Source: http://www.plover.net/~davidw/gostak.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:32:45+00:00

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My attempt to translate the unusual words from Carl Muckenhoupt’s game The Gostak into English. Note that there is no “correct translation”; everyone who plays the game will visualize and interpret things differently. That’s how it should be. The Gostak was entered in the 7th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (it placed 21st out of 52 entries), and is copyright 2001 by Carl Muckenhoupt.
abvate v. show, reveal : [The shamtag] skobes itself, abvating a pogrifon. // The droke abvates rorm.
banch n. eye : Just tunding it rikes your banches. // She vorls her banches.
beckle v. shake? quiver? vibrate? : [The duscat's] beckling kirf and jirf. // You beckle like a duscat. The duscat beckles even more durly. // The poltive glaud beckles in the loff lutt. // The gheliper rebs your shamtag and beckles durly! // "That's... that's unheamy." But she beckles.
boltep v. peel, strip : You boltep a palgic darf, and its calbice smibs into the brangy. It's now a footch darf.
brenze n. ? : [The doshery] gombs to the brenze.
calbice n. shell? coating? armor? wrapper? icing?
chalm n. sign? : There's a musny on the chalm: "NO GASKING"
dass adj. bad? wrong? malfunctioning? : six nayfes of jenth, all dass and tavid // You lello [the stike] for a camling, but it just skobes itself again. It must be dass. // She was the gopest gheliper I've ever rebbed, and dass, too. // The doshes tunk you dass.
deave 1. n. location, room. 2. v. reside, stay. 3. adv. in place, moving about without leaving.
deek n. tooth?, ear?, wing? : Rasking [the gitch], you can reb its deeks. They're loddled, so it's a loddle-deeked gitch. // The gheliper disnarbs her deeks and vorls the doshes.
degomb v. leave, ie: "un-enter"
disbosh n. response : doatch at gitches about gitches / There is no disbosh.
dobbly adj. pretty?, attractive?, nice? : The fostin is far too dobbly for the morleon, but then, that's why it's a fostin. // Poskot is not as dobbly as sindish. // It's a dobbly pogrifon of sindish and koldgeon.
dorl n. home of the Cobbics : "[The dorl's] motched with poskot. That's why the Cobbics deave there: for the poskot. They tund henfifes with it."
dugrid n. mouth? compartment? : [The shamtag's] dugrid is lelloed.
dunmile adj. crazed? maddened? insane?
durch v. touch? kiss? push? : >durch cobbic glaud / It durches you back.
durly adv. strongly : You zank it durly. It smibs into the brangy. // The duscat beckles even more durly. // You malk it stinly. It malks you back more durly.
duscat n. some type of creature : "So that's what's been glaking drokes in the morleon. [The duscat] must have been volded from the delcot by the gheliper."
falliger n. ? : Darfs of jenth are scurm! It's a wainted falliger. // "Like the morleon. That's what darfs of jenth are."
fargish v. give : "I'll fargish it at its droke and doatch at him about you."
fesh n. task, purpose, role : "I'm a droke; my fesh is doatching. But you're a gostak. Your fesh is tophthage and distimming. Distimming the doshes."
flome v. intr. flash? sneeze? cough? fart? ring? yell?: You flome stinly. // The naft of loddle-deeked gitches are volded by the floming and pell deave.
foll n. mark? blessing? imprint? : A glaud with folls of the Cobbics is a scurm thing.
gamda n. someone that can create ghelipers, and imbue areas with darkness.
gask v. charge? inflate? : You can't gask something politive. // You gask it until it's blide, but it disgasks. // You can't gask [the cobbic glaud] through the calbice.
gharmy adj./adv. unpleasant(ly)? unhappy(ily)? : [The footch darf's] gharmy with footch. // The droke tunks you gharmy. // [The doshes are] all gharmy and wass to be distimmed.
glaud n. ward, seal, type of barrier : A juffetless glaud is no glaud at all.
goaves n. claws? teeth? : The pank malked the jenth with its goaves.
gomway n. path? road? garden?
gostak n. person who "distims the doshes"
gurr prep. against?, near? : [The droke] just deaves gurr the loff lutt, doatching at himself.
heam n. use : Is there heam or fesh in that?
henfife n. something that the Cobbics make with poskot, and that gasks : Ever tunked a gasking henfife? Those henfifes sure can gask things.
jeddy n./adj. [red? plastic? pearl? new? etc] : It's a jeddy-paided darftunder.
jenth n./adj. some kind of hard material (stone? steel? quartz? diamond?): "Ah, jenth. It can't be durched, or zanked, or skobed. But I once rebbed a pank in a sitch of jenth. The pank malked the jenth with its goaves, and it just pobbed from where it was crenned."
juffet n. heart? brain? battery? : "[The juffet's] as tavid as jenth. Just tunding it rikes your banches.
jurmy adj. ? : [The gomway] is a jurmy deave, but not as jurmy as the morleon.
koldgeon n. ? [edible material that's hard on the eyes. Shamtag juffets should have lots of koldgeon to be effective.] : It's a dobbly pogrifon of sindish and koldgeon. // There's koldgeon in some of the darfs.
loddle v. ? : [The gitch's deeks are] loddled, so it's a loddle-deeked gitch. // "Loddled, is it? It's been many camlings since the gitches of tondam have been loddle-deeked. That'll be the gheliper's doing.
lurpid adj. typical? common? : A lurpid warb of the brangy.
malk v. scratch? : Your gitch malks you. // You malk it stinly.
malkage n. that which has been malked : The pilter malks it with its goaves and leils the malkage.
martle adj. little? cute? : All my martle doshes!
mavrous adj. ? : pilters are almost as mavrous as panks // [The doshery's] far more mavrous than the bewl, and gombs to the brenze.
misdeave n. mischief? mad-scheme? : But at least the gheliper's misdeave is skent.
mosky adj. quiet? still? : It's mosky in the delcot.
motch v. fill : The dorl's motched with poskot.
murgous n. dangerous? sharp? wicked? strong? : A mavrous pilter with murgous goaves. // The shamtag flomes durly, with murgous skades! // "No skades from the bewl are as murgous as mine."
paid v. paint? color? encrust? plate? wax? tile? : The fosk and lutts are all of paided sindish. // It's a jeddy-paided darftunder.
pank n. animal made by Cobbics : The pank malked the jenth with its goaves. // "Murgous goaves, those panks rask. They can malk sindish or boltep the calbice off a lonn."
pilter n. ? [hungry animal with strong claws or teeth] : A mavrous pilter with murgous goaves.
plave n. ? [kind of animal] : A duscat or a plave can't rask things.
poskot n. type of material which the Cobbics use to make henfifes. Also, the Cobbic glaud is filled with poskot. : "[Poskot is] not as tavid as jenth or as dobbly as sindish, but the Cobbics are stam of it. The dorl is motched with it."
rorm adj. wonderful?, sweet? : How rorm it would be to pell back to the bewl. // The tarshen darf is rorm. // The droke abvates rorm.
scurm adj. awful? horrible? evil? : A glaud with folls of the Cobbics is a scurm thing. // Darfs of jenth are scurm!
shamtag n. 'skade'-maker [Container (only one item at a time). Turns on and off. "Flomes when you durch it." It's original heart is a 'pogrifon'. Hearts with lots of 'koldgeon' or emitting light create strong skades.] : "Ooh, a shamtag! Is that all that the bewl pobs at its gostaks? Can it even tund skades?"
shebtak n. ? [food item, eg: cheese] : There's shebtak in some of the darfs.
shinkod adj. sacred? : Shinkod to all gostaks, and fesh of the bewl.
shoracle adj. fixed in place, attached : [The coyd] seems to be shoracle to the darftunder.
skade n. flame? flare? odor? noise? song? : With the right juffet, you can durch skades from your shamtag. // The shamtag flomes durly, with skades of the gheliper!
skent adj. foiled? ended? undone? : But at least the gheliper's misdeave is skent.
smarch v. smirk? laugh? : The gheliper smarches. "No skades? Some gostak you are."
smib v. dissolve?, discorporate?, melt? : You zank it. It smibs into the brangy. // You'll smib when you're zanked, and not before.
snave adj. good? clever? smart? great? sharp? bright? : The whomm ones [darfs] are even snaver. // Well, aren't you snave! // a snave and sharmy shamtag // Being malked by a gitch isn't snave, but being malked by a naft of them is.
stam 1. adj. fond : the Cobbics are stam of poskot // Those Cobbics aren't stam of their glauds. 2. n. enjoyment : Tunking brolges can glake your stam of the halpock.
statch v. gild?, weld? : You rask no statching reegs to statch with.
stottily adv. erratically? noisily? : The shamtag flomes stottily, as if the glaud in its dugrid were vorling its juffet.
tandry adj. strong? hardy? heavy? : Even untophthed, the duscat is tandrier than you.
thale adj. empty : The chender is thale.
tondam n. ? [setting of the game as a whole, eg: school, hospital, monastery]: "Well, there's a delcot and a morleon. And until the gamda tophthed the morleon, there were drokes."
tophth v. imbue with darkness : Gostaks distim, not tophth.
vold v. frighten? repel? : You can't vold yourself! // [The duscat] must have been volded from the delcot by the gheliper. // The gheliper is volded by her own skades!
vorl v. guard, protect : At least [the raskable glaud] can vorl the doshery from the gitches. // Vorling is the fesh of ghelipers. // The gheliper deaves gurr the doshes, vorling them. // Since the gheliper is vorling them, the gheliper is distimmed instead.
waint v. ? : Darfs of jenth are scurm! It's a wainted falliger.
warb n. worm : A warb degombs the brangy. // Your gitch zanks and leils your warb.
wass adj. eager? needful? : [The doshes are] wass to be distimmed. Pell at the doshery! This is your fesh!
whomm adj. [best type of darf, like a dagwood sandwich, or a pizza with "the works"] : Snave, very snave. There's so much koldgeon in this darf, you can't tunk it for more than a camling.
xyzzy v. ? : You xyzzy deave, unheamily.
zankage n. violence : Zankage isn't the answer to this one.
zarf v. ? : How can I zarf you? There is nothing to zarf.
Index / davidwelbourn(a)hotmail*com / last update: Oct 25, 2007.

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