Weekly Post
Feb. 27th, 2020 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fuzzyredThis week's post is going to be about Naa Vodo, if I can find a way to put thoughts into coherent words.
The original posts I made about Naa Vodo had translations from Naa Vodo to English and made the assumption that Naa Vodo counts as a language. I'm no longer sure it does, since it really doesn't have a "vocabulary" in the way English or French do. I think it comes down to the purpose of it. Most languages I know of have words for describing everyday things and allow you to talk about the past, present, and future, the things you observe, the things you hope for, and the things that could be. Naa Vodo is certainly a collection of sounds (and I think I'd go as far as to call them phonemes), but it doesn't do any of those things. Instead it is a means of expressing my feelings (mainly anger and frustration), when English is simply too limiting or the wrong configuration of sounds.
The main reason I'm questioning whether Naa Vodo counts as a language is because things are rarely consistent, and even though it's mine, damned if I can tell what anything means. I could say "monas day" six different times, and have no guarantee it's for the same purpose each time. I gravitate towards certain sounds and combinations when I'm frustrated or at the end of my rope, or just musing to myself about the stupidity of others, so the same "words" or sounds might not always mean the same thing. It's more about the satisfaction of saying them than what they mean (kind of like how certain swear words can be very satisfying and actually help you process pain.)
I guess the main point of today's post was to consider the structure of Naa Vodo, rather than try to translate it. I find the mechanics of languages just as fascinating as the rest of it (I love knowing how and why things work.) Ultimately, whether Naa Vodo would count as a language by official standards is irrelevant; it serves its purpose and I shall continue using it as long as it does so. Now that I have that out of the way, I'm going to spend a paragraph or two looking at the meat and bones of Naa Vodo, and how it does what I want it to do. If the nitty gritty doesn't interest you, feel free to stop reading now. (Though I suspect if the random ramblings of my brain don't interest you, you have long since abandoned this post, and perhaps this blog.)
The first point of order is sounds. Almost everything in Naa Vodo is a combination of sounds that is either gratifying or soothing when I'm agitated. This means there are a lot of "emphatic" sounds, like "k", "v", "g", "z", and "d". There are also a lot of vowels sounds, largely leaning towards "ah" and "oh", though there are many others. One thing of interest to me is that I can fumble and say things I didn't actually mean to in Naa Vodo. This could be a single word or a combination of words together. Often what happens is I mean to make one sound (frex "da") and end up making another ("ga"). Sometimes it's a sound that I don't like and choose not to use next time, and sometimes it's simply a poor combination of sounds that results in something that doesn't flow as much as I would like. I find it very interesting that I can see and identify proof that Naa Vodo is changing and still growing, no matter what it actually is.
From a technical stand point, since I am English speaking, Naa Vodo uses English letters and largely English combinations of those letters, though I seem to have a different ratio of consonants to vowels within words in Naa Vodo. My preference for the way a word sounds (and feels) when you say it dictates what combinations you end up with and though they use the same letters, the two "languages" sound very different.
List of single and combined consonants in Naa Vodo:
b, d, f (limited), g, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, y, z, ch, cr, sh, sk
List of vowels in Naa Vodo (bare with me as I try to put the sounds on paper, as it were):
a (as in "call"), ai (as the "i" in "ride"), ay (as in "day"), e (as in "yes"), i (as in "studio"), o (as in "hope"), u (as in kudos)
Most of these are combined to form one- or two-syllable words, that can be used solo or combined in form short strings. For example, "naga", "zokes da", "zad naka rusi ga", "pokes day", or "mona"
It lets me be more creative than swearing, gives me an outlet for my frustrations, and keeps my brain engaged when work is deadly dull. I'm having fun with this so far and am very curious to see where it goes. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'd be more than happy to have a discussion :)
The original posts I made about Naa Vodo had translations from Naa Vodo to English and made the assumption that Naa Vodo counts as a language. I'm no longer sure it does, since it really doesn't have a "vocabulary" in the way English or French do. I think it comes down to the purpose of it. Most languages I know of have words for describing everyday things and allow you to talk about the past, present, and future, the things you observe, the things you hope for, and the things that could be. Naa Vodo is certainly a collection of sounds (and I think I'd go as far as to call them phonemes), but it doesn't do any of those things. Instead it is a means of expressing my feelings (mainly anger and frustration), when English is simply too limiting or the wrong configuration of sounds.
The main reason I'm questioning whether Naa Vodo counts as a language is because things are rarely consistent, and even though it's mine, damned if I can tell what anything means. I could say "monas day" six different times, and have no guarantee it's for the same purpose each time. I gravitate towards certain sounds and combinations when I'm frustrated or at the end of my rope, or just musing to myself about the stupidity of others, so the same "words" or sounds might not always mean the same thing. It's more about the satisfaction of saying them than what they mean (kind of like how certain swear words can be very satisfying and actually help you process pain.)
I guess the main point of today's post was to consider the structure of Naa Vodo, rather than try to translate it. I find the mechanics of languages just as fascinating as the rest of it (I love knowing how and why things work.) Ultimately, whether Naa Vodo would count as a language by official standards is irrelevant; it serves its purpose and I shall continue using it as long as it does so. Now that I have that out of the way, I'm going to spend a paragraph or two looking at the meat and bones of Naa Vodo, and how it does what I want it to do. If the nitty gritty doesn't interest you, feel free to stop reading now. (Though I suspect if the random ramblings of my brain don't interest you, you have long since abandoned this post, and perhaps this blog.)
The first point of order is sounds. Almost everything in Naa Vodo is a combination of sounds that is either gratifying or soothing when I'm agitated. This means there are a lot of "emphatic" sounds, like "k", "v", "g", "z", and "d". There are also a lot of vowels sounds, largely leaning towards "ah" and "oh", though there are many others. One thing of interest to me is that I can fumble and say things I didn't actually mean to in Naa Vodo. This could be a single word or a combination of words together. Often what happens is I mean to make one sound (frex "da") and end up making another ("ga"). Sometimes it's a sound that I don't like and choose not to use next time, and sometimes it's simply a poor combination of sounds that results in something that doesn't flow as much as I would like. I find it very interesting that I can see and identify proof that Naa Vodo is changing and still growing, no matter what it actually is.
From a technical stand point, since I am English speaking, Naa Vodo uses English letters and largely English combinations of those letters, though I seem to have a different ratio of consonants to vowels within words in Naa Vodo. My preference for the way a word sounds (and feels) when you say it dictates what combinations you end up with and though they use the same letters, the two "languages" sound very different.
List of single and combined consonants in Naa Vodo:
b, d, f (limited), g, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, y, z, ch, cr, sh, sk
List of vowels in Naa Vodo (bare with me as I try to put the sounds on paper, as it were):
a (as in "call"), ai (as the "i" in "ride"), ay (as in "day"), e (as in "yes"), i (as in "studio"), o (as in "hope"), u (as in kudos)
Most of these are combined to form one- or two-syllable words, that can be used solo or combined in form short strings. For example, "naga", "zokes da", "zad naka rusi ga", "pokes day", or "mona"
It lets me be more creative than swearing, gives me an outlet for my frustrations, and keeps my brain engaged when work is deadly dull. I'm having fun with this so far and am very curious to see where it goes. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'd be more than happy to have a discussion :)
