a code in the head

Signs and symbols: Writing systems (hieroglyphs, nail writing) and Signed Toki Pona; unofficial scripts too
Signoj kaj simboloj: Skribsistemoj (hieroglifoj, ungoskribado) kaj la Tokipona Signolingvo; ankaŭ por neoficialaj skribsistemoj
Post Reply
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

a code in the head

Post by janKipo »

As if tp were not obscure enough, since the earliest time, people have devised ways to make it more so. Until now these efforts seem to have all been in the form of non-standard writing systems. Transcription rules have been provided for most of the world's most common alphabets and syllabary and various places in between, including a variety of fictional writing system. And, of course, the various logoglyph forms, from Chinese and Egyptian on have been correlated with tp's small vocabulary in various ways. And many new systems have been devised just for tp, including a couple of hand sign sets, some of them even in pu. This was pretty amusing, often a lot of fun (if annoying when you want to get the message).

Today I saw for the first time (that I can remember) another obvious (in retrospect) approach: one, then almost immediately several garblings of the text. The first was simply replacing voiceless consonants with voiced ones: /p/ > /b/, /t/ > /d/, /k/ > /g/ and /s/ > /z/, so 'dogi bona'. Interestingly, this doesn't really disguise the tp, since all the changes so far are within the bounds of phonological deviance. The next move is a genuine Pig Latin: initial vowel shifted to the end after /j/, initial consonant to the end followed by /e/: 'okite onape'. Inevitably, in this climate (this takes place over about an hour on a single site), the two threads combine to get shift and change at once: 'ogide onabe'. There is another thread that (aside from rewriting /j/ as /y/ and /np/ as /mp/) voices the initial consonants on modifiers, fricatizes stops before /i/ (/ptk/ . /fcx/, exact phonology unspecified)and voices those initial in modifiers (/ptk/ > /vjh/, still unexplained), to give 'toxi bona'. Some of these may go beyond the normal range for tp. This inevitably gets mixed with the Pig Latin format for 'oxite onabe'.

Given the American experience in this, we can expect an infix language on the order of Alfalfa: 'talfokalfi palfonalfi' or the tp proper variant with /-ap-/, tapokapi paponapi' and probably a few variants. There is also the ancient favorite , Hysteron Proteron, which exchanges first and last syllables (with /w/ or /j/ or something for the vowel initials): ''kito napo'. But it is interesting to note what changes did not take place in the phonetic versions. There was no replacement of /l/ with /r/ (which still lies withing permissible tp variation) and no shifting of points of articulation (like shifting every point over one in rotation). So there is more fun to be had.

Thoroughly annoying, but fun, and sometimes pretty.
Post Reply