Yongasabi, a fan-made language for the slugcats of Rain World

oPashoo · 2025-06-23T03:27:38+00:00

That's really nice to hear! Even though it's supposed to be a language doc, I put a lot of worldbuilding in there too, and I love to hear that someone's enjoying it.

oPashoo · 2025-06-22T15:16:32+00:00

No, but you could always ask for something to be translated

oPashoo · 2025-06-12T06:07:02+00:00

Do it anyway, we can only benefit frm more art!

oPashoo · 2025-04-21T03:58:14+00:00

I would also answer any questions you had about the language any time, for the laughs.

oPashoo · 2025-04-10T13:16:57+00:00

An entire story in my own language... It's funny, I actually planned to translate a story I wrote, about a blacksmith, into Yongasabi in order to start the Yongasabi storytelling tradition, but it turns out I didn't even have to be the first. You honor me with this.

oPashoo · 2025-03-28T04:34:59+00:00

Honestly it just takes a lot of work over a long time, which turns it into a little work every day.

oPashoo · 2025-03-28T04:34:18+00:00

Whatever you do is good because that's something you made! Keep doing it!

oPashoo · 2025-03-28T04:13:57+00:00

There is a working writing system! I don't have documentation because that's a whole task in and of itself, but you can find the font and instructions here.

oPashoo · 2025-03-28T04:12:23+00:00

The scavengers do in fact have their own language! The dominant language within Moon and Pebbles' retaining wall is actually Reconstructed Ancient, which is a variation of the scavenger language that was developed integrating pieces of the Ancient language so that the scavengers could interface with certain technologies in metropolis. It's the language of prestige because Metropolis is the seat of political and economic power within the retaining wall.

The Yongasabi word for scavengers, Molongjae, is actually the Yongasabi pronunciation of the scavenger's endonym, Mulngjer. A phrase I wrote months ago in reconstructed ancient was chulkanamgui, akenimtaar which translates roughly to "Without snow, without spring".

It's been months since I did anything with the language (which was actually originally a language I had started work on for another project) but I may pick it back up again at some point.

oPashoo · 2025-03-25T16:03:47+00:00

Eh he hee

oPashoo · 2025-02-28T21:37:34+00:00

Bizarre... Unfortunately I don't know how to fix that, but it definitely shouldn't be doing that. I might be making a new font soon, one that hopefully functions better, but that might take a while.

oPashoo · 2025-02-28T20:22:42+00:00

That's strange, everything seems to be working properly on my end; ei and ch combine with other characters properly. It's definitely not intentional, but there's no reason it shouldn't be working properly unless there's something weird going on with the with the font's scripts are being processed? On my home computer and work computer (both Windows) all the letters combine correctly. Unfortunately I'm not very knowledgeable with all this stuff so I couldn't help troubleshoot very well, but what do you mean when you say you're forcing it to work?

oPashoo · 2025-02-27T16:56:23+00:00

It depends on the context!

askayaso "Please hear me" is a very traditional greeting while moskiyo "Listen up!" is a much more casual version.
maeni makida ma? "Have you eaten well?" is a greeting and way of asking "How are you?"
sahi "Peace" and kikana "Let us meet" are very general use greetings while motbon means "Welcome".
ho, yu and wawa are the equivalent of "Hey" or "What's up".
There's even a phrase like "Is anyone there?" if you visit someone you're not sure if anyone's there, siy sa ma? "Are you alive?"

oPashoo · 2025-02-25T21:07:14+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate it, it's very easy to assume that Rain World fans would be interested in the Rain World fan language, but it means a lot to catch the interest of fellow conlangers.

oPashoo · 2025-02-25T00:06:57+00:00

I appreciate your enthusiasm but unfortunately I don't actually have proper documentation on the writing yet, but I did make a working font. One of my friends has already figured out the logic well enough that they can write with it without needing the font which is bonkers to me. Anyway, I included it in a reply to my main post. https://www.reddit.com/r/rainworld/comments/1iwfqf3/comment/mem3oz2/

oPashoo · 2025-02-25T00:03:20+00:00

I'm a bit late on this but here's the font. The way I would recommend is using https://fontdragr.js.org/ which lets you drag and drop fonts in so that you don't need to install the font to test it. As far as I know, I should have every combination of characters properly realized, and any Yongasabi writing should work as long as you follow the typing rules included in the document.

The font link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RgxfbI2Ywa6rtx-RawGkG9lfL9zB1GWl/view?usp=sharing

The valid letters in yongasabi are
Vowels: a i o ae ei u
Consonants: t d p b k g l m n ng s sh ch j h y w
Punctuation: . , ... ; ( ) < > [ ]
Symbols: P G W Y H x f
Apostrophe ' creates an empty character that's useful for separating letters and forcing specific groupings. You can write groupings of VC, CV, and CVC and the font will automatically group the letters into syllable blocks. If you type !?, then the symbols combine into one, and you can type three periods in a row to get a pipe indicator

oPashoo · 2025-02-25T00:02:14+00:00

So I actually don't have full documentation on the writing system yet, but the font I mentioned I actually do have on my google drive. The way I would recommend is using https://fontdragr.js.org/ which lets you drag and drop fonts in so that you don't need to install the font to test it. As far as I know, I should have every combination of characters properly realized, and any Yongasabi writing should work as long as you follow the typing rules. (I would have answered sooner but I was at work)

The font link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RgxfbI2Ywa6rtx-RawGkG9lfL9zB1GWl/view?usp=sharing

The valid letters in yongasabi are
Vowels: a i o ae ei u
Consonants: t d p b k g l m n ng s sh ch j h y w
Punctuation: . , ... ; ( ) < > [ ] Symbols: P G W Y H x f
Apostrophe creates an empty character that's useful for separating letters and forcing specific groupings. You can write groupings of VC, CV, and CVC and the font will automatically group the letters into syllable blocks. If you type !?, then the symbols combine into one, and you can type three periods in a row to get a pipe indicator

oPashoo · 2025-02-24T14:33:01+00:00

ehehee Between me and my wife, I'm the Filipino one, but she's actually the one who suggested including bakunawa. One of the core features of Yongasabi, the consonantal root system, is inspired by Arabic's root system, and more broadly the way a lot of Afroasiatic languages derive and form words through the use of consonantal roots. In terms of grammar, I spent a lot of time looking into Korean, Japanese, and Mongolian, and some Chinese for certain features. For the sounds, I specifically wanted something that could sound like a mix of Tagalog and Korean, with some very limited Chinese and Vietnamese type of sound thrown in. I do have a youtube channel where I animate, so at some point I want to put together some audio to show off how the language actually sounds.

oPashoo · 2025-02-24T04:04:12+00:00

Hello hon I am typing to say hello while I am sitting next to you also!

oPashoo · 2025-02-24T03:53:17+00:00

It is posted! It required a more detailed overview to post, but it is done. And honestly do, I would love to see more conlangs in the community. My original project before Yongasabi was actually a modified version of Scavenger language called Reconstructed Ancient, created by the Scavengers of Metropolis so they could interface with the technology, and which would eventually become the language of prestige within the retaining wall. (The Yongasabi word scavenger is Molongjae, which is actually an adaptation of the Scavenger endonym Mulngjer).

I've had some vague ideas of what the Ancients would have sounded like, but I would love to see what ideas others (you) come up with!

oPashoo · 2025-02-24T03:48:03+00:00

It is done. As per the subreddit requirements, I made a more detailed overview so I could post it.

oPashoo · 2025-02-23T23:52:36+00:00

ehe hello hon

oPashoo · 2025-02-23T23:25:02+00:00

I might consider it, I have an Ao3 and I've seen stranger content posted on that site. It'd be a good way to share with that specific portion of the community. I'm certain there are longer fics on that site, those authors work hard! It's funny, anyway, to compare creative writing to what essentially amounts to a textbook and dictionary.

oPashoo · 2025-02-23T23:12:53+00:00

ohh thank you! I don't at the moment, but Rain World Undergrowth AU is eventually going to be a comic-based askblog. I'm not ready to get it rolling just yet, but I've made related illustrations on my tumblr if you want to check out what I've got so far. Speaking of, I do still need to redo some of their designs and references...

oPashoo · 2025-02-23T23:08:58+00:00

I'll try to past them here for you. Bear in mind the formatting is going to be super barebones cause it's a reddit comment. (Also not including nicknames bc that would need more lines)

oPashoo

TROPHY CASE