Species and Language

A new species gains sentience

In the last post, we created a world map for the worldbuilding project, and a starting biome for our avian species. The map of the world looks like this:

Biome

Our avian species will start their journey to sentience in the mountain range near the equator on the central continent of the world. This biome is described briefly below:

Equatorial mountain biome - hot, rocky soil, relatively sparse tree cover

Major Predator: Large raptor-like creature with leathery wings, uses thermals to stay in the air for hours

Minor Predator: medium-sized feline with heat-dissipating fur and retractable claws, hunts during cooler hours

Minor predator: Snakes with scales, infrared senses, basks on cliff faces during the day and hunts at dusk

Scavenger: Canine with sturdy legs and keen sense of smell, looks for carcasses but will attack a wounded creature if it thinks it can get away with it

Major Prey: Large herbivore with sturdy legs, hump on back to store water, thick leathery skin, can go days without water

Medium Prey: solitary mammals with hooves that can grip nearly sheer surfaces, go to hard-to-reach vegetation

Medium Prey: small creatures with large ears, primarily nocturnal, jump from rock to rock

Minor Prey: Small mouse with fur that holds heat in (to prevent being spotted by IR senses) - hold heat and then dissipates it when it finds water (or feels safe?). Build underground homes

Minor Prey: small lizard that feeds on insects and takes shelter under rocks

Food: Mountain Grass - tough, fibrous plant, can be used for grain

Food: Mountain tuber - root vegetable that grows beneath the rocky soil

Resource - Stone that emits a low glow, can be used for lighting

Resource - plants with durable fibers, reflect the sun’s rays

To get initial inspiration, I entered the following prompt into ChatGPT: “In a biome with the following characteristics, an avian species that is slightly smaller than human-sized begins to develop sentience. Describe this species and how it can use tools, as well as what the initial social structure is like”

I regenerated a few times, and didn’t get a lot of things that I liked. However, a few results stood out. In one response, ChatGPT included this paragraph “Wings: Though they can fly, the tough environment means they need stronger, broader wings for powerful and short flights, especially during quick escapes.” I really like this idea - rather than being a long-term flier, the avian species we’re creating usually does short flights. I expanded this idea a little further, deciding that they were incapable of flight from a flat surface - they need to jump off of a cliff or tree in order to achieve flight. If they are on a flat surface, they can use their wings to get some extra height and extra time in the air, but they will not be able to maintain flight.

In another response, the following paragraph also stood out “Feet: Talon-like, with opposable digits similar to a thumb for grasping objects. Strong enough to grip the rocky surfaces and to handle tools.” I nearly discarded this idea off the bat, since it seems that a species couldn’t use their feet to handle tools, since they need them to stand. However, as I considered it more, I began to warm to the idea. One of my goals is to explore a species with a very different mentality and processes than humans, and a species that needs to use its feet to handle tools definitely will cause such a difference. In addition, my mind immediately began wondering how that would work, what they would do to make use of tools when they need the same appendage to stand. In addition, it makes sense with the biome I’ve already created - with a large portion of their diet small mammals that burrow, it makes some sense that their foot talons are particularly dexterous and sensitive.

With this, and a few other aspects that I pulled together, I have the following description of my new avian species:

Avian Species:

Approximately 5 to 5.5 feet tall. Wingspan is 7 to 8 feet ¹

Plumage: Primarily greenish-brown feathers (camouflage among green vegetation and brown mountainside)

Wings: Strong, broad wings, used for short flights — cannot lift off vertically, need to jump off a cliff face or other horizontal surface. Can use wings to assist in jumping to reach a higher handhold in a tree or cliff

Wing talons: Tough and strong, but not very flexible - can grasp things, but cannot do dexterous work

Feet talons: Multi-jointed, flexible and strong, with opposable joint, allowing for tool manipulation - evolved for pulling the mouse-like creatures out of burrows or tubers out of soil

Wing and feet talons are both semi-opposable, allowing tool use. Feet talons are more dexterous, so the avians either balance on one leg or hang from something when doing something that requires tool use (may need to develop this idea further)

Social Structure: Clan units of extended families, limited specialization

Shelter: Caves or crevices in cliffs, illuminated with glowing stones. Sun-reflective fibers are used to drape entrance, to reflect light away and to limit IR vision of possible predators

Culture: Reverence for the sun

I tried to use Stable Diffusion (the AI art generator) to generate a picture of this species, but I wasn’t able to get anything close enough to what I imagined. As I mentioned in the previous post, you can use an AI art generator to get a general vibe or idea, but if you have a specific image in your head, it is very difficult to produce what you’re looking for. I’ll have to try and do some more experimenting.²

Language

Next, it was time to develop a basic language. I used the following ChatGPT prompt: “Develop a very basic language for the species below, which lives in the equatorial mountain biome described further below.” As of yet, the species has no tools or sophisticated culture, so the language will not include any such words.

One thing that I noticed about the responses was that a number of them were just English words slightly changed (or not changed at all). For example, in one response, I got:

• Cani (scavenger canine): Opportunist.

• Humplo (large herbivore): Major prey with water storage.

• Gripa (grip-hooved prey): Tough prey.

• Noctoo (nocturnal rock jumper): Night prey.

• Moosa (heat-holding mouse): Popular prey.

• Lizzin (small insect-eating lizard): Common sight.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to have “lizzin” be the word for a lizard. This was particularly disappointing because when I did a similar prompt as an initial experiment several months ago, it didn’t have any problem generating totally new words that didn’t refer to real words. This is the first time that I’ve actually run into the often-described complaint that ChatGPT is less effective now than it was a few months ago.

I ended up adding the following sentences to the prompt, which helped but did not totally fix the problem. “When adding new terms, be creative and think through how an avian species would refer to things. Do not base any words off of real words that refer to the thing described.”

A note on language - obviously, a bird creature doesn’t necessarily have sounds that can be transcribed easily into language. If I wanted to really create a real language for these creatures, I would have done it all in musical notes. The lexicon below tries to explain what these words sound like in a bird-like way. However, as I have the language develop, it’ll develop in the way human language does, since that’s what I know, and won’t necessarily stay ‘bird-like.’ While that’s a failing that I’ve noted, I’ve decided to proceed anyway, rather than take several years to get a degree in both linguistics and ornithology and understand how a bird language would really sound and develop.

Again, as I did with the biome and the description, I regenerated several times, and took the parts that I liked most from each. This creates the following lexicon:

Basics:

• Eek - me - short call

• Yik - you (based on Eek but longer and lower)

• Eekru - them (eek plus a trailing sound)

• Eekrraw - us (eek plus a rising and reverberating sound) - also refers to clan

• Krii - yes — high-pitched rising short call - also means safety and goodness

• Kruu - no - declining short call - also means badness and danger

Culture:

• Yikkrii - elder/wise one (you-yes)

Environment:

• Rai - sun - reverberating call

• Taal - ground/stone/soil - medium-length low-pitched call

• Tuur - underground - lowering call

• Trrak - water - soft, rolling call, sounds like a river

• Varrk - air/above - medium-length high-pitched call

• Rai’krii - (sun-yes) day

• Rai’kruu - (sun-no) night

• Eekrraw’krii - (us-yes) cave/shelter (i.e., safety for us)

• Taal’rai (ground-sun) - the lighted stones

• Taal’varrk - (ground-air) - jumping off points for flight - cliffs or tall trees

• Varrk’eek (air-me) - flight

Creatures:

• Tikk - eater - as in creatures that eat

• Jilk - eaten - as in creatures that the avians eat

• Skik - walker - as in creatures that walk (instead of fly)

• Taal’tikk - (ground-eater) medium feline predator

• Tikk’Rai’kruu - (eater-night) snake

• Varrk-tikk (sky-eater) - raptor-like creature

• Tikk’kruu (eater-no) - scavenger creature (i.e., eater of the dead)

• Trrak’skik (water-walker) the large herbivore

• Skik’taal’vaark (walker-ground-air) the mammals that can climb sheer surfaces

• Rai’kruu’jilk (night-eaten) the nocturnal rabbit-like creatures

• Tuur’jilk (underground-eaten) the mice-like creatures that burrow

• Jilk’taal (eaten-rock) the lizards

Plants:

• Tiir - plant

• Tiir-tuur (plant-underground) - tuber

• Rai’tiir - (sun-plant) - sun-reflecting fiber

• Trrak’tiir (plant-water) - mountain grass (because it ripples in the wind like water)

• Varrk’tiir (sky-plant) - trees

Talon clicks and clacks are used to express excitement and other emotions

Talon emotions:

• Excitement - rapid talon clicks in succession

• Warning - sharp, loud talon clacks

• Contentment - slow, soft, rythmic taps

A few example sentences:

• “Yikkrii taal’tikk kruu” - The elder says the ground eater is bad

• “Taal’varrk krii” - this cliff is good to jump from

• “Eek tuur’jilk krii” - I found/ate a good mouse

This is a very simple language, and it is very context based. The same sentence can mean totally different things based on the context.

This language is obviously a bit boring and uninteresting. All of the basic concepts are repeated in multiple words, which causes them to be very similar and hard to distinguish. As a language for a world in a novel or story, it leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately, I never intended to keep it as is. In fact, I’m going to immediately change it, to create the actual first language. In a sense, the language above is the ‘proto-language’ that Earth linguists have dreamed of finding for Earth languages for centuries.

Language Development

Languages don’t stay the same. They develop over time and take on new forms. I took the above lexicon, and entered it into ChatGPT along with the following prompt:

“You are a language history simulator. You simulate the changes of language over time based on the Principles of Linguistic Change by William Labov. You are simulating the changes of a sentient avian species as described below. Take the below lexicon and simulate the changes of each of the words over time.”

This prompt successfully created language changes for all of the words. One major hiccup is that it changed all compound words exactly as it did their base words. I.e, if ‘tiir’ (plant) became ‘tur,’ and ‘tuur’ (underground) became ‘ter,’ then ‘tiir-tuur’ (tuber) became ‘tur-ter.’ I want each of the words to develop independently, as they do in real life, because that creates a much more interesting language. Luckily, my usually tactic of generating multiple times to create different results works perfectly for this. If one generation changed one way, and another changed a different way, I just took one for the individual word and a different for the compound word.

One of the coolest things that ChatGPT created, which I didn’t prompt or expect, was the introduction of verbs during one of the generations. The below paragraph surprised me, and makes a pretty awesome change. I discarded the past-tense marker for now - I want to keep the language simple for the time being.

The new lexicon is below:

Basics:

• Eke - me

• Yik - you

• Eeru - them

• Erraw - us

• Kri - yes

• Krew - no

Culture:

• Yeekree - elder

• Eke’ti - youngling (me-small)

• Yik’tikk - traitor/murderer/evildoer (you-predator)

Verbs:

• KrVarrk’ee - to fly

• KrJilk - to eat

• KrTaal - to stand/land

• KrRai’tiir - to defend (from the old word for the sun-reflecting fibers)

Other:

• ‘ti - suffix for small

Environment:

• Raa - sun

• Tal - ground/stone/soil

• Tor - underground

• Tarak - water

• Varr - air/above

• Ray’kree - day

• Raikru - night

• Raa’kruki - sunset/sunrise

• Eek’rawi - cave/shelter/home

• Tal’rai - the lighted stones

• Taavark - jumping off points for flight - cliffs or tall trees

• Varrkree - flight

Creatures:

• Tikk - predator

• Jilk - eaten - as in creatures that the avians eat

• Skik - walker - as in creatures that walk (instead of fly)

• Taat’k - medium feline predator

• Tik’Rakuu - snake

• Varktik - raptor-like creature

• Ti’kruu - scavenger creature (i.e., eater of the dead)

• Trarak - the large herbivore

• Skiktaalak - the mammals that can climb sheer surfaces

• Raakruu’jilk - the nocturnal rabbit-like creatures

• Tuur’jeek’ti - the mice-like creatures that burrow

• Jilk’tal - the lizards

Plants:

• Tir - plant

• Tiirtur - tuber

• Tir’raa - sun-reflecting fibers

• Trra’tiir - mountain grass

• Varsk’ti - trees

The old sample sentences in the new language, and a few new ones:

• “Yeekree taat’k krew” - The elder says the ground eater is bad

• “Taavark kri” - this cliff is good to jump from

• “Eke KrJilk Tuur’jeek’ti kri” - I found/ate a good mouse (this sentence is more complex than the original, with the addition of the verb and the diminuitive to the mouse word)

• “Eke KrVarrk’ee taavark” - I fly/flew to/from that cliff (again, context is everything in this language)

• “Erraw KrRai’tiir Vark-tik” - We defend ourselves from the sky-raptor

A couple of other cool things in the changes of language. First, ‘pejoration’ is the process by which words acquire a more negative meaning. In this case, ‘tikk,’ which previously meant ‘eater’ now means predator, and with the addition of ‘yik’ or ‘you’ now can mean a traitor or murderer - Yik’tikk.

‘Metaphorical extension’ is the process by which words take on additional or metaphorical meanings. Rai’tiir, which meant ‘sun-reflecting fiber’ now means ‘shield.’ In its place, a new word is produced from the new words for plan and sun, ‘tir’raa,’ to mean the sun-reflecting fibers.

You may have noticed that I spent much more time and effort on the language than I did on the description of the species itself. That is certainly true and is part of the basic tenets of worldbuilding - if you are having fun developing some aspect of the world, continue doing it. If you aren’t, just do the minimum necessary to support the rest of your worldbuilding, then continue on.

Now, with a description and an initial language, it’s time to spread out across the globe. The next post will be the first spreading out of the Eekrraw (‘us’ in the first proto-language - I’ll use this as the word for the species until a better one comes up).

1. One of the ChatGPT responses had the species the size of a raven, which I immediately dismissed. Thinking about it a few days later, I think that could have been an interesting direction to go to have them much smaller than humans, but I’ve already made my decision. One of the hardest parts of worldbuilding is not tinkering with things once you make a decision.

2. Here are three of the images I produced. The third one isn’t terrible, but it’s still not what I’m looking for.