#ittb

Here’s the Azrán dialogue from episode 306 of Into the Badlands:

PILGRIM Nix. Stand down. Niks. Átekomá.

Just one line in this episode:

First, there’s only supposed to be like a hundred years between modern English (circa 2040) and Trigedasleng. With Azrán, there’s been over 500 years. Second, The 100 production team wanted Trigedasleng to be somewhat recognizable for viewers, and actually had me dial my original version back, to ensure it would be. With Azrán, I had no constraints. :) Even so, it’s still fairly conservative compared to what I could’ve done.

Here are some of the ordered sound changes that’ll help you get back to Spanish:

*s became *h before consonants and at the end of a word.

Voiced fricatives disappeared in between vowels and at the end of a word.

Voiced fricatives hardened (so *ɣ > ɡ, *β > b, *ð > d).

Voiceless sounds voiced after vowels (even at the end of the word).

All glottal fricatives were lost.

Vowels were lost at the end of words.

Once this happened, stress started to move around, and this is where stress became high tone, and lack of stress became low tone. There was a lot of vowel coalescence resulting in high and low tones merging, the result being falling tone. There are technically instances where you have low-high melody, but it’s not on a single vowel (thus *nadar > naá [na˩.a˥]).

The other major things that happened was a major shift in grammar. The two gender system turned into four. Basically, masculine and feminine each divided in two, depending on whether the noun usually occurred with the a definite or indefinite article (and the terms “masculine” and “feminine” became less useful). These fused into prefixes. They also merged with *de to produce four forms for each noun: nominative singular, nominative plural, genitive singular, and genitive plural. Once nouns had to, basically, pick one or the other (definite or indefinite), it gave birth to different meanings for some nominal roots depending on which one they chose, so you could have the same root with different meanings in different (old) gender/definiteness combos. There were also differences depending on whether the root began with a consonant (and which consonant) or a vowel. Class prefixes were also replaced by pronominal possessive prefixes, when necessary. Here are some examples:

Class I: lígh “son” zígh “sons” ghígh “of the son” ghozígh “of the sons”

Class II: uzób “snack” nozób “snacks” juzób “of the snack” junozób “of the snacks”

Class III: lô “water” zô “waters” ghô “of the water” ghazô “of the waters”

Class IV: nagóz “thing” nakóz “things” junagóz “of the thing” junakóz “of the things”

Lot of variability in the exponence used with these classes, but this should give you an idea.

The verbs are very confusing… I say that because I’m confused at the moment how exactly they work… I thought I had documented them well, but clearly I did not… I get particularly confused when there are indirect objects (I often forget where they’re supposed to go and what governs their forms). There are basically four verb aspects/modes: the imperfect, the perfect, the prospective, and the imperative. Each verb still has three forms: the old infinitive, the old present participle, and the old past participle. The verb varies its form (one of these three) and placement (between the subject and object or after them both) depending on the aspect/mode. There’s also a difference in the exponence for some aspect/modes when the verb is transitive vs. intransitive (also active and passive). The aspect/mode is expressed via a combination of the verb form and the agreement exponence. Here are some examples using one verb (also, there are only two verb classes now: -á vs. -é [down from modern -ar, -er, -ir]):

FIRST PERSON SINGULAR ACTIVE

Imperfect: tízenyén “I am rising, I rise”

Perfect: êzenéw “I have risen, I rose”

Prospective: bêzené “I will rise, I am going to rise”

Imperative: ámezené “Let me rise (said to one person)”, âmezené “Let me rise (said to more than one person)”

THIRD PERSON SINGULAR ACTIVE

Imperfect: tázenyén “he/she/it is rising, he/she/it rises”

Perfect: âzenéw “she/he/it has risen, she/he/it rose”

Prospective: bâzené “it/she/he will rise, it/she/he is going to rise”

Imperative: álezené “rise, let him/her/it/them (said to one person)”, âgezené “rise, let him/her/it/them (said to more than one person)”

With that, you can probably guess how these aspect/mode combinations emerged.

This is the basic stuff, but, of course, there’s also other little quirks that are lexically dependent (these, though, will be obvious and natural to any Spanish speaker, I would think). Overall, this isn’t really a plausible future for Spanish, but a possible future. It relies on some sound changes, in particular, that I think are extremely unlikely (e.g. voicing of voiceless sounds after vowels, resulting in things like el hijo [el ˈi.xɔ] become lígh [liɣ]), but which are nevertheless possible and attested in other languages. Rather than being an honest-to-goodness attempt at a future for Spanish 500 years from now in our world, it’s more a potentially plausible “what if” that matches the wild, and totally unrecognizable future you see in Into the Badlands, which takes place in what used to be the American Southwest and Mexico.

Couple lines in this episode:

CRESSIDA & ACOLYTES His blood is our blood. Jekh nguzêle tánaán zuzêle.

I haven’t gotten a chance to write up a post on it yet, but I created the language used in the third season of AMC’s Into the Badlands. It’s called Azrán in the language, and it is the language of Azra. The tl;dr of it is it is to Spanish what Trigedasleng from The 100 is to English. Every single piece of it is derived directly from modern Mexican Spanish. The language is now tonal, so aside from the usual Romanization (everything should be pronounced the way it looks), syllables with an acute accent (e.g. á) have high tone; those with none (e.g. a) have low tone; and those with a circumflex accent (e.g. â) have a falling tone.

This is the dialogue that made it to the screen in episode 302 (all lines belong to Cressida):

Fate’s eye, wide open. Show us what we must see. Logh ghô, ben layét. Zátemokháál ge pazókh be.

To the old deities who sacrificed themselves upon the altars of Azra so that the one Truth could rise from your ashes, we offer our own sacrifice in turn. A nojóz zanyú ke jázhaazhelô nudô juzotál gh’Ázra page lavedá lúnig bâzené zhen juzníz, lezetôzhelán dezókh azwé.

Son of Azra, lend me your strength. Ligh gh’Ázra, nyátedáálombe tubwé.

Just one line:

DAY 1

Arrive at Base hotel in Moshi in time for an early evening pre-climb briefing on the trek, dinner and overnight stay.

DAY 2

Drive to Kilimanjaro National Park Gate at Machame for the first section of the climb through the montane forest to Machame Campsite at 10000ft/3000m. for overnight camp taking 5 to 7 hours. Overnight Machame camp.

DAY 3

Following the steep ridge and across heath and moorland to ‘picnic rock’ and the Shira plateau, to Shira Campsite at 12500ft/3800m for overnight camp taking 5 to 7 hrs. Overnight Shira Camp.

DAY 4

Cross the floor of the great Barranco Valley, up the Barranco Wall to the Karanga river – the last water point on this route. A steep climb over rocky slabs to Bafaru Campsite at 15500ft/4600m. For overnight camp taking 8 to 9 hrs. Overnight Barafu camp.

DAY 5

Cross the floor of the great Barranco Valley, up the Barranco Wall to the Karanga river – the last water point on this route. A steep climb over rocky slabs to Bafaru Campsite at 15500ft/4600m. For overnight camp taking 8 to 9 hrs. Overnight Barafu camp.

DAY 6

An early start for the summit – uhuru Peak the highest point in Africa at 1934ft/5896m taking 6 to 7 hrs. Descend via Barafu Campsite through the forest to Mweka Campsite at 10000ft/3000m. For overnight camp – taking 5 to 7 hrs. Overnight Mweka Camp.

DAY 7

Descend through the forest to the park gate at Mweka Wildlife College tking 3 to 4 hrs to met and transferred to Base Hotel in Moshi for dinner and overnight stay.

DAY 8

After breakfast as the Base hotel Moshi, you will be transferred to either Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha airport for your onward flight.