Lexitheurge - Word List

[Drammor]

Does anyone think the truenamer was a laughable attempt at a magic language class? Well, I certainly do. The concept is great, but the execution was terrible. I'd like to give it another shot, this time by using an actual, if minimalist, constructed language. It's going to need a grammar structure, but that can come later. Most importantly for now, a word list needs to be hashed out. The lexitheurge is going to be able to use these words (at least some of them) to create effects individually, and is going to be able to assemble them into sentences that will happen. Naturally, some words will need to be delayed to higher levels than other words, some words will need to be removed, and others will need to be added.

The words to date, below their an idea of their lexical categories:

Adjectives
bad, big, cold, dry, dull, false, female, full, good, hard, heavy, left, long, male, new, old, other, right, round, sharp, short, small, smooth, soft, straight, thick, thin, true, warm, wet, what, wide

Conjunctions
and, but, if

Elements
air, death, earth, fire, life, water

Nouns
ash, back, black, blood, body, bone, child, cloth, curve, damage, day, dust, ear, seed, eye, essence, end, fat, fear, hair, foot, fruit, green, hand, head, heart, ice, leg, meat, mist, moon, mouth, movement, name, neck, night, nose, oil, organ, parent, plant, red, road, sand, sibling, skin, sky, smoke, snow, spouse, soul, star, sun, tail, thought, thread, tongue, tooth, white, wind, wing, year, yellow

Adverbs
far, here, how, near, not, there, what, when, where

Prepositions
after, at, before, in, with

Pronouns
I, mine, that, they, this, we, who, you (plural), you (singular), your

Creatures
aberration, animal, beast, construct, dragon, elemental, fey, giant, humanoid, monster, ooze, outsider, plant, undead, vermin

Numbers
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, none, all

Verbs
begin, bind, blow, breathe, burn, clean, come, cut, damage, deceive, dig, dirty, drink, eat, end, fall, fight, float, flow, fly, freeze, give, hear, hold, hunt, know, play, pull, push, rub, say, see, sing, sit, sleep, smell, split, squeeze, stand, suck, swell, swim, think, turn, wipe


I think that adjectives, elements, nouns and verbs should have individual uses, whereas the other word types will need to be combined into sentences before they can take effect.

I understand that this is the very start of an idea, so what I'm asking might be something big, but what's wrong with the word list I've presented, and what suggestions do you have for how and which words should be divided, and how such a system might or should function?

[TheGeometer]

I like the idea, but there are a few more things to consider besides the language itself. The important thing to remember is that you're making a class out of this concept, most likely one that would learn a few words each level. This already makes your idea of having nouns act on their own problematic, since learning just nouns would a much more efficient way of gaining power and versatility than learning words like "because" (which, parenthetically, I don't see as a very useful word in spellcasting anyways. I mean, who needs to explain things when you're working with magic?).

You also need a hierarchy of increasingly powerful words or sentences, and making longer sentences will probably not cut it. The word "fire," to me, sounds more powerful than "create a big sharp tooth." These things will need to be fine-tuned, but I think that on the whole, the idea shows promise.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Not to base it too much off of a video game, but the shouts from TES: Skyrim sound like something to consider here. You learn some, slowly, learning to pronounce them perfectly and with correct inner focus and power, adding more and more on as your meditations on the meaning, reverberation into reality, and power become deeper.

I'd suggest creating a sentence-system first; nouns are basic, weak, and broad (so boring in effect), but the foundation. Verbs give it forward power, while adjectives focus the very broad meaning to a point.

For example:
Hammer = deals low damage, 1d8 or something
Ashen Hammer = Deals decent damage, and converts half to fire damage
Frostbit Hammer = Deals decent damage and converts half to cold damage
Ashen Hammer Grind = Deal fire damage, plus opponent is set on fire. Deals decent fire damage, plus low every round unless extinguished
Frostbit Hammer Grind = Deals cold damage, plus opponent is frostbit. Deals decent cold damage, and opponent is slowed for X rounds.

So Hammer deals damage, Ashen / Frostbit converts to fire / ice respectively, grind gives a lingering effect after the initial. Something along those lines. But then it seems like a bardic PrC. Which actually might make a lot of sense.