Wasporella

Wasporella, the abandoned the novel of Anderson and friend Dearden, is the first example of Anderson's conlang Piscean and has survived to this day. Associated with it are several drawn pictures featuring early Old Piscean (then called Gallifreyan) text.

Synopsis

It is difficult to comprehend how far the novel was completed because it never had a finalised plot and often involved 'making it up as one went'. Generally, it follows the capers of Sean, a human teenager abducted from Earth in order to revive the Doctor (who has depleted all twelve Time Lord regenerations), associate Nick and Chronotis, alongside several villains.

Chronotis' plot included capturing Sean using the new Doctor's phobia as an advantage: wasps. The formulated contagious disease Wasporella most prominently infected wasps, altering their DNA in order to make them enormous killing machines, while it was engineered to mutate in the bodies of various other animals, distributing the disease farther and causing often comical conditions:

Further down, a man was feeding mammoth sturgeons fresh, top-quality salad, the same type that Nick had on the side of his plate with his pizza. Suddenly, the sturgeon went crazy and began to swim in super-fast circles around its tank, eating its fry and a couple of rays, and smashing the glass with its sharp nose. The water gushed out everywhere and the sturgeon flipped and squirmed about in it, hopelessly yearning to travel further. It was infected with Wasporella… but how? ... The man that fed the fish assisted Sean and Nick with finding a spider and a few ants. They put them together in a plastic container. The spider sat still and the ants went off to the other side of the container. Then, the man cut off a microscopic piece of salad and painted it with black food colouring so it looked like a fly. They put the ‘fly’ on the end of a bit of fishing line and dangled it into the container. After the spider took it, it scurried around its prison like the sturgeon swam round its tank. It then jumped onto the ants and ate them, afterwards attempting to get out but to no avail ...

Beginning of the Gallifreyan language

At the centre of the plot in several chapters were the alien Festarans, who had, according Wasporella, adored the planet Earth - especially the Britons. This would explain why early Old Piscean is influenced by western European languages (mostly English) and explain its resemblence to a creole.

In the eighth chapter of Wasporella, it is stated, 'The rest of Skaro was forced to learn English because this was the language the Festarans spoke in,' revealing that it was originally intended the Festarans should speak English. Piscean is first witnessed, as Gallifreyen [sic], in the tenth chapter of the novel, when Sean's shuttle lands in Gallifrey and the pilot gives details in the two primary languages of the universe of Wasporella, English and Gallifreyan. The following excerpt is thus like a Rosetta Stone for the early Old Piscean dialect:

The pilot said into his microphone, ‘We have successfully landed at East Boundary Airport in Gallifrey, Council of Time, 1.33 p.m. It is quite cloudy and the temperature is 13˚C. We hope you have enjoyed your flight, thank you.

‘Voost neeЋ harbor’ored ne EЋ Lin’ex Harbor’ore ne G’ow’lufrën, Göv’air’nëä foЋ Spannakën, tiäm’ine: XIII:IV;IV. Nee rark ûbr’ow’t nes ëät’ine: XIII. A’ow’l’air’s drekkën Y’ow’l’air’s winfanëä, gibs’y’ow’l.'

Incidentally, the early Old Piscean extract contains several words that have survived - in their original meanings - to the Tauro-Piscean language of today. Compare this modern Piscean translation: 'Voost neef eet Ästem Linexx Harbortschinfleoj eet Gowlúfren, Govájrneje Timenes, landt. Tiamíne 13-33. Nee gans wolcij nes eatíne 13˚. Owlájrs dreccen, dass teet Winfanéje ûbrótede. Tancee.' It is, however, now more flavoured by influences that have been absorbed since the conlang's earliest form. Note also the interesting example of semantic drift between the two dialects in question. In the early Old Piscean extract, 'ûbr’ow’t', which means 'cloudy' (from the adjective 'ûb' - 'bland') does not correspond to 'ûbrótede' in the modern Piscean text, which means 'to seem the opposite of bland to one' (yet also from the early Old Piscean adjective 'ûb').