Atlantean

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The Atlantean Language

Language

Concept

Template:Unreferenced section The Atlantean language (Dig Adlantisag) is a historically constructed, artistic language put together by Marc Okrand for Disney’s 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and associated media,. The Atlantean language is therefore based both on historic reconstructions or realities as well as on the elaborate fantasy/science fiction of the Atlantis: The Lost Empire mythos. Here are the fictional bases upon which the Atlantean language was created: Atlantean is the “Tower of Babel language”, the “root dialect” from which all languages descended. It has existed without change since sometime before 100,000 B.C., within the First or Second Age of Atlantis until the present. This is when the Mother Crystal (Matag Yob) descended to Earth and brought enlightenment to the Atlantean people. It is preserved by the presence of the Mother Crystal in the same way that The Shepherd’s Journal, the City of Atlantis (Wil Adlantisag), the Atlantean people (luden), and especially its royalty (yaseken) are preserved, healed, and given extended blissful life .

To create this, Dr. Okrand took common characteristics of all world languages and applied them to the Proto-Indo-European language. His mains source of words (roots and stems) for the language is Proto-Indo-European, but Okrand also uses ancient Chinese, Biblical Hebrew, Latin and Greek languages, along with a variety of other ancient languages or ancient language reconstructions .

Writing systems

There are three identified writing systems for Atlantean:

1) Writers Script Adlantis
2) The Atlantean Alphabet ADLANTIS
3) Reader’s Script AHD-luhn-tihs

They are listed in order of creation. Orkand originally put together the language in Writer’s Script. For those many parts in the movie for which it was written, the filmmakers wrote it using the Atlantean Alphabet, created by John Emerson with the help of Marc Okrand. For those fewer parts of the movie for which it is spoken, Okrand devised a Belitz-style notation which he hoped would make the Atlantean easier to read for the actors.

Example:

1) Spirits of Atlantis, forgive me for defiling your chamber and bringing intruders into the land.

2) Nish.en.top Adlantis.ag, Kelob.tem Gabr.in karok.li.mik bet gim demot.tem net getunos.en.tem bernot.li.mik bet kag.ib lewid.yoh. (Okrand's original wouldn't have had periods. I add these for the translation below.)

3) NEE-shen-toap AHD-luhn-tih-suhg, KEH-loab-tem GAHB-rihn KAH-roak-lih-mihk bet gihm DEH-moat-tem net GEH-tuh-noh-sen-tem behr-NOAT-lih-mihk bet KAH-gihb LEH-wihd-yoakh.

(Spirit.Plural.Vocative Atlantis.Genitive, Chamber.Oblique you-plural-familiar.Genitive defile.Past-Perfect.1st-Person-Singular for and land.Oblique into intruder.Plural.Oblique bring.Past-Perfect.1st-Person-Singular for I-Dative forgive.Imperative-Plural.)

(Written bustrophedon, as if in Atlantean alphabet: )

NISHENTOP ADLANTISAG KELOBTEM
MIG TEB KIMILKORAK NIRBAG
DEMOTTEM NET GETANOSENTEM
BIGAK TEB KIMILTONREB
LEWIDYOH

Atlantean alphabet: use and sources

Writing Systems Correspondence and Number of Letters Used

Template:Unreferenced section Here’s how they all correspond to one another. For sake of standardization, they are arranged according to a fan-composed alphabet. It is based on the oldest example of the Northern Semitic Abecedary as found in the Ugaritic language. (See Ugaritic alphabet and Middle Bronze age Alphabets : Egyptian Proto-types for discussion of these early abecendaries. It also draws in a minor way from the Hebrew Alphabet(because of its s/sh distinction and notoriety) and other early alphabet orders. The earliest Ugaritic Abecedary is commonly accepted as being the one from which most world writing systems developed.

The Atlantean Alphabet as Used in the Movie

Writers' Script

a

b

g

d

e

w

h

i

y

k

l

m

u

n

o

p

r

s

sh

t

Readers' Script

uh ah

b

g

d

eh e

w

kh

ee ih

y

k

l

m

oo u

n

oa,oh

p

r

s

sh

t

20 letters of the Atlantean alphabet are used to write Atlantean in the media of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". The letters c, f, j, q, v, x, z, ch, or th have likewise been acknowledged by the filmmakers as not being used. They were created so that Atlantean might be used as a simple cipher code. They are all also based on diverse ancient characters, just like the rest of the alphabet.

Atlantean alphabet: use

There is no punctuation or capitalization in the Atlantean Writing System. These characteristics are based by Okrand on ancient writing systems. The Atlantean Alphabet is written in normal boustrophedon writing order. It is written left to right for the first line, right to left the second, and left to right again the third, to continue the pattern. This order was also suggested by Okrand, based on ancient writing systems, and it was accepted because, as he explained, "It's a back-and-forth movement, like water, so that worked."

Atlantean alphabet: sources

Letter and sources
A
The most complicated:
Egyptian O4 "pr" diagram of a house: [1]
Wadi El-Hol Script and Proto-Canaanite BAYT "house" Middle Bronze Age alphabets
Various spirals in world writing systems and iconography Spiral: As a symbol
Its official explanation is that "it is a miniature map of the city of Atlantis" and a "treasure map" to the Heart of Atlantis, which the scientist-mercenaries seek in the movie. If placed on its left side, its outer box is "the cave" and the inner lump is the "silhouette of the city", namely its central palace-ziggurat-pyramid-ceremonial center .
The somewhat unofficial exlanation, especially as one reads the various books associated with the movie, is that the A spiral is meant as a symbol of the New Age religions as well as the historic, late 19th - early 20th century archaeological and pyschological intellectual paradigms which are incorporated into Wicca. This implies a great deal of mythology which is played out in the movie. Hence, it is also a symbol for the Mother Goddess as characterized in the movie, the Mother Crystal, Heart of Atlantis (Kerod Adlantisag), the Power Source, or simply Ad
It's also important to note that the Hebrew 'ALEPH was the most crucial letter in the word 'MT for Biblical Hebrew emet, 'truth' which when written on a golem's head gave them life and when erased spelled MT for 'dead' and took it away. This must in some way play into the Alphabet as both Leviathan, the Giants, and the Stone Fish exhibit characteristics of the literary golem.
B
Most resembles a Carthagian M, "water". Also resembles the Chinese Bronzeware Script BULL simplified logogram (as in Proto-Germanic *buhloon, bull Chinese bronze inscriptions. With this, note the original meaning of the first letter of the Latin Alphabet Middle Bronze Age alphabets, 'ALP, ox and BET, house. Note how in A and B and M and U the letter meanings from the Semitic abjad have been switched. Possibly alternately based on a 500 BC Aramaic BET, unless Dr. Okrand, who is truely not to be underestimated, had his hand in it. I just don't suspect alphabet creator John Emerson of these sort of subtlties.
G
Elder Futhark GEEBO, gift and probably also from early versions of Phoenician alphabet TSAD, plant.
D
Proto-Canaanite DIGG, fish and Greek Alphabet DELTA.
E
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite HILLUL, jubilation. An image of a man with his hands in the air as an exclamation of joy.
W
Early Cyrillic Alphabet JATI. Probably a Glagolitic alphabet cross-shaped AZ' ligatured with the Early Cyrillic Alphabet JERI: J + A. It also reminds me of how Archaic Sumerian, Egyptian Hieroglyphic, Archaic Chinese, Luwian Hieroglyphic, and most likely Indus Valley Script have characters for "mountain, hill" and related semantic meanings which resemble a mountain range of 3 triangles, usually side-by-side. See this image from an essay by the famous Indus decipherist Dr. Parapola: http://www.harappa.com/script/parpola4.html Again, this may be sublty or coincidence.
H
This is a mix of Elder Futhark HAGALAZ, hail and Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite HASIR, court of a house.
I
Most resembles a Carthagian (a form of Phoenician alphabet) YODH, hand but also strikingly an Eye of Horus.
Y
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite YAD, arm and a variant of certain hand-written forms of the I character (see Mural texts and Leviathan Slide text).
K
Mostly from a rare variant of Early Cyrillic Alphabet KAKO, from the Cursive Greek mixed with Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite KAPP, palm of hand and variations thereupon.
L
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite LAMD, whip for an ox, possibly stylized so as to match S and K in the same way that W and E match.
M
Probably entire from the Late Hebrew Letter MEM, water. For additional relevant meanings and symbolism. It may have been chosen as the only clearly Hebrew letter because of the Hebrew-Old Irish based word "Makit" in the Atlantean language, which means King and is where our word Mc as in McDonald's comes from. See Mem and History of the Hebrew Alphabet and Sefer Yetzirah 'Structure' and 'Phonetic System'. As a scholar I am embarrassed to also point you toward this website for a reliable chart (but everything else is ignorance) : [2] . I think it also resembles the Egyptian uniliteral glyph for M, owl, but that's a strech I admit.
U
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite MU, water, mixed with Elder Futhark URUZ, aurochs, an extinct type of wild bull.
N
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite NAHASH, snake.
N
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite NAHASH, snake.
O
Elder Futhark OZTHILA, hereditary land, possession. Actually, it is far more close to a certain European local variant on O. There's this hand-out from a conference last year on historical linguistics that I have that lines them all up next to each other and made picking out the one closest to Atlantean possible. But it's not with me right now. Anyway, you look, you'll find it. It's something on the order of 'Alpine Runes'.
P
This is a mix of Elder Futhark PERZTH, pear tree and Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite PU, mouth, especially Proto-Canaanite variants incorporated into the character's back curving.
R
This is a mix of Elder Futhark RAIDO, ride and Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite RA'ISH, head and possibly something else.
S
This very closely resembles the Chinese Oracle Bone (Jia3 Gu3 Wen2) *WUHN, cloud which became the modern character yun2. See the chart at this site [3]
SH
It most resembles be3 in the portion of the Chinese-derived Naxi Geba Syllabary presented here: [4]. It also resembles the Chinese AN1, woman under roof, peace or JIA1, pig under roof, house, household. [5] [6]. Its top also incorporates the old Hebrew or [[Aramaic alphabet letter] SHIN.
T
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite TAW, mark of ownership.
C
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite GAML, boomerang.
F
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite WAW, hook.
J
South Arabian Alphabet D, from Wadi El-Hol, door.
Q
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite QAW, monkey or [water poured from a jag. Note the similarity with shi3, pig. http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=+%E5%AE%B6&submitButton1=Etymology]
V
Closesly resembles modern and seal characters for 'son', ZI3. [7]
X
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite SAMEK, spine.
Z
Wadi El-Hol Middle Age Bronze Scripts / Proto-Canaanite ZIQQ, manacle.
TH
Perhaps a ligature of South Arabian alphabet D and Atlantean S. It may represent the voiced th sound and so have something to do with the Old South Arabian [d], door. Maybe the other part of the ligature represents an alverolar consonant. Maybe it's the Anglo-Saxon rune Thorn, also a development of DALETH. Together they closely resemble in shape and sound the Phoenician alphabet letter T'ETH, wheel, which came from T'AB, good, and became the Greek THETA.
CH
It's not really certain. It somewhat resembles an OMEGA, a development of 'AYIN, eye.

Atlantean numerals and numbers: uses and sources

Atlantean numeral system

Joe Emerson, Marc Okrand, and the filmmakers also created numerals for 0-9. They are stacked horizontally, however, and hold place values of 1, 20, and 400. Their components are based on Mayan numerals and internally composed for the font (example above) like Roman numerals. If used according to the now-offline Official Website's directions, they are used, alternatively, like Arabic numerals.

Atlantean numbers and suffixes

Numbers and suffixes

Hindi Numeral	Cardinal	Ordinal	Fractional	Distributive
1	din one	din.lag first	din din.lop one whole	din.noh one-at-a-time one-a-piece
2	dut two	dut.lag second	din dut.lop one half	dut.noh two-at-a-time two-a-piece
3	sey three	sey.dlag third	din sey.dlop one third	sey.noh three-at-a-time three-a-piece
4	kut four	kut.lag fourth	din kut.lop one quarter	kut.noh four-at-a-time four-a-piece
5	sha five	sha.dlag fifth	din sha.dlop one fifth	sha.noh five-at-a-time five-a-piece
6	luk six	luk.lag sixth	din luk.lop one sixth	luk.noh six-at-a-time six-a-piece
7	tos seven	tos.lag first	din tos.lop one seventh	tos.noh seven-at-a-time seven-a-piece
8	ya eight	ya.dlag eigth	din ya.dlop one eigth	ya.noh eight-at-a-time eight-a-piece
9	nit nine	nit.lag ninth	din nit.lop one ninth	nit.noh nine-at-a-time nine-a-piece
10	ehep ten	ehep.lag tenth	din ehep.lop one tenth	ehep.noh ten-at-a-time ten-a-piece
30	sey dehep thirty	sey dehep.lag thirtieth	din sey dehep.lop one thirtieth	sey dehep.noh thirty-at-a-time thirty-a-piece

Grammar

Classification

Template:Unreferenced section Atlantean is a mixed-type language (between an isolating language and a fusional language. Its nouns are highly inflected and its verbs are highly agglutinated. However, it also has a lot of free-morpheme adverbs, adjectives, postpositions and other grammatical particles.

Sounds

Vowels and diphthongs

Chart of Atlantean vowels

IPA symbol	Readers Script	Writers Script	Example	Meaning	Example	Meaning
/i,ɪ/	ee, ih, i	i	tikʌdɜ	to be located	alɪʃ	child
/e,ɜ/	eh, e	e	wesɜr	marketplace
/ej/	ay	ey	badɜg.bej	best
/ɑ,ɘ/	ah, uh	a	makɪt.ɘg	of the king
/ɑi/	i	ay	kaitɘn	7 cm
/o/	oh, o, oa	o	obɜs	lava
/oj/	oy	oy	risojba	squid
/u, ʌ/	oo, u	u	kunɜt	surface	kʌt	four

Atlantean's phonetic inventory includes a vowel system with the above five phonemes, a system common to many languages, such as Spanish. Most vowels have two prominent allophonic realizations, depending on whether it occurs in a stressed or unstressed syllable. Vowels in stressed syllables tend to be tense, and likewise unstressed ones tend to be more lax. Thus, for example, /i/ is realized as [i] or [ɪ] in stressed and unstressed syllables, respectively. Likewise, /e/ is realized as [e] or [ɛ], and so on. (/ɑ/ fits into this pattern as [ɑ] or [ʌ].)

There are three diphthongs. [oj] only occurs in one word in a dubious part of a source so it may not be Atlantean. The other two are rather rare in the language on the whole.

Consonants

IPA chart of Atlantean consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	(Alveolo-)palatal consonant	Velar	Labiovelar
Plosives	p   b	t   d		k   g
Nasals	m	n
Fricatives		s	ʃ 1	x 2
Approximants		l	j 3		w
Trill		r

Where symbols occur in pairs, the left represents the voiceless consonant and the right represents the voiced consonant.

Notes:

1. Transliterated as sh in Writers Script and Readers Script.
2. Transliterated as h in Writers Script (bibɪx, inner cover of Subterranean Tours) and "kh" in Readers Script.
3. Transliterated as y in Writers Script and Readers Script.

Phonology

Aside from the stressed-syllable-based vowel system, the only other example of phonology found in the entire language may be expressed as:

0 -> [m,n] in the context of [i,o/e]_-Person/Aspect Suffix

/bernot-o-ik/
/bernot-o-mik/
[bernot-o-mik]

n -> [k,t] in the context of _ [i,o]

/bernot-e-ik/
/bernot-e-nik/
/bernot-e-kik/
[bernot-e-kik]

Word Order

Template:Unreferenced section Atlantean has a very strict Subject-Object-Verb word order. There is never any deviation from the pattern. Adjectives and Genitive Nouns go after the nouns which they modify, post-positions go after the nouns or clauses which they modify, and modals go after the verbs which they modify and subsequently take all agglutinative suffixes. However, adverbs go before their verbs. Last of all are the interogative particles.

The given order of all parts of speech and particles is as follows in both an interrogative and declarative statement (a little redundent in order to use the whole sentence):

Sentence Order

Word	Example	English Gloss
Adverbs of Time, Manner, Location	Log	What
Time, Manner, Location Adverbial Nouns	darim	time
Instrumental Cased Nouns	shayod.esh	using.hands
Adverbs	ser	just
Adjectives	gwis.in	our
Nominative Cased Nouns	weydagosen	Visitors
Post-positional Objects/ Oblique Cased Nouns	keylob.tem	(in) the chamber
Adjectives	ta.mil	royal
Possessive Pronouns	tug.in	his
Post-position	net	in
Dative/Oblique Cased Nouns	makit.tem	The King
Genitive Cased Nouns of Relation	Adlantis.ag	of Atlantis
Post-Positions	gom	to
Accusative Cased Nouns	neshing.mok.en.tem	great contrivances
Adverb	gawid.in	joyfully
Verb with Modal Verb	bernot	to bring
Modal Verb [stem.mood.tense/aspect.person/number]	bog.o.mkem	we will be able
Interrogative Particle	du	eh? (North Central American English / Canadian English)
Final Explanation
At what time will we visitors be able to use our very hands to joyfully give our great contrivances to the King of Atlantis in his Royal Chamber?

There are two given variations on the simple sentence order involving sentence connectors, also called connective particles. These are grammatical particles whose particular roles seen here occurs in Native American languages, among other languages. These Atlantean sentence connectors relate two clauses in a logical yet idiomatic manner which produces a complete thought in the same way that the equally complicated English sentence does. English doesn't use sentence connectors in the following ways, however:

Clause order 1, Example 1

Clause or Particle	Example	English Gloss
Initial Clause	"Wil.tem neb gamos.e.tot..."	"He sees this city..."
Sentence connector 1	deg	(roughly) "for"
Modifying Clause	duwer.en tirid.	all foriegners.
Final Explanation
No outsiders may see the city and live. More literally, " 'He Who Doth the City See...' is meant for ALL foriegners.'

Clause order 1, Example 2

Clause or Particle	Example	English Gloss
Initial Clause	Tab.top, lud.en neb.et kwam gesu bog.e.kem	Father, we cannot help these people
Sentence connector 1	deg	(roughly) "and yet"
Modifying Clause	yasek.en gesu.go.ntoh.	they will help the Royalty.
Final Explanation
Father, these people may be able to help us. More literally, "Father, we can't help these people and yet they will help us, the King and Princess."

Clause order 2

Clause or Particle	Example	English Gloss
Descriptive Clause	Ketak.en.tem obes.ag sapoh.e.kik	I view the lava whales
Sentence connector 2	yos	(roughly) "then"
Action Clause	lat nar badeg.bey tikud.e.tot dap?	where is the best place?
Final Explanation
Where is the best place from which to view the lava whales?

Nouns

There are seven six cases for nouns.

Grammatical Cases

Grammatical Cases

Number	Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
1	Nominative	no suffix	yob	crystal
2	Oblique	-tem	yobtem	the crystal give, in the crystal, to the crystal, etc.
3	Genitive	-ag	yobag	of the crystal
4	Vocative	-top 1	Yobtop	O Crystal!
5	Instrumental	-esh	yobesh	using father
6	Unknown 1	-kup 2	yobkup	(something) crystal
7	Unknown 2	-nuh 3	yobnuh	(something) crystal

Notes:

1. With the exception of "mat", "mother", which takes the special Maternal Filial Suffix -tim. Note that the the only other kinship term, "father", "tab", takes the usual -top.
2. No translation given. As discussed in "The Shepherd's Journal" on the "Collector's DVD": ketub-kup (page 4) and setub-mok-en-tem (page 10), setub-mok-en-ag (page 5), and setub-kup (pages 1-4).
3. No translation given. As discussed in "The Shepherd's Journal" on the "Collector's DVD": derup-tem and derup-nuh (page 5).

Other Suffixes

Other Noun Suffixes

Grammatical Function	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
Plural	-en	yoben	crystals
Augmentative	-mok	Yobmok	The Great Crystal

Nouns are marked as plural with the suffix -en. Case suffixes never precede the -en plural suffix. "-Mok" occurs after it.

Pronouns

There are five cases for pronouns.

Grammatical Cases

Grammatical Cases

Number	Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
1	Nominative	no suffix	kag	I
2	Accusative	-it	kagit	me, whom was (sent), etc.
3	Dative	-ib	tuhib	(to) me
4	Genitive	-in	tuhin	my ( my heart, karod tuhin)
5	Unknown	-is	kagis	not translated1

Notes:

1. No translation given. Appears in "First Mural Text" on the "Collector's DVD": tug-is.

Verbs

Verbs are inflected with two suffixes, one for tense/aspect and the next for person/number.

Tense/Aspect suffixes

Tense/Aspect suffixes

Number	Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
1	Simple Present Tense	-e	bernot.e.kik	I bring
2	Present Perfect Tense	-le	bernot.le.kik	you have brought
3	Present Obligatory Tense	-se	bernot.se.kik	I am obliged to bring
4	Simple Past Tense	-i	bernot.i.mik	I brought
5	Immediate Past Tense	-ib	bernot.ib.mik	I just brought
6	Past Perfect Tense	-li	bernot.li.mik	I had brought
7	Simple Future Tense	-o	bernot.o.mik	I will bring
8	Future Possible Tense	-go	bernot.go.mik	I may bring
9	Future Perfect Tense	-lo	bernot.lo.mik	I will have brought
10	Future Obligatory Tense	-so	bernot.so.mik	I will be obliged to bring

Further Examples of Tense/Aspect suffix morphology

-e	sapoh.i.mik (SJ:10)	I viewed	sapoh.e.kik (ST)	I view
-le	yube.in/yugeb.le.tot (IS)	strangly/he is being strange	panneb.le.nen (IS)	you are knowing	peren.le.mot (DVD:MURAL)	Untranslated.	pasil.le.tot (IS)	it is being sufficient
-se	kaber (SJ:789)	warn!	kaber.se.kem	we are obliged to warn
-i	es.e.tot (ST)	it is	es.i.mot (SJ:10)	it will be
-ib	bernot.li.mik (IS)	I had brought	bernot.ib.mik (IS)	I just brought
-li	bernot.ib.mik (IS)	I just brought	bernot.li.mik (IS)	I had brought
-o	komtib.lo.nen (SJ:5)	you will have found	komtib.o.nen (SJ:5)	you will find
-go	satib.yoh (IS)	move along!	satib.go.ntoh (SJ:89)	they may move along	gesu.go.ntoh (IS)	they may help
-lo	komtib.o.nen (SJ:5)	you will find	komtib.lo.nen (SJ:5)	you will have found
-so	komtib.lo.nen (IS)	you will have found	komtib.so.nen (SJ:5)	you will will be obliged to find

Mood suffixes

Mood suffixes

Number	Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss
1	Imperative Mood Singular	no suffix	(Tok.it) Bernot!	Bring (it, you)!
2	Imperative Mood Plural	-yoh	(Tok.it) Bernot.yoh!	Bring (it, y'all)!
3	Passive Mood	-esh	(Im.tem shib.an) bernot.esh.ib.mik.	I just was brought (something).
4	Infinitive	-e	bernot.e	to bring

Further Examples of Mood suffixes

Number	Name	Suffix	Example	English Gloss	Example	English Gloss	Example	English Gloss	Example	English Gloss
no suffix	nageb.o.ntoh (SJ:789)	they will enter	Nageb.yoh (ST)		Enter, y'all!	Nageb!	Enter!
-yoh	gamos.i.mik (DVD:TRAVEL)	I saw	Gamos.yoh! (DVD:MURAL)	May ye behold!	gamos.e (DVD:MURAL)	to see	Beket! (ST)	You're begged!	Beket.yoh! (ST)	Y'all are begged!
-esh	pag.en (ST)	you (are) thanked (short form)	pag.esh.e.nen (ST)	you are thanked	dodl.esh.mik (DVD:MURAL)	Untranslated.	kobden.en/hobd.esh.e.tot (IS)	command / he has doomed
-e	wegen.os/wegen.e (IS)	traveler/to travel	wegen.os/wegen.e (IS)	traveler/to travel	gamos.yoh (DVD:MURAL)	May ye behold!	gamos.e (DVD:MURAL)	to see	gobeg.en/gobeg.e	arms/to be an arm

Person/number suffixes

Person/number suffixes

Person	Number	Familiarity	Independent Pronoun	Suffix	English Gloss
1st	Singular	-	kag	-ik	I
2nd	Singular	-	moh	-en	you
3rd	Singular	-	tug tuh tok	-ot	he she it
1st	Plural	-	gwis	-kem	we
2nd	Plural	Unfamiliar	gebr	-eh	you-all (unfamiliar)
2nd	Plural	Familiar	gabr	-eh	you-all (familiar)
3rd	Plural	-	sob	-toh	they

Vocabulary

Most of the vocabulary was made for the movie, so it relates to concepts that occur in the movie.

"Animal Life"

There are words for the bizaare animal life around Atlantis, creatures that resemble: ostriches (wemoten), purple lobsters (tuyeben), parrot lizards (yeragosen), lava whales(ketaken obesag), and multiple-eyed purple tigers (bahodmoken). There are about as many names for normal animal life as well, mostly sea creatures on account of their vehicles being fashioned in their shapes.

"Politics and Religion"

There are words for a few elements of the Atlantean political system: city (wil), king (makit), Your Highness (taneb), royalty/judges (yaseken), marker (keran), law (tamar), orderly (laridin), command (kobden), and foreigner (duwer).

There are words for religious and mythological concepts, given in : to defile (karoke), to forgive (lewide), to worship (yadluge), (the old religion: ) Mother Crystal or The Heart of Atlantis (Kerod Adlantisag; tok, it), Yob (Crystal), Peace (Weshekmol), Giants (gonosen), (the decadent religion: ) Lightning/ Odin/ Leviathan the Last of the Mighty War God(desses) (Lot.an, literally "light.ning"; tuh, she), (Pre-1914 religon: ) The Great Flood (Mebelmok) and Nishen (Spirits).

"Adventure Words"

There are words for travel and discovery, such as to be located (tikude), to see (gamose), to discover (komtibe), path (ben), cave (tinemoshep), enclosed (digenmil), lair (pred), to continue (tenite), and to get somewhere (kwetipe)

Given the epic scale of the movie, there's a few words related to serious matters: to kill (gwenoge), to doom (hobde), to be finished (yodene), and to destroy (megide).

"Everyday Life"

There are also quite a few "normal" words, like to be (ese), in (net), on (meg/med), through (pak), and an assortment of modal verbs like to be able (boge). There is no word for "to have".

There is a very full set of measurements and numbers 1-10 with hints at formations for 20 and 30.

However, the majority of the verbs and words seem to be of an everyday nature: to travel along (satib), to come (mase), to walk (galeme), to rush (nuroshe), contrivance (neshingos), marketplace (weser), to cost (mohede), to listen (epkele), to think (kapere), to speak (bashebe), to understand (doyine), tree (denet), person (lud), time (nal/darim/konos), to worship (yadluge), entrance (mannal), chamber (keylob), shelter (tegul), and joyfully (gawidin).

"Family and Anatomy"

There are also a few basic kinship terms, namely father (tab), mother (mat), to be well (mat), and child (alish). "Mother" takes a special kinship vocative suffix: -tim, though "father" takes the usual -top. There are actually no words for man or woman.

Here's the short list of mostly human body parts: eye (okwep), heart (kerod), hand (shayod), arm (gobeg), tail (wibak).

"Mystery Words"

Half of the words have not been deciphered and probably relate to either the history or location of Atlantis as they occur in "The Shepherd's Journal". "The Shepherd's Journal", in reality, amounts to about 2 or 3 pages of actual text and 7 pages of dummy text which repeats fragments of the actual parts.

The vocabulary exhibits a limited yet well-balanced character.

History of decipherment efforts

Overview

From Internet documentation, about 150 amateur linguists working since 2001 have contributed thus far to the on-going decipherment and codification of the Atlantean Language.

Initial Events

Earliest records show the efforts of Paul Sherrill in reaching out to the international linguistic community for help in about March 2001.Template:Fact He later founded a site with his decipherments on it, "Luden Shadlag", meant to mean "The Fifth City"; along with a Yahoo Tech Group, The Atlantean Language Group. All of this was in June of the same year. About then The Atlantean Linguists Guild was founded as a message board of unknown location. In September of 2001, Jeffrey Henning posted a series of webpages devoted to the Atlantean language on his then-young LangMaker.Com.

Middle Events

Luden Shadlag was later deleted by its hosting site, as was The Atlantean Linguists Guild. However, The Atlantean Language Group remains online. Sometime in 2004, an "Aaron" began a second website devoted to the language, The Mother Tongue. This website is still up, though hard-to-find, perhaps due to a lack of internet search keywords.

Recent Events

In late 2006, Alternative chose the Atlantean Language as the subject of a school project and made significant, published contributions. A little later in the year, Keran Shadlag joined the decipherment effort. He eventually produced a 100-page book in rough draft, "Atlantean Grammar", available for free in The Atlantean Language Group Library. The following spring he began free lessons on the language at The Group and the message board Kidagakash Fans Unite. To date, he has personally taught the language to about 12 people internationally. On March 9, 2007 he started "The Atlantean Language Institute" as a Facebook group.

Luden Shadlag returned briefly to the Atlantean language on June 21, 2007, to work briefly on this article and correspond with Keran Shadlag. Luden Shadlag made him moderator of The Atlantean Language Group on June 22nd. On July 22, 2007 KERAN started the website for The Atlantean Language Institute, http://www.atlanteanlanguageinstitute.info/ . He has contacted Disney three times for permission to use their property with no response.

Around March 2008 he discontinued the expensive sit to focus efforts on the free Atlantean Language Group. It has seen a steady increase in membership from all over the world and the addition of one other fluent Atlantean writer.

He is currently in the process of:

1) Sufficiently documenting all Atlantean and putting it into a single document in Readers Script

2) Deciphering words without a given English translation from "The Shepherd's Journal" and the movie's "Mural Texts" while confirming the definitions of and creating etymologies for words in sources such as "The Illustrated Script" which have given English translations and therefore deciphered definitions.

Currently there is a rough estimate of 2, 000 or more people vaguely interested in the language, about 200 people in the Atlantean language group, and 2 fluent speakers.

Continued Use

The Atlantean Language Group

During its history, The Atlantean Language Group has recorded a number of breakthroughs in decipherment, including the grammatical case system, its suffixes, the verb tense suffixes, the verb subject suffixes, phonetics, and miscellaneous word translations. It has also been a source of contribution to the naming of sources containing either the real Okrand language or imitations of it. It is considered the hub and nexus of the Atlantean decipherment effort. Membership is free to the public.

Major contributors include Luden Shadlag, Shahnahkehm, Rebmakash, Atlantima, Gaerielleenay, Dennis Falk, and Keran Shadlag.

Written works on Atlantean

Marc Okrand's word list of uncertain length (possibly 700-1000 words) is unavailable to the public, as is the final script of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Luden Shadlag's website is lost, as are his notes. It included a grammar, dictionary, and corpus. Atlantima wrote a dictionary which survives at The Group. Delayra wrote a short grammar and dictionary, which she still owns and has distributed. Alternative likewise wrote a grammar and dictionary, as did Keran Shadlag. His work encompases the non-fictional history of the language and its decipherment, among other things. It includeds as appendices the works of Delayra, Alternative, and Atlantima, with scraps that remain from Luden Shadlag. "Atlantean Grammar" also contains an unabridged Atlantean-English dictionary with decipherment notes, a simplified Atlantean-English dictionary, a likewise short English-Atlantean dictionary, and an oriental English-Atlantean dictionary, being arranged topologically.

Developments of Atlantean

Given that Atlantean contains about 337 known words, 180 of which have been assigned a tentative deciphered meaning, it is limited in what can be said with it.

Attempts at expanding the language for wider use are as old as the public release of the movie. One of the major documentations of these is Atlantima's dictionary.

Since January 2007, Shadlag has been creating a development of the language called "New Atlantean". It forms neologisms completely through the re-use of existing words, adding new meanings to canonical words and forming compounds. New grammatical structures are formed with reference to the historic material used by Okrand. An example is "shom", canonically "wave", for "water" and "shomag tegul", "water shelter" for "umbrella", based on the Genitive Compound Function present once in canon in "kudobirag demug", "inscription pad".

Since Fall 2007, Shadlag also began a "Historical Atlantean", which uses increasing reverse-engineered knowledge of Okrand's creative process to create neologisms, idioms, and grammatical structures for Atlantean. An example is "akwad" for "water", from the PIE root "wed-", "water", the Latin "aqua", "water", and the Hittite "watar". Another example is "sipakenos" for "spider", based on the Greek "arakhne" and the Old English "*spinthron".

However, allegedly because of the effort it takes to make up a new word using this system, he states plans of focusing his efforts on New Atlantean.

Further Reading and Sources Cited

Sources of Okrand's Atlantean Language

Because Atlantean was created by one person over a period of 5 years or less, all that exists of it can be dated to those five years. This is like all ancient written languages, which were written during a specific time and then either became a daughter language or died out. Hence, modern scientists must use corpus linguistics to study ancient languages. The earliest and most famous case of this in the West was 17th century cataloging of Latin inscriptions. In this process, all known sources are documented and reproduced so that other scholars may view them. This is especially important in the decipherment of languages. In the modern day, corpus linguistics also refers to the method of language documentation whereby the collector elicits and audio-/video-records speach by a native speaker in the studied language. The linguist then has the recordings transcribed and analyzes them.

Atlantean also has a list of media in which it is found. Without knowing where the language is documented, this article loses its most key citations. There are two primary divisions of these key sources:

1) Atlantean found in the movie.
2) Atlantean found in other sources.

Published Sources of Primary Importance

Souce Medium	MLA Citation
Book.	Cynthia, Benjamin. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire : Welome to my World." New York: Random House: 2001.
Comic book.	Ehrbar, Greg. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." Milwaukee: Dark Horse Comics: June 2001.
DVD set.	Hahn, Don; Wise, Kirk; Trousdale, Gary et al. "2-Disc Collector’s Edition: Atlantis: The Lost Empire."
Magazine.	Harper, Suzanne. Editor-in-chief. "Disney Adventures Summer Issue 2001."
CD.	Howard, James N. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack" : Limited Tiwanese Edition. Taiwan and Hong Kong: Walt Disney Records: Represented by Avex: 2001.
Book.	Kurtti, Jeff. "Atlantis Subterranean Tours: A Traveler’s Guide to the Lost City (Atlantis the Lost Empire." New York: Disney Editions: 2001.
Book.	Kurtti, Jeff. "The Journal of Milo Thatch." New York: Disney Editions: 2001.
Book.	Murphy, Tab et al. "Atlantis, the Lost Empire : The Illustrated Script." New York : Disney Editions: 2001.

Following are the sources and places within the above sources which explain how the language works:

External links

• Henning's Old Introduction to the Language
• Info on Atlantean at OmniGlot.com
• A Yahoo Tech Group dedicated to the decipherment and use of Atlantean Language. Contains dictionaries, grammars, lessons, conversation groups, and other documents.
• An Student-Teacher Interactive Message Thread for Okrand's Atlantean, hosted by Lisa Noble-Scarlet's Kidagakash Fans Unite ATLE Fan Message Board ("Fandom">"Atlantean">"Lessons in Okrand's Atlantean")
• Website dedicated to Atlantean.
• Contains full corpus without language explaination.

This article incorporates text from Wikipedia, and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
For the original article please see the "external links" section.

History of decipherment efforts

Overview

From Internet documentation, about 150 amateur linguists working since 2001 have contributed thus far to the on-going decipherment and codification of the Atlantean Language.

Initial Events

Earliest records show the efforts of Paul Sherrill in reaching out to the international linguistic community for help in about March 2001.Template:Fact He later founded a site with his decipherments on it, "Luden Shadlag", meant to mean "The Fifth City"; along with a Yahoo Tech Group, The Atlantean Language Group. All of this was in June of the same year. About then The Atlantean Linguists Guild was founded as a message board of unknown location. In September of 2001, Jeffrey Henning posted a series of webpages devoted to the Atlantean language on his then-young LangMaker.Com.

Middle Events

Luden Shadlag was later deleted by its hosting site, as was The Atlantean Linguists Guild. However, The Atlantean Language Group remains online. Sometime in 2004, an "Aaron" began a second website devoted to the language, The Mother Tongue. This website is still up, though hard-to-find, perhaps due to a lack of internet search keywords.

Recent Events

In late 2006, Alternative chose the Atlantean Language as the subject of a school project and made significant, published contributions. A little later in the year, Keran Shadlag joined the decipherment effort. He eventually produced a 100-page book in rough draft, "Atlantean Grammar", available for free in The Atlantean Language Group Library. The following spring he began free lessons on the language at The Group and the message board Kidagakash Fans Unite. To date, he has personally taught the language to about 12 people internationally. On March 9, 2007 he started "The Atlantean Language Institute" as a Facebook group.

Luden Shadlag returned briefly to the Atlantean language on June 21, 2007, to work briefly on this article and correspond with Keran Shadlag. Luden Shadlag made him moderator of The Atlantean Language Group on June 22nd. On July 22, 2007 KERAN started the website for The Atlantean Language Institute, http://www.atlanteanlanguageinstitute.info/ . He has contacted Disney three times for permission to use their property with no response.

Around March 2008 he discontinued the expensive sit to focus efforts on the free Atlantean Language Group. It has seen a steady increase in membership from all over the world and the addition of one other fluent Atlantean writer.

He is currently in the process of:

1) Sufficiently documenting all Atlantean and putting it into a single document in Readers Script

2) Deciphering words without a given English translation from "The Shepherd's Journal" and the movie's "Mural Texts" while confirming the definitions of and creating etymologies for words in sources such as "The Illustrated Script" which have given English translations and therefore deciphered definitions.

Currently there is a rough estimate of 2, 000 or more people vaguely interested in the language, about 200 people in the Atlantean language group, and 2 "fluent" speakers.