How do you speak the language?(Especially the Complex speech)

[Evan]

Could someone please explain to me how to literally speak the language and how to write it. Also could someone teach me how to interpret the apostrophe's and dashes(I think they're clicks and grunts.) Thank you for any help I recieve I have an Aim address if u have a current Idea that grabs you!

[Peter Murray]

The language doesn't seem to have been worked out in that much detail. Other topics here about the Speech talk about how to pronounce the words that have appeared in the books, and we had a go at trying to draw the shapes of the symbols.

However, DD has also posted that she doesn't want to develop the language, to forestall protests from people who think a fictional language for using magic is definite proof that her books are somehow sinister. (I paraphrased.)

She also says if anyone's going to develop the language, it'll be her.

I think you'll just have to enjoy what there is of it in the books.

[semiramis]

...personally, I'd always interpreted it that the Speech was spoken differently, depending on how the individual speaker is capable of communicating. Somewhat like the meaning was more important than the sounds or gestures or whatever... although I could likely be wrong. Just my take

[Kathy Li]

Yes, exactly, that it's not so much a matter of pronunciation as a way of thinking. That the Speech can physically manifest in whatever form of communication works best for the being who's learned it; an ant Wizard might perceive the Speech as tactile/olfactory, while a whale hears/radars it as whalesong, and a computer as code, and it only takes the form of the written/spoken word for beings to whom those are the primary forms of communication. I guess a deaf wizard would perceive the Speech as gestural/spacial/visual, rather than aural; while a blind wizard would perceive the Speech as tactile/aural.

[ChibiFerretGod]

An Ant Wizard... I never really thought about that. I guess it really DOES take all kinds. But yeah. I think the speech is just whatever form it takes with its user. For example; how Dairine (very sorry because I KNOW I spelled her name wrong. A friend of mine is borowing all my books.) talks to Spot, he hears it as binary and executes it as such. The Speech acts as a universal translator, I'd assume.

[Nella]

i still dont get it though, say u were a wizard, wat would the speach sound like to U. i mean, wat does it sound like, im confuzzled.

[Zgirl]

This would be a great question to ask DD at the next chat with her. I always took Dai'stiho (sp?) as Die-Stoe. That's just me...
As they said in the books. Speech is not how you speak. It's how you hear.
I basically can't answer this question though. It's definitely a DD question.

[Kathy Li]

Just theorizing, but leah, I think that the Speech would sound/look like a language to humans: one that you can speak/hear and read/write. That's how we communicate.

[wizardsrreal]

i went to this one thing and dia means day
i have always wonderd how to speek and write in the speech

[alla]

'dia' means 'across' doesn't it? i.e. diameter?
I googled for 'dai' and from this website it came up as 'dai' meaning 'great', which would make sense... or on the other hand (and probably most likely) they are both made up words... *wishes the speech would be developed further*

as for written speech, i've always imagined it as sort of a cross between elvish and dwarfish from the LOTR books... its elegant and flowing in some places, but that there are 'squarer' symbols too.

[semiramis]

The latin root "diu" (like in "diurnal") is for day. I'm not sure about "dia" as applied to "accross", but my latin dictionary says nothing on it; my guess ist that it's probably from Greek.

"dai" in Japanese actually means "great" in the sense of "big", not "good".

I think DD said "dai stiho" is pronounced "Die STEE ho"...

[Rad]

If I'm not greatly mistaken, dia is "day" in Spanish...

[Gryphon]

I think Rad is right about that, and if it is prounounced DIE, then I've been saying it wrong all along. Ah well, I'll keep it up. It just sounds funny entering the chat and saying, "DIE EVERYONE!" At least I've been saying 'Stiho' right. I've never looked too much into the topic where people discuss how they think the speech is written/spoken; they get so huge! *shrugs* Hey, look! I only just now realized that alla's avie is Spot. O.o

Heh. It's been up for a while, too...

[Ankaa]

kli6 is right; everyone "hears" it differently. Like the manual. Someone (to avoid spoilers) had the "Silence". And young people don't even think about teh Speech being different at all from their native language. I think some people/beings "feel" it, not with any sense, they feel it down in their bones and head, and it makes sense. That's going against, or at least not parallel to, a lot of what the Speech is, but eh...what about a deaf and blind wizard? Like Hellen Keller? I don't think there'd be a hand-touch language or even Baraille-type language for the Speech, it's too accurate...

[RhyanonSorenson]

And the speech is heard by non wizards as their native language. It even says as much in Wizard's Holiday. I think it's a language that everyone knows and understands, but in the way they percieve things.

Stars like Fred heard it as starsong, and to trees it's like wind through their branches.