Linguistic Archaeology: creating using Small Datasets

P A R T   O N E   -   S M A L L   D A T A S E T S

These can be a pain simply because you need more information to make use of the linguistic subgroup. Just knowing your orc tribes are all part of the G linguistic group is fine but if you create a linguistic trend you want to be able to apply it to other aspects of the Setting. Creating a clean development chain allows for use of substitution cipher dialect variations and additional background.

Orcish Tribes of the Known World
1. Grilth
2. Ubirgh
3. Vanog
4. Kobblekem


Popularity of Use
A      %     E     %      I      %     O      %       U        %
1   25%    1  25%     2 50%    2  50%       1   25%

B      %     C     %      D      %     F      %       G        %
2  50%     0    0%     0    0%     0    0%       3  75%

H      %     J     %      K      %     L      %       M        %
2  50%      0   0%     1   25%    2  50%      1    25%

N      %     P     %      Q      %     R      %       S        %
1   25%     0   0%      0    0%     2  50%      0      0%

T      %     V     %      W      %     X      %       Y        %
1  25%     1  25%     0     0%     0    0%       0     0%

Z      %
0    0%


Popularity of use
75% G:
50% R, L, H, B, O, I, G:
25% T, V, N, M, K, U, E, A, R, L, H, B, O, I, G: Grilth, Ubirgh, Vanog, Kobblekem,
0% Z, W, X, Y, P, Q, S, J,,C, D, F


What we can immediatly get is that Orc tribes are of the G Linguistic Group. Unfortunately the dataset is so small that the thats as much as we can get. If someone else is of the G linguistic group, we cant extract a dialect variation.

At 50% Ubirgh might be *birgh, Grilth might be Gril*h. Here the difference in alphabet is B vs L. So for the *birgh the word 'Bigg' might mean 'great, large, mountainous' while the dialect variation for the Gril*h is 'Ligg'  which sounds more like League (3×mile). So for this orc tribe it refers to a large distance as opposed to a large object.

Vanog would be *og and Kobblekem would be *obbl*. The *og have much smaller alphabet to work with, but are at least related to *birgh and Gril*h. *obbl* on the other hand are related to Gril*h, *birgh, and *og sharing the exotic valuss  of each of the other tribes as their collective descendent or dividing dialect source and now unrelated to the G linguistic group entirely.

We can still get information from it that can be used to develop the setting specific to Orcs:

Orc word generator (tribes names, personal names, and dictionaries).
1d4            length         3d6     cha       3d6      cha     3d6      cha     3d6     cha
01                   5               03        T          07         R        12         B        16         U
02-03             6               04        V          08         L         13         O       17         E
04                   *               05        N          09         H        14         I        18         A
                                        06        M        10-11     G        15         K
*Roll twice and add lengths. Ignore further results of 04.

Restricted from use by Orcs: Z, W, X, Y, P, Q, S, J, C, D, F.

Next: dealing with insufficient data...