Saturday, September 26, 2015

Essentiali

Imagine a language where a word's spelling is a clue to its meaning.

That sort of exists, you might say. Latin roots, in languages like English. Radicals, in languages like Chinese.

But we still have to straight up memorize thousands of words blindly. Not in Essentiali. Each letter is assigned a (very broad) meaning. To create words, meanings are chosen and pieced together in a pronounceable way. Then, a suffix is added to denote whether a word is a noun, adjective, etc. In common speech, the suffix is dropped if it would be unambiguous to do so. The tense is added on the left. Words are arranged vertically and the columns are read from right to left.

Obviously, as meanings get more specific, they will get longer (and if they don't fall into categories but meh), but I think of that as a plus because words that are more specific tend to be less common, and common words should be shorter. They are in most languages anyways.

There are, of course, exceptions. Some words (such as if and then) are neither suffix nor letter, and some words (such as the names of sentient organisms) are phonetic approximations of borrowed words.

So far, I have yet to run into trouble, but then, I haven't made many words.

The alphabet, with IPA equivalents:



Saturday, September 19, 2015

Prescriptive grammar

i_like_sleep505: haiiii

oxford_commonica: hey how r u

i_like_sleep505: p good
i_like_sleep505: u?

oxford_commonica: same
oxford_commonica: bit sleepy

i_like_sleep505: Ik always

oxford_commonica: ik*

i_like_sleep505: srry autocorrect

oxford_commonica: y r u on ur phone?

i_like_sleep505: wifis down

oxford_commonica: oh i c
oxford_commonica: brb

i_like_sleep505: mk

oxford_commonica: kk*

i_like_sleep505: whatevs

oxford_commonica: ;( mk means undrstndng, kk means ok

i_like_sleep505: * eye roll * ur such a nitpicker

oxford_commonica: it mattrs!
oxford_commonica: and its not ur thats a pssesive

i_like_sleep505: shut up
i_like_sleep505: u no wat i mean

oxford_commonica: but thats not _right_

i_like_sleep505: fck off

oxford_commonica: :-(

i_like_sleep505: nxt thing u no ull b crrcting my emojis

oxford_commonica: emoticons*

i_like_sleep505: :-/
i_like_sleep505: go away

oxford_commonica: lol

i_like_sleep505: oh i gtg
i_like_sleep505: dinner
i_like_sleep505: ttyl

oxford_commonica: bai

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Bonds

Aluminum was bouncing. He liked bouncing - all his relatives did, as far as he knew, and he did too. Some people, he knew, danced - he had watched them dance, and it looked rather tiring. But Aluminum bounced, happily.

And yet there was something missing - or, more accurately, he had something too much. Three things, in fact. The three extra electrons in his outer shell were constantly on his mind, though he wouldn't do anything violent to get rid of them, not like Sodium. He wasn't that kind of atom.

"How's it going?" asked a neighbor, momentarily taking his mind off his electrons.

"Pretty good," he said, bouncing in place. "Meet anyone interesting today?"

"Saw some pretty big molecules," said the friend. "Bunch of chains, didn't stop to talk."

Aluminum nodded, but suddenly his attention was taken away.

It was two atoms, together about as big as him, clinging together as they zoomed by. Time seemed to slow as he gazed at the three lovely holes in each one, and he felt his electrons give a twinge. Oh, how much he would like to put them into her holes.

Nitrogen.

He had to act quickly; the atoms were moving towards him with alarming speed. "What sweet holes you have," he said, his electrons twitching. But they were still too far away, and his electrons could not reach her. "Won't you let me fill them for you?"

The two Nitrogens looked over at him. They looked at each other and giggled, and then - oh, joy! - they were flying at him; one at him, one at his neighbor. Aluminum blinked and then there was a crash and a flash of energy rushing over him, and the most wonderful feeling as he reached for her, and then, feeling her against him, stuck his electrons, almost involuntarily, into her three precious holes. Pleasure crashed over him in a wave; his electrons had fled.

When the heady rush and whirl of bliss faded, Aluminum found himself attached to Nitrogen. He smiled at her, letting his contentment swirl around him.

"You're so long," Nitrogen murmured at him.

"I'm the right length," Aluminum returned. He looked at the place where she had once had three holes; holes now filled by his electrons.

Her electrons.

"I feel so complete," Nitrogen marveled, his electrons filling her, charging her. She leaned against him happily and he leaned back against her.

"I never want to leave your side." Now that his electrons were gone, he felt an overwhelming attraction to her. They clung to each other, their electrons whizzing around.

And they never let go.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

A Scientifically Inspired Divine Explanation

To be honest, I just got too lazy to make up a religion and didn't want to copy an existing one.

A Scientifically Inspired Divine Explanation

"In the beginning, there was only Mafaiei. Of course, beginning isn’t quite the right word, because there was no time. But in the time before time, there was nothing but Mafaiei, the creator. No time passed for Mafaiei, because there was no time, and thus she did not age, and was not immortal, and did not experience time. She merely existed.

Then, one day—and of course, day isn’t the right word either, because there were no days, and there was no time, and nothing had passed—Mafaiei clapped her hands. She clapped her hands three times, in rapid succession, and each time she clapped her hands there was a shockwave, and of course there was nothing for the shockwave to travel through but herself, and then in a giant explosion that seemed to engulf her, the first Senti were born, and with them, time and the universe.

The first Senti were Nikolai, Tikolai, and Pikolai, and, along with Mafaiei, they manifested themselves in the physical realm as the four fundamental forces and when they are in the physical realm they have different names, but in the metaphysical world they are Nikolai, Tikolai, Pikolai, and Mafaiei.

And now, for a long, long time, these Senti built the physical universe. Tikolai and Pikolai made the atoms and made them bigger and bigger, and Nikolai held the atoms together, and Mafaiei the creator and destroyer tore the atoms apart and made the stars.

But then, one day (and one day still isn’t the right word as the Senti have no sun and thus days), Tikolai said, ‘I’m bored.’

Nikolai turned to him in shock. ‘Bored? How could you be bored? There’s so much we can do, and it’s all so interesting!’

But Mafaiei shook her head. ‘There is much to do for you, but remember that there are only so many varieties of atoms before they get too large.’

Tikolai nodded. ‘Besides, it used to be hard to figure out how to make more, but now we’ve gotten the hang on it. Mafaiei, won’t you make something else to do?’

Mafaiei thought about it. ‘I know. I’ll make us some more company. But it’ll take all four of us.’

‘What kind of company?’ Pikolai asked.

Mafaiei smiled. ‘I won’t tell you.’

It was the hardest thing Mafaiei had ever done, and Nikolai, Tikolai, and Pikolai all complained that they didn’t know what Mafaiei was doing throughout the process until she told them she would make a mistake if they didn’t be quiet. But finally, Mafaiei watched with satisfaction as the four new Senti moved.

‘What are you?’ Pikolai said after a moment.

‘I’m Adenine.’

‘Guanine.’

‘Cytosine.’

‘And Uracil!’

‘Uracil?’ Mafaiei gasped. ‘What?’

Uracil giggled. ‘I’m sure Thymine will appear sometime. She’s just taking a very, very long detour.’

‘How could this have happened?’

‘Well, you could say I’m just a little easier than she is.’

‘Oh, dear,’ Mafaiei said as she watched Uracil run away and the other three chase after him. ‘Oh, dear.’

But it wasn’t so bad. At first, when Thymine came back, the fighting between Uracil and Thymine was awful and Mafaiei considered undoing time, and she would have, if she hadn’t spent so much effort creating them. She was closest after, during one of their fights, Uracil threw Thymine into the physical world, but Pikolai was entertained and persuaded Mafaiei to relent. But finally, Thymine did Uracil a humiliation, and they drew up surrender terms that allowed Uracil to continue his role in creating the Senti that manifested themselves as proteins but only as Thymine’s servant.

But Uracil was not done with his mischief.

You see, just as the Senti had their physical manifestations, the physical world had its metaphysical manifestation, which was as a long thread woven from filaments of wood with no ends or breaks, and everyone was happy with this beautiful continuous, single-threaded universe, and for the most part, they just let it evolve and now and then watched it weave itself.

And so when Mafaiei checked on it, she expected to see nothing more changed than maybe a new pattern or something.

She screamed.

In place of the single thread was a sort of tree, splitting at the top into woven branches splitting into woven branches splitting into woven branches, and as it spun itself upwards, its branches continued to split.

‘URACIL!’

The whole crowd of Senti gathered to watch the tree. It must be noted that the tree was very little to them, as a sapling is, but it was a very large tree with a great thick trunk and huge spreading branches. Uracil came up, a penitent look fixed onto his face.

‘I only wanted to see what would happen!’

‘If you what?’

‘If I cut it.’

There was an eruption—even those created in part by Uracil were properly horrified.

‘But I only cut it a little, down the middle!’

Mafaiei staggered back. ‘The universe has fractured,’ she announced. ‘From now on, there will no longer be just one universe, but many, stemming from the same root, and the number will grow and grow and grow.’ And already they knew that in the physical world, an explosion of change had happened with that initial cut.

Amidst the shouting, a voice asked, ‘Can’t it be fixed, Mafaiei?’

Mafaiei shook her head heavily. ‘From now on,’ she said, ‘all change is irreversible, because for each change, another universe is created.’

Uracil had done it unknowingly, but he had gotten his revenge on Thymine and all the Senti for expelling him and making him Thymine’s servant. Because though there were many universes—an ever-increasing amount—the Senti had lost much power; their identities were fractured. Some Senti didn’t even have power in certain universes, because their manifestations didn’t exist there.

And so, though Mafaiei continued to create and destroy, and though Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine continued to guard the varied Senti of the earth (and sometimes create their own), and though Estrogen continued to bless the pregnant, the Senti could no longer direct their physical manifestations with the precision of before. And because of that, life has since mostly progressed without egregious Senti influence."

-----------

The little boy looked up at the girl as she finished the legend. “Is that all? Tell another, please!”

The girl looked at her employer’s son, and said, “But I finished dusting ages ago. I really should get to making mid-day, and you know you aren’t supposed to go to the kitchen. I’m not here to tell you stories.”

The little boy pouted. “You just want to make sure you have enough time to sneak into the library.”

Jenine smiled guiltily. “And you need to go to the library yourself to keep up with your studies.”

“But you can just tell me stories! Why can’t you teach me, Jenine? I’m going to ask mami if you can teach me instead.”

“Shoo! You’re going to get me into trouble!”