A modest spell-system
Magic spells have always bothered me. If you point a wand and say “blah!” what happens? What happens if you say “yrplaq!”? Maybe there’s a way to systematize this.
Here are the 100 most common concepts in languages (tell me if you know a better list)
And here are the most common phonemes in world languages (again, tell me if you disagree)
i=to, e=from, ɛ=in, iː=of, ə=out
o=and, u=or, uː=if
p=be, b=do, m=present, f=person, v=then
t=have, d=get, s=take, z=other, r=now, ɾ=maybe, l=here, n=see, n̪=very ʃ=use, ʒ=work, t̪=way, d̪=give
k=come, g=go, w=like, j=know, ŋ=will, ɲ=good,
ʔ(glottal stop)=say, h=new, x=want
˦=question
˨=past
So for example, take out your wand (carved from human bone, of course), point at yourself, and say “pɔn!” (be+not+see). You’re invisible. Point it at your opponent and say “ɔn!” and they’re now blind. Point at yourself and say “gi[place name]” and teleport. Say “[Something]kil” and summon that thing. Use tones correctly and you can re-write the past or foresee the future. Easy!
There are more sounds, mapping to more unusual concepts. Thaumaturges either have to train themselves to pronounce weirder phonemes or cludge together complex concepts from simpler building blocks.
Works cited:
http://web.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de/...
https://jacobsonb.wordpress.com/2011/...
