No one just dabbles in comparative philology.

[Leo.3428]

As researcher Elspeth Andryan from the Durmand Priory puts it, "No one just _dabbles_ in comparative philology." Yet this is what the game does, for reasons I totally understand, but I am wondering if any tenacious linguists tried to role play some more language into the game, and where I could find their inventions. Thanks!

[Leo.3428]

_EDIT: Sorry I should have inserted this link:_ https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Language#Old_Canthan_writing_system

 

A week has passed, so instead of editing my initial post I'm making a new one.

 

I've been looking at and into the Old Canthan script. With only 56 words (and ten numbers) there isn't much to tell, apart from many questions, some of which I'll share in the hope there are answers to them.

 

The known subset of the script looks entirely pictographic and ideographic as prehistoric Chinese writing was but the strokes are already stylized the way Hanzi would be millenia later. By ideographic I mean that most characters are a combination of pictograms that make up a concept, not a combination of a semantic key and a phonetic rebus as most Hanzi are.

 

Some characters such as _face_ and _hand_ are very straightforward, some are more abstract: the characters for the four elements for instance. Combinations seem to be very free-form, sometimes to the point of fusing characters together, as is the case in the character for _elements_.

 

The diagonal stroke for _light/sun_, which may represent a beam of sunlight, seems to be used in many combinations: a god is _a light above the world_, monk is _man with light_, man and woman have _light_ inside their head (unless this is just a facial feature), life is _light_ on top of an unknown pictogram (that is also used by the character for blood but with _water_ on top of it). Because of this I suppose that light also means soul. Are there any clues in the Old Canthan culture that hint at this?

 

_Light/sun_ is also used more literally, for instance in day which is light in a half frame; the half frame could be a combination of air and earth. Night is _sun underneath a flat earth_ or _light beneath a veil_ or something. Any mythology hint about that? I'm not sure what to make of the characters for sunrise and sunset. Do they use pictograms for East and West? Dark is _light in a box_... maybe.

 

I'm done for today. Next post I'll ramble on water, boats, family, professions.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Let me answer in the only way i can.

 

 

What?

[mercury ranique.2170]

> @"DanAlcedo.3281" said:

> Let me answer in the only way i can.

>

>

> What?

 

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Language#Old_Canthan I Guess

[Leo.3428]

Sorry for making it cryptic, @"DanAlcedo.3281" and thank you @"mercury ranique.2170" for providing the link I stupidly left out.

 

The character for _water_ looks like a falling drop, with the pointy end of the stoke up and the bold end down, different from the reversed stroke found in numbers and the _up_ and _down_ characters. It can be found in a few composite characters: _junk_ is drawn as a simple two-mast ship on water (unless the stroke is a keel, some junks have one); _boat_ is a more complex ship with a deck added. _Blood_ is water on top of the mysterious pictogram that _life_ uses too.

 

_Death_ is the vertically flipped version of that mysterious pictogram, which might just mean _life_ in spite of _life_ being given as that pictogram with _light_ on top of it. The character for _necromancer_ has _death_ completely merged with _man_ contrarily to most other professions where the elements are next to each other, separated or touching.

 

_Assassin_ and _warrior_ use pictograms for what looks like two daggers and a sword respectively but these are not listed as standalone characters. _Lord_ is an unknown pictogram next to the same sword. Any idea what the first one is? Also, what is the second pictogram in the character for _ritualist_? Does anybody know why _mesmer_ has the pictogram for _earth_? Or is it a different pictogram? _Man with rage_ is not a berserker but means _vengeance_, maybe as in _rage against someone_?

 

Up also means yin, and down also means yang, which is the reverse of what Taoism teaches. Does anyone know enough about Cantha to explain this?