TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Starfish Language

Go To

Ettina Since: Apr, 2009
#1: Mar 23rd 2011 at 3:26:40 PM

I ended up giving my EldritchAbominations a language based on magically changing your eye color. Any ideas how this would work? (All I've decided so far is that 'no' is a purplish color. The protagonists, who are half Eldritch Abomination, can understand this language but have very limited ability to speak it.)

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.
Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#2: Mar 23rd 2011 at 3:27:36 PM

How fast do they change colour? How large is their visible spectrum? If the answers are respectively, "quite slow" and "small", you might end up with a situation like Old Entish: it is only worth saying anything if it's worth taking a long time to say.

edited 23rd Mar '11 3:28:31 PM by Yej

RTaco Since: Jul, 2009
#3: Mar 23rd 2011 at 7:04:42 PM

I don't think 1 color = one word would work. I'd think they'd flash a rapid series of colors, with each flash representing like a letter. Or something like morse code.

Kaxen Since: Jan, 2010
#4: Mar 23rd 2011 at 10:32:20 PM

Yeah, I think flashing would work better if a larger vocabulary is needed. Unless they differentiate really hard between light blue and slightly lighter light blue and pass stuff like this color vision test easily: http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77 @_@ There's probably room for catastrophic mistranslation by others...

Well, some squids flash colors quickly to communicate to each other.

Actually, if they're Eldritch Abominations, how many eyes do they have? Being a monster with tons of eyes, colorizing each one differently could make a great many possibilities, I would think.

MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#5: Mar 23rd 2011 at 10:37:23 PM

Going by the eyes alone seems a bit limited (unless your Abominations have a ''lot'' of eyes, then it might work), wouldn't a large area of skin work better?

edited 23rd Mar '11 11:15:31 PM by MattII

Zersk o-o from Columbia District, BNA Since: May, 2010
o-o
#6: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:14:03 PM

Well, some squids flash colors quickly to communicate to each other.

I thought that was cuttlefish. :O

Also, yeah, it might work if they can see more colours than people, but...

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ
MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#7: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:16:48 PM

Squids, cuttlefish, octopus, they're all pretty similar in that respect.

Zersk o-o from Columbia District, BNA Since: May, 2010
o-o
#8: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:24:12 PM

Nuh-uh! Cuttlefish are super-intelligent demons recruited into the armies of biolofists!

Octopi are Cthulhu's hick cousin.

Squids fly and eat spicy tacos. Tis fact.

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ
MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#9: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:30:14 PM

What, and Cthulhu isn't itself a super-intelligent demon?

Zersk o-o from Columbia District, BNA Since: May, 2010
o-o
#10: Mar 23rd 2011 at 11:30:35 PM

Note the hick part.

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ
Ettina Since: Apr, 2009
#11: Mar 24th 2011 at 7:28:31 AM

They have two eyes, which both flash in sync. I was thinking more 'one colour' = one syllable. Lots of languages have 'yes' and 'no' as monosyllabic words, which is why no is just one colour. Other words might be a sequence of two to four colours.

edited 24th Mar '11 7:28:41 AM by Ettina

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#12: Mar 24th 2011 at 8:24:45 AM

Or perhaps different areas of their eyes could change colors, like a kaleidoscope.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Fancolors I draw stuff. from Land of the Mamelucos Since: Nov, 2010
I draw stuff.
#13: Mar 24th 2011 at 11:14:29 AM

Just how big is their "vocabulary"?

MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#14: Mar 24th 2011 at 12:54:49 PM

They have two eyes, which both flash in sync. I was thinking more 'one colour' = one syllable.
Uh, no, two eyes aren't enough for this kind of language, and it gets even worse at might because you won't be able to see colour.

CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#15: Mar 24th 2011 at 1:00:20 PM

Unless they can glow as well. They're Eldritch Abominations. Why not give them a few more eyes?

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#16: Mar 25th 2011 at 6:44:01 AM

[up][up]Depends on how quickly they change color and how many colors they can differentiate. If they can tell the difference between 500 nm light and 501 nm light, then they've got about 350 "syllables" to play with just in the visible spectrum.

That said, I'm not sure why you'd make their eyes change color. It makes sense to have a color-changing-communication-thingie, but I don't see any reason why it would be their eyes that did it.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#17: Mar 25th 2011 at 9:40:11 PM

Depends on how quickly they change color and how many colors they can differentiate. If they can tell the difference between 500 nm light and 501 nm light, then they've got about 350 "syllables" to play with just in the visible spectrum.
Still doesn't work at night, or any other time when it's dark.

PDown It's easy, mmkay? Since: Jan, 2012
It's easy, mmkay?
#18: Mar 25th 2011 at 9:52:52 PM

Also, do their eyes transition from one color to another or is there no transition? Because otherwise there could be confusion on what the "syllables" are and what the colors on the way to the syllables are.

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#20: Mar 25th 2011 at 11:43:54 PM

Bioluminescent eyes?
On top of easily controllable chromatophores? That's asking a bit much of the poor things isn't it?

Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#21: Mar 26th 2011 at 4:16:27 AM

They're Eldritch Abominations. Chemistry need not apply.

AtomJames I need a drink Since: Apr, 2010
I need a drink
#22: Mar 26th 2011 at 4:24:27 AM

Nor conventional logic really. Their vocabulary could be incredibly complex, their eyes could flash colour or hues never before seen by man and they could very well have an asymmetrical assembly of eyes. Maybe their eyes dilate and expand in order to donate special meanings to their words? Kinda like differentiating between "there" and "they're"?

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.
Ratix from Someplace, Maryland Since: Sep, 2010
#23: Mar 26th 2011 at 6:39:22 AM

The first thing I thought of was that the colors would correspond to the vowels and consonants of a spoken language, meaning "purple" isn't so much a word as it is a sound that could be used in many words. Do they have a written language, or is it the same as the colors?

MattII Since: Sep, 2009
#24: Mar 26th 2011 at 1:45:36 PM

They're Eldritch Abominations. Chemistry need not apply.
With only 2 eyes these things can't be that eldritch, squids have only two eyes after all.

Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#25: Mar 26th 2011 at 1:46:30 PM

4D beings could have only two eyes. tongue


Total posts: 40
Top