Project Description

Brief

The project revolves around creating a narrative regarding the city of Zora to make the city believable, in which the language was the core of the narration. What is the city of Zora? Zora is a city created by Zor, the color god, that explores the paradox of time due to the Zorak’s failure of obeying Zor. It’s described as a city that none can forget when they are there, yet at the present, it’s a city that none can remember. This paradox of detail is due to the passing of time that has occurred where the city has been destroyed by Zor and is lost in the memories of people rather than a physicality of memory. In this sense, the city of the present is empty and only exists in the psychological sphere of humanity. While it is empty today, Zora did have an existing language called Zoran, revolving around colors and shapes that characterized the city. Zoran, being of colors and shapes, represents Zor themself. Rather than being a hieroglyphic or alphabetic language, Zoran is based upon color and shapes resembling Zor, the color god. This sort of usage of color as language, becomes a remnant of Zor that’s ingrained within the language. This is important because the sole reason that Zoraks were created were for the purpose of creating a word in the language of colors and language for Zor. In this case, Zoran becomes something constructed by the god Zor to construct the word Zor. Being a colorful spirit without form, creating a form of a word for Zor would be the intended purpose of Zoran. Of course, the city being created by Zor already represents Zor in color, thus it is nicknamed the City of Colors where the language construction and representation there is meant to shows the colors of Zor.

Research

The project has theoretical research revolving around linguistic theory and understanding of language, but deflects from norms of hieroglyph, characters, and alphabet for a language. That is to say that the research that was completed was more regarding the reception of the language, language structure, and universal languages rather than research regarding a certain type of language to inform my language.

Noam Chomsky’s Theory of Universal Grammar

One research that informed my language would be Noam Chomsky’s Theory of Universal Grammar which essentially is the theory that humans biologically can understand language in the same manner as children in all cultures are capable of learning language. It discusses how there is essentially the same language components in all languages with nouns, adjectives, verbs, and etc. Hence, the inspiration I attained from this research would be the language structures of all languages being that they have nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs and attributed this language structure to Zoran.

From this, I embarked on my next step which is to consider universal languages that are utilized by the entire world. This led me to research more about the language of mathematics. For mathematics, I reviewed mathematics linguistics as a typed language to understand how it uses formal logic to communicate knowledge cross-culturally, focusing on symbols and notations within this language as a means of communication. Symbols such as (, {, <, [, }, ], +, -, and etc. are part of this typed language which is understood around the world. 

Furthermore, I looked into more basic and elementary components of language being language as sound. This would essentially be the language of music which has a set of notations for music, but also has cultural significance through the sound waves and tones emitted. For example, music as a tone is the simplest communication that occurs. While the interpretation of this language may differ, the sound created can communicate certain ideas to the audience which are universally accepted. Even simple aspects of music such as major keys and minor keys are universally understood components of music which communicate more happy or sad tones. But what is the purpose of creating a language that revolves around sound when all language revolves around it?

This led me to my third and final research component being color theory and the communication of colors cross-culturally. Color in the most practical manners is light reflected or absorbed. To communicate with color is to utilize light spectrums. While I didn’t consider utilizing the technical aspect of light in relation to color for my language, I focused on the communication of colors in cultures being that red is seen as a lucky color in China and white meaning death while in European culture, red means passion and white purity. While there is a difference of meaning, I received the inspiration of color as a language in which I built Zoran upon.

Context and Experience of Language

Zora and Zoraks, being constructed by the Light of Zor, are harmonious bodies with one another in which the experience of language usage and comprehension is interconnected. Firstly, the design of the Zoraks is that they themselves have tools for creating the shapes for communication while they can also understand the color being communicated by the eyedropper tool that is designed upon them. In this sense, the ideal way to experience this language has already been shaped through the design of the characters that utilize it as design is based upon the users. When the users are communicating they can create shapes in relation to their sentence structure and reference of relation which can easily be understood by other Zoraks due to the design of the Zorak. Thus, the best way to experience the language is to be a Zorak. If you aren’t a Zorak, the language would be difficult to understand, however, with the help of Photoshop and Pantone color references, it may be easier to experience this language. This language for a human would need to be communicated through digital means to properly create the color for communication.

Reflection

Reflecting on the overall design of the language as well as the feedback received during the presentation, I believe that I did well on the conceptual presentation of the language and how it operates with relation to conversation between Zoraks. For example, the components of the language structure (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) are all represented through the shapes. In addition, I categorized the types of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to aid in the communication and usage of this language so that it isn’t random. This is something that I did well on. Furthermore, I think that the concept of the language matches the explanation of the people in Zora very well as they are said to be the most learned. Having such a language based on the connection between slight deviation of tones of colors and memorizing this connection would portray this concept reflecting the city. As for the weaker aspects, I agree with the feedback that my language should be more organic in terms of shapes to define nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs as they are currently all geometrical. This would enforce the non-human aspect of my city more as it is inhabited by Zoraks, not humans. Other than that, I am very much satisfied with the language created.

Project Slides

For the create a language project, slides were created to present this idea.

Language Usage (Part II)