Scoop1407

This being crystal rather than metal still begs the questions-- is this just similar to Hemalurgy, or is this actual Hemalurgy? Can Harmony speak to Moash now? If not, which Shard is this associated with? Given enough spikes, which Shard will gain the additional power over him?

I really liked Kaladin's role here, but I must admit that Nightblood's scene at the end didn't feel believable. I did enjoy him talking with the Honorblades. We got some details on Ashyn, which is fun. Hopefully Ash's and Taln's books have more of the backstory there. I'm especially looking forward to Jasnah's flashbacks — but that will have to wait… Moash. Is this actual, honest-to-Discord Hemalurgy or just something similar? Some kind of Voidbinding? It looks like the second half will be nearly contemporaneous with Mistborn era 3. We might have some interesting bits there. Overall, there were some disappointments, and I consider this book to be somewhat worse than WoK, WoR and RoW. But it was still good and enjoyable. I had some predictions that were fulfilled: Ba-Ado-Mishram is released, and deadeyes heal This seemed somewhat obvious in the last book, but in this one the Spiritual Realm team seemed more undecided about freeing her. Kaladin swears the fifth Ideal (obviously) Though we didn't get to see a full-powered Radiant. One or more of these: Dalinar dies Dalinar ascends to Honor Taravangian combines Honor and Odium It actually ended up being all three: I was spot-on. Wow. It seemed that Dalinar had essentially completed his character arc before WaT, so I thought he might ascend to Honor and take more of a back-seat role in the second half, or just die. Regardless, I thought something must happen with the power of Honor, and Taravangian seemed a good option. Szeth swears the Ideal of Law I didn't expect him to renounce the oaths immediately, though. We see Chanaranach in the modern day This kind of happened? If Shallan's vision counts. I was aware of the Chana-is-Shallan's-mother theory, but I was actually quite sceptical of it, until Gavilar's prologue all but confirmed it. And some which didn't come to pass: Szeth completes the Ideal of Crusade I wasn't aware you could skip Ideals! Maya heals fully She's way better now, but not completely normal. Adolin either dies or becomes an Edgedancer His Unoathed are way more fascinating, though. Venli and Navani swear more Ideals I'm a bit disappointed in that.

It's fairly obvious that if you design your writing characters to be symmetrical, the information density is half of what it could be (we also see that with palindrome words, but they are usually reduced in Vorin languages). Writing only the top or bottom half of the women's script can fit twice as much text in the same space. Is there any evidence of this being done in-world? Or is symmetry too holy to destroy?

Doing the calculations, if 6'4 (Rosharan, but remember that this is the same as 6.4) is around 7' (US Customary), a Rosharan foot is around 109.4% US foot, which is around 33.338 centimetres. Since there are 10 inches in the foot, a Rosharan inch is around 131.3% US inch (for the metric, just divide the foot by 10). Upon second glance, though, the WoB references 6'4 as communication to the readers, which would expect 12 inches in a foot. If this is intended, the Rosharan foot is 110.5% US foot (33.688 cm) and the inch is 132.6% US inch.

It's already known that the Rosharan year is 110% cosmere standard (and thus SI), and the other units of time can be calculated from that. But how much is the Rosharan foot? Also, how many seconds are there in a Rosharan minute? Regardless, can we assume that the "cosmere standard" units (based on Yolen) are always identical to SI or US Customary units?

This WoB has a tense vowel (once again I feel vindicated)! The transcription «HJ» is quite weird for the [χ], but it is clearly that. This WoB is slightly informative about Szeth. Apparently, both the S and the Z are enunciated, so we get [szɛθ].

This seems to shed some light at least on Alethi (and possibly on other western continental Vorin languages). From what I can understand, it says: «T», «D», «R», «TH» and «L» are all apical (no mention of whether they are alveolar or alveolo-dental, though). «N» is laminal (again, no mention of alveolar or alveolo-dental). The sibilants are also laminal. «L» is an approximant, but used to be a lateral fricative, and this pronunciation is preserved in some words as a digraph «LH». «LH» is definitely alveolar, but the modern «L» is only listed as "historically alveolar". «H» as a palindromic stand-in is pronounced, presumably also at the end of the word. «H» outside a palindrome is similar to «L». Historically it was a velar/uvular fricative, and that is preserved as «KH», but in most words it shifted and merged with the palindromic «H». "In modern times the h character is usually for the same h sound that we have in English. Sometimes kh is written using a combination of the k and h characters, and sometimes it's written just as h for historical reasons." But also «H» can still stand for the velar fricative? Or is Peter talking about the in-world womens' script H? I don't really get this one. «J» and «Y» are separate in lower-class speech but merged (into «Y») in upper-class. So I can derive from this (precise vowel quality is not known): Jasnah is [jas̻.n̻ah], with H. Jost is [d͡ʒos̻t̺]. Kholin is [χo.l̺in̻]. The Coppermind article has lax /ɪ/ but doesn't provide a reference, so I doubt it. The Vorin languages are mentioned to be inspired in some parts by Hebrew, which is oftentimes reconstructed in the Biblical period with a lax/tense distinction paralleling the length (as in modern Arabic varieties). However, since these vowels later merged, I don't know what to make of it. The vowel is tense. Lhan is [ɮ̺an̻]. Of course there are always regional varieties, but surely if Alethi and Kharbranthian speakers can understand each other, their internal varieties must be very similar as well. I'm only really interested in the most well-known "prestige" (though I don't know if I can apply that term to lower-class speech) dialect.

Ideally, we'd have descriptions for the entire cosmere. But I think starting with Roshar makes sense, as it's the most detailed world anyway. We have some fragments and tidbits about the pronunciation of various languages on Roshar, but no complete descriptions. Should we assume that actual Rosharan names in the books are transliterations, rather than transcriptions? The difference lies in that transliterations preserve all information contained in the original orthography (or phonology), whereas a transcription only describes what the word would sound like to an English speaker. To compare a real-world language, the Arabic name for God (ﷲ) is commonly transcribed as «Allah». However, this erases some information about the original language, and a more accurate transliteration is «Allāh», which shows the long vowel. The rest of the items are written with an assumption of transliteration. Transcription might invalidate some or all of these questions. As a consequence of the previous item, in Vorin languages, what's the difference between «I» and «Y» (as a vowel), as well as «J» and «Y» (as a consonant)? «J» has been all but confirmed to represent /j/ (yod). However, at least according to the Coppermind, there seems to be a womens' script character that represents «Y». What is it for? Solved in the consonantal case! «J» and «Y» are both yods in upper-class speech, but «J» is affricated in lower-class speech. In vocalic position, we see both «I» (as in Kholin) and «Y» (as in Rysn. Unless you want to convince me that this Thaylen name is all consonants). In general, what do the vowel systems look like? How many vowels are there, is there a length/tone/accent distinction? Is final «H» (as in «Jasnah» and «Jah Keved») pronounced? How about «H» in symmetrical names (as in «Pailiah» and «Jezerezeh»)? What does «KH» stand for? Everyone pronounces it /k/, but there would be no reason for this to represent the same sound as another letter (in this case, «K»). I usually interpret it as /x/ (pronounced [x] or [χ], since phonologists seem to despise using χ in slashes). But it may very well not be a digraph at all, i.e. literally /kh/, or something else. Solved! «KH» is indeed [x~χ], as I had guessed. But «H» might also represent this in some cases. We see «K», «C» and «S». What function does «C» serve? We see both «S» and «Z». Can we assume that «S» is always voiceless? Is «TH» in Vorin languages always voiceless, always voiced, allophonic or is it an umbrella digraph for two separate phonemes, like in English? Thaylen consonant clusters. Do they have syllabic consonants, making «Tvlakv» up to three syllables (and much easier to pronounce), or really pronounce them outside the nucleus, making it one syllable? The apostrophe «'» in Unkalaki. Is it purely grammatical, or does it represent a consonant (probably a glottal stop)? If it is a consonant, then some words become very awkward to pronounce, especially considering the otherwise very simple syllable structure. Hiatus in Unkalaki seems somewhat common (Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor). Are vowels clearly separate, rather than /i/ becoming /j/? It's also present in Vorin words (Ialai Sadeas). Lexical stress in Vorin languages. Where is it? We know that «Kaladin» is stressed in the first syllable from an anecdote in the book, but really have nothing else. And as Brandon has said, his pronunciations are not necessarily the same as in-world. The anecdote in question is about Rock stressing «Kaladin» in the last syllable, which is a feature of his Unkalaki accent. Though, there might be other explanations for this; perhaps Alethi reduces unstressed vowels and Unkalaki doesn't, leading Kaladin to believe that the clear «I» sound is stressed, when it really isn't? Clearly, Alethi doesn't reduce /i/. Are geminate consonants pronounced (excluding «KK» in various Makabaki languages, which is confirmed as /q/)? «F» vs «PH» in Vorin languages. There is a womens' script character for «PH», but «F» also appears in names. What's the difference? How are the languages timed? Do they reduce and elongate some syllables? What does the «SZ» in «Szeth» sound like? Solved! It is actually S and Z pronounced separately. What are the differences and similarities between the continental Vorin languages? This is mostly about Alethi, Veden and Kharbranthian since we haven't seen much Natan. I like to adopt "continental" and "insular" (only Thaylen) for the Vorin languages. Seem like useful terms. Also, maybe "western" for Alethi-Veden-Kharbranthian (which might even be a dialect continuum, I'm not sure) and "eastern" for Natan. If there's any established terminology, I'd like to know about it, of course. Questions about the singer language(s) are missing because I haven't got to RoW yet (there are some interesting hints of pitch accent or tone). Should be soon, and I don't mind spoilers in the comments if they somehow come up. Might also have some more Shin questions after WaT is published. Naturally, I also have questions about the history of the various languages on Roshar, although in this matter there's slightly more information available. It might belong in another topic, as I don't view this knowledge as relevant to reading (whereas I would really like to know the pronunciations). The same can be said about morphology, as well as intonation and prosody (though that would be nice to know).