Base Overlays in the Earth Language System


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The model of the EL ideogram is the system of nature

Nature has many levels: atoms gather and form a molecule; molecules gather and form an organ;
and organs form a human or a tree and etc. When a human and a tree are on higher level than organs,
and organs are higher than molecules, the upper level thing contains all of lower level things,
but it is different from the elements. They have new shapes and work in a new way
differently from their lower levels.

EL base has a little fuzzy but stable rule, you've learned.
But the ideogram system has flexibility for applicative usages.
A base overlay combination is modeled on the system of nature.
However EL users are humans, so base overlays are also made thinking of convenience from the human side.
(If not, the ideogram for human has to be very complicated characters.)

The definitions are set as the following four ways:

(1) Hieroglyphics type

Some base overlays are formed as picture-like fundamental ideograms,
using bases as the parts of the shape: you have to memorize them,
but it's easy, because the shapes can tell what they are.
E.g.
: flower (a flower shape){ plant, heart} (a fundamental character)
: tree (a tree shape){ nature, plant} (a fundamental character)

The above two are both related to plants; and it's easy to remember the meanings.
But sometimes a fundamental character does not relate to the meanings of its elements,
indicating the meaning by the total shape as an icon.
E.g.
fish (a fish shape): { go, time, sense} (a picture-like fundamental character)
{, }: horn (a picture-like fundamental character, unrelated to the bases meanings)
There should be limited to this kind of hieroglyphic ideograms.

(2) Abstract symbols

An intangible matter related to (direction), (angle), (movement) and comparison
like (same), (much), (little) can be commonly understood with a little rule
through an abstract shape as various angle lines and arrows.

There are the following cases:

Related to the EL writing direction:
As well as the bases settings, meanings of some characters are also set related to the writing direction.

: return(ing) { original direction, move}
: go(ing) { heading to, move}
: past { time, }
: future {time, }
: to form a d-verb in the past tense { d-verb-symbol, }
: to form a d-verb in the future tense { d-verb-symbol, }
: the right side {, }
: drop/fall {, down} 

Psychologically
Some basic vocabularies are difficult to show by shapes such as (a thing), (an element), (time), (value) etc. This kind of fundamental characters are made through some psychological relation between shapes and meanings.

: public {identification for pronoun kind, opened}
: color { abstract concept, a part of light}

These fundamental abstract cgaracters also should not be used too much, not to be confused with the case of (3).
However there will be plenty of ability to use this way for new important concepts in the future.

(3) Combination of the images of the elements

Most traditional and artificial languages use this way to create a new word.
Tele-scope, tele-phone, bio-chemistry and sky-line are some examples in English.
But combining more than three vocabularies to create one word is usually hard in English.

In EL, a combination of several root meanings at once is available,
and once you memorized the image of each base and fundamental character,
you can guess the meaning of this type of character, even if you see the base overlay for the first time.
If we keep the main settings constantly, we always can seek our own expression ways
by newly combining and arranging the fundamental ideograms,
globally understanding each other beyond time.
: garden {human-made, nature, place}

(4) The mixtures/combination among (1), (2) and (3) with some simplification

This way is used quite flexibly even by your own creation.
But by the sequence of getting the meanings of the elements, the total image can be changed.
So it still needs to rule/order to form this type of base overlays.
: park { garden, public}
: looking for/search { eye(s), want/seek}
There are many elements in an ideogram, but they still look simple as each single shape.
Beginners might feel they are too complicated, but after getting used to seeing them,
you might like to create more overlays.

Joined ideograms

If the vocabulary is very complicated, use hyphen to connect the elements showing all the elements are for a concept or express with joined characters, arranging plural base overlays/bases.
E.g. (park) can be shown with the following ways too.
{garden-public}: park (using hyphen; arranged from the main meaning)
public garden: park (as  joined ideograms: the front character modifies the next one)

Also you can make a new ideogram or abbreviation taking proper bases from not only 70 bases
but also from numerals and brackets.
Then almost unlimitedly, meanings, functions and even symbolic marks for private usage
can be expressed with a single or a few characters.

s for Verbs, prepositions and conjunctions

No ideogram without a grammatical symbol works for a verb/preposition/conjunction in EL.
Putting a verb symbol in front, most ideograms can work as verbs or predicates.
Compounding a base/base overlay with a grammatical symbol,
various preposition or conjunction characters are made.
(* See the grammar section and the dictionary for more details)

Articles and singular or plural

At most, English uses definite and indefinite articles, but EL doesn't.
For general terms, only the base overlay or joined ideogram is all right.

When you want to distinguish it as what is in the former topic,
put the kind of character (meaning "its/that") in front.

   
: He planted a tree. The tree is taller than ( ) him now ().
(: past e-verb symbol, : present condition d-verb symbol)

English needs "the" for the sun and the earth.
EL means “the sun”, and means “the earth” by themselves.

When you want to distinguish a thing as one, put (one) in front of the thing.
When needed to show it as plural, compound (plural mark) on top of the noun ideogram,
or put the amount in front, as (one tree), (trees), (four trees).

To switch the meaning of a fundamental character

When you want to show a concept by a character, but the meaning combination is the same
as a picture-like fundamental character, still you can use the character compounding with (ga)
to switch the meaning into the combination of bases meanings.
E.g. :
: sprout (picture-like fundamental character)
: cultivated plants (base overlay by combination of bases meanings with the function)

Images of EL Bases . Fundamental Characters . EL Grammar . To the top
(c)1997 Yoshiko McFarland, latest correction: Feb. 2008