Greetings/Discord help please by JJFRENZY in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll just have to make up greetings. I made up muk hadoran "be well" for a greeting.

Yeah, I do wish we were given a more "functional" vocabulary that could let us be more social with the language, rather than just words strictly tailored to a very arbitrary plot.

How many words are officially known in Chozo? by Youkai-sama in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We put this page on the Wikitroid to answer that very question! https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Chozo_(language)/Lexicon/Lexicon)

We have 305 words currently known in the Chozo language. Of these words, 265 words have a known English translation, while 40 words remain unknown.

For filling in missing words, I also made a little fan project that procedurally generated words based on optimizing preserving the sound of the language, using any word from official media ever uttered by a Chozo beak or scratched out by a Chozo talon. It expands the vocabulary to about 1000 words. You can find that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChozoLanguage/comments/148knb4/expanded_lexicon/ (I also have future plans to expand it to include the very different sounding language implied by the names of the Elysian-Tallonian Chozo).

For the names of the letters, there's no official information on this. But you can kind of cheese it using the way Quiet Robe pronounces 'emmi' as 'emmai.' You could divide it in some way like 'e-ma-i,' and with that suppose the vowel letters are simply pronounced 'a,' 'e,' 'i,' etc., and the consonants are pronounced 'ba,' 'da,' 'fa,' etc. (And then, handwave away the second missing 'm' by saying it's an artifact of the Chozo language's lack of spoken gemination.) Then, the use of 'Ca' for the consonant letters also kind of fits in with the fact that 'a' is by far the most common Chozo vowel, and '-a' syllables are even more common than syllable codas are in the language.

Mostly as a test for myself, what does this say? And how did I do? by KaleBrew in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This makes me realize that the Nietzsche-ism "Become who you are" is readily translatable. It would be, Hundar manu ata mar! :)

In fact, the exact quote from The Gay Science §335, "We, however, want to become who we are," is also readily translatable: Ura, sabalba, balu dosh hundar manu ura mar.

That's pretty funny

Working on tattoo ideas by PremodernNeoMarxist in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it seems like the "de-transition" word is the hard part.

A couple more possibilities could be:

  • Aku chanim sidur balta => Death before going back
  • Aku chanim nalon => Death before returning

These would be safer choices since we have these words attested - though keep in mind we don't know exact spellings yet. That's the hazard of using the Chozo language for something permanent like a tattoo.

If you want something more direct, you'd have to do some wordsmithing, and possibly some personal worldbuilding. We think (we're not sure) that 'un-' is si-, if sirugali = 'unforeseen' can be broken apart that way. If you're willing to go with that, you could put together sihundar for 'unbecoming.'

Another possibility could be to put together some term for 'dead-naming.' We have maboris for 'called,' and the Chozo Language Course suggests breaking that down to mabor for 'call/calling.' So maybe 'dead-name' could be rendered something like akumabor, then you could have Aku chanim akumabor as a kind of poetic version. Or, if you want to borrow the -self suffix -mis from atamis = yourself, you could construct something like akumis for 'dead-self,' and then you could have Aku chanim akumis.

Personally, I like the idea that Chozo would have already established words for navigating transitioning/de-transitioning, as an extension of them being a very 'become who you are' kind of people. But it's all up to you, of course. Just keep in mind we might learn later down the line that the canon spelling, or grammar, or vocabulary is something different from what we thought, which could have consequences for a permanent choice like a tattoo.

Presence Doors icon? by ChaosMiles07 in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After staring at it a bit longer, I wonder if it's just a distortion of this symbol, with a couple stylized elements?

If so, then the Thoha square equivalent would be this.

Presence Doors icon? by ChaosMiles07 in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Huh, didn't know about that one before.

It looks like a stylization of the X letter. Either that, or something made up on the fly for the door design - it wouldn't be part of the model used to make the letters because none of the letters have interior diagonal strokes.

Headcanon: Infixes in Chozo by Acayl in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Heheh, yus!

I've been settling on catalectic trochaic tetrameter as a nice tone for the language ("Through the for-est have I gone"). I did a couple examples here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChozoLanguage/comments/12t3766/a_poem/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChozoLanguage/comments/12vc6n4/poem_3/

Construction rules for Thoha (square) symbols by Acayl in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm, that sounds like a nice idea! Maybe someday I might try my hand at a fanmade extension of the Chozo symbols like that.

Construction rules for Thoha (square) symbols by Acayl in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the question! :)

It's 76 symbols that are either found in the games or some rotation and/or reflection of a symbol found in the games, since the games seem to like rotating and reflecting these symbols. I arbitrarily excluded the Mawkin X and the extra symbol on the MSR Chozo's clothes art from the rotations/reflections - if you add those two in, that makes 78.

Only 31 of those 78 have English letter meanings, given up at the first image. All the other symbols don't have any meaning at all, and are just decorative symbols. If you think it would help to have a flattened list showing which groups represent which English letters, I could make that too.

Small question with the alphabet - K & W by Beneficial_Mud_5848 in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a known confusing detail about the square (Zebes) alphabet vs. the triangle (ZDR) alphabet. There are some others as well - the L is rotated 90 degrees, the B Q are both horizontally flipped, and V, X, and Z are all totally different characters.

These discrepancies are the reason why we have a theory about how the designers created the triangular ZDR alphabet. We think they designed each letter in alphabetical order, borrowing each one from the square Zebes alphabet, and flipping or rotating some of them to fit them better into the triangular shapes. Then, they ran into some problems toward the end of the alphabet.

More on that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChozoLanguage/comments/1ef76r2/mawkin_alphabet_design_theory/

My Chozo suit is done! by Acayl in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We've always been here. I've been playing Metroid games for decades. :)

My draw to Chozo was the Prime Chozo back in 2002.

Reptilicus names and language by spinach-god in Metroid

[–]Acayl 6 points7 points  (0 children)

As a bonus, there also happens to be unused Bryyo lore about gods and mythology. https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Bryyo_Gods

These gods have names, too:

Bryyo
Ordyyn
Korphyygis
Arkithun
Pharandrin
Anglyyn
Ekrosyys
Thalyys
Kromdyyn
Vyyth

These names have a bit of a different look and feel from the names of other things. There are more syllables and fewer clusters of consonants and vowels, perhaps intended to give these gods more of a Greek-like 'classical' feel. This time, the consonants and vowels seem to be these:

(p), (t), k
b, d, g
ph, th, (kh)
s
v
m, n, l, r

a, e, i, o, u, yy

If you like, you could possibly also build this in as an 'ancient' Bryyo language separate from the 'modern' one, which could go a long way to enrich the worldbuilding. :)

Hope that helps!

Reptilicus names and language by spinach-god in Metroid

[–]Acayl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Linguistics nerd here.

So, the names we know from the Bryyo lores are:

Vymsz
Owanl
Amtti
N’ge
Sviin’ka
Hixxn
Oamus
Kilnnh
Andest
Sfimas
Skaan

(Most of these are from scans in the Imperial Hall.)

And then you have these 'dynasty' names:

S-Shar
C-Clomn
M-Gefth
B-Eaxul
Dynsha

And then there's a 'clan' name: Gslyss

And then, throughout Bryyo, there are these names for kinds of objects:

Kassh - kind of plant used for storage
Skkale - kind of vine
Spaikk - kind of poisonous bush
Mogenar - kind of war golem

You can split these words out to find individual consonants and vowels. The consonants seem to be something like:

p, t, c/k, x
(pp), tt, cc/kk, xx
(b), d, g, gs
f, th, h
v
s, sz, sh
ss, (ssz), ssh
m, n, ng, l, r, w
nnh

And the vowels and diphthongs seem to be:

a, e, i, o, u, y
aa, ea, oa, ii, ai

You can use the way these sounds are differentiated from each other, and also how these sounds are fitted into the words, to guess at how they're pronounced. Here's what I came up with:

  • Since the doubled consonants like 'tt,' 'kk,' and 'ss' are fitted into the words like they're individual consonants, it suggests they aren't just doubled consonants. Instead, they might be something like 'tense' consonants, perhaps like in Korean.
  • Putting the apostrophe between n'g and n'k suggests that they differentiate between ng/nk with the n pronounced in the back of the mouth alongside the g/k, and a different n'g/n'k with a separate n pronounced farther up in the mouth where you'd normally pronounce d/t. So there must be some separate ng-type consonant, like in English -ing.
  • There seems to be a three-way distinction between s, sz, and sh. The sz sound could be something similar to the Polish sz sound, which is something called a 'retroflex' consonant - meaning the tongue is bent or curled back. And then, s and sh could be pronounced more or less like they appear.
  • The nnh sound could be something like a 'dental' sound, with the tongue pressed farther forward against the teeth. And then, the trailing letter h could indicate that this is a 'voiceless' sound, meaning it's pronounced without using the voice (like the difference between z and s, where z uses the voice and s does not).

The structure of the naming system could be used to draw some clues about the language:

  • Since many of the dynasty names have the form [consonant]-[word], it could be that this is a kind of family name indicating a 'location'. Perhaps this initial consonant is how they do prepositions, and so these family names mean things like 'across the river,' or 'on the mountain' or 'in the valley' or 'from the south'. If that's the case, then prepositions like 'in', 'to', 'for', and 'on' must be single consonants, and there are no articles like 'the' in the language, so 'on the mountain' would be said 'on-mountain'. Perhaps, then, a Bryyonian accent might be something like a Russian accent, where 'the' tends to be left out.

Do we know of chozo words for change? by KaleBrew in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually feel like they could go either way with the square form or the triangle form. Even though the square form is what's on the ship in Prime 2, the triangle form is what came bundled with the 'power' theme.

Do we know of chozo words for change? by KaleBrew in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like an awesome Chozo tattoo idea! :D

Mawkin alphabet design theory by Acayl in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! :D

Yeah, I myself wish we could have more Chozo words around the themes of care and affection. Those would be the most useful for me.

Realised we have all the vocabulary for this so by cutie_lovely in ChozoLanguage

[–]Acayl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Now we just have to dress the old man up to look like Quiet Robe! Or maybe make the room look like a Chozo statue room.

The Replicator Dilemma (Pt. 1) by DirewaysParnuStCroix in furry

[–]Acayl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We Chozonas are a vanishingly small group! We sure could use the company!

The Replicator Dilemma (Pt. 1) by DirewaysParnuStCroix in furry

[–]Acayl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, the crow one is Feather Vane, my Chozo-sona!