the translater

article by @bwabam

(still being worked on, along with other things)

(currently outline, not finished)

-in Brazil -springtime -main character is Jose -he is a linguist -he is paid by the government to figure out an uncontacted tribe’s language -he has a thing in his ear that lets him hear their messages -near river, lots of trees -3^rd person past tense

chronology: -paid by the government - - government doing project to save tribes - - the second the government starts offering jobs people race to the JOIN button and Jose presses it within 3.174 seconds -told about previous guy’s failure - - the previous guy pressed it in 2.065 seconds - - tribe found him before he started the project, he fled -goes to the uncontacted tribe in the amazon rainforest - - government wants him to peacefully leave helicopter - - he has five umbrellas for some reason - - he jumps out and uses the umbrellas as a parachute - - he falls on the canopy and runs on the trees looking for smaller and smaller trees until he gets to the ground -he finds the tent built by the other guy who went there - - he uses gps - - the house is fully built - - he moves the house with his tools because the tribe knows where it is -he sets up wifi-microphones and cameras around the village -he transcribes what they are saying with the IPA -he figures out common things about the pronunciation and invents a special orthography -he starts corresponding words to locations and finds what some basic words mean -he figures out conjugations -he figures out most of the language and starts looking back at the audio and video -he figures out things about their culture -the tribe finds him and he uses his information of the language to convince them that he is a friend - - he forgot to put on his quiet flat shoes one day and quick-girl student sees his footprints and hears him walking -he teaches them his orthography -he works with them and figures out more about them -he leaves and give the government the information (the language is “Lalãã”) - - he explains it to them slowly - - the government does it again

introduction: goes there and finds the previous guy’s house rising action: sets up microphones and cameras, studies them, start getting suspicious climax: they find him falling action: he convinces them that he if a friend and teaches them his script resolution: he leaves and gives the information to the government

characters: -main character: Jose (m) -government official who sends him to the tribe: Estefânia Cezar (f) -the tribe leader is Buxui Laxki (m) -the person who finds him is Lalgo Ĩnko (f, nicknamed Lĩnko) -Simẽkio Miiko (f, nicknamed Simio) -Bẽko Miiko (f, nicknamed Bẽmio) -Leeko Miiko (f, nicknamed Leemio) -Kotxi uẽki (m, nicknamed Kotxui)

how names work: the first name is given at birth and the last name is based off of the most important ancestor.

culture things: the rulers are religious rulers no shoes (“he looked at the ground and saw footprints. they didn’t use shoes”) they have simple clothes they eat fruits and plants but because of the social structure when someone manages to catch fish and stuff the animal meat is given to the tribe rulers they have simple corn and bean farming lots of vocabulary and idioms related to cooking and farming beans are the most popular food, because of there not being fish and animal meat for the normal people they live in small cabin things they call their rulers “elders” they dance a lot they have a sort of court-ish thing run by the council they believe that if someone has a sickness, then comfort may help but if it kills the person, that the sky aimed a invisible water droplet at the person (this is a belief spread by the council) lots of oral tradition they have a story of a guy who wanted to avoid the invisible water droplets so much that he stayed inside with his family and he got and his family got sick and died and the tribe believes that this shows that you can’t escape the sky they believe that their rulers are good because every full moon, they throw a stick at a tree and if something odd happens to the tree they believe that the sky dislikes the ruler they party when nothing happens, tribe-wide festival most people farm, people who work for the government can fish, hunt, teach, find rule breakers and enforce rules, and other things kids play on “playground” while being taught by a teacher who works for the government they believe that the entire world is a rainforest and that anything that is unlike what they are used to should not be interacted with, exploration is highly discouraged

parts: introduction is him getting there part 1 is him working there and figuring out the language part 2 is him interacting with the people and leaving

introduction:

Jose got a notification that the Brazilian government was offering jobs for linguists. 3.174 seconds. Then he was learning about the job he signed up for.

Estefânia Cezar, the government official that was assigned to him was saying “Oh your job is to…” (phone rings, she listens in and hangs up) “…oh the guy doing job two hundred thr-” (another call) “-failed and that is your job now.”

Jose said “What is job two hundred three?”

She replied “Two hundred thirteen. Learning the language of an uncontacted tribe. Made easy by how the other guy already set up the ‘infrastructure’.”

Jose said “Yeah I’ll do that.”, and he did.

Next thing he knew, Jose was on a helicopter. He had five umbrellas along with other unnecessary stuff with him. He was flying above the canopy and made a decision.

He jumped. He used his umbrellas as a parachute, and he fell onto the canopy. He ran. He spotted a lower tree and jumped. He twisted around. No footage, but he saw a lower tree through several trees. He jumped from tree to tree and he found that this tree had a lot of branches. He jumped, jumped, jumped, he jumped until he was on the ground. He ran, ran until he saw the tent through the trees and stopped. He snuck to the nearby trees and hid in the bushes. He snuck to the other bush… sneak… sneak… and he was there!

dbwabam meta	technical
blog	credits