Tpal (language)

Tpal (also known as Orange Hands or Orange Eye Sign Language) is the language of P|o Tbrov. It is a sign language.
== Writing ==
TbropalC is the closest that Tpal has to writing. It is not a true writing system, but instead acts as a visual aid to remind a storyteller about a story. It is written on blackshells with adhesive clay, sand, crushed rocks and colourings. It is made of tiny coloured pictures, often somewhat representative of the colour-handshape of signs. It does not encode the language so cannot be read, instead stories or instructions must be memorised while looking at the shell and repeated later on the hands. Each shell is a unique work of art and can be exchanged as a high value form of currency. The Black-Plethora library (Cbro<..>Cbro) is made up of many collected shells and archivists that remember the stories of all of them and educate new students as to their meaning.
== Phonemes / Morphemes ==
In Tpal all phonemes are morphemes. The romanisation exists purely as a way to document the language for out of universe demonstration. In documentation the least number of phonemes necessary for a recognisable sign are documented.
Handshapes 	Handshapes
Description 	Short
Thumb (rest of hand fist) - Eye, Orange/Yellow 	T
Open fist - Mouth, Red 	O
Splayed Hand - Plant, Green 	5
Cupped Hand - Dark, Black 	C
Index pointing with thumb up - small fish, silver, white 	L, iL or 1L
2 fingers pointing, together, straight, thumb up - smallish fish, brown	iiL or 2L
3 fingers pointing, together, straight, thumb up - bigish fish, purple 	iiiL or 3L
4 fingers pointing, together, straight, thumb - big fish, blue 	iiiiL or 4L
Pinkie raised (rest of hand fist) - person 	P, iP or 1P
Pinkie + another finger - 2 people or small group 	iiP or 2P
Pinkie + 2 other finger - a fire, glowing, 3 or big group of people 	iiiP or 3P
Flat hand fingers together, thumb tucked - copula/demonstative 	B
Flat Hand, fingers together, thumb at a right angle upward - boat 	BL
Resting handshape (between signs, not strict) 	R
Handshapes are the shape the hand takes when making a sign.
Placement 	Placement
Description	Short
Lips 	lip
Brow 	bro
Cheek 	che
Cheekbone 	bon
Hair 	har
Nosebridge 	nos
Arm 	arm
Elbow 	elb
Wrist 	wri
Palm 	pal
Fingertips 	fin
Fingertips 	fin
Placement is where the sign is placed on the body. No placement means that its in front of the body in signspace.
Movement 	Movement
Description 	Short
Upward 	^
Downward 	v
Right 	>
Left 	<
Forward 	.
Backward 	*
Circle 	o
Half Circle 	u or c
Repeat 	”
Hand Shake/Wiggle	w
Finger wiggle 	~
Movement is the movement done while signing.
Orientation 	Orientation
Description 	Short
Palm upward (underscore)	_’
Point upward 	’ or
Palm doward (underscore)	_,
Point downard 	,
Vertical 	or l
Horizontal 	_ or (underline)
Orientation is the orientation of the hand when signing. The <'> and <,> grapheme are often dropped.
NMF 	NMF
Description 	Short
Head Tilt (question) 	
Dip head and close eyes, blowing out air (rest) 	
Chin raise and disgusted nose scrunch with slight head wiggle (negative) 	
Jutt head forward sharply (imperative) 	
Chin raise and flared eyes (want) 	
Shaking the head side to side, mouth open (distress) 	
Smile and jolt up (feel good) 	
Tongue out pulled in quickly (certainty, effort) 	
Mouth open, close and blow air, eyes wide, signed with extra force (emphasis, amazement)	
Shaking head, lips pursed (physical feeling) 	
Lean back (first person) 	-linb
Lean back (second person) 	-linf
Lean in a direction (third person) 	-lin1, -lin2, -lin3 (etc)
NMFs or Non Manual Features are what the face, shoulders or other parts of the body do in a sign.
Other 	Other
Two hands signing at the same time, touching 	AB or A+B
Two signing hands at the same time, not touching 	AxB or A + B
Opposite hand (modifier to handshape) 	opA
Hold from previous sign (modifier to handshape) 	hoA
Becomes (between handshapes) 	A=B
Direct mirroring of both hands (treated like a movement) 	Am
Fingerspelling (makes following letters into fingerspelling letters)	()A
()FRS
== Romanisation Orthographic Rules ==
=== One handed signs ===
- (handshape) (orientation) (movement 1) (placement) (movement 2) (NMF)
E.g. Tpal, Tlvpalo-aaaa
=== Two handed signs ===
Either: 
- same as above but with + or x in between 
e.g. C_,ches<*xC_,ches>*
(left handshape) (left orientation) (left placement) (movement 2, left hand) (movement 1, left hand) (+ or x) (movement 1 right hand) (movement 2 right hand) (right handshape) (right orientation) (right placement).
E.g. C_,ches*<>*C_,ches 
=== General ===
Written signs can and should be reduced to only morphemically relevant phonemes, not every phonemes need to be written. The writing system is a memory aide not an IPA.
E.g. Tl,vpal” can be written Tpal.
A movement before a placement can be interpreted to be moving before coming to the placement (movement 1), whereas movement after a placement can be interpreted as moving away from the placement or along the placement area (movement 2).
E.g. 5nos^ is a 5 handshape moving up way from the nose. 5^nos is a 5 handshape moving up from underneath to the nose.
The orthography is NOT used in universe. This orthography is a loose way to document signs and act as a memory aide. This is also NOT a system that is usable for any other sign language without major adaptations. If you wish to adapt this system to another sign language, feel free to copy this document and change any part of it.
== Grammar ==
Tpal uses topic comment sentence structure. This means objects are stated before any actions or descriptions. It therefore mostly manifests as SOV or OSV (interchangeably) as well as head initial constructions in noun-adjective constructions. Nouns agree in motion/sign-space to the verb/adjective. Verbs/adjectives will take the same sign-space as the noun and nouns will take the motion of verbs.
Tpal 	Gloss 	English
o T. 	PERSON SEE 	The person looks.
o 5^. T. 	PERSON PLANT SEE 	The person sees a tree.
o< 5< B< 	PERSON(left) GREEN(left) COPULA(left) 	That person is green.
o.1 5.1 5^.2 T.12	PERSON(placement 1) GREEN(placement 1) PLANT(placement 2) SEE(from placement 1 to placement 2)	That green person sees a tree.
Tpal is highly synthetic, and uses both fusional and agglutinative structures. If two signs can be signed simultaneously they often will be with each hand - usually indicating that there is one object OR two objects that coexist in the same time and space (or abstract equivalent). This can be used for simple adjectives, and verbs and in this case the noun doesn't need to take the adjective/verb's motion. This is VERY OFTEN used for patterns.
<op> indicates that the hand used is the opposite to the dominant hand. If no op is present then either it doesn't matter which hand is which OR the dominant hand is first followed by the secondary hand. <ho> is used to indicate that the handshape is held from the previous sign and not resigned. <+> (without spaces) is used to indicate that the two hands and therefore objects are touching. < + >(with space either side) is used to indicate the hands are not touching and there is physical or abstract distance between the objects.
Tpal 	Gloss 	English
Pl+5v 	PERSON+GREEN 	The green person.
Plo+5v opPl+Ov 	PERSON+GREEN PERSON+RED 	The green person and the red person.
1L+5v ho1L+O."""	FISH+GREEN (held)FISH+RED(pecking)	The green fish with red spots.
The copula/demonstrative is used for clarification and can be dropped when not needed. It can be used to make it clear that the object/s are in a certain location or that the sentence said was actually a 'noun is adjective' or 'noun is noun' sentence in cases where that may be unclear or confused for 'noun and noun' or 'noun does verb'.
Pronouns are dropped.
Nouns align with verbs in motion. In SOV sentences Object aligns with Verb. In SV or SAdj sentences, Subject aligns with verb or adjective.
The <.> phoneme can be towards slightly different directions, indicating slightly different objects. If multiple of these are in the same sentence it will be written as <.1> <.2> <.3> up to <.9>. If a verb goes between these placments then it is written <.12> or <.65>.
== Dictionaries and Translations ==
=== toki pona to Tpal - assorted and incomplete. ===	
=== toki pona to Tpal - assorted and incomplete. ===	
=== toki pona to Tpal - assorted and incomplete. ===
toki pona 	English 	Tpal
anpa 	under 	opR+Rv
ante 	different 	opR+Ro>
ale 	everything 	Ro
ijo 	thing 	R' or B'
jaki 	disgusting 	R:lip-negv
jan 	person 	'
jelo 	yellow 	T:
jelo loje 	orange 	T
loje 	red 	O
kala lili 	small fish 	1L
kala moku 	medium fish 	2L
kala linja 	eel/medium large fish	3L
kala suli 	big fish (predators) 	4L
kala pi selo kiwen	shellfish 	C
kasi 	plant 	5
kasi suli 	tree 	5^
kasi telo 	seaweed 	5o
kili telo 	seafruit 	5o+Oo
kiwen lili 	rocks, pebbles 	,v"
kiwen meso 	rock (medium sized) 	Rv + Rv
ko 	clay, sand, etc 	Ro,+Ro'
kulupu jan 	community, group 	o
lape 	sleep 	Cbrov-rest
laso 	blue 	4L
lawa 	head 	Bbroharchelip
len 	clothing 	Rhippec
lete 	cold 	'o-oooo
lete walo sewi 	snow 	'<v>"""-oooo
lili 	small 	R> + R<
linja lawa 	hair 	Bhar
luka 	hand 	+ B or Bpal
lukin 	look 	T
lukin/oko 	eye 	Tbro
moku 	eat 	O: or Rlip*
=== 2 Continents Standard Translations === 	
=== 2 Continents Standard Translations ===
Man 	’
Woman 	’
Tree 	5^
A man 	
The man 	
That man there 	. B. (or P|< B< or P|> B>)
That (said) man 	. B. (or P|< B< or P|> B>)
Sleep 	Cbro*-rest
The man sleeps 	Cbro
The man slept 	Cbro
The man will sleep 	Cbro
The man sees the tree 	5^. T.
The man will see the tree 	5^. T.
The man saw the tree 	5^. T.
The man who saw the tree sleeps 	5^. T. P|v Cbrov-lokd
The man, who saw the tree, sleeps 	5^. T. P|v Cbrov-lokd
Does the man see the tree? 	5^. T. (hetl)
Where did the man see the tree? 	5^. T. Bo(hetl)
I know where the man saw the tree. 	5^. T. Bo. (or Bo> or Bo<)
The tree which the man saw. 	5^. T. … 5^.
The man is at the tree. 	.
The man is tall. 	^ T^
I 	*
You (sing.) 	.
He 	> or P|<
She 	> or P|<
It 	n/a
We (excl.) 	o*
We (incl.) 	o
You (pl.) 	o.
They (pl.) 	o
The place where the man saw the tree. 	5^ T B,.
If I see the tree, I’ll sleep. 	5^. T. Cbro
When I sleep, I see the man. 	. T.
Had I seen/if I had seen the tree, I would have slept.	5^. T. Cbro … 5^. T.-negv Cbro-negv B-negv
You, sleep! 	Cbro-peck
I should sleep. (Benefit) 	Cbro-peck
You shouldn’t/won’t sleep. (Precept) 	Cbro-peck B-negv
I want to sleep. 	Cbro-cmon
My tree is green. 	5^. 5.
=== Lexember Translation Challenge === 	
=== Lexember Translation Challenge ===
sun 	iiiP^-emph {3 finger pinkie handshape rising} Sun, moon, celestial object.
moon 	iiiP^ {3 finger pinkie handshape rising} Sun, moon, celestial object.
star 	iiiP^oxiiiP^o {3 Finger Pinkie
world 	
sky 	iiiPiiiP<>-lukup {Two 3 finger pinkie hands spreading outwards, looking up}
rock 	Cv"pal {C handshape on the palm tapping down twice} Small rock. Cv"xCv" {Two C handshape tapping down twice} Big rock.
ocean 	Rarm>~
mountain 	C^C^>< {C handshapegoing upwards coming together} Mountain.
field 	5v"5v" {splayed handshape tapping down twice} Field, Shrubland, area of small vegetation.
shore 	R*arm>~
flower 	O^ 5 {O handshape moving upward becoming a splayed handshape} Flower, flowering plant. Change ^ for v or > or < if flowers sprout from a different direction.
tree 	5l^ {Splayed hanshape moving upward} Tree, tall plant.
seed 	5palv {Splayed handshape moving down from the palm} Seed, a plant that is planted.
vegetables 	5lpal^ {Splayed handshape coming up from palm} Vegetable, a plant taken from the ground.
fish 	iL, iiL, iiiL, iiiiL {L handshape with 1, 2, 3 and 4 fingers respectively} Small, Smallish, Bigish and Big fish respectively.
bird 	B {B handshape pointing forward} Bird (root word)
insect 	Pw {Wiggled pinkie} insect (root word)
cattle 	CharxChar {C hands on head/hair like horns} Cattle, anything with horns.
person 	Pl {Perpendicular pinkie}
adult 	opPlPl^ {Perpendicular pinkie rising from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Adult, parent grandparent, guardian, elder, someone who raises children or guides others.
child 	opPlPlv {Perpendicular pinkie lowering from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Child, offspring, someone who is cared for, son, daughter.
everyone/humanity 	PloxPlo-emph {Two hands in perpendicular pinkies twirling around whie making an emphatic face} Everyone, all groups, all people.
hand 	B'pal {Flat hand gesturing at palm, perpendicular face up} Hand, palm, fingers.
head 	B'har {Flat hand gesturing at palm, perpendicular face up} head, hair, face.
blood 	B'wriO {Flat hand gesturing at wrist, opposite hand in an O, perpendicular face up} Blood, veins, 'the red stuff that comes out if you cut here'
stomach 	B'pecv {Flat hand gesturing at chest then moving down, perpendicular face up} Stomach, body.
to heal (cure) sb. 	5lippecv-aaaa R^-braf {Splay hand gesturing at lips then chest then moving down while looking distressed. Becomes resting hand moving up while looking like you feel good} Curing, consuming a plant then getting better, medicine
to heal (get better) 	R^-braf {BIresting hand moving up while looking like you feel good} Get better (general), feel good (general), feel better (general)
parent 	opPlPl^ {Perpendicular pinkie rising from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Adult, parent grandparent, guardian, elder, someone who raises children or guides others.
offspring, child, son, daughter 	opPlPlv {Perpendicular pinkie lowering from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Child, offspring, someone who is cared for, son, daughter.
son 	opPlPlv {Perpendicular pinkie lowering from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Child, offspring, someone who is cared for, son, daughter.
daughter 	opPlPlv {Perpendicular pinkie lowering from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Child, offspring, someone who is cared for, son, daughter.
sibling 	opPlPl> {Perpendicular pinkie moving vertically away from from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Sibling, equal, comrade, close friend, brother, sister
brother 	opPlPl> {Perpendicular pinkie moving vertically away from from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Sibling, equal, comrade, close friend, brother, sister
sister 	opPlPl> {Perpendicular pinkie moving vertically away from from opposite perpendicular pinkie} Sibling, equal, comrade, close friend, brother, sister
family 	opPlPl^ opPlPlv opPlPl> {Combination of Parent, Offspring, Sibling} Family, family unit. Emphasise to mean wider family or society at large.
to attract 	opPlPl>< {Perpendicular pinkie coming together} Meet (humans). (add -emph) attract (humans), (change handshape) meet/attract (non-humans)
attractive, hot 	T.ches-ooo=Rches*-bra
to mate 	opPlPl>< opPlPlv {Combine 'attract' and 'child'} Meet and have a baby (humans).
birth 	opPlPl>< opPlPlv {Combine 'attract' and 'child'} Meet and have a baby (humans).
to be born 	opPlPl>< opPlPlv-emph {Combine 'attract' and 'child' whith emphasis on 'child'} Meet and have a baby, the experience of the being born (humans).
gender (societal, identity, presentation etc)	n/a (describe clothing/behaviour)
sexual preference 	n/a (describe)
bodily sex 	n/a (reffer to specific body trait)
=== Other Translations === 	
=== Other Translations ===
Help, my hovercraft is full of eels!	3Lpal>”””+BL^-aaaa
 	
== Additional information ==
* Pronouns are almost always dropped when possible
* Nouns align with verbs in motion. In SOV sentences Object aligns with Verb. In SV or S-Adj sentences, subject aligns with verb or adjective.
* The motion phonemes/morphemes (such as <.>) can be towards slightly different directions, indicating different objects in that direction. If multiple of these are in the same sentence it will be written as <.1> <.2> <.3> etc.
Category:Languages