Magic, Language
Pursuant to Keet's unicode symbol of the day, one thing I keep thinking Sofi needs is the incorporation of glyphs/ideograms for common ideas. Not just alchemical symbols but things like these:
& (et, and)
ā (ante, before)
c̄ (cum, with)
p̄ (post, after)
q̄ (quisque, every)
s̄ (sine, without)
@ (<unk.>, at)
Not every preposition, necessarily, but many common words would end up with formal inclusion in the language as documented shorthand.
Magic, Language
A large triangular yellow sign looms: "Warning: now entering an ontology zone" ;)
Magic, Language
@literorrery Prepositions are a weird scary beast, especially when you realize that not all languages have the same ones. It's ALMOST a closed set, but... not.
They're like colors, only... not.
Magic, Language
@indi Actually, they're pretty much colors. "Everyone has the same ones" until you realize that some languages don't have them and some have ones you aren't expecting.
Hence why I said explicitly "not every preposition" and I explicitly included "and." "And" is not a preposition; it's a conjunction! =n.n= **lights smoke-bomb, drops at feet, waits for smoke to dissipate, walks visibly to seat**
Magic, Language
@literorrery They're colors only WORSE though. Because, okay, when you collapse 'green' and 'yellow', describing things is confusing.
But for instance, I'm pretty sure Irish Gaelic doesn't distinguish 'for' and 'to'; both are 'de'. And I can't event begin to imagine the subtle differences that causes in other ways.
Magic, Language
@indi And some languages distinguish "motion towards" from "location" in their preposition space, and others don't (English uses "wards" or "to", others just use complete different words for the two classes, still others don't distinguish). It's a mess.
Magic, Language
@literorrery Apologies, correction, 'do'; 'de' is 'of'