides tantalizing glimpses and interesting snippets from which to formulate some naming languages or simple dialogue. If you’re a conlanger looking for a fertile field to toil in…jump right in…if you dare. Cthulhu fhtagn!!
Conlang…The Movie!
Conlang (The Movie) was just selected to have its film circuit premier in February at the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival.
The movie’s also got a new website, too: conlangthemovie.com!
The sure-to-be-a-classic Herculean Tournament scene is posted online.
The movie was screened last year at the 3rd Language Creation Conference, and earned the enthusiastic support of the participants.
Now is the time for you to voice that support:
1. Join & post to the Facebook fan page! If you saw the film at LCC3, post a review!
2. If you want a copy of the film by DVD or online distribution, email
the producer/director, Marta Masferrer: masferrer@gmail.com
3. Email her information about any other film festivals, ‘cons, conferences, or other venues you think would be interested in screening the film.
4. Subscribe to the LCS Conlang Blog aggregator, which includes the Conlang movie announcements feed.
Please pass this on to anyone you think would be interested. (Twitterable link from LCS posting: http://bit.ly/clDhtL)
Fiat lingua!
Dilbert and Conlanging
Yesterday’s cartoon post reminded me of another conlanging cartoon, this time from Dilbert:
Who know PHB could conlang.
Wemwolf
In honor of Sai Emrys’s recent successful presentation in Berlin at 26C3, the Conlanging Librarian presents the following cartoon from Nichtlustig by Joscha Sauer. I picked up a collection of his cartoons in 2008 when I was in Berlin after finding it by browsing in a bookstore. From the lemmings to the “Poodle of Death”, Sauer’s twisted sense of humor is infectious.
And, in keeping with the conlang-centric spirit of this blog, I present the following sentences:
- The werwolf sees the vampire.
- The fur wessenwolf got wet in the rain.
- The vampire gave the wemwolf a present.
- The vampire sees the wenwolf.
Yes, I realize it’s a messy blend of English and Deutsch, but consider them…Germish (or would that be Englitsch).
In any case, enjoy the link to Nichtlustig as well as the Conlanging 101 paper and presentation from Sai Emrys. Links to the paper as well as the video of the presentation have been posted in TCL. Congratulations to Sai on being a great international conlanging ambassador.
Avatar: A Review
This post isn’t entirely conlang-related, but I’ve finally seen Avatar and have a few thoughts I’d like to share.
First, of course, is the conlang. It was great to see Dr. Frommer listed right near the top of the closing credits as “Na’vi language creatorâ€. The language itself was incorporated fairly well into the plot, although it would have been nice to see a little more of Jake’s learning curve. The only thing we see is Neytiri correcting Jake’s pronunciation of nari “eyeâ€. At 162 minutes, I suppose something had to be cut. I did think it was appropriate that Jake hadn’t achieved enough fluency for his speeches, asking both Tsu’tey and Neytiri to translate for him. Well played there. Overall, the actors did an acceptable job with fluid pronunciations and making the language appear “natural.†Congrats to Dr. Frommer for bringing conlanging back into focus for the general public. Although the native language was incorporated well and sounded genuine, the Na’vi’s use of English was a little too fluent and widespread for my taste. Their rejection of what the Earthlings have to offer would lead me to believe that they would not bother to continue to practice their English skills so assiduously.
One final conlang comment: The Na’vi greeting of Oel ngati kameie “I see you” was a little troubling. I saw the movie with my college-freshman daughter, and afterward she said the only thing she could think of when they said that was “Peek-a-boo, I see you.†While I understand the spiritual implications, Na’vi-wise, of the greeting, maybe there could have been a better English translation used: “I hold you in my eyesâ€? “I see you with my heartâ€??
Now, for some more kudos. The look of the film was visually stunning, but I think the massive hype inflated my expectations just a bit. I will agree, however, that Pandora is quite the bioluminescent, floating-mountain, hexapod-filled wonderland. Cameron did a great job of incorporating the 3-D into the film. This was no Monster Chiller Horror Theatre or Jaws 3-D. The 3-D effects, in short order, simply became the look of the film – not an effect. Some of the coolest shots in retrospect were in the cockpit of the aircraft with their heads-up displays. There were some shots that were bows to 3-D, but overall it was not “in your face.â€
As for acting, Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch easily deserves an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Lang absolutely nailed his role. As much as I abhorred his drive to eradicate the Na’vi, he’s the guy I’d want on my side in a fight. Lang provides a very interesting perspective on his role in a recent Los Angeles Times article.
Now for some constructive criticism, as if James Cameron needs constructive criticism from the Conlanging Librarian: Avatar has grossed (as of Dec. 31, 2009) $268,886,074. In any case, here goes…
Cameron is not a subtle screenwriter, and by “not a subtle screenwriter†I mean he writes foreshadowing and metaphor with a sledgehammer. Both my daughter and I could see the ending coming several miles (or clicks) away. Furthermore, I could almost hear James Cameron’s voice whispering in my ear: “PSST, DID I MENTION THE NA’VI REPRESENT NATIVE AMERICANS!!†From the paint on their faces, to their war cries, to their horse-like mounts, the metaphor was barely a metaphor. Egads! My daughter and I agreed that Cameron could have at least given them different mounts than horses (okay, horses with tendrils and six-legs but still “horsesâ€). How about a big ostrich-like lizard-bird. Say, a flightless version of the banshees or great leonopteryx (ikran and toruk to use their Na’vi terms); maybe call it a atxkxe-ikran “land bansheeâ€. I would also rather have seen the Na’vi patterned after a more “exotic†indigenous population (at least to mainstream North American audiences) such as those in Polynesia or Central/South America.
Overall, I’m definitely glad that I saw it, was impressed with the visuals, and was happy to see conlanging making a dent in the media. The story, as has been pointed out elsewhere, was basically “Indigo Pocahontas Dancing with Wolves in Spaceâ€. I wasn’t blown away, but I’d definitely suggest people go and see it. It’s an important film, both technically and conlang-wise.
I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing more about Pandora and the other moons of Polyphemus.
Fmawn
Okay, in an attempt to consolidate press coverage of Dr. Frommer’s new alien language, TCL now has a page devoted to video, audio, text, and fan-generated material on Na’vi. Everything from links to the ABC News interview to Learn Na’vi is now available in one place. Eywa ngahu!
Nang! Nì’ul sì nì’ul sì nì’ul Na’vi!
The information on Na’vi just keeps coming! Here is a story on NPR from Dec. 15. There are some very nice examples of Frommer speaking Na’vi (and even getting Renee Montagne to try her tongue at it).
The movie has only been out a few days and already a fan community has begun to coalesce around the language. Check out Learn Na’vi for some grammar, vocabulary, and phonetics that have been gleaned from publicly available sources. Nothing “official” from Frommer or Cameron…yet. Incidentally, this is where the title of this post was cobbled together from. It’s supposed to read “Wow! More and more and more Na’vi.” In addition to this site, there’s a Facebook group already in existence as well — Learn the Na’vi language — with the description “Kaltxì! Ngaru lu fpom srak? which, as far as I can tell, roughly means “Hello! How are you?”
New Na’vi Info…From Frommer!
Paul Frommer, the creator of the Na’vi language, has posted a guest posting at Language Log. He provides much more detail than we’ve seen before concerning his new conlang.
Enjoy!