Topic

Rookish Script = Arabic?

In another thread about the lack of subtitles in the Rook Museum, transcripts of the audio were posted.

The transcript for the painting of the "Secret Rook Plans" includes "the only such artifact ever to fall into Glitchian hands — and the only example of Rookish script ever seen".

The inclusion of Arabic/Persian looking writing at the bottom made me think of the Roc from the One Thousand and One Nights, which for some reason hadn't occurred to me before. I think the writing says something like "renounce imagination", which makes sense, but I would be interested to hear from native speakers for a more trustworthy translation. Like a dope I didn't think to take a screen shot but maybe someone did and can post it?

Maybe more artifacts like this will be discovered as the game progresses, shedding more light on the mysterious Rook? Maybe there are other examples out there that I haven't noticed?

Posted 16 months ago by The Cat Face Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • No. You got me there, LBO. I missed that. 8 makes sense. :) I was very tired when I first looked at it at about 2-3 am in the morning. 
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow, these new rook scripts are great! While I think all of them look terrific, some are not immediately recognizable as writing. I'm not sure if that's important in this case or not?
    Posted 16 months ago by FrankenPaula Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Rook writing looks cool but I wouldn't ever be able to read it, hard to make enough different symbols for words,why not just use plain old gibberish or old english bent up letters?  Maybe some sort of code?  Or leave it as is?  I actually thought it was pretty writing before all the comments, and it really is ancient looking.  Maybe we should ask to use what cave dwellers had just pictures scratched on a cave wall.  We have enough caves and lets face it the batterflies are creepy enough to send messages to the rooks.
    Posted 16 months ago by xoxJulie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Arii - i'll try to help here, but i figured that i would sorta encourage other people to flesh out the language based on the the rudimentary stuff i put in there. most "made up" languages end up improvised over time, and you are welcome to expand on what i've done and create some additional vocabulary and grammar.

    "Are there cases (genitive, dative, etc)?"

    my intent was for there not to be. well, sort of. at first i wanted the entire language to be in the possessive. as now, i had ka meaning [my] and [rok] meaning rook, and KaRok would be "my rook" but really mean "me". in that "i am the rook that i own".

    crows can be pretty grabby, fighty creatures not prone to sharing, so i figured they'd think of everything according to what they've got versus what other people have got.

    so no adjectives, just things they own. a rook wouldn't describe themselves or anyone else as being strong, instead saying "you have strength" except the concept would be so pervasive in the language that the wouldn't get words like "have", so you'd get "your strength", "your blackness", "your intelligence".

    except i realize that was too difficult to structure in an evening, and i don't even have it figured out now. so i just forgot about the whole *everything is possessive* idea.

    "Do verbs conjugate?"

    no : ] just adds a whole level of complexity that doesn't feel rookish and would make the fantasy language more time consuming to use and interpret.

    "Is there a formal 'you'? If so, does it have its own conjugation?"

    you is "not me" or NeKA! emphasis on the KA as always in rookish. i dunno. it feels like there should be one "you" for other rooks, and a different "you" for any creature that isn't a rook, but i don't think either word should be more formal than the other. just infused with different kinds of anger, you know?

    "How do prepositions work?"

    i haven't figured that out either, but generally speaking rookish shouldn't have many prepositions. initially i tried to figure out if i could get away without prepositions at all and just have context sort of carry everything along with the 'always possessive' thing. i thought about how a rook would describe flying from versus flying to, and got as far as having short suffixes indicating "in the past" "now" and "in the future". so a rook wouldn't describe traveling *from* groddle or *to* ix they'd talk about "my Ix now" and "my Groddle before", because of course the rook owns the entire place merely by being there, so being there is described as owning the place.

    but this really needs fleshing out.

    "In terms of the alphabet, what are the rules for positioning the horizontal scratches?"

    i'd imagine there aren't many rules for that, and a number of different "writing" styles, but generally the the positioning of the horizontal scratches isn't as important as the direction of the curve leading into them. obviously if horizontal scratches are led into or lead into vertical ones, they'll need to be offset slightly in order to indicate how many vertical scratches there are, but unless the horizontal scratches are leading into a K or an R [three 'upward' scratches or three 'downward' scratches] there isn't a need for an offset at all.

    by the way, regarding 'upward' and 'downward', my idea was that rook write in one direction and read in a different direction. they would write in vertical sentences top to bottom, right to left - as their claws are positioned better to form the scratches this way, no needing to flip a claw totally around or do anything other than tear. then they'd read right to left, up and down as we do english. some rationale about one rook being able to read the other rook's writing as they write it without the first rook's body getting in the way, but mostly to make it easier for english readers to read while still allowing the claw slashing to work properly.

    "If there is another vertical stroke later in the word, do they continue as far as that mark,"

    again, there would be different versions of this and would be a matter of style, but there is a logic to how i'm writing it .. it's just difficult to explain it. it all makes sense once you start writing it tho

    "or is there a maximum limit?"

    when actually written by rook feet? probably 5? with the logic I'm using it is difficult to end up with continuous sequences longer than that anyway. if written in brush script? depending on style could be indefinitely continuous unless you have up stroke letter immediately followed by downstroke.

    "If there is no later downstroke, when does the horizontal stroke stop?"

    depends on style, might be continuous or might stutter. i've been making it always continuous tho.

    - okay wow that took longer than i thought it would -

    but @Arii you are welcome to expand and elaborate on the language on your own if you want. i feel some of the the basic ideas [even the ones i can't figure out how to make work] are all in here for you to do what you will with, or to do nothing with : ]
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Striatic, that script is REALLY awesome, and the amount you've thought it through is even awesomer :D
    Posted 16 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oh and also of course the curved transitions from one letter to another aren't strictly necessary.

    can simply be brutal, angry, quick, aggressive tearing ..

    http://striatic.net/misc/glitch/rookscratch.jpg

    because of the simplicity of the letter forms, there is a wide range of expressive qualities the script can take on.
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'll try to create a formal font from the work presented, but can I get the individual characters on a plain background in bitmap form, @striatic and @Lord Bacon-o? I can do it myself actually, but this would speed things up. 
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • the lettering doesn't work as a font, nor do i want you to create one.
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok. That I can deal with. :)
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Mine also doesn't work as a font (for various reasons).
    Posted 16 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Striatic--thanks for your answers. :D They made a lot of sense, and they got me thinking. I agree that the Rooks probably don't have a very complex language, and it seems like a natural conclusion would be that their language would be simple, but chaotic...which fits well with the fact that this language is going to be created by (at least primarily) amateur linguists, and on top of that a *LOT* of them. Lends itself well to simple chaos, doesn't it?

    Maybe we should have a group to develop this... Thoughts?
    Posted 16 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Arii - groups stink until they get RSS or some kind of reply notification system, which won't happen until the game is public anyway.

    so just email me at striatic@striatic.net

    anyway i went ahead at made a rookish font anyway, using fontstruct because it was quick and really leant itself to creating the simple characters that make up the language - *especially* indicating the direction of the slashes at smaller font sizes. i also added 'trailing toe' marks to help clearly differentiate the letters even when you have a bunch of them in the same direction one after the other.

    http://striatic.net/misc/glitch/rookish/

    only 11 lowercase letters and a space, but it works.
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Er I'm not sure what that link leads to, but I didn't see any Rook letters!
    Posted 16 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nevermind my dumbass figured it out.

    I really really like this, the way it translated to font wasn't as great though, because the handwritten version looked more rugged or rough, more of a texture to the markings, and I think that made it look way more realistic!
    Posted 16 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I got it. Thanks. And you can mail me at richard@basketcasesoftware.com
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
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