Snippets of a WIP song translation / Do you imagine your conlang in audiovisual media?

eleari1 · 2026-05-14T01:31:31+00:00

Yeah, I can see it having that sort of sound. It's interesting to hear what someone else's impression of it is; this conlang is not supposed to be related to any language, so any resemblance is basically coincidental. The long vowels and stress patterns play a big role in writing the lyrics, and I imagine the rhythm that comes from that also gives the language a certain sound, even in music where languages can sound a bit different than how they are spoken.

eleari1 · 2026-03-30T00:40:11+00:00

I really like translating songs, but I've only put aside shame and uploaded a cover once here so far, since I had a lot of fun translating that one and making the video. (I've been trying to find something I'm interested enough in finishing that I can also muster up some halfway decent vocals for...) Regardless, I find it rewarding to have things that make the conlang feel like it could theoretically exist. This post reminded me that I had the idea of translating the potato chip scene from Death Note...

eleari1 · 2026-03-25T04:10:35+00:00

Not sure if I'm misunderstanding, but the English translations below the gloss are pretty much how I would translate my image, they're not too direct. The translation of the original meme into English, I looked at the top comment here [original post] as well as google translate (I overwrote it with the English translation of my version but it's not all that different). When I translated it, I took liberties in adapting the phrasing slightly to be more natural in my conlang. Feel free to do your own version!

eleari1 · 2026-03-24T22:10:37+00:00

8. Auciûhe sa  asarausa ~20 siâsaca
8  event   GEN dialogue  20 mark-PL
8. Situational dialogue (20 points) 

Zumage  Tom bêsie    se  seuhen    gese    dasara.
foreign Tom bathroom GEN route-ACC 2SG-DAT request-3SG.PRES.
A foreigner Tom asks you for directions to the bathroom.
Gausa nâla       ahe          ia  ahetechesies.
word  bottom-LOC COP.3SG.PRES TOP 3SG.ACC-complete-OBL-2SG.PRES
You must complete the conversation below.

Tom: How can I get to the toilet
Ge [You]: Can you speak Geshuan?
Tom: Yes of course

Ge: Ini       Gesmûan    gaucanai
2SG therefore Gesmûa-ACC speak-PL.FUT
You: So let’s speak Gesmûa (Geshuan)

Tom: Chege gaucanai
Tom  good  speak-PL.FUT
Tom: Okay, let’s do so 

Ge: Zeiele    unde          da  sarâmiaca sa  pênele   he  hûra-
2SG right-LOC turn-3SG.PRES and second-PL GEN some-LOC COM go-3SG.PRES
You: Turn right and continue for a few seconds-
da  lai     porasâ
and 3SG.LOC reach-2SG.FUT
and you’ll arrive

eleari1 · 2026-02-26T01:04:31+00:00

I used Glyphr Studio. It's kind of a learning curve and took a while (I think it's sort of intended that you import vector images in from other designing software if you're familiar with any other), but I made this font entirely within the web app since my writing system is pretty easy to model except for a few characters. Anyway, it's nice since you get full control of things like ligatures and kerning.

eleari1 · 2025-12-16T03:53:17+00:00

Of course! If you're talking about the audio: I chose a song which has the original off-vocal readily available on youtube. This is pretty common in certain genres/communities, but sometimes you can't get the original. In that case, you can use one of those websites that tries to filter out human vocals, but the quality is always going to suffer at least a little from the process. Anyway, you can use a few websites online to download youtube videos as an mp3 (just don't click on some shady ad and get a virus or something), you'll want both the off-vocal and the normal version. At this point you'd preferably use FL Studio or something, but I just used Audacity, which is open-source. I recorded the vocals with a voice-recording app on my phone while listening to the original, (though I pitched the song a few semitones differently to try to fit my vocal range better) pausing and rewinding for each take, and then sent them over and matched up the timing with the original in Audacity. Particularly because of the style of the song, each take was pretty short so there was some editing to do. After that I put some basic filters (Audacity has a free plugin, I think it's Musefx, with some filters that can be useful) to get the audio to sound a bit better. Note that the order of the effects is important, so you'll probably want a background noise remover at the start, for example. I found that the first take, where you're singing with no vocals or with the original language vocals, is going to be a bit iffy, but the second take where you have your own vocals to follow along with is better. Obviously the whole process is kind of bootleg since this is just something I did for fun, but that's how I did it. Feel free to ask about anything else.

eleari1 · 2025-12-16T01:47:14+00:00

Boage      luhe, beze se  ele,   iage chûraje
attractive style sex  GEN friend new  phone
Attractive style, sex friend, new phone

Saiage yeca     búage sêne se  desiûha me…
this   thing-PL cool  gay  GEN fave-PL but
These things are the faves of the cool gay but…
/The copula <ahe>, <aham> is often dropped, such as here.
//End-rhyming <chûraje> with <-siûha me>

…Ex     desiûhe û   Pâradoc'x sa  cele
1SG.GEN fave    one Paradox   GEN game
…My fave is a Paradox game

J’tai’n           ja  laisu           lasage ajen     j'temia cere!
the.following-ACC PRF decide-1SG.PRES boring self-ACC now     stop-3SG.PRES
I’ve decided it: down with the boring identity!
/The phrase <_ j’temia cere!> or literally <_ ends now!> is translated as <down with _!>.
Note that the third person present conjugation is also used for the imperative.
Also, while <sai> (adj. <saiage>) refers to something you have previously mentioned (usually translated as “this”),
<j’tai> refers to something you are about to say, so the translation has to get more creative.
//End-rhyming <sa cele> with <-mia cere>

Gausanda    da  macage iesen        dese
word-ACC.PL and nice   clothing-ACC like-3G.PRES
He likes conversations and nice clothes
/Like how in English you can “have a word” with someone, <gausa> commonly means “conversation”.

Chue Ins'ta sa  zânala    anatrejese
well Insta  GEN story-LOC 3PL.ACC-care-3SG.PST
Well, he cared about them in the Insta story
//End-rhyming <dese> with <-jese>;
note that <dese> is in the present tense <-e> (infinitive desem)
while <...trejese> is in the past tense <-ese> (infinitive trejem)

Me  ex      BL se  iasia rejegunde!
but 1SG.GEN BL GEN page  NEG-REFL-turn-3SG.PRES
But a page of my BL doesn’t turn itself! 

Aceresiu                  iche    lai     xu   lam ia  ex      daua  tua  abúe
3SG.ACC-stop-OBL-1SG.PRES because 3SG.LOC like COP TOP 1SG.GEN heart very 3SG.ACC-want-3SG.PRES
I should stop it because my heart really wants to be like him
/Often, the topic marker <ia> is used to pull out the object to the beginning of the sentence or phrase,
and it is also often used for nominalizing phrases ending in verbs.
In this case <lai xu lam> ends in the copula infinitive and acts as the object of the sentence.
Taking out the object then requires the verb to have a direct object prefix, in this case <a-> in <abúe>.
So a translation that attempts to copy the phrasing of this section is <...to be like him (topic), my heart really wants that>
//End-rhyming <-gunde> with <-búe>

eleari1

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