P5X-208: Day One, part two

Ok, so it's been... three hours since I sat down here by the fire with my pen light and notebooks and camera. For posterity, maybe because this is my first mission ever, I'll just list everything I know so far.

- there are way too few consonants for as many vowels as this language has.
- like Japanese, it favours CV constructs. Unlike Japanese, this favouritism is exclusive. Like Japanese, it considers L and R allophones?
- there are way too many missing minimal pairs to be any kind of language based off Latin, which is my first choice right now because of the writing samples and pieces of culture we've found.
- common errors and erronial drift due to graphemic representation don't actually coincide with natural language procession; this language doesn't seem to have evolved into writing. The culture was pressed into having a written language?

Annnd, that's about everything I know. I can read most of what I brought back from the library now. Or sound it out, anyway. I'm pretty sure now that the three key words do refer to the places themselves rather than just abstractly standing for them. "Pipiliokeka." Library. There's something so... familiar sounding about that word, but at this point I can't be sure that it's not just that I've said it under my breath so many times now, called it out at the top of my lungs over rushing, murderous water, or created that initial, sort of intimate relationship with it when I first sounded it out and transported myself to a whole other place.

Words have power, which is sorta why I took this job. I just never thought the notion would be so ... literal.

Ok. So. If this language didn't evolve graphemic representation on its own, then... it's possible that the original word didn't actually sound anything like pipliokeka. And it's possible that the CV construction isn't native either. So... if voiced plosives did exist, but didn't get written, much as aspiration doesn't in English, then...

bi bi lio... gega? kega? bibilio--

Ahhh ha. Biblio (/i) = book; bibliotek = library. What kind of language considers k and t to be...? OH.

So... borrowed words. Oh oh oh. Obviously if the native language didn't have a written counterpart, then it wouldn't have had a word for library. It's gotta be a borrowed word, transliterated according to rules. (Refer to mission book 1-A, page 13.) I'll spend some time looking through the scrolls we brought back to try to pick out likely suspects. Bibliotek is Latin, so... I'll look for mysteriously Latin sounding words.

Oh. Atriolum. For akaliolum. Has to be. Which means it's definite, the CV thing. No compound consonant clusters. Still don't know what ke e na means. Even with all of the options for K... Must be a native word.

And I still haven't answered the question about k and t.

The language isn't without historical representation, though. I found what appear to be instructions for hand signs, like a sign language. It looks pretty structured, although it involves more than just hand movement and placement. I moved through a couple of the smaller motions earlier when Austin'd moved out of sight a little, and ... it's sort of like dancing. Formalized, linguistic dancing. Amazing. Course, I have no idea what it means until I can translate the little definitions under each movement. And as fascinating as it is, unless I can find a way to connect it to the symbols around this place, some culture-based influence that can help me figure out who was here or where the other words on the RSP go, it's not that helpful.

I'm going to look through the reference stuff I brought with me, just to try to jog the whole intuitive leap process. I know now that it's not Greek and only sometimes Latin, so really, I'm just going to give myself a 15 minute break to look through books before I start in on the serious code-breaking.

P5X-208: Day One

Well, the best thing I can say about today is that I did not sprain my ankle.

I thought maybe, which is why even though I really, really wanted to, I didn't take off my boots to change my socks after going to... hale au au. Whatever that means. Big room full of water. For all I knew, keeping my boots on and tied tight was the only thing keeping my ankle from swelling up, and I really, really didn't want to be incapacitated if we had to climb or run or jump or frolic, or whathaveyou.

But we didn't. Thank goodness. And we got out, thank goodness again. And boy, was Silverhawk mad. But she's a medic, so even if she was pissed, I'm pretty sure she'd still patch me up if I somehow broke myself, which is why I waited til camp to pull off my boot and inspect the damage.

And I did not sprain my ankle. Whoopie. Just a twinge, fine by tomorrow, sort of thing.

I did, however, manage to transport me and two of my team to parts unknown, bereft of radio contact. And I did manage to nearly drown myself. I really deserved worse than she gave me, but I'm not gonna complain.

For future reference, cuz I'll probably have to put it in a report: When trying to decipher the symbols around the stone on the ring system podium (find better name, maybe... RSP?), I accidentally brushed the stone while sounding out the word in the upper left hand corner, "ha le au au." I was transported to a dark room full of water about two inches over my head. I was swept off my feet by a current, but found the ceiling of the place to be a mere foot above the surface of the water, and so, had a hand hold to keep myself from being pushed around. The water was cold, frothy, and tasted of seawater, so I surmise that the room is near the shore, possibly on the other side of the gate from the city. I doubt the EO (note: don't write "EO" in official report) of this place would intentionally put a waterlogged room on the RSP, so my inclination is that the room is on this continent, near the volcano. Cracks in the integrity of the room were caused by an eruption, which allowed seawater to flow in. Probably, the air I ringed in with me is what saved my life. (Uh... don't put that part in report.) I managed to get my hand back onto the gemstone in the RSP while keeping my face above water to say the keyword to get back to the library, "pi pi lio ke ka," and was transported back to the library.

So anyway. Silverhawk: I thiiiink we might be making headway. After today, I figured I'd have a hard time of it, and I was right. But at the same time, while everything was actually happening, I wasn't that worried. Except for those ten seconds in the drink, of course. I think I still have water in my ears. When we got back to her though, I saw just how worried we made her. I made her. Not that she looked all mother-henny, not even a little. Man, she was pissed. I find myself never wanting to make her that mad again, but not for the obvious, 6' tall reasons. She owns her responsibility for our safety. For my safety. And I royally screwed that for her today. And she didn't even yell at me.

But we had a little talk, and I'm happy to say that she's a completely reasonable human being. She says she's going to have to adjust for having a civilian on the team, and even though I didn't say it, I'm pledging to make adjustments as well.

We'll see how well that works out.

And Austin?: He's ... funny. Funny haha. And serious. And he's unpredictable about when he's going to be which, too. I make a joke, and he takes it literally, and then I'm babbling about linguistics stuff I should be keeping in my own head for the sake of the people who have to listen, and he comes back with light hearted jokes. I don't know if he's just trying to make me feel comfortable and safe or... what. I can tell he's underwhelmed by my field expertise. That bumble today with the hand signals thing? Man alive. I got the more interpretive part and bunged up the whole "one" thing? What the Heck. Next time, I'm just gonna nod and smile and do whatever he does. Hopefully, he wasn't too too annoyed by my whole... presence, thing. He's nice enough and says he doesn't have an issue with civilians, but I don't know if he's ever had one make him disappear right out from under his CO's nose before.

Jacobs: We didn't get to talk much, unfortunately. There was a nice lunch, some wild animals, then we fell through a floor. My fault. Then we got ringed away. My fault again. And then he was off doing his job and I was at the podium doing... well fixing my screw up. And then everything was awkward on the way back because ... well. Cuz of me, again. If I don't shape up, I'm gonna get a guilt complex.

Annnnd James: We haven't talked at all. She cleared the debris, I dug out the fire pit. Then we adjorned on our own to settle in. Maybe tomorrow. When I'm doing just what I did today, but on orders, and therefore not screwing up.

And now, to work on translations until I pass out.