No Casting Required

No Casting Required is a blog to put the updates of the language I'm making up. Actually, this language has been in my head for as long as I can remember, but impossible to voice. I cannot properly communicate in any language I know. So, I decided to try to make it up so I COULD voice it. The purpose of this language is to give people who have trouble expressing themselves in words a chance to be able to express themselves EXACTLY the way they intend to - without having to be super-careful about their words and tone of voice and being completely misunderstood. Of course, until someone else can understand this language, you'll still be misunderstood, but that's another story. =P First step is to express yourself exactly in an easy language.

The title "No Casting Required" is a Midnighters joke referring to how I sometimes wish someone could read my mind (mindcasting) so that they could translate what I wanted to say into English and speak for me. So with this language, I will be able to express myself perfectly and no mindcasters will be needed. =P

This is the list of lessons. Technically, they aren't lessons. These are what I use to organize the website into terms I can understand. COMING SOON! Smaller lessons for people who don't like to see large, complicated explanations. Oh, and a lesson three.

((Hint: The date next to the lesson is when it was last updated.))
4-20-2009 Lesson One - Tones, Positive Stress, and Negative Stress
4-22-2009 Lesson Two - Verbs and Random Vocabulary

I hope you enjoy this language - we (anyone with suggestions and I) are working very hard on it.

Extra credit to Kayleigh who provides me with many vocabulary words!

Lesson Two

Welcome to Lesson Two. Here I have some random, non-specific vocabulary - don't worry, I'll organize some more specific basic vocabulary in lesson three. =P But first, some random vocabulary and VERB CONJUGATION! Hurray!

Remember, to form a precise idea, you can combine any of these words in whatever order best suits your concept. If you notice any of this vocabulary can be split into separate words, PLEASE TELL ME! It's very important to Ictil . . .

Here is some vocabulary first with some information on each word:

Neh ----- Sounds similar to "meh" except with an N sound instead of M. This word can be used with any tone to express frustration.

Strong ----- sao ----- Obvious pronunciation. This word has basic tone use and can be negated to form "weak."

Fast ----- x'il ----- zeel ----- Basic tone use and can be negated to form "slow."

Rich ----- guhrú ----- koo-hROO ----- G is pronounced like a combination of K and G. Basic tone use and can be negated to form "poor." Eguhrúka is the word for "middle class."

Tall ----- hej ----- hehzh ----- Basic tone use and can be negated to form "short."

Big ----- tja ----- chah ----- "tj" has a sound between a hard "ch" and soft "sh" sound. Basic tone use and can be negated to form "small."

Taste ----- om ----- It came be either a noun or a verb. Basic verb tone use and cannot be negated - except when used as a verb.

Kind ----- fai ----- Basic tone use and can be negated to form "mean."

Annoying ----- tysk ----- Can be used as both a verb and an adjective. Basic tone use.

Empty ----- nan ----- Basic tone use.

Amazing ----- fua ----- Basic tone use.

Fun ----- dym ----- dighm ----- Basic tone use and can be negated to form the word "boring."

Windy ----- ichi'imi ----- ee-CHEE-ee-mee ----- Basic tone use.

Warm ----- zi ----- Basic tone use. Can be negated to form "cold."

Lazy ----- lam ----- Basic tone use.

Smart ----- dit ----- Basic tone use. Can be negated to form "stupid."

Crazy ----- xixi ----- Basic tone use.

Sunny ----- ilosi ----- Basic tone use.

Busy(occupied) ----- sen ----- No particular tone use.

Busy(in a rush) ----- d'hal ----- Basic tone use. Can be negated to form "bored."

Girl ----- kiz ----- Tones determine the age. Regular tones for little girls, older girls, and teenagers. Extra stress for women. More stress for old women.

Boy ----- lyo ----- Tones determine the age. Regular tones for little boys, older boys, and teenagers. Extra stress for men. More stress for old men.

House ----- vaas ----- No particular tone use.

Book ----- numa ----- No particular tone use.

New ----- ura ----- Basic tone use. Can be negated to form "old."

Cat ----- zis ----- No particular tone use.

Dog ----- ufe ----- YOO-fay ----- No particular tone use.

Always ----- yne ----- IGH-nay ----- No particular tone use. Can be negated to form "never."

Person ----- gen ----- No particular tone use.

Clothes ----- cot ----- No particular tone use.

Candy ------ jwi ----- No particular tone use.

You'll notice in this list that some words cannot be negated. This is because what most people would consider the opposite of these words actually deserves its own word! Before I go into verb conjugation, I'd like to point out two words.

Pure ----- re ----- ray ----- No particular tone use. This does not mean pure as in pure gold or to purify water. This word is pure on a God-like level. Regen - is the word for "saint." Reme - pronounced REH-may - is the word for "angel." This is one of the two negation exceptions. The name for God is Mereme - the reason it has a negation attached is to symbolize how God purifies your soul. Thus, the negation becomes a GOOD thing.

Evil ----- ska ----- No particular tone use. This word means PURE EVIL! Absolute pure evil. Like baby-eating and kitties-in-a-bag-for-target-practice evil. O.o Like Satan evil. The word for someone who is possessed by Satan is skagen. Skame - SKAH-may - is the word for "demon." The name for Satan is Meskame - the second negation exception. Instead of meaning not evil, Satan makes it even MORE evil!

Alrighty, now that some vocabulary has been taken care of, let's go into verbs. This is extremely easy. We will be working mainly with the verbs "to be" and "to have" today. =P

Verbs:
To be ----- te ----- tay
To have ----- ol ----- ohl

Pronouns:
You ----- J- or U-
I ----- F- or O-
We ----- Fo- or Of-
He ----- L- or Y-
They(m) ----- Ly- or Yl-
She ----- K- or I-
They(f) ----- Ki- or Ik-
It ----- Ka- or Ak-

For pronouns, you simply add the pronoun to the beginning of the verb depending on if it begins with a vowel sound or consonant sound. If a word starts with an H, the negation or pronoun must be a consonant. All verbs can be negated. The negation goes BEFORE the pronoun.

Tenses:
Past ----- Se (or es)
Present ----- Si (or is)
Future ----- So (or os)

For tenses, you simply add the tense to the ending of the verb depending on if it begins with a vowel sound or consonant sound. If a word ends in an H, the stress or pronoun must be a consonant.

The tenses are not only added to the end of verbs, but also are words by themselves. Past and Future use tones just like most other words.

Present tense is only used when talking about something rather than to someone or about yourself.

You probably noticed that the pronoun "you" doesn't have a plural form - this is because to make it into a plural, you drop the pronoun altogether.

To put emphasis on a command, you can use future tense, as if to tell someone that they WILL do something. To put even more emphasis on a command with more than one verb, you can make the first verb future tense, and the second present tense - as if to tell someone that they WILL do something NOW. =P If the command only has one verb in it, you can place the future tense in the beginning of the word, the present tense at the end of the verb, and exclude the pronoun.

You really only need to conjugate the first verb in the sentence, unless you want to put extra stress on what you're talking about or the tense.

Te - completely conjugated
You were ----- Use ----- YOO-say
You were(pl) ----- Tese ----- TEH-say
I was ----- Ose ----- OH-say
We were ----- Fose ----- FOH-say
He was ----- Yse ----- IGH-say
They were(m) ----- Lyse ----- LIGH-say
She was ----- Ise ----- EE-say
They were(f) ----- Kise ----- KEE-say
It was ----- Kase ----- KAH-say

You are ----- Ute ----- yoo-TAY
I am ----- Ote ----- oh-TAY
We are ----- Fote ----- foh-TAY
He is ----- Ysi ----- igh-SEE
They are(m) ----- Lysi ----- ligh-SEE
She is ----- Isi ----- ee-SEE
They are(f) ----- Kisi ----- kee-SEE
It is ----- Kasi ----- kah-SEE

You will be ----- Uso ----- YOO-soh
You will be(pl) ----- Teso ----- TEH-soh
I will be ----- Oso ----- OH-soh
We will be ----- Foso ----- FOH-soh
He will be ----- Yso ----- IGH-soh
They will be(m) ----- Lyso ----- LIGH-soh
She will be ----- Iso ----- EE-soh
They will be(f) ----- Kiso ----- KEE-soh
It will be ----- Kaso ----- KAH-soh

Te is the verb "to be." But it is also the verb "to exist." This is because they're basically the same. You can place "to exist" pretty much anywhere "to be" is. Like "I am an American" can become "I exist as an American." =P Past and future tense of te only have the pronoun and conjugation.

Now, I know that writing the repetitive pronunciation of each word was sloppy and probably not necessary, but I felt I should repeat it each time to get it through your head. =P Oh won't repeat it in the ol conjugations.

Ol - completely conjugated
You had ----- Joles
I had ----- Foles
We had ----- Ofoles
He had ----- Loles
They had(m) ----- Yloles
She had ----- Koles
They had(f) ----- Ikoles
It had ----- Akoles

You have ----- Jol
I have ----- Fol
We have ----- Ofol
He has ----- Lolis
They have(m) ----- Ylolis
She has ----- Kolis
They have(f) ----- Ikolis
It has ----- Akolis

You will have ----- Jolos
I will have ----- Folos
We will have ----- Ofolos
He will have ----- Lolos
They will have(m) ----- Ylolos
She will have ----- Kolos
They will have(f) ----- Ikolos
It will have ----- Akolos

Now that we have that covered, here are a few verbs for you to practice conjugating:

to play - x'hy
to laugh - z'hal
to walk - c'no
to run - c'nox'il^ (walk + very fast)
to jog - c'nox'il- (walk + fast-ish)
to crawl - c'nomex'il (walk + very slow)
to jump - zim
to speak/say - ict
to tell - (speak + direction)
to look - (see + direction)
to see - dwo
to write (also used as noun) - trug
to make - uk
to grow - ez
to think - il
to read - (understand + writing)
to drive - (vehicle + control)
to type - (computer + write)
to paint - (write + picture + liquid)
to draw - (write + picture)
to count/add - shi
to love - fa
to hate - t'vi
to work - ot
to toss - ko (add extra stress to make "throw")
to kick - bo
to sleep - lu
to mix - uel
to cry - jix
to attack - xot
to lose - per
to ride - oun
to call - ictsi (speak + send)
to send - si
to want - seo

That concludes the verb lesson. See how easy it is? If there's any way I can make the lesson easier to understand, please say something.

I hope you enjoy this language - we are working very hard on it.

Special thanks to Kayleigh for the lovely random vocabulary words! ^^

Lesson One

This is Lesson One of Ictil. If you notice ANYTHING wrong with the language, this post, or have an idea for it, DON'T HESITATE TO TELL ME! Languages are a group effort. =3

This first bit is very important. Ictil is a tonal language. That means changing the tone can change the meaning of the word. Like Chinese. But you don't have to worry about that too much. The purpose of the tones is to slightly change the meaning of a word to a similar meaning, but totally different. In English, you would use tones to express an underlying meaning. But some people can't do that - so in Ictil, the meaning isn't hidden in the tones, but rather the tones are placed in front of you in an obvious way.

Ictil has seven tones, like Cantonese:

1 High ^
2 High Falling ^-
3 Middle Rising -^
4 Middle -
5 Middle Falling -_
6 Low Rising _-
7 Low _

In general, the higher tones mean the word is stressed more and the lower tones mean that the word is stressed less.

The word "t'ha" - pronounced like a hard 't' sound immediately followed by a 'hah' sound. This is the word for "good."

T'ha^ = Pretty good
T'ha^-
T'ha-^
T'ha- = Good
T'ha-_
T'ha_-
T'ha_ = The lowest form of good without being considered "bad."

See how that works? The higher tone stresses the point, the middle tone is normal, and the lower tone takes some stress off. And everywhere in between is just for using if you want to be exact.

Now, we all know that there are versions of t'ha that are beyond just "pretty good." So, to reach those, you can add an "-e" (pronounced AY at the end of a word) or "-m" to the ENDING - depending on if the end of the word has a consonant sound or a vowel sound. T'ha ends in a vowel sound, so we want to add an "-m" to the end of it.

T'ham^ = Awesome
T'ham^-
T'ham-^
T'ham- = Excellent
T'ham-_
T'ham_-
T'ham_ = Very good

And there are versions of t'ha beyond even that! So to reach those, you want to add "-em" or "-me" (pronounced MAY at the end of a word) to the ENDING. T'ha would become "T'hame" - t-HAH-may

Now that we've covered t'ha, it's time to venture into the dark side and take a look at negation.

To negate a word, you can add "e-" (pronounced EH) or "m-" to the BEGINNING of a word - depending on if the beginning of the word has a consonant sound or a vowel sound. T'ha begins with a consonant sound, so it becomes Et'ha - eh-t-HAH.

Et'ha^ = Pretty bad
Et'ha^-
Et'ha-^
Et'ha- = Bad
Et'ha-_
Et'ha_-
Et'ha_ = highest form of bad without being considered "good."

Naturally, there are things worse than "pretty bad" - so now you have two options. You can either add "em-" or "me-" (pronounced MEH) at the BEGINNING of the word to add extra negative stress - or you can simply add the regular stress to the end of the word. Both of these have the same effect - it's up to you to choose which you want to use.

Examples of possible synonyms - these patterns work with ANY word you can negate!

Et'ha = Bad
Et'ham = Met'ha
Et'hame = Met'ham
Met'hame = Worst version you can possibly think of (for 'bad' it does NOT mean pure evil - there is another word for that because simply adding extra stress to the et'ha just isn't enough for pure evil)

The words "yes" and "no" may be a smidge confusing. They are what the positive and negative stresses are based on AND the positive and negative stresses can be added to these! SO PAY ATTENTION!

Eh = No
Meh = No (often used in a whiny sense like "Do I have to?" meaning you'll do what they're asking, but you're not going to like it - or something along those lines)
Ehm = Yes

Eh_ is a flat-out "no" as in that's final and you won't listen to ANY protests. Generally, the various tones of eh and meh don't have specific meanings except for the low tone. You just know what they mean. Ehm also doesn't have specific meanings for the tones, except for the high tone which means "of course!" To say "of course not" you would say Mehm^.

Now, as for using the positive and negative stresses, that can be just a smidge confusing - but again, you don't have to worry about the tones too much! We'll start with the word "ehm" - to which you can add positive stress.

Ehme - EH-may
Ehmem - EH-mehm

Often, Ehmem isn't used because when spoken aloud, it can sound like you're adding extra NEGATIVE stress to the word mehm. BE CAREFUL!

DO NOT USE NEGATIVE STRESS ON THE WORD EHM! We have another word for that, it's called EH! =P

Eh and meh can be a bit more confusing than ehm because you can add both positive stress and negative stress to it. So here are some posibilities with these and how to use (or not use) them:

Emeh - EH-meh ----- This word looks a little like ehme, but try pronouncing them both aloud. You'll see they're very different.
Ehm ----- Do NOT use this word! Though gramatically correct, it also means YES!
Ehme ----- Again, do NOT use this word!
Mehm ----- You can go ahead and use this word, but BEWARE the high tone generally means "of course not" and this isn't standard in other tones, so be prepared to be misunderstood.
Mehme - MEH-may ----- This is just fine to use.

Now, you probably need an example concerning how to use emeh and mehme, right? xD Oki doki. In the high tone, these two have a specific meaning. They mean "no way" - as in the answer to a request or question. Emeh and mehme are the SAME THING - emeh is adding "em-" to "eh" and mehme is adding "-me" to to "meh." =P Just so you don't get confused on how those are set up.

By now, you're probably thinking, "Hey, what about a neutral word that is neither positive nor negative?" And if you aren't, well, you are now. So here it is:

Ka - pronounced kah

This word is the neutral word. It is used for confirming something that someone else said (like the word "yeah") or for saying that something isn't good and isn't bad, but is still acceptable (generally speaking).

You can also place "ka" at the end of a negated word - no matter what the last sound is - to form a word that is BETWEEN what the positive and negative words are. Except for et'ha and t'ha.

I hope you enjoy this language - we are working very hard on it.