Post by Fewms on Oct 2, 2009 13:58:31 GMT
Djelian For Dummies: Application
One fun use of the translation list can in determining what your name would be written in Djelian. For example, "Elera" would be "large flail, wise owl". Some names are more difficult. "Gwydion", for example, would only be "rising sun". If you ignore the traditional rules, however, you can break down the combined consonants for a more impressive sounding name. If we look at "Gwydion" as "g-w-y-d-n" instead of "gwyd-n", his name would look like "black cat, pile of sand, broken bulrush, small pot, rising sun". Some believe these syllabic name translations can tell you about the inner nature of that person. For example, "large flail, wise owl" may indicate someone who uses force wisely (or a bird with a big stick).
Common single-symbol translations:
Small pot (d) = do, die, idea
Standing ibis (f) = if, of, foe
Black cat (g) = go, age, ago
Rising sun (n) = on, in, an, no, one
Wise owl (r) = or, are
Man with pot (t) = at, to, it, too, toe, tie
Man with bucket (th) = the
More importantly, these rudimentary Djelian skills can you help you read signs, such as carriage stop and road directions. At first glance, these can seem indecipherable. Words run together, or are omitted entirely, and forget about line breaks. Fortunately, the more common destinations can be easy to recognise with a little practice. One of the first things you see when reading a note will be Wise owl, man with pot"(r-t). This almost always means "route". The symbols before "route" are the name of the route. "Large flail, small shrub" (l-b) usually translates to "Djelibeybi", hence if the first four symbols are "Large flail, small shrub Wise owl, man with pot", you are reading the table for the Djelibeybi carriage route. If you're reading that table, you know that you're in the right place to wait for that carriage. similarly, initial symbols of "Golden bow, Wise owl" (v-r) mean you're at a stop for the River Route. Because the initial R is capitalised, you won't be able to see the symbol for it.
So now that you know which carriages stop there, how do you know where else they stop? Well, that's what the rest of the symbols are saying. After we strip off the "<X> route" symbols, we should next look at the very end of the table. Each table ends with the line "and back to <your current stop>." This will look like "Eclipsed sun Small shrub, wavy line Man with pot" followed by symbols indicating your current stop. Ignore (or delete) those symbols, as well as the ones indicating the name of the route. What remains are actual stops, looking like "Small shrub, Large flail, Small shrub Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun Large flail, Small shrub, Small shrub, Eclipsed sun Small shrub, Wavy line Man with pot Golden bow". First of all, find symbols not separated by a comma. Those symbols always go on the same line:
Small shrub,
Large flail,
Small shrub Rising sun Wise owl Black cat
Rising sun Rising sun wise owl black cat
Rising sun Rising sun Large flail
Small shrub
Small shrub
Now we try to figure out which commas indicate two adjacent symbols that are part of the same word. First of all, we notice that the two long lines look very similar to each other. If we assume they should be the same (carriages stop twice at the same place during a round trip), we can understand things a bit better. Because "small shrub" isn't repeated in the second long line, we move that to its own line. Because we have too many rising sun's at the beginning of the 2nd long line, we move it to the previous line, and bring up the final rising sun to the end of the previous line.
Small shrub, = b
Large flail, = l
Small shrub, = b
Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Rising sun wise owl black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Large flail, l
Small shrub, b
Small shrub, b
This lacks symmetry, so we need more work. If we move things around a bit, keeping all symbols in the same order, we get:
Small shrub, = b
Large flail, Small shrub = l-b
Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Rising sun wise owl black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Large flail, Small shrub, = l-b
Small shrub, b
This looks right. We have a trip that starts here, goes to its end, and comes back while stopping at the same stops. The end point, of course, is unreadable. It would be somewhere between the two identical adjacent lines. So how do we decode the letters we have? "b" usually means Ephebe, while "l-b" denotes Djelibeybi. "n r g-n n" indicates the Klatchian foreign legion Tsortean outpost. So we can translate it to:
Ephebe
Djelibeybi
Klatchian Foreign Legion Tsortean Outpost
Klatchian Foreign Legion Tsortean Outpost
Djelibeybi
Ephebe
Stops such as Kom, Il-Drem, Ankh-Morpork, and Tsort are unreadable, however no one wants to go there anyhow!
Road signs can be even trickier, as there is less information and a larger percentage of it is unreadable. But by applying the tricks learned for carriage tables, combined with basic format rules for road signs, we can make some progress. An important difference to note is the extra spaces between some symbols. This happens where " - " is used, and is very useful for knowing how many directions there are. We'll start with a sign reading "Intoxicated eagle Large flail, Intoxicated eagle Standing ibis, Wise owl Eclipsed sun Rising sun Majestic eagle, Man with bucket Large flail, Small shrub, Man with bucket, Intoxicated eagle Large flail, Small shrub Wise owl" and arrange symbols based on extra spaces to get:
Intoxicated eagle - Large flail, = st l
Intoxicated eagle - Standing ibis, Wise owl Eclipsed sun Rising sun Majestic eagle, = st f-r n s
Man with bucket - Large flail, Small shrub, Man with bucket, = th l-b-th
Intoxicated eagle - Large flail, Small shrub Wise owl = st l-b r
Using the common name translations below, we can decode much of the sign. Then we run into a problem with "l-b-th". We already know that "l-b" is the common sign for Djelibeybi, which means the "th" is on the wrong line. We'll move that down, so now we have:
east/west/southwest/northwest/northeast - Al'Khali
east/west/southwest/northwest/northeast - Al'Znufir and Tsortean Desert
south - Djelibeybi
southeast - Djelibeybi Harbour
While the sign still isn't crystal clear, it may be enough to reach your destination, especially if you have some basic written Djelian skills to augment your translation efforts..
Common relevant words in the context of signs:
Intoxicated eagle (st) = East, West, Southeast, Northeast, Northwest
Man with bucket (th) = South
Man with bucket, Intoxicated eagle (th-st) = Southeast
Small shrub (b) = Ephebe
Large flail, Small shrub (l-b) = Djelibeybi
Large flail, Small shrub Wise owl (l-b r) = Djelibeybi Harbour
Wise owl (r) = Ur
Large flail (l) = Al Khali
Standing ibis, Wise owl (f-r) = Al'Znufir
Rising sun, Majestic eagle (n s) = Tsortean Desert
Golden bow, Wise owl (v-r) = River
Wise owl, Man with pot (r-t) = Route
Setting sun (nd) = and
Small shrub, Wavy line (b-ck) = back
Man with pot (t) = to
BLANK = North, Southwest, Istanzia, Ankh-Morpork, Kom, Il-Drum
One fun use of the translation list can in determining what your name would be written in Djelian. For example, "Elera" would be "large flail, wise owl". Some names are more difficult. "Gwydion", for example, would only be "rising sun". If you ignore the traditional rules, however, you can break down the combined consonants for a more impressive sounding name. If we look at "Gwydion" as "g-w-y-d-n" instead of "gwyd-n", his name would look like "black cat, pile of sand, broken bulrush, small pot, rising sun". Some believe these syllabic name translations can tell you about the inner nature of that person. For example, "large flail, wise owl" may indicate someone who uses force wisely (or a bird with a big stick).
Common single-symbol translations:
Small pot (d) = do, die, idea
Standing ibis (f) = if, of, foe
Black cat (g) = go, age, ago
Rising sun (n) = on, in, an, no, one
Wise owl (r) = or, are
Man with pot (t) = at, to, it, too, toe, tie
Man with bucket (th) = the
More importantly, these rudimentary Djelian skills can you help you read signs, such as carriage stop and road directions. At first glance, these can seem indecipherable. Words run together, or are omitted entirely, and forget about line breaks. Fortunately, the more common destinations can be easy to recognise with a little practice. One of the first things you see when reading a note will be Wise owl, man with pot"(r-t). This almost always means "route". The symbols before "route" are the name of the route. "Large flail, small shrub" (l-b) usually translates to "Djelibeybi", hence if the first four symbols are "Large flail, small shrub Wise owl, man with pot", you are reading the table for the Djelibeybi carriage route. If you're reading that table, you know that you're in the right place to wait for that carriage. similarly, initial symbols of "Golden bow, Wise owl" (v-r) mean you're at a stop for the River Route. Because the initial R is capitalised, you won't be able to see the symbol for it.
So now that you know which carriages stop there, how do you know where else they stop? Well, that's what the rest of the symbols are saying. After we strip off the "<X> route" symbols, we should next look at the very end of the table. Each table ends with the line "and back to <your current stop>." This will look like "Eclipsed sun Small shrub, wavy line Man with pot" followed by symbols indicating your current stop. Ignore (or delete) those symbols, as well as the ones indicating the name of the route. What remains are actual stops, looking like "Small shrub, Large flail, Small shrub Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun Large flail, Small shrub, Small shrub, Eclipsed sun Small shrub, Wavy line Man with pot Golden bow". First of all, find symbols not separated by a comma. Those symbols always go on the same line:
Small shrub,
Large flail,
Small shrub Rising sun Wise owl Black cat
Rising sun Rising sun wise owl black cat
Rising sun Rising sun Large flail
Small shrub
Small shrub
Now we try to figure out which commas indicate two adjacent symbols that are part of the same word. First of all, we notice that the two long lines look very similar to each other. If we assume they should be the same (carriages stop twice at the same place during a round trip), we can understand things a bit better. Because "small shrub" isn't repeated in the second long line, we move that to its own line. Because we have too many rising sun's at the beginning of the 2nd long line, we move it to the previous line, and bring up the final rising sun to the end of the previous line.
Small shrub, = b
Large flail, = l
Small shrub, = b
Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Rising sun wise owl black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Large flail, l
Small shrub, b
Small shrub, b
This lacks symmetry, so we need more work. If we move things around a bit, keeping all symbols in the same order, we get:
Small shrub, = b
Large flail, Small shrub = l-b
Rising sun Wise owl Black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Rising sun wise owl black cat, Rising sun Rising sun = n r g-n n
Large flail, Small shrub, = l-b
Small shrub, b
This looks right. We have a trip that starts here, goes to its end, and comes back while stopping at the same stops. The end point, of course, is unreadable. It would be somewhere between the two identical adjacent lines. So how do we decode the letters we have? "b" usually means Ephebe, while "l-b" denotes Djelibeybi. "n r g-n n" indicates the Klatchian foreign legion Tsortean outpost. So we can translate it to:
Ephebe
Djelibeybi
Klatchian Foreign Legion Tsortean Outpost
Klatchian Foreign Legion Tsortean Outpost
Djelibeybi
Ephebe
Stops such as Kom, Il-Drem, Ankh-Morpork, and Tsort are unreadable, however no one wants to go there anyhow!
Road signs can be even trickier, as there is less information and a larger percentage of it is unreadable. But by applying the tricks learned for carriage tables, combined with basic format rules for road signs, we can make some progress. An important difference to note is the extra spaces between some symbols. This happens where " - " is used, and is very useful for knowing how many directions there are. We'll start with a sign reading "Intoxicated eagle Large flail, Intoxicated eagle Standing ibis, Wise owl Eclipsed sun Rising sun Majestic eagle, Man with bucket Large flail, Small shrub, Man with bucket, Intoxicated eagle Large flail, Small shrub Wise owl" and arrange symbols based on extra spaces to get:
Intoxicated eagle - Large flail, = st l
Intoxicated eagle - Standing ibis, Wise owl Eclipsed sun Rising sun Majestic eagle, = st f-r n s
Man with bucket - Large flail, Small shrub, Man with bucket, = th l-b-th
Intoxicated eagle - Large flail, Small shrub Wise owl = st l-b r
Using the common name translations below, we can decode much of the sign. Then we run into a problem with "l-b-th". We already know that "l-b" is the common sign for Djelibeybi, which means the "th" is on the wrong line. We'll move that down, so now we have:
east/west/southwest/northwest/northeast - Al'Khali
east/west/southwest/northwest/northeast - Al'Znufir and Tsortean Desert
south - Djelibeybi
southeast - Djelibeybi Harbour
While the sign still isn't crystal clear, it may be enough to reach your destination, especially if you have some basic written Djelian skills to augment your translation efforts..
Common relevant words in the context of signs:
Intoxicated eagle (st) = East, West, Southeast, Northeast, Northwest
Man with bucket (th) = South
Man with bucket, Intoxicated eagle (th-st) = Southeast
Small shrub (b) = Ephebe
Large flail, Small shrub (l-b) = Djelibeybi
Large flail, Small shrub Wise owl (l-b r) = Djelibeybi Harbour
Wise owl (r) = Ur
Large flail (l) = Al Khali
Standing ibis, Wise owl (f-r) = Al'Znufir
Rising sun, Majestic eagle (n s) = Tsortean Desert
Golden bow, Wise owl (v-r) = River
Wise owl, Man with pot (r-t) = Route
Setting sun (nd) = and
Small shrub, Wavy line (b-ck) = back
Man with pot (t) = to
BLANK = North, Southwest, Istanzia, Ankh-Morpork, Kom, Il-Drum