Do the Ijad have a written language?

[randolph]

As symbiotes, do the Ijad have a written language? If so, are there examples of it anywhere? Is there some basic vocabulary / syntax available?

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

They do! They have a vast body of literature, in fact. When you can't directly control anyone you can't see, you get really good at writing philosophy and allegory to make a case.

Unlike in a Human Contact, though, I'm not going into it too deeply. The written language will be pretty nonsense to use as visual motifs.

If this is stuff you scare about, you really should check out HC. It's the game I'm proudest of. There's a and a subsystem about how language works.

[randolph]

Fascinating, awesome stuff Joshua!

While I am also interested in linguistics/cognitive science and the intersections with psychology, culture, sociology, etc, I was specifically curious about Ijad writing because I wanted to make some WangTech product pamphlets in Ijad (Ijadi? Ijadese?). I was hoping to capture some of the essence of a profits-driven corporation's marketing department tromping guilelessly into xenolinguistics/xenosociology with the zeal of ignorance.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Well,we've deliberately made the Ijad weird but approachable. They're not immune to greed, for instance, but there are cultural firewalls to keep greed from getting catastrophic.

If I were you, I'd write it in English like it had been translated from a different language group, like you'd expect a Pepsi ad to sound in Finno-Ugric when run through Google Translate back into English.

[randolph]

Well,we've deliberately made the Ijad weird but approachable. They're not immune to greed, for instance, but there are cultural firewalls to keep greed from getting catastrophic.

If I were you, I'd write it in English like it had been translated from a different language group, like you'd expect a Pepsi ad to sound in Finno-Ugric when run through Google Translate back into English.

Cool, thanks! Engrish it is