#codelang

Back at it again, shaking things up a bit. I've swapped some letters around so they'll have some more symmetry with their equivalent sounds rather than the English sounds, and I redesigned the smoothing letters (diphthongs) based on the updated characters. I'll have to make a better chart at some point, but this was just for ease of use.

Oops, I just noticed that I never actually posted the update I promised about the Zirka plugin! Anyway, this link provides instructions for how to install and use the new Zirka plugin on your website as well as a link to a no-frills demo to try it out! You do need HTML access to your site in order to use it, but it’s fairly easy to use otherwise!

I’ve been thinking about how I could improve this Zirka, and two specific things always come to mind: the sounds and the “smoothing letters”.

First of all, I developed Zirka long before I knew anything about linguistics and standard linguistic tools like the IPA and other helpful things like that, so I have a low-level layman presentation of how to use Zirka. While I do definitely want to keep it accessible to the layman, I would also like a bit more precision, so I’m going to at least update the Usage page to also include IPA explanations. This should help better explain the confusing fact that translating /a/ and /æ/ produce the same Zirka character, resulting in the words “bat” and “bot” both translating into the same ([kut]) spelling and pronunciation.

Second, the smoothing letters (a.k.a. digraphs, if you’re in the linguistics camp) that have been available are not sufficient, and at least one (“ly”) is completely useless thanks to /li/ just plain making more sense to use. This plus the fact that I want more and more interesting sounds like /t͡s/ to exist in Zirka, I am going to update this list and some letters.

Here is what I am thinking for the updated full codex (including digraphs), written in IPA:

A ( /a/, /æ/, /ɑ/, etc.) => U /u/

B ( /b/ ) => K /k/

Ch ( /t͡ʃ/ )   => Th /ð/

D ( /d/ ) => B /b/

Dr ( /dɹ/, /dɻ/ ) => Bis /bɪs/

E ( /e/, /ɛ/, /ɜ/, etc. ) => O /o/

F ( /f/ ) => Sh /ʃ/

Fl ( /fl/ ) => Shr /ʃɹ/

Fr ( /fɹ/, /fɻ/ ) => Z /z/

G ( /g/ ) => P /p/

Gr ( /gɹ/, /gɻ/ ) => Pas /pæs/

H ( /h/ ) => N /n/

I ( /i/, /ɪ/ ) => A /a/

K ( /k/ ) => T /t/

Kl ( /kl/ ) => Tr /tɾ/

Kr ( /kɹ/, /kɻ/ ) => Ts /t͡s/

L ( /l/ ) => R /ɾ/

M ( /m/ ) => D /d/

N ( /n/ ) => F /f/

O ( /o/ ) => E /e/

P ( /p/ ) => M /m/

Pr ( /pɹ/, /pɻ/ ) => Mus /məs/

R ( /ɹ/, /ɻ/ ) => S /s/

S ( /s/ ) => L /l/

Sh ( /ʃ/ ) => Kl /kl/

Sk ( /sk/ ) => Lat /lat/

Sl ( /sl/ ) => Lr /lɞɾ/

Sm ( /sm/ ) => Led /lɛd/

Sn ( /sm/ ) => Luf /ləf/

Sp ( /sp/ ) => Lum /ləm/

St ( /st/ ) => Lag /lag/

Sw ( /sw/ ) => Luv /ləv/

T ( /t/ ) => G /g/

Th ( /θ/, /ð/ ) => J /d͡ʒ/

Tr ( /tɹ/ ) => Gis /gɪs/

Tw ( /tw/ ) => Giv /gɪv/

U ( /u/, /ə/, /ʌ/, /ɞ/, etc.) => I /i/

V/W ( /v/ or /w/ ) => V /v/

Y ( /j/ ) => Ch /t͡ʃ/

J/Z ( /d͡ʒ/ or /z/ ) => W /w/

For reference, the word to be translated is stripped down to its most basic sounds, for example “clever” changes to klevur [klɛ vɞr], which would then be translated to trovis [tɾo vis], and “pulley” breaks down to puli [pɞ li], which translates to mira [mi ɾa].

I will obviously need to revamp the alphabet a bit to account for the new digraphs, but I think this change will allow for a much more usable experience when translating from English into Zirka, plus I get to have some of my favorite IPA sounds in the language, so it’s a big win overall!