Ba-Gil is a language I’m building. Its name is its own first lesson: Ba means future, Gil means speak, so Ba-Gil is future-speak. The rules I’m holding it to: completely systematic with no exceptions, only sounds any human can make, nothing in conversation longer than five syllables, and able to name things that haven’t been invented yet.
It’s very much in progress, and I’m building it in the open. The hatched cells below are the parts that don’t exist yet.
The letters
Sixteen letters, and the alphabet’s order spells out its own pieces: ba-ked-gil-mon-pus-üt. Each letter is also a digit, which comes back in Numbers.
- b #b = 0
- a #a = 1
- k #k = 2
- e #e = 3
- d #d = 4
- g #g = 5
- i #i = 6
- l #l = 7
- m #m = 8
- o #o = 9
- n #n = 10
- p #p = 11
- u #u = 12
- s #s = 13
- ü #ü = 14
- t #t = 15
10 consonants 6 vowels u sounds like “oo”, as in goo ü sounds like “uh”, as in but
Ba-Gil has its own script: geometric, all straight lines and dots, made to be carved in stone. It’s still in development, so Latin letters stand in for now.
Three shapes
Every piece of Ba-Gil has one of three shapes. Consonant, vowel, consonant is a root word. Drop the last consonant and it’s a prefix; drop the first and it’s a suffix. A piece’s shape tells you where it belongs in a word.
Frames
Words come in families. Hold the consonants still and change only the vowel, and you walk along a scale in alphabet order: K_L runs through the colours in wavelength order, K_D runs from a single letter up to a whole book. Learn one row and you can guess the next. The first consonant picks the family, and there are ten families, one per consonant.
4 of 10 families established. Each consonant owns one.
- M Human and person established
- K Sense and perception established
- P Space partly built
- S Relationships partly built
- B Not yet assigned not started
- D Determiners, so far a few words
- G Not yet assigned not started
- L Not yet assigned not started
- N Not yet assigned not started
- T Tools, so far a few words
| Frame | a | e | i | o | u | ü |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M_N Who | Man I, me | Men we, the tribe | Min you | Mon they, a person | not yet assigned | not yet assigned |
| K_L Colour, in wavelength order | Kal red | Kel orange | Kil yellow | Kol green | Kul blue | Kül violet |
| K_G Brightness | Kag dark | Keg dim dark | Kig grey | Kog dim bright | Kug bright | Küg brightness, the idea |
| K_D Units of language, small to large | Kad letter | Ked word | Kid phrase | Kod paragraph | Kud document | Küd book |
| K_S Smell | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned |
| K_T Taste | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned |
| P_K Where | Pak in | Pek above | Pik below | Pok on | Puk near | Pük position, the idea |
| S_N FamilyWorks on anything, not just people: a plant's child is its seed. | San grandparent | Sen parent | Sin aunt, uncle | Son child | Sun sibling | Sün grandchild |
| D_T Determiners | Dat the | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | Dot a, one | Dut many | not yet assigned |
| T_ Tool size (prefix) | Ta tiny tool | Te small tool | not yet assigned | To large tool | Tu huge tool | Tü tool, in general |
| _T With a tool (suffix) | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | not yet assigned | Ut with a huge tool | Üt with a tool |
| M_ Correction: what's wrong (prefix)Minor to worst. The enhancement row below is its mirror image. | Ma slightly wrong | Me moderately wrong | Mi badly wrong | Mo very badly wrong | Mu as wrong as it gets | not yet assigned |
| _M Enhancement: what's better (suffix)Minor to maximum: the correction prefixes flipped around, so better is literally the mirror of wrong. | Am slightly better | Em moderately better | Im much better | Om far better | Um as good as it gets | not yet assigned |
- Mabhair
- Mobhead
- Mebeyes
- Motlegs
- Müttoes
Inversion
This is the heart of it. Prefixes and suffixes are mirror-image shapes, so a piece sitting in the wrong position is easy to spot, and the language reads it as an inversion. Future, person, past is someone spanning all of time: immortal. Swap the ends and you get past, person, future, someone moving through time: mortal.
The same mirror runs through the scales. Ma- to Mu- say how wrong something is; -Am to -Um, the same pieces turned around, say how much better.
Building words
Words stack like German, piece after piece. Body parts describe how things work (a window is a house’s eye), and the family frame works on anything (a seed is a plant’s child). Type one in, or pick an example.
Or try one
- BafutureGilspeak this language · Future-speak.
- BafutureMonthey, a personAbpast immortal · Future, person, past: someone spanning all of time.
- AbpastMonthey, a personBafuture mortal · The same three pieces inverted: someone moving through time.
- Labelonging toManI, me my
- Tütool, in generalMaslightly wrongMebeyes glasses · A tool for slightly wrong eyes.
- Tütool, in generalMuas wrong as it getsMebeyes eyepatch · A tool for eyes as wrong as it gets.
- Tuhuge toolMebeyesUmas good as it gets space telescope · A huge tool that makes eyes as good as they get.
- Tuhuge toolMebeyesMuas wrong as it gets grand optical illusion · Mu belongs at the front. Moved to the back it's an inversion: a huge tool that does the worst thing to your eyes.
- BosbeautifulPotplant flower · Beautiful plant.
- BosbeautifulPotplantMebeyes the centre of a flower · The flower's eye.
- PotplantSonchild seed · The plant's child.
- BosbeautifulPotplantSonchild flower seed
- AbpastPekaboveSangrandparent ancestor · Past, above, grandparent.
- #l7PekaboveSangrandparent seven generations above a grandparent · #l is 7.
- GudgoodMakmake a name earned by achievement · Good-maker.
- HomhouseMebeyes window · The house's eye.
- MuvmoveÜtwith a tool Lanland drive · Move with a tool, on land.
- Lanland MuvmoveUtwith a huge tool bulldoze · Move land with a huge tool.
CVC root CV prefix VC suffix Hom spelling pending: uses a letter outside the 16
Numbers
Ba-Gil counts in base 16, and the digits are the alphabet: b is 0, a is 1, all the way to t at 15. A # marks a number, and # is said chi: the ch sound exists only to mark numbers, so it never turns up in an ordinary word. Each digit is said as chi plus its letter.
| Written | Said | Value |
|---|---|---|
| #b | chib | 0 |
| #a | chia | 1 |
| #l | chil | 7 |
| #t | chit | 15 |
| #ab | chia chib | 16 |
| #tt | chit chit | 255 |
Where it stands
Built
- Sounds and core grammar
- Perversion: inverting a word's pieces to invert its meaning
- Four semantic families
- Tool and correction / enhancement scales
- Base-16 numbers
- Building words from pieces
In progress
- The other six families (b, d, g, l, n, t)
- Meanings for the 120 prefixes and suffixes
- More metaphors built from the body
- Syntax for complex sentences
- The written script: geometric, straight lines and dots, made to be carved in stone
Next
- Finish all ten families
- A larger vocabulary
- Cultural and literary use