I apologize for the drab minimalism of this page. This is an emergency
replacement for my previous website, which I made during my teens and
which had not grown up along with me.
Tengwar
The Tengwar are the beautiful
calligraphic letters that JRR Tolkien invented to flesh out the
fictional world in which his well-known literary works take place. They
are used to represent a variety of languages there, and can easily be
adapted to real-world languages as well. Here I present my take at writing German with the Tengwar.
It is not the only such system proposed on the internet, but it stands out by its design goals of simplicity and aesthetics, which is what most potential users are primarily interested in.
Language
I have pursued the creation of
languages as an art form and a diverting hobby for years, but these
efforts are currently on hiatus. I can recommend the Language Creation Society as a good
introduction to this craft. My own languages include:
- Jovian, the language of
the fictional country of Jervaine in the alternate history
worldbuilding project Ill Bethisad.
Comprising the territories of real-world Alsace, Moselle and Black
Forest, Jervaine is the direct descendant of the ancient Roman province
of Upper Germania; likewise, its language is a direct descendant of
Classical Latin, preserved against vulgarisation in the early centuries
but then subject to a series of -- hopefully -- linguistically
plausible sound changes under the influence of the neighboring
languages, German and French. Its pronunciation is a very complicated
matter and an acquired taste, but that's the part I like best about it.
Jovian is my most developed language at this point. For a written and
spoken sample, check out the Jovian translation of The North Wind and the Sun.
- Obrenje,
the language of the Antelope Clan of a different communal worldbuilding
effort, Pii. Unlike Jovian, it is completely a priori, i.e. unrelated
to any real-world language. Its grammar and pronunciation are rather
well-behaved, though non-trivial. I only have a written version of the The North Wind and the Sun in
Obrenje, but there is a phonetic transcription in X-SAMPA for the
linguistically inclined.
- Oro Mpaa,
the language of a jungle-dwelling pre-technological culture. This was
mainly an exercise in foreignness, forcing myself to depart from the
comfortable indoeuropean look-and-feel of Jovian and Obrenje and to try
my hand at some original grammar ideas. The resulting grammar, which
uses serial verbs in place of prepositions and cases and in which there
is no fundamental distinction between verbs and adjectives, makes
translating very strenuous, but is probably my most original
achievement in langmaking. Pronunciation is again rather non-trivial,
the way I like it.
Graphical Design
The following are examples of my amateurish forays into the realm of graphical design.
- SPW5, the official poster for the Solar Polarization Workshop 5 organized by my employer at the time, ETH Zürich.
- Mozart/Poulenc,
a proposal for the concert poster for a performance by the Academic
Choir of Zürich in which I took part. The design was rejected by a
hair's breadth in favor of another proposal.
- Hexen, another choir concert poster for a witch-themed program. This one was accepted.
- Aegel Jerwanu, a tourism mascot for my fictional nation of Jervaine. Note that the black outline corresponds to the country's geographical shape.
- SPOTS, the logo of an astrophysical project of mine, the Search for Planets Of Twin Stars.
Fonts
The following fonts of mine are
available for free and can be downloaded either here or on countless
free font sites on the net. Note that I have no typographical
education; use them at your own risk.
- Catharsis Macchiato, a playful font designed with the hand-scrawled blackboard menu of cafés in Newzealand in mind. Mac, PC, demo picture.
- Catharsis Espresso, a variant of Macchiato where the
lower-case glyphs are replaced by extrawide versions of the capitals.
The different widths are intended to be used in mix-and-match fashion
for titles and logos. Mac, PC.
- Catharsis Bedouin, a decorative font that evokes Arabic calligraphy. Mac, PC, demo picture.
- Catharsis Cargo, an industrial-looking font for signs, titles and logos. Mac, PC.
- Catharsis Requiem, a dignified capital font for inscriptions, with some unusual alternative letter shapes available. Mac, PC.
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