And you know what that means.
In this case, I developed an old idea of mine. The cross-story language I developed which I loosely dub "Celestial". Specifically, I realized just how inadequate 101 unique characters was. For a start, there are two letters (one involving t, the other involving c; the two extra characters are closely tied to two existing characters that are closely tied to one another) I was missing (and because there's both uppercase and lowercase, that's four new characters I need to make), but I also made a big freakin' huge wish list of punctuation.
Keep in mind that the punctuation in Celestial is not quite exactly the same as English punctuation, although it's similar--what I had was essentially "partial conclusion to a thought", "full conclusion to a thought", and "full conclusion to the train of thought" (which can loosely be thought of as comma, period/full stop, and paragraph/line break, respectively).
But I realized I wanted SO much more.
I want a punctuation mark which indicates speech--as in, when quoting someone, a mark that it is a quote: Quotations Marks, ". This has obvious use.
I want a separate punctuation mark which indicates metaphorical speech/euphemisms/implications of the opposite of the stated: Air quotes (which in English would also be the quotation mark, but I want a different punctuation mark to differentiate the two), so that if someone's idea of "helping" makes things worse, or someone's idea of "saving" involves killing the person/thing to be saved, it can be made clear that they are not literally doing those things.
I need a punctuation mark for possession (since while I can write around lacking it via "the object which is mine", it's much easier to just say "that's mine"), which in English would be the apostrophe, '. This also has obvious use.
I want a separate punctuation mark for contractions (since while I can write around lacking them, it's rather convenient to use if you haven't noticed the amount I've already employed), which in English shares the same punctuation mark of the apostrophe, '.
On those same lines, I want a FIFTH punctuation mark, for isolated/emphasized concepts. In English, we use both quotation marks and apostrophes for this, and if there's a difference then I don't really know it, but what I'm talking about here is basically,
This 'thing' you are referencing,
This "thing" you are referencing,
This 'object of importance' would be,
This "object of importance" would be,
I want to tell you about a thing called 'patience',
I want to tell you about a thing called "patience", you get the idea. It is where you are placing particular emphasis on a concept which is of particular importance/relevance to the topic at hand, often one which requires some sort of additional explanation (and that can be given be it through description or by context). We do it all the time in English without really thinking about it, and Celestial being based primarily around English would need a way to do it, too, but I want it to have separate punctuation from the above to make sure it's clear.
As a just-in-case feature, for the sake of those ridiculous incidents where in English you need an apostrophe in the middle of a word be it sometimes to shorten something and yet other times to lengthen something but it's NOT a contraction (think like the stereotypical overuse of this in Alien Names, e.g. Teal'c, Bra'tak--I believe it's spelled that way--, T'pol). That kinda "sometimes pausing, elongating, or shortening parts of a word for no good reason". Well in case I ever decide to do that kind of insanity, I should probably have a punctuation saved for that, too.
I also need a punctuation mark for tied concepts. That being, when two concepts are inherently intricately linked together. In English, this can be thought of loosely speaking as being filled by the hyphen, -. It's something we'd do all the time, for instance, linking two colors together. Blue-green item, wherein it's neither blue nor green but somewhere in-between. (There are of course colors you can call that, but that's not the point. I was giving an example of the tied-together concepts, of two items which are normally separate but via the punctuation mark are merged to become a single new concept.)
On that note, it'd be convenient to have shorthand for added concepts, which in English we use and/plus, &/+. This is similar to tied-together concepts, except it is when they aren't linked together yet are still paired together. "This-plus-this", rather than "this-combined-with-this" (more or less).
Subtracted concepts would also be of use. ("It's this, except minus this".)
I also want a punctuation mark for an elongated ending, AKA, trailing off--in English, this can be accomplished in multiple ways. The double-hyphen (--) can have this effect, a properly used colon (:) can invoke the effect, and ellipses (...) are also a strong way to achieve the effect.
Naturally, this means I would additionally want a punctuation mark for an elongated beginning, too, which we have no method of differentiating between in English from the above, aside from using a line break and putting one and then the other or doubling up and hoping it comes across as the intent rather than just a double ending/double beginning.
...And also rather convenient to have? The cut off ending, AKA the abrupt ending. In English, we can use ellipses for this, but that risks it coming across as the OPPOSITE, a trailed off ending. Hyphens can work better, but because in English hyphens look so similar to double-hyphens (except when special care is taken for them to not be since most software even many wikis will auto-render hyphens/double hyphens to look different), they can still look like they are trailing off because we use double-hyphens to trail off from time to time. (At least, I do.)
It should come as no surprise then that I'd also like to have an abrupt beginning--when someone is cutting in. This is something which is usually actually a bit difficult to instantly immediately convey in English. From context, we're able to pick it up relatively quickly, but it's still something I want to be unambiguous in Celestial. Because in English, the ways we mark it are
-We don't
-We use the ellipses which can imply the elongated beginning which is the inverse of the intention
-Or we can use a hyphen, but this is a rarity even though it's the best of the methods to do so.
...What else is on the wish list?
Well right now, I have one punctuation akin to a comma, but I need three. (Well, a comma has a lot more uses than that, but I think three is the minimum I can get by with.) I have the "slight pause/stop/change in thought" use of a comma, but missing still are what I call the "interlude comma"--you know how I do these double hyphens to contain a mini thought, well they could be either parenthesis OR a comma, and as a comma I'd call it an interlude because it's meant as a brief pause in thought before returning to the original--, and the "List comma".
I am...not a technical person. I had strong grammar for a fourteen-year-old, but my grammar is anything but strong for a 24-year-old. It might be sexy when people speak punctuation to me but it's not a language I am as fluent in as I'd prefer, as one may have noticed by now. Still, you should get the idea.
For a comma, you have the "pause without returning to the start", the "pause and then return to the start" (which can be handled alternatively with two other forms of punctuation, the parenthesis or the double-hyphens), and the "list of things which need separation but are part of the same". That's not all a comma does, and that's not the best description of what a comma does, buthey. I'm inventing my own conlang of sorts, so I can use whatever rules I want.
Also on the list of things I need separated--I have a punctuation mark made for a full stop at a thought's conclusion, but there's another common use of the period: issuing a command. I feel like a language based so much around the spoken word should have a difference between the two, because when you're issuing a command regardless of the command it carries a different inflection from a statement. (Think, "You may sit." versus "Sit." 'You may sit' is more of a statement though it could be a command; 'Sit' is more of a command though it could be a statement; English has ambiguity even in something as simple as that.)
Oh and if you couldn't tell, I need at least the basics when it comes to questions and exclamations. In that right now I have no punctuation mark equivalent to the question mark, and no punctuation mark equivalent to the exclamation mark, yet alone variants I'd need/want. (For instance, naturally, I'd have something loosely equivalent to the interrobang. Because seriously it's a crime that's not a bigger part of the English language.)
There was a Reader's Digest article on alternative punctuation marks which I want to have another look at listing a bunch of others, too. For instance, I'm pretty sure that there'd be a punctuation mark carrying a similar implication to the tilde, ~, because that has at least one very common usage in that using it implies an inflection in tone which is more suggestive in nature (not necessarily sexually albeit that is common).
So.
Four new characters from two new letters.
And a minimum of 20 new characters from needed punctuation marks.
Well, 125 unique characters isn't too daunting, if you don't slack off.
(...Oh.)
I mean the typical keyboard averages only 94 (by my count) symbols which include some that aren't punctuation, numbers, or letters. (I have no clue what we actually use ` for, and then @, #, $, %, ^, *, _, +, =, probably { [ } ] < >, |, \, and / are all things I'd call "not punctuation, numbers, or letters". ~!&()-:;"',.?, as per my above standard, would be classified as punctuation, in a sense. To those 13, add 10 numbers, and then add 26*2 = 52 letters, and it comes to be 75 punctuation/numbers/letters on a keyboard with the 19 non-punctuation/numbers/letters I listed above.)
So how hard could 125 be, really?
Especially when you're making them from scrap and are aiming for similar things to be notably similar in appearance (for instance, m and M are similar because they're the same letter just lower/uppercase; m and n are similar and have a similar sound loosely speaking) and yet still distinctive enough that they look like different characters rather than the same one just drawn inconsistently?
(...And now you know why in spite of me having had this idea in my head for literally years now I've yet to make it a functional reality.)
In this case, I developed an old idea of mine. The cross-story language I developed which I loosely dub "Celestial". Specifically, I realized just how inadequate 101 unique characters was. For a start, there are two letters (one involving t, the other involving c; the two extra characters are closely tied to two existing characters that are closely tied to one another) I was missing (and because there's both uppercase and lowercase, that's four new characters I need to make), but I also made a big freakin' huge wish list of punctuation.
Keep in mind that the punctuation in Celestial is not quite exactly the same as English punctuation, although it's similar--what I had was essentially "partial conclusion to a thought", "full conclusion to a thought", and "full conclusion to the train of thought" (which can loosely be thought of as comma, period/full stop, and paragraph/line break, respectively).
But I realized I wanted SO much more.
I want a punctuation mark which indicates speech--as in, when quoting someone, a mark that it is a quote: Quotations Marks, ". This has obvious use.
I want a separate punctuation mark which indicates metaphorical speech/euphemisms/implications of the opposite of the stated: Air quotes (which in English would also be the quotation mark, but I want a different punctuation mark to differentiate the two), so that if someone's idea of "helping" makes things worse, or someone's idea of "saving" involves killing the person/thing to be saved, it can be made clear that they are not literally doing those things.
I need a punctuation mark for possession (since while I can write around lacking it via "the object which is mine", it's much easier to just say "that's mine"), which in English would be the apostrophe, '. This also has obvious use.
I want a separate punctuation mark for contractions (since while I can write around lacking them, it's rather convenient to use if you haven't noticed the amount I've already employed), which in English shares the same punctuation mark of the apostrophe, '.
On those same lines, I want a FIFTH punctuation mark, for isolated/emphasized concepts. In English, we use both quotation marks and apostrophes for this, and if there's a difference then I don't really know it, but what I'm talking about here is basically,
This 'thing' you are referencing,
This "thing" you are referencing,
This 'object of importance' would be,
This "object of importance" would be,
I want to tell you about a thing called 'patience',
I want to tell you about a thing called "patience", you get the idea. It is where you are placing particular emphasis on a concept which is of particular importance/relevance to the topic at hand, often one which requires some sort of additional explanation (and that can be given be it through description or by context). We do it all the time in English without really thinking about it, and Celestial being based primarily around English would need a way to do it, too, but I want it to have separate punctuation from the above to make sure it's clear.
As a just-in-case feature, for the sake of those ridiculous incidents where in English you need an apostrophe in the middle of a word be it sometimes to shorten something and yet other times to lengthen something but it's NOT a contraction (think like the stereotypical overuse of this in Alien Names, e.g. Teal'c, Bra'tak--I believe it's spelled that way--, T'pol). That kinda "sometimes pausing, elongating, or shortening parts of a word for no good reason". Well in case I ever decide to do that kind of insanity, I should probably have a punctuation saved for that, too.
I also need a punctuation mark for tied concepts. That being, when two concepts are inherently intricately linked together. In English, this can be thought of loosely speaking as being filled by the hyphen, -. It's something we'd do all the time, for instance, linking two colors together. Blue-green item, wherein it's neither blue nor green but somewhere in-between. (There are of course colors you can call that, but that's not the point. I was giving an example of the tied-together concepts, of two items which are normally separate but via the punctuation mark are merged to become a single new concept.)
On that note, it'd be convenient to have shorthand for added concepts, which in English we use and/plus, &/+. This is similar to tied-together concepts, except it is when they aren't linked together yet are still paired together. "This-plus-this", rather than "this-combined-with-this" (more or less).
Subtracted concepts would also be of use. ("It's this, except minus this".)
I also want a punctuation mark for an elongated ending, AKA, trailing off--in English, this can be accomplished in multiple ways. The double-hyphen (--) can have this effect, a properly used colon (:) can invoke the effect, and ellipses (...) are also a strong way to achieve the effect.
Naturally, this means I would additionally want a punctuation mark for an elongated beginning, too, which we have no method of differentiating between in English from the above, aside from using a line break and putting one and then the other or doubling up and hoping it comes across as the intent rather than just a double ending/double beginning.
...And also rather convenient to have? The cut off ending, AKA the abrupt ending. In English, we can use ellipses for this, but that risks it coming across as the OPPOSITE, a trailed off ending. Hyphens can work better, but because in English hyphens look so similar to double-hyphens (except when special care is taken for them to not be since most software even many wikis will auto-render hyphens/double hyphens to look different), they can still look like they are trailing off because we use double-hyphens to trail off from time to time. (At least, I do.)
It should come as no surprise then that I'd also like to have an abrupt beginning--when someone is cutting in. This is something which is usually actually a bit difficult to instantly immediately convey in English. From context, we're able to pick it up relatively quickly, but it's still something I want to be unambiguous in Celestial. Because in English, the ways we mark it are
-We don't
-We use the ellipses which can imply the elongated beginning which is the inverse of the intention
-Or we can use a hyphen, but this is a rarity even though it's the best of the methods to do so.
...What else is on the wish list?
Well right now, I have one punctuation akin to a comma, but I need three. (Well, a comma has a lot more uses than that, but I think three is the minimum I can get by with.) I have the "slight pause/stop/change in thought" use of a comma, but missing still are what I call the "interlude comma"--you know how I do these double hyphens to contain a mini thought, well they could be either parenthesis OR a comma, and as a comma I'd call it an interlude because it's meant as a brief pause in thought before returning to the original--, and the "List comma".
I am...not a technical person. I had strong grammar for a fourteen-year-old, but my grammar is anything but strong for a 24-year-old. It might be sexy when people speak punctuation to me but it's not a language I am as fluent in as I'd prefer, as one may have noticed by now. Still, you should get the idea.
For a comma, you have the "pause without returning to the start", the "pause and then return to the start" (which can be handled alternatively with two other forms of punctuation, the parenthesis or the double-hyphens), and the "list of things which need separation but are part of the same". That's not all a comma does, and that's not the best description of what a comma does, buthey. I'm inventing my own conlang of sorts, so I can use whatever rules I want.
Also on the list of things I need separated--I have a punctuation mark made for a full stop at a thought's conclusion, but there's another common use of the period: issuing a command. I feel like a language based so much around the spoken word should have a difference between the two, because when you're issuing a command regardless of the command it carries a different inflection from a statement. (Think, "You may sit." versus "Sit." 'You may sit' is more of a statement though it could be a command; 'Sit' is more of a command though it could be a statement; English has ambiguity even in something as simple as that.)
Oh and if you couldn't tell, I need at least the basics when it comes to questions and exclamations. In that right now I have no punctuation mark equivalent to the question mark, and no punctuation mark equivalent to the exclamation mark, yet alone variants I'd need/want. (For instance, naturally, I'd have something loosely equivalent to the interrobang. Because seriously it's a crime that's not a bigger part of the English language.)
There was a Reader's Digest article on alternative punctuation marks which I want to have another look at listing a bunch of others, too. For instance, I'm pretty sure that there'd be a punctuation mark carrying a similar implication to the tilde, ~, because that has at least one very common usage in that using it implies an inflection in tone which is more suggestive in nature (not necessarily sexually albeit that is common).
So.
Four new characters from two new letters.
And a minimum of 20 new characters from needed punctuation marks.
Well, 125 unique characters isn't too daunting, if you don't slack off.
(...Oh.)
I mean the typical keyboard averages only 94 (by my count) symbols which include some that aren't punctuation, numbers, or letters. (I have no clue what we actually use ` for, and then @, #, $, %, ^, *, _, +, =, probably { [ } ] < >, |, \, and / are all things I'd call "not punctuation, numbers, or letters". ~!&()-:;"',.?, as per my above standard, would be classified as punctuation, in a sense. To those 13, add 10 numbers, and then add 26*2 = 52 letters, and it comes to be 75 punctuation/numbers/letters on a keyboard with the 19 non-punctuation/numbers/letters I listed above.)
So how hard could 125 be, really?
Especially when you're making them from scrap and are aiming for similar things to be notably similar in appearance (for instance, m and M are similar because they're the same letter just lower/uppercase; m and n are similar and have a similar sound loosely speaking) and yet still distinctive enough that they look like different characters rather than the same one just drawn inconsistently?
(...And now you know why in spite of me having had this idea in my head for literally years now I've yet to make it a functional reality.)
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