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APRIL/MAY A.D. 1999
I was in eighth grade at this time, and we had a fun Creäte-A-Culture project assigned to us. Part of the project was to come up with a bit of a language for the culture you made up. I started working on mine, actually trying to make a language, rather than taking the lazy way out and just changing English letters. I sat down one day at the bus stop, making a list of what turned out to be 63 pronouns, and I wasn't finished then. I creäted a detailed letter system, and a small amount of grammar. I was really into this. I was sad when it was finally due.

FRI 10 MAR A.D. 2000
Here I actually decided to do this as my Personal Project (six months before the project was even assigned). It was a tough choice. I was debating over whether to do the language or a movie version of the Alice books by Lewis Carroll. This won out when I realized that I have no movie camera or film crew or cast or money to buy equipment.

SUN 12 MAR A.D. 2000
Today I completely overhauled my alphabet system, goïng for a neater, more uniformed one. I also typed up an explanation of the alphabet, its forty letters, their sounds, the two analphabetical characters often used in words, their uses, how to form a word, and so on.

MON 13 MAR A.D. 2000
I started work on pronouns. This is hard, since I've decided to be extremely specific with them and their genders. I also found some websites that are rather helpful: http://www.oocities.org/Area51/Shire/1021/how_wordclasses.html http://www.zompist.com/kit.html After realizing that it would just not be practical or even possible to have 378 pronouns, I changed the scheme on the first person plural pronouns, reducing that by about 85%, making a grand total of sixty pronouns.

TUE 24 MAR A.D. 2000
I went to a few websites and found one that had a list of English words for which I would need equivalents in my language, so I'm using that as the basis for my dictionary, but I think first I need to come up with prefixes and suffixes so I know what not to start or end a word with. I also found someone who suggested that I come up with a good system for transliteration into a basically Roman alphabet, so I did. http://pages.prodigy.com/kankonia/luv.htm

THU 11 MAY A.D. 2000
Whew! It's been a while. Since my last entry I've been working a lot of it out in my brain. I've decided to add a new vowel or two and some new consonants. Which means I'll have to redo the alphabet. Oh boy. Also I've worked out a way to do names. And today I worked on conjugating verbs in past, present, and future tenses. It is HARD. There are DOZENS of different tenses I have to do, all with only three suffixes, so I'm goïng to have them build up at the end of the verb. I think I'll conjugate the verb, as far as the I run/he runs deal, based on object, not subject.

I think this language is goïng to be insanely, hasslingly, needlessly complex.

It'll be fun.

SAT 1 JUL A.D. 2000
I've been doing a lot of stuff in my head, as well as some on the computer. I've figured out how to do past/present/future tense. I redid the alphabet today, taking out the J and the CH (which are really just D+ZH and T+SH, respectively). I also moved around some symbols (keeping the same alphabetical order) and replaced a few, like ones that were too similar or were a real pain to try to write. I also added prepositional object pronouns and a passive tense for verbs. I also decided (a while back, actually) on the usage of the word meaning "to give", and this seems as good a place as any to describe it. If German used "to give" the same way Esmic does, "He gives me a duck" or "He gives a duck to me" would come out as "Er gibt mich mit einer Ente", or "He gives me with a duck." (I used German because they have different words for direct and indirect objects). In English it would be "He gives me with a duck." Of course, "give" would be conjugated based on the gender of me, and the sentence order would be different, so you'd get "He me with a duck give" or something to that effect, but basically yeah.

MY PLAN FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS: Come up with every affix I'll need so I can start making words. Yeah!

FRI 21 JUL A.D. 2000
I finished my work in summer school early, so I went to http://www.zompist.com/kit.html again, and I printed it out. On the way home I started reading it, and I eventually added and deleted various consonants, followed by the vowels. I also came up with a format for the syllables to be in, as well as transliterations into the Roman text. I'll need to redo the Esmic alphabetical symbols (the letters), but that can wait for tomorrow.

SAT 22 JUL A.D. 2000
I didn't want to go to the trouble of making new characters for the new alphabet, and I don't even know why I would since I have way more than I need, so I took twenty-seven from the preëxisting alphabet I had and assigned them to the various sounds I made yesterday. With all these changes I've made I'm goïng to have to go through and change all the words I've already made to fit the new sounds and syllable system. I could probably use some of the extra letters to make numbers if I don't like any of the numbers from the number assignment from eighth grade, but I don't know if that'll happen.

SAT 29 JUL A.D. 2000
I designed a rough sketch of what a yizhbikh font would need to look like, but, alas, I cannot make the font because my font-making program has expired and I will not redownload it because I am not a criminal thiefy boy. Also, I retouched the word equivalents of periods and question marks to fit the new alphabet. Come to think of it, I should make a special suffix for nouns that are objects of the sentences. Also another suffix for nouns that are the objects of prepositions. Also I should get a folder to hold everything.

SUN 6 AUG A.D. 2000
First, I've taken out the because it's extremely hard for me to pronounce. Next, upon reading a webpage that said that 40% of Earth's languages are SVO (like English) and another 40% are SOV (like yisbi has been so far), I decided to change the sentence structure to Verb-Subject-Object, which is significantly less common. I also decided to make about a hundred root words. See, for most of the year in my ninth grade English class we had word root cards, whereupon we would write important Latin or Greek words that are the roots for many, many English words. Not wanting my language to appear completely random, I decided to do "ancient word roots" too. To creäte these words I've decided to use the Fantasy Name Generator at RinkWorks. At this site you can enter in certain things you want your words (The program is officially for creäting names for fantasy stories you might be writing, but I find that it's useful for many things. Ask me about the game we play with it in the chat room.) to have, and it makes a bunch of words. For example, I entered in this:

<(((b|c|d|f|g|j|k|l|m|p|r|s|t|v|w|x|y|z)|(p|f)(s|r|c|y)|(b|v)(z|r|j|y)|(t)(s|r|y)|(d)(z|r|y))(a|e|i|o|n|u|ae|ao|ie|oe)|((h)(o)|(q)(e|i)))(b|c|d|f|g|k|l|p|s|t|v|x|z)>

This, when run through the Fantasy Name Generator (FNG), creätes fifty-one different words according to the specifications (all words must end in b, c, d, f, g, k, l, p, s, t, v, x, or z, for example, and an h must be followed by an o) you give it. I set it up for the constraints and phonological rules of my language, using the keyboard setup my eventual yizhbikh font will have, and it gave me a list of words, such as pcaok and fyig.

I'd also like to point out the evolution the name of my language has gone through. It started out as Esmic, which is ESM (my initials) with an -ic ending to make it sound like a language name. I pronounced this EZ-mik until I realized that this would have ended up being transliterated as Ezmic, which does not have my initials. I changed the pronunciation to ES-mik. Later, when I redid the consonants but hadn't done the vowels yet, I realized Esmic wouldn't work because there's no M sound (the M represented in the FNG stuff up there is a sort of lip click thing). I reluctantly called it Esbik, which I changed to Esbi because I like that sound. I then decided it was easier to pronounce with a z sound in the place of the s, so I changed that, too. When I redid the vowels I decided to have mostly only high and closed vowels, which meant no "eh" sound. I changed it to an "ih" (like in "bit") instead, giving me izbi . After I changed the vowels I went on to syllable constraints (I was working with a webpage I had printed out). I decided that each syllable had to begin and end with a consonant. There were more rules to this which got more specific, but this was the general rule. I then saw that izbi wouldn't work because there was no consonant at the beginning of it. I put a "y" in front of it, making it fit the structure of the language and its sounds. Finally, in the second sentence of this journal, I decided to change the z (like in "zebra") to a Z (like the s in "pleasure"), because I love that sound. Z. Z Z Z Z Z. Heeheeheeheehee!

WED 23 AUG A.D. 2000
I wrote up my proposal, linking the language to Homo Faber and Health & Social Education. I also downloaded an IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) set of fonts so I could more accurately describe the sounds in my language, which I did.

I think I'll make the language's number system be base-three, and the pluralization system, instead of beïng One, Two-or-More (such as English), will be One, Three, Two-or-Four-or-More-Than-Four. And maybe the adjectives/adverbs should all be prefixes.

I like my new IPA fonts.

SAT 26 AUG A.D. 2000
I fixed the transliteration scheme. Now the only special characters I need are the ones for the clicks and the one for the "ooh" sound. I realized it's OK to write "sh" as "sh" and not as a capital S.

WED 30 AUG A.D. 2000
My proposal has been approved, and I wrote up my resource thing. Now I'm working on pilfering case suffixes from Latin and adapting them. I'm also adapting a few Old English words as a test for a computer program I found ("Adapt" sounds sinister when I use it like this, kind of like "rectify" does in 1984).

TUE 5 SEP A.D. 2000
Some of the letters are too wide, making it a hassle to write, so I replaced them with new, temporary symbols that are much less wide. The new ones aren't very good, either, so I'm goïng to see about making better ones. I also made the main, basic numbers (base-three). I'll make larger numbers and decide how to do fractions later.

THU 7 SEP A.D. 2000
Today I had my first project meeting with Miss Jenkins. She says I need more book resources and I need to be more specific with them. Off to the library with me, then.

I also asked someone what he thought of my alphabet. He said he didn't like the letter for "sh" and that the "g" and "p" looked too much alike. I reversed the "g" but I haven't done anything to the "sh" yet, or to the "b," which I don't really like the look of.

WED 20 SEP A.D. 2000
I wrote up my proposal for the timeline of due dates today. Also, I worked on the alphabet, changing a few letters I didn't like or that didn't work. There are also a couple blank spots where I couldn't think of a new letter to replace an insufficient old one. I also regularized the aspiration. All unvoiced consonants are always aspirated, except that "k" is unaspirated at the beginning of a word. This may not sound like such a big deal to some people, but it's important to be specific. I also decided whether I was goïng to do a book or a webpage (I'm doïng the latter).

SAT 23 SEP A.D. 2000
I went to the library and checked out seventeen books for my personal project. I don't know if I'll read them all, but I have them, if only for three weeks.

THU 28 SEP A.D. 2000
Today I got my project ZIP disc back after it had gone missing for a week (I lost it the period before my personal project meeting). I'm saving everything on it onto both of my computers, another ZIP disc, and GeoCities.

Also, at the meeting last week, I turned in my timeline, which was approved by Mr. Rischel.

THU 5 OCT A.D. 2000
I've been spending so much time taking notes that I haven't had time to write in my journal. I've been taking notes on A Guide to Old English by Bruce Mitchell. I started rather late in my notetaking, and I got way too detailed. It took me a week just to get past the adjective section. From here on out I'm going to give more skimming, less specific notes on books and such.

I'm also going to make outlines of how the books and webpages are structured so I can get an ideä of the standard setup of presentations of languages.

Today at the bus station I quickly wrote down how to do simple comparisons in Yizhbikh.

Joe is ugly. Be(intransitive)-ugly Joe.

Joe is uglier than Bob (who may or may not be ugly). Be(intrans.)-ugly-more Joe than be(intrans.)-ugly-less Bob.

Joe is uglier than Bob (who is not ugly). Be(intrans.)-ugly-more Joe than be(intrans.)-ugly-not Bob.

Joe is less ugly than Bob. Be(intrans.)-ugly-less Joe than be(intrans.)-ugly-more Bob.

Joe is as ugly as Bob (who may or may not be ugly). Be(intrans.)-ugly Joe same be(intrans.)-ugly Bob.

Joe is as ugly as Bob (who is not ugly). Be(intrans.)-ugly Joe same be(intrans.)-ugly-not Bob.

Joe (who is not ugly) is as ugly as Bob. Be(intrans.)-ugly-not Joe same be(intrans.)-ugly Bob.

This is ignoring all conjugation, which you certainly must take into account. I didn't include conjugation in this example for several reasons. First, it would make it even more complex and would obscure the way it's done. Second, I haven't decided how and where to place conjugation endings. Third, I forgot to do it.

MON 16 OCT A.D. 2000
I have LOADS of notes to take. When I checked out the books from the library I didn't start taking notes right away. When I started my notes (from A Guide to Old English) I took them way too detailed. Eventually, due to other homework and combined with a recent, draining cold, I stopped doing it. I'm starting again, but I'm using a new method. I'm outlining the book (Hawaiian Grammar) just based on heading titles, then I'm putting the most basic detail, then some more detail, and I'm layering it like that until it seems sufficient. I hope it works. Yesterday we took back all but the Hawaiian and Old English books to the library. I'm going to take notes out of these and then maybe check out some of the others again and take notes to make up for the notes I didn't take.

WED 18 OCT A.D. 2000
ARGH. My mom mistook the Hawaiian and Old English books for books that she forgot to turn in and so she dropped them off at the library on her way home from work today.

I have to get all my notes of Esmic grammar together and put them into one document, since I turn in the grammar sketch tomorrow.

TUE 7 NOV A.D. 2000
After weeks of not working on my personal project because I've been scrambling to catch up in my math and sciënce classes, which took up loads of my time, I have started up again. Today I went to the library and checked out twenty-three books for the project, although it's questionable whether I'll go through them all. I'll also be trying out my shorter way of taking notes. I wonder if I could skip the notes but have a footnote and reference on my webpage any time I say something about another language or language history or whatever. I'll have to ask my project advisor.

Also, I realized I was wrong with how I represented the "w" sound in IPA. It isn't ;it's just . How silly of me. Also, the "r" sound isn't "" but "".

SAT 11 NOV A.D. 2000
Today I went web-surfing for resources and things I could use. I printed out some things, including a very helpful introduction to cases (http://personalweb.sierra.net/~spynx/FAQ/cases.html) and a guide to presenting a language (http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/pc451/Conlang/questions.html), which, although officially for natural languages (languages that are "real" as opposed to made up), is very helpful to the aspiring conlanger such as me.

I also fixed up some wrong and outdated information in the guide to the phonology and alphabet, but I didn't get finished due to time constraints. Also, there are still some little details I haven't made up my mind about (Is the name bracket redundant? What should I do about titles of works? Do I really need the diphthong slur since I can't have any vowels next to each other?) In addition, I'm trying to work out a case system, which isn't easy. I shudder to think of the time when I'll have to start making vocabulary.

TUE 28 NOV A.D. 2000
Yesterday the tenth graders, me included, went to the Vista library, where I checked out nine books, in addition to the twenty-three from the Oceanside library (I renewed them all). Tonight I'm working on the grammar sketch, which is way overdue. I'm writing it out tonight and then organizing it and typing it tomorrow, so it will be completely ready by the time the meeting rolls around on Thursday.

WED 29 NOV A.D. 2000
I didn't get as much done last night as I would have liked to. Tonight I had youth group (which I had forgotten about last night), but I did make a somewhat major change: I got rid of the clicks and changed the suffixes that used them.

WED 14 FEB A.D. 2001
It has been about two hundred years since I last wrote in this thing. In the past couple months I've come up with a lot of prefixes and suffixes, and some words as well. I haven't done as much as I should, however. I don't have nearly enough words and I haven't even written the grammar yet. And then there's the personal statement, which I also need to start. Sigh. I feel so unproductive. On the other hand, I do know what my grammar is. I have it all worked out in my head, and I started an outline. As soon as I'm done writing this journal entry I'm goïng to finish the outline and then start typing up the grammar.

MON 12 MAR A.D. 2001
The personal project is due in three days. I’m working frantically to complete what I really should have had done sooner. The most important thing, of course, is the personal statement. From what I understand, getting the personal statement is an absolute requirement and I cannot pass without it, whereas if I don’t finish, say, the grammar, I’ll get a lower grade but I can at least pass.

SAT 21 APR A.D. 2001
Upgrades. Woohoo.