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Thoya

Thoya conlang: The association profiles of each sound

Instead of basing vocabulary on an existing language or on the creator's subjective preferences, Thoya's vocabulary is based on an attempt at designing a mapping between sounds and broad associations for objective superiority. Ideally if you know all these associations it becomes easy to at least narrow down what the name of a concept should be in Thoya; it should include the sounds that best match the concept. Where possible we try to base the associations on the characteristics of the sound itself: for example bilabial consonants are associated with softness and contact, velar consonants with depth or intimacy, fricatives are associated with incompleteness or progress.

Note that this page is still somewhat half-baked.

n

simple, small

taste, because it uses tongue contact.

m

soft, smooth, flexible

kind

happy

ŋ

depth, intimacy, closeness

illusion, deception (because it's hidden far back in the mouth)

l

clear, vision, light, communication, understanding, truth

r

change, agency, personhood

t

rigid, exact, straight

time? because it's like the sound of a clock?

d

power, resilience

k

depth (including non-literal depth)

dark

cold

g

destruction/entropy

conflict

p

solid, conrete, physical, touch

harmony, peace?

closed

b

soft, round

hot

s

time, because it's voiceless and fricatives imply progress

z

skill

speed

f

quiet

weakness

v

pain, struggle

rough

x

avoid (because it doesn't contact the roof of mouth), around, approximate

indirectness (proxy, tools, machines)

j

contrast, diversity, conflict, messy

sound

c

thought

q

motion

h

ethereal (maybe used for a lot of metaphysical stuff)

smell (cause breathing)

weakness

vague, nebulous, subtle, lies?

thought? because it's hard to put your finger on?

a

big

open

broad, all, general

ɪ

small

direct

i/y

up

good

u/w

down

evil

e

backward, beginning

inward

o

forward, end

outward