The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





greetings, people. greetings and salutations.
#1
Wink 
how is everyone.

i stumbled across this from, i think, a twitter link about six or so weeks ago and then didn't visit again till yesterday. i joined the forum and want to do the perfunctory 'hale and well-met' to everyone around.

about me: i'm a human mammal, approximately 30-60 years of age. weight indeterminate. i'm an ESL teacher by profession. i also write english language textbooks, edit college papers and compose speeches and letters of congratulations for friends and family when any of them pay enough. i've taught in many cities here in the US, and i lived and worked in asia and africa for about five years. i have a bachelor's in history and linguistics from the university of texas at austin, and an english teaching certification. my area of focus in linguistics was indo-european historical linguistics, and my area of preference now is morphosyntax. i consider myself a grammarian and etymologist, but also something of an expert in PIE.

about how i'd like to contribute: i enjoy world-building but i'm mostly an exceptional short story writer. i tend toward writing 'over the shoulder' 3rd person narrative; this means that there's not a huge amount of exposition in my pieces and you only get to see slightly more than what the characters themselves see, and you don't easily get to know their thoughts, the reality around them and the motives for their actions only become clear as the narrative progresses.

additionally, i don't like writing about powerful, famous or fabulously wealthy individuals. i do enjoy writing about historically momentous events (first contact, post-apocalypse, emergence of ASI) but from the 'over the shoulder' viewpoint of average or 'poor' characters. these designations could apply to their societal level, wealth, intelligence, public recognition, etc., etc. where the event is again, not spelled out, but only suggested or dimly illuminated from their low vantage and culturally-socially skewed filter. if any one wants to read examples i have a slew of them, and again i like short stories so they're not things that have to be trod through.

about how i can contribute: i am a linguist, with an inborn talent for learning, processing and constructing languages. if anyone needs help in this regard i can offer it, i just prefer writing narrative.

i'm happy to be part of the community. hope to get to know y'all better in the future.

my real name's travis, by the way.
your praise is sweet
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#2
Welcome to the forum! Big Grin I hope you enjoy browsing through the EG and learning more about OA. Feel free to start any thread to discuss, question and contribute to OA.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
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#3
thank ya much, rynn. i'm heading over there now.
your praise is sweet
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#4
Greetings! I'm certainly keen to read narratives from the point of view of 'everyman' characters. Some of the most disturbing events in OA's timeline would be very traumatic from such a viewpoint.

Third person narrative is also entirely suitable for this; the 'omniscient' narrator isn't really suitable for a scenario where even the gods are not completely omniscient.
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#5
Heh. Another language construction hobbyist? And I thought I was likely to be the only one on the forum. I got to it via computer linguistics - a lot of my jobs have involved making computers come closer to understanding written text, and along the way - even just deciding what statistics you need to gather to train your systems - you learn a lot about linguistic structures and your interest deepens. So of course I eventually turned it on its head and made up my own language for keeping a diary in, exploring different combinations of linguistic elements to see how well things work together.

Welcome and well met.
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#6
Hi Travis, Welcome to OA!

One of the many hats I wear around here is editor of the OA ezine, Voices:Future Tense.

If you have any stories set in the OA universe that you'd like to do, I'd be very interested in discussing them with youSmile

Beyond that, if you have any questions or concerns regarding any aspect of the project or setting, please don't hesitate to ask. And like Rynn says, feel free to contribute to any existing threads or start new ones as the spirit moves you.

Cheers!

Todd
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#7
(07-08-2015, 07:05 AM)smithofbexar Wrote: how is everyone.

[...]

i'm happy to be part of the community. hope to get to know y'all better in the future.

my real name's travis, by the way.

Welcome! In your wanderings through the EG you might want to take a look at the languages and linguistics section and offer up your thoughts (& maybe a writeup or two) on the development of languages, human and otherwise, in the setting. We have some descendants of English written into the setting that might easily be as far from our current language as present-day English is from PIE, but we've not much depth or detail on the subject yet. On the topic of fiction, this is a side of the project we're hoping will see more attention in the future so I'm looking forward to your first contributions.
Stephen
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#8
I also share an interest in linguistics, particularly from the language creation side of things. (Most of my linguistics knowledge is tailored to that, so stuff like diachronics, phonology, morphosyntax, etc., but not computational linguistics or psychological areas.) I'd be happy to collaborate with either of you on such a project.

I've had a bunch of ideas about designing To'ul'ho'lo'ss, the lingua franca of the Tohuls (they're aliens), so while I wasn't planning to get too in depth with that for a good while yet, I could always start a discussion thread. I haven't actually checked out the English descendants yet.

Also, welcome Smile I'm quite new here myself.
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#9
(07-08-2015, 07:43 AM)stevebowers Wrote: Greetings! I'm certainly keen to read narratives from the point of view of 'everyman' characters. Some of the most disturbing events in OA's timeline would be very traumatic from such a viewpoint.

Third person narrative is also entirely suitable for this; the 'omniscient' narrator isn't really suitable for a scenario where even the gods are not completely omniscient.

steve,

is there a forum topic or page listing with a 'wish list' or 'list of prompts' for stories or GE entries that the community is looking for?
your praise is sweet
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#10
(07-08-2015, 07:44 AM)Bear Wrote: Heh. Another language construction hobbyist? And I thought I was likely to be the only one on the forum. I got to it via computer linguistics - a lot of my jobs have involved making computers come closer to understanding written text, and along the way - even just deciding what statistics you need to gather to train your systems - you learn a lot about linguistic structures and your interest deepens. So of course I eventually turned it on its head and made up my own language for keeping a diary in, exploring different combinations of linguistic elements to see how well things work together.

Welcome and well met.

i am not technically a language construction hobbyist. i do construct language when necessary, but i've only ever done it on an ad hoc basis, and never to complete fluency. i will create the rudiments of a language for my characters if the narrative process demands it or will be improved by it. i don't really do it for the sake of the invention process itself.

having said that, i do recognize the difficulty of it, and i am fascinated by the incredible complexity of conlangs as they evolve in communities.

at my alma mater comsci students had to take one or two classes in linguistics, the very basic course numbers (we call them LIN 306 and 308, i don't know if there is 'LIN 101'). i met a lot of my future buddies in these classes as their usually more mathematically-attuned minds offered a refreshing and elucidating contrast to the general linguistics student.

happy to make your acquaintance.
your praise is sweet
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