In language the question of what exactly can be used to transfer information is frequently brought to our attention. Sometimes this information is obscure and difficult to detect: micro-expressions are a perfect example. While fleeting and inchoate, the smallest symbols can tell us more about a person's story and character.
Most of these are by now a subconscious recourse brought about by history and culture – communal devices, as language is typically a communal conundrum. Things like colour are indicative of sectors within society (green = nature, red = emergency, blue = government/corporations), and even sounds are given distinctions (rapid notes = liveliness, softer music = sorrow). We don't really need to stop to consider these – they are just things most of us know.
But it doesn't stop there. The layers of complexity compound with obscurity. Say for example we look at angles versus curves. If you live in a city, you quickly come to understand that angles feature heavily in architecture and engineering, while curves are a good deal less common outside of the natural world. We then compare the reliability of man-made technology with natural design (mechanic versus organic) and conclude that the organic curves are sustainable and godly while angles are brutal and basic. At the point this association was realised people started to incorporate circular buildings and sleek, curvacious logos.
That's just one example. The part of Hexaemer that I'm considering at the moment is that of constituents at their most basic level – the alphabet.
At what point do we start assigning value to parts of words? There are of course prefixes and suffixes, by which we can determine that arrangements like 'pre' indicate 'before', or 'ing' denotes the present tense.
It goes deeper. Think back to first grade. How did they make you remember your alphabet?
A is for Apple.
B is for Boy.
C is for Cat.
At that point – as though it were not enough to take a bunch of addled toddlers and make them remember 26 distinct letters – we started to give additional value to the most basic pieces of our language.
A is for Apple = Nature = Ordinary = Bitter = Earth = Growth = Sustenance = Positive
B is for Boy = Masculine = Incomplete = Bravery = Honour = Rebellion
C is for Cat = Agile = Wild = Pain = Capricious = Sharp = Cruel = Domesticated
These first encounters with each letter change how we think of them, and therefore how we use them. We may decide to use the word 'Mystery' rather than 'Puzzle' because 'Mystery' involves Machines, Yoyos (up & down motion), Robbers, and Snakes
rather than Zebras, Umbrellas, Pencils and Lions.
As we begin to learn new words, popularity affects our understanding, too:
---------------------
Popular Vowels
a
e
i
----------------------
Popular Constanants
c
r
s
t
l
m
n
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Average Vowels:
o
-----------------------
Average Constanants:
b
d
f
g
h
k
p
v
w
y
------------------------
Obscure Vowels:
u
-------------------------
Obscure Constanants:
q
z
j
x
--------------------
We stick with words that have familiar sounds to the ones we already know, because we are likely to remember what they are by analysing their parts.
The reverse is true, too; the sorts of words that letters frequently occur within give them new semantic value: like 'K'. K is a combination of a hard sound with forceful intent; kinetic, kick, crack, brick – after coming into contact with enough of these, we reach out for words with the K sound when we are describing brute mechanisms.
In Hexaemer, all of this is very important, because it is not solely a written language, a spoken language, or a musical language – it is a blend of all forms of communication. Because I am not a godly mind-over-matter force of nature, I have of course based the language around the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the most common blends of each letter (le; tt; er). Because I am not a drooling matter-over-mind force of ignorance, I have taken it a step further. The symbol
has the English equivalent of 's', but actually stands for 'A common soft-form dependent participle with deceptive undercurrents and fluid motion'. This could just as easily apply to a musical note like 'Middle C', or to a subatomic particle, like an electron.
Yay. Only several hundred more Sigils to go.
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