Lesson 4: Adjectives and Adverbs

This is part of a series of posts on learning Solresol. To start at Lesson 1, click here.

Over the last two lessons, you have learned about verbs and nouns in Solresol - in this lesson you will learn how to modify verbs and nouns with adverbs and adjectives.

Adjectives are formed much like nouns - namely, by emphasizing a specific syllable in a base word. To form an adjective from another word, you emphasize the second-to-last (penultimate) syllable.

Examples:

Milasi	-	To love (a person)
Milâsi	-	Loving (adj.)
Dosido	-	To help
Dosîdo	-	Helpful
Resolsido	-	To need
Resolsîdo	-	Needy

Adjectives always come after the noun they describe:

Ladosol dosîdo	-	Helpful book
Sôlsisol milâsi	-	Loving smile
Misolredo resolsîdo	-	Needy person

Misolredo	-	Person, a being, individual, human
Laremisi	-	To turn red, redden, blush
Laremila	-	To turn blue
Solsire	-	To be happy
Resisol	-	To be sad, sadden
Dofasolmi	-	To become beautiful, make oneself beautiful

Note that laremisi and laremila share a common beginning 'root', as they are both colours.

Note that solsire and resisol have opposite meanings and are 'mirror images' of each other. Many words in Solresol follow this pattern - you will see many more examples of this in later lessons.

When you learn a new word in Solresol, it's a good idea to think through all of its various forms. For example: 

Laremisi means to turn red, lâremisi means the abstract noun 'red', and laremîsi means 'red', the adjective. Laremila - 'to turn blue', functions exactly the same way. 

Solsire means 'to be happy', sôlsire means 'happiness', solsîre means 'happy'. 

Resisol means 'to be sad', rêsisol means 'sadness', resîsol means 'sad'. 

Dofasolmi means 'to become beautiful', dôfasolmi means 'beauty', dofasôlmi means 'beautiful'.

Adjectives are always used to describe nouns, even if they aren't next to the noun in the sentence:

La fadofasol faremi laremîsi.	-	The tree is red.
Dore faremi solsîre.	-	I am happy.
Domi faremi dofasôlmi.	-	You are beautiful.

(Note that the second sentence, while grammatically correct, is not the most efficient way to express the idea. Because solsire is a verb, one can simply say, "Dore solsire," which means, "I am happy.")

Adjectives can be formed from nouns too:

Fadofasol - tree; fadofâsol - tree-like.
Misolrela - person, individual; misolrêla - personal, individual (adj.)
Solresol - Solresol, language; solrêsol - Solresol (used as an adjective, e.g. "A Solresol word"); linguistic

Because one may add an accent to any word in Solresol, many words can be difficult to concisely translate into English. As a general rule, though: The adjective form of a verb embodies the characteristics of something/someone who does the verb often or very well; on a noun, it typically means 'like the noun'. For example, solsisol means 'to smile'; in the phrase la misolredo solsîsol, it is understood that the person smiles often, or is currently smiling, or that his/her most notable characteristic is his/her smile.

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Adverbs are formed by stressing the final syllable. Adverbs modify verbs and adjectives - they are used to describe how something is done.

Milasi	-	Love (for a person)
Milasî	-	Lovingly
Dosido	-	Help
Dosidô	-	Helpfully
Solsire	-	To be happy
Solsirê	-	Happily

Adverbs, like adjectives, should generally come after the verb they modify:

Dofa solsisol solsirê.	-	He smiles happily.
Dore solmila resisôl.	-	I remember sadly.

Adverbs can also be made from nouns:

Domi dosolfami fadofasôl.

-

You stand like a tree.

Dosolfami

-

To stand, stand up, rise, get up

(dosolfâmi - standing, lifted, raised, on foot)

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More Vocabulary:

Solsido	-	Run
Fasido	-	Walk
Fasimire	-	Speed, haste, velocity; (fast, quickly)
Remisifa	-	Dally, dawdle, linger; (slow, slowly)

With this, I leave you some sentences to practice with. As always, I encourage you to actually write down your responses, to learn more quickly. I also encourage you to experiment with making other sentences with what you know! And if you don't understand anything, just ask!


Translate to English:

Dore solsido fasimirê.
Domi ladofa remisifâ.
La fadofasol laremîsi faremi dofasôlmi.
Dofa solmila mire dore faremi resîsol.

Translate to Solresol:

The happy person runs to the tree.
You speak beautifully.
He learns quickly.
I love to walk slowly.
I want to be a beautiful person.

That book is red, and this book is blue.
He has a beautiful sadness.

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Answers:

I run quickly.

You read slowly.

The red tree is beautiful.

He remembers that I am sad.

La misolredo solsîre solsido fa la fadofasol.
Domi domilado dofasolmî.
Dofa sidosi fasimirê.
Dore milasol fasido remisifâ.
Dore fasifa faremi misolredo dofasolmî.

Fare fadosol faremi laremîsi, re fami fadosol faremi laremîla.

Dofa famisol rêsisol dofasôlmi.

Lesson 3.5: Memorization Tips

This is a sort of in-between non-lesson in the Learning Solresol series of posts, regarding some tips on keeping up with vocabulary. If you want to start at Lesson 1, click here.

A big part of learning Solresol is memorizing words - as with any language, you need to know vocabulary more than grammar to really use it. Because of Solresol's limited set of syllables, it can sound repetitive and confusing as you learn more words. Here are some tips to lock in the vocabulary:

1. Make flashcards! Repetition solidifies what you know. Make a deck of flashcards and go through them as often as you can (try at least once a day). As you learn more words, add to your deck. If your deck gets too big, toss out the ones you know really really well, but come back to them every once in a while. 

A great addition to this technique is the website quizlet.com, which has sets of online flashcards. I maintain a set of Solresol vocabulary words there: http://quizlet.com/group/56348/

Feel free to join it; there will be sets of flashcards to go along with the lessons I post, as well as lots of miscellaneous sets of words.

2. Take advantage of Sudre's organization - remembering that certain words follow alphabetical sequences can help immensely. Solresol was organized to facilitate learning as much as possible. Some of the broader levels of organization only become clear as you build up your vocabulary more, and will be more helpful later on. I will try to point out any organization as often as I can to help you see it, and some other tricks will be the subject of later lessons.

3. Use the stenographic writing to visualize the words. It's much easier to remember pictures (no matter how random the picture is) than random syllables. If you know what a word is 'shaped like', you can figure out what the syllables are. To write a word using this system, just connect the shapes that correspond to the syllables in a general left-to-right and top-to-bottom fashion. If a syllable is repeated, draw a line through it. There are sometimes multiple ways of doing this, but if you follow those general directions it should be correct.

Domilado - to speak

Dosido - to help, aid, or assist

Famisol - to have, possess

Remila - to give

Resolsido - to need, require

Solresol - language

Solsisol - to smile

If you want to read more about Solresol's stenographic script and see more examples, you can check out Omniglot's page on Solresol: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/solresol.htm

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I find the writing system to be the most useful aid to memory, but everyone's mind works differently. If you're musically inclined, remembering the sound patterns of words and singing them may help; if you can remember sequences of colors or numbers best, then do that. Take advantage of the multiple ways Solresol can be expressed - there's more to the language than the syllables.

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When you're ready to go on to Lesson 4, click here.

Learning Solresol, Lesson 3: Nouns

This is part of a series of lessons for learning Solresol. To start at lesson 1, click here.

In this lesson, we will learn how nouns are formed in Solresol, in addition to some new vocabulary.

First, to review, try to translate these sentences into English. Try to do it completely from memory, but if you can't remember a word, check your own notes or the previous lesson - check the answers when you're completely done. I encourage you to actually write down your responses; it will really help you learn.

Sidosi

-

To learn

Domi milasi dore.

Dofa do domilado Solresol.

Domi re dore fasifa sidosi Solresol.

Dofa do milasi domi.

Dore faremi.

Dofa sidosi domilado Solresol.

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Answers:

You love me.

He does not speak Solresol.

You and I want to learn Solresol.

He doesn't love you.

I am.

He learns to speak Solresol.

How did you do? If you had to go back and look up some words, that's okay - but memorization is very important to learning Solresol, so keep working on the vocabulary. There will be new vocabulary every lesson, so you'll want to keep up.

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In Solresol, the same word is used for the verb, noun, adjective, and adverb - the various forms are distinguished by emphasizing specific syllables.

To form nouns, you accent the first syllable:

Domilado	-	To speak
Dômilado	-	Speech
Faremi	-	To be, exist
Fâremi	-	Existence, being
Milasi	-	To love (a person)
Mîlasi	-	Love (n) (for a person)

The accent over the letter indicates that you should emphasize that syllable - Sudre uses the term rinforzando, which is a sudden increase of emphasis, or another word for the musical term sforzando.

The notation for said accents isn't really set in stone - I like to use the accents I used above because they resemble an accent in music, but using 'normal' accents is also a popular choice (dó, ré, mí, fá, sól, lá, sí). You will occasionally see the accented syllable written in all caps (DOmilado), but try to only use that if there is no other option, because, frankly, it looks terrible.


In order to further the cause of this lesson, you will need some new vocabulary. I suggest you focus on each word carefully, and write them all down.

Redo	-	My, mine
Remi	-	Your, yours
Refa	-	His, its
Fare	-	That, that one
Fami	-	This, this one

These first five words are usually used to label nouns - they always come before the noun they label (redo mîlasi - my love). All these words, however, can also be used as nouns themselves (fare faremi redo - that is mine).

Note that the possessive pronouns are related to the corresponding subject pronouns:

Dore - I, me		Redo - My, mine
Domi - you		Remi - your, yours
Dofa - he, it		Refa - his, its

Also note that fare and fami are next to each other alphabetically, because they are related words.

Famisol	-	Have, possess, own
Milasol	-	Love (for things)
Solsisol	-	Smile, grin
Ladofa	-	Read
Remila	-	Give
Dosido	-	Help, aid, assist
Solmila	-	Remember, recollect
Resolsido	-	Need, require

These seven words are all verbs - but they can become nouns by accenting the first syllable: Solsisol - to smile; La sôlsisol - the smile. In the same way: la fâmisol - the possession, the thing owned; la mîlasol - the love (for a thing); la lâdofa - the reading, the read; la rêmila - the gift or present; la dôsido - the assistance, help, or aid; la sôlmila - the memory, the recollection; la rêsolsido - the need, the necessity.

Note the difference between milasi and milasol. Milasi is used to say you love a person; Milasol is used to talk of loving objects, animals, and activities. One may use milasi with poetic license in other contexts, but on a literal level it should only be used for people (or other sentient lifeforms, or fictional anthropomorphized creatures of some other nature).

Ladosol	-	Book (n.)
Fadofasol	-	Tree

These last two words, ladosol and fadofasol, are implicitly nouns - so they don't need the initial accent to be used that way.

Notice that ladofa - to read, and ladosol - book, are next to each other alphabetically, because they are related words.

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The best way to learn is through examples and practice (citation needed). So, some examples:

Fare faremi redo ladosol.	-	That is my book.
Dore remila la rêmila fa domi.	-	I give the gift to you.
Dore milasol remi sôlsisol.	-	I love your smile.
Dofa fasifa ladofa fami ladosol.	-	He wants to read this book.
Fami faremi remi.	-	This is yours.

Now that you see how these words work in sentences, try to translate some on your own. As always, try to do as much as you can without checking, and do actually write down what you come up with. This is as much a test of vocabulary as it is of grammar, so be familiar with the new words from this lesson before doing the exercises (It's not really a test, though, don't worry).

Translate these into English:

Dofa milasol fare ladosol.
Domi famisol redo mîlasi.
Fare do faremi Solresol.
Dore resolsido dôsido!
Dofa famisol remi sôlsisol.
Domi resolsido solsisol.

And these into Solresol:

He has a tree. [Solresol doesn't have a word for 'a' or 'an' - just leave it out.]
You have my book!
That is mine.
This book is yours.
I don't remember his smile.
He has your gift.
You remember his love.

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Answers:

English Translations:

He loves that book.
You have my love.
That is not Solresol.
I need help!
He has your smile.
You need to smile.

Solresol Translations:

Dofa famisol fadofasol.
Domi famisol redo ladosol!
Fare faremi redo.
Fami ladosol faremi remi.
Dore do solmila refa sôlsisol.
Dofa famisol remi rêmila.
Domi solmila refa mîlasi. [Using mîlasol here wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but it would imply that his love is for something else, such as an activity or object.]

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That's all for this lesson! Be sure you have all the vocab so far memorized, and that you understand everything from this lesson. If anything is unclear to you, feel free to leave a comment with your question.

To go on to the next segment of this series, click here.

Lesson 2: Basic Words and Grammar

(For Lesson 1: An Introduction, click here.)

Words in Solresol are formed, as you might expect, by creating combinations of syllables from its alphabet. Because of its limited size, almost every combination from 1 to 4 syllables in length has unique meaning, and synonyms are avoided. In total, there are 2260 words of four syllables or fewer - which is sufficient for almost all communication.

In general, the smallest words in Solresol have the most basic meaning, and the longer words are more specific. This fact aids learning, because one can start with shorter and easier to remember words. The first seven words to familiarize yourself with, for example, are:

One-Syllable Words
Do	-	No, not, neither, nor, etc.
Re	-	And
Mi	-	Or
Fa	-	To, at
Sol	-	If
La	-	The
Si	-	Yes

Most of these words are not immediately useful, but knowing them from the beginning will help you create sentences as you learn the necessary vocabulary. The most immediately useful and necessary words from this set are do, re, la, and si, but I will, in the future, assume you know them all.


Solresol words often come in groups of related terms - François Sudre did this intentionally to aid learning.
For instance, look at your first pronouns:

Dore	-	I, me
Domi	-	You
Dofa	-	He, it

These words occur in a sequential order alphabetically (-re, -mi, -fa), because they all hold a similar function.

In order to make a sentence, though, you need a verb.

Faremi

-

to be, exist

This verb is certainly one of the most important words in any language. Familiarize yourself with it, memorize it, and never forget it.

Solresol does not conjugate verbs for different subjects, as many languages do.

Dore faremi.	-	I am.
Domi faremi.	-	You are.
Dofa faremi.	-	He (it) is.

In order to explain a few more ideas, we need a bit more vocabulary:

Domilado	-	To speak, talk, utter
Solresol	-	Solresol specifically, but also language in general
Milasi	-	To love (a person); cherish
Fasifa	-	To want to do something, to intend to do

Solresol sentences (usually) take the structure subject-verb-object (SVO), as English usually is. For example:

Dofa milasi domi.	-	He loves you.
Domi milasi dofa.	-	You love him.

An unaltered verb (as seen in the sentence "Dore faremi") is always in either the present tense (e.g. "I am") or the infinitive (e.g. "to be"), depending on the context. For example:

Dore domilado Solresol.	-	I speak Solresol.
Dore fasifa domilado Solresol.	-	I want to speak Solresol.

Even though the word 'domilado' did not change, its function changed in the sentence from a conjugated verb to an infinitive.

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By using the word 'do' (no, not, etc.), negation in Solresol is very simple. Just add 'do' before the relevant word (usually the verb).

Dore domilado Solresol.	-	I speak Solresol.
Dore do domilado Solresol.	-	I do not speak Solresol.
Dofa do milasi domi.	-	He doesn't love you.
Domi do faremi dore.	-	You are not me.

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That's all for lesson two! Stay tuned for lesson 3, and have fun learning Solresol!

For next time, you need to know all the vocabulary from this lesson and understand this material. If anything doesn't make sense, leave a comment with your question, and I'm sure I'll be able to help.

Vocabulary
Do	-	No, not, neither, nor, etc. (negation)
Re	-	And
Mi	-	Or
Fa	-	To, at
Sol	-	If
La	-	The
Si	-	Yes
Dore	-	I, me
Domi	-	You
Dofa	-	He, it
Faremi	-	to be, exist
Domilado	-	To speak, talk, utter
Solresol	-	Solresol specifically, but also language in general
Milasi	-	To love (a person); cherish
Fasifa	-	To want to do something, to intend to do

When you're ready to go on to Lesson 3, click here.

Learning Solresol, Lesson 1: An introduction

So, you're interested in learning Solresol? Start here.

Solresol has a fascinating history, and I would definitely recommend you research it individually at your leisure to get a fuller understanding (for advice on where to look, see the bottom of this post), but here's a brief introduction:

Solresol is a constructed language, created by François Sudre in 1827. His goal was to create an international language - everyone would learn Solresol as a second language, and the language barrier would effectively be broken, because everyone would share a common tongue. This idea, of an international auxiliary language, is no longer unheard of, but Solresol was the first such language to become fully developed and gain widespread attention. While other languages (Such as Esperanto in theory, or English in practice) seem to be more viable alternatives for this purpose now, Solresol remains a remarkably unique language, deserving of attention - and maybe even a revival. With a dictionary available in English, a  (sidosi.org), and the passion of individuals able to connect via the internet, a revival is indeed in the making - but for that to happen, learning the language must be feasible. I'm not an expert by any means - but nobody is. My hope is that I can share my journey of learning Solresol by teaching you, and we can discover the language together.

Solresol's alphabet is based on the solfège syllables of the Western musical scale: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si. This sets it apart in two fundamental ways: first, it probably has the smallest alphabet in existence; and second, communication can (and should) occur in an incredibly diverse range of mediums. One can communicate in Solresol by singing, playing a musical instrument, speaking the syllables, writing musical notation, painting colors (namely, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet), naming the notes of a scale (e.g. C, D, E, F, G, A, B), writing numbers, tapping numbers morse code style, using the official shorthand (Figure 1), using hand signals (Figure 2), using alternate sign language (Figure 3), or virtually any system that makes use of seven elements.

(Don't be overwhelmed by that list! You don't need to be have perfect pitch, or even be familiar with music at all to learn Solresol. The seven spoken or written syllables are always the most basic form used for learning and almost all communication. Once you understand the language, the variety of possible expression can add versatility and creativity for those who are so inclined.)

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Solresol can embed meaning into almost anything, making it a fascinatingly versatile language. If you're intrigued and want to learn more, go on to lesson two.

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If you want to read more about Solresol's history, I would recommend this PDF:
http://faculty.las.illinois.edu/csandvig/classes/solresol.pdf

If you want to read even more, you should browse Dan Parson's compilation of pretty much every useful piece of information on Solresol on the internet - he's done a great job with it:
http://www.sidosi.org/resources

Solresol-English Dictionary!

Again, ages since I've posted.
But, good news! The dictionary's done! (where "done" here means that every entry has a rough, best-I-could-do translation of the French, and most of the entries have the French written in too) But still - I'm quite proud of myself. That's 2660 words. You can see it here.

So now I'm in the fun part of this process, where I'm trying the language on and translating and stuff.

Mostly, I'm working with a guy named Travis McKenzie, who is writing a book called Magickless which is being published soon (he's got a blog about his writing here: magickless.blogspot.com). He has an idea of including Solresol in his book as a language of magic and spells, so he asked for some help with translating stuff. It's great practice working with the language and seeing how to phrase things. I think that the only way to really learn a language is through taking in lots of material and using it a lot. Since there isn't really any decent material in Solresol, I'll have to resort to creating it - so short phrases that have a specific purpose are great to work with.

Also - the google group thing for Solresol is doing well (mostly cause Travis is spurring conversations and I finally finished my dictionary (and Matt, another member, is really great too)). But we need more activity, so feel free to stop by or make conversation and whatever :)

(Also, I should point out that through my hours of toiling away at Sudre's dictionary, I became converted to an ardent Sudreist and threw Gajewski out the window. Metaphorically. And really only his vocabulary.)

This post was inspired by Travis McKenzie, who reminded me that I have a blog :)

Dictionaries and Groups

So some more updates:
I'm still working on the dictionary. I have it uploaded (and constantly updated) in a Google documents format, which you can view here.
At the time of this writing, I've got around 1200 words defined, which means starting into 4-syllable words starting with Sol.
I created a Google Group for Solresol, which you can see here.
You can also just look up Solresol in Google Groups; our group is called "Solresol", the URL and email identification of it is "Misolrela" - which means "group" in Solresol.
If you're interested in Solresol in any way, I would really encourage you to join that group. We'd like to collect all the people who are interested (either actively or passively - I really don't care) in one place, so that we can standardize stuff, discuss stuff, share stuff, and generally enjoy some sort of community with each other (however small it may be). Solresol needs a home on the internet, and a blog isn't the place for it to actually thrive. So hopefully that group can serve as that place, at least temporarily, until someone (it'll probably be me, haha [EDIT - Turns out it wasn't!]) can get together a real website.
So that's basically it - Bye :)

A short update on progress...

I realize I haven't posted on here for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything with Solresol!

Upon compiling all of Gajewski's vocabulary into one file with all the possible Solresol words in it, I realized how much was actually missing. Sudre, however, has defined every SRS word with 4 syllables or fewer, in a fairly complete and logical way (as far as I can tell). Filling in the gaps with Sudre's words and keeping Gajewski's would completely disrupt the logical order of both of their grammars, and thus completely disrupt the learnability and logic of Solresol in general.

As a result of this, I have decided to ignore most of Gajewski's definitions and go with Sudre's complete dictionary. It's simply a matter of translating French, which isn't that hard, and his dictionary is so much more complete it would be silly to do anything else. I think, once I get it all translated, that I will take the liberty of redefining / updating his dictionary to remove what I perceive as redundancies or to include things that are left out. I can only do this once I'm done, of course, and have a complete, searchable database of his language.

On that note, I've been working on translating all of Sudre's dicitonary and putting it into an Excel file for useability's sake. I am currently done with all two- and three-syllable words, and am a little over 1/7 the way through the four syllable's (i.e. I'm done with all the 4-syllable words that start with "Do", and have started into the ones starting with "Re"). This is actually a LOT of words, and I'm quite pleased with my progress.

I feel like it'd be cool to actually publish a book form of this dictionary, along with an introduction and guide to learning and using the language. Of course, really I just want to be able to use it, but it seems I might as well put all this work into something tangible at some point...

Also, on the note of Sudre's definition vs. Gajewski's, the main point of conflict lies in the two-syllable words. Gajewski's words, overall, seem much more logical and practical (Sudre includes words like today, tomorrow, and yesterday, as well as both the masculine "Mister/Sir" and feminine "Mrs./Ma'am" (which can be expressed by one word with masculine or feminine accent), and he leaves out words like "with", which certainly deserve a place in the "little" words. I'm torn. I overall want to go with Gajewski's two-letter definitions, but one word in particular, "Sido" has me torn even more. Gajewski defines it as "Same" (opposite of "Dosi" (other)), whereas Sudre defines it as "How", which is a much more useful word, a word which Gajewski completely neglects. Right now I'm considering going with Gajewski's two-syllable word definitions except for Sido, which seems a bit illogical, but which might actually make the most sense. Of course, for Solresol to be useful as a comunication device, it seems to me that one should be aware of the words with multiple definitions and what they are, in case one runs into someone else who speaks a different "dialect". Which is kind of weird and awful, especially since one of the main ideas of SRS is to eliminate homonyms.
Oh well.

Bye for now, I'll try to get that dictionary up here whenever I get it done, which might not be for quite a long while. But look forward to that, imaginary audience :)

Categorization of Words

So I'm working on memorizing words - thus far a much more challenging task than it is in other languages, which is of course due to the fact that there are only seven syllables (making it feel like memorizing lists of numbers or something).
I find that the most helpful things are (in no particular order):

• Flashcards, flashcards, flashcards. Particularly my group on quizlet (which I am kind of soliciting, but in a really genuine way. I'm finding it extremely helpful), which makes organization easy and has little game things to put a time stress on you.
• Categorization of words - putting words in a category is, I think, one of the most important things (Sudre even designed the four syllable words to fall into a different category depending on their first letter). But even with the smaller words - putting them in the category of "opposites" that have the syllables reversed, or "question words", or "possessives" or something else. It's useful to note, for instance, that all of the two syllable words that start with "re" are possessive words - a categorization that Sudre/Gajewski did for us; or that all the two syllable words that start with "do" are nouns that generally relate to people (except dosi, which means "other"). Anyway it's really helpful, and I'll probably post some lists that help with all that in general.
• Visualisation - by this I mean the shorthand. The shorthand is useful in that although it is only made up of seven signs, each word tends to look unique and different because of their combination - a trait that is less common using only the words or the notes written on a musical staff. For instance, the word "dore" (I, me) is represented by a circle with a vertical line coming from the bottom (or tangent to the right side - but the former is easier to write), and one can easily imagine it to be the upper part of a stickman - a fitting symbol for a representation of theirself. 

So, for my own and possibly your reference, here is a small list of question words (I feel it's useful to see a question mark after it to reinforce the idea) -

[EDIT - these are all from Gajewski, but some of them are the same. Point being, maybe don't memorize from here :) ]

Fado? - What? (used in phrases like, "what is this?")

Midodore? - How much? How many?

Mire? - Who? Which? (I think that mire can also be used as a non-question word - the definition is "that, which, who", which are all pronouns (but pronouns can be questions, of course)) [EDIT - Now I'm less sure that this word can be a question (though it might be allowed)]

Mifa? - Whose?

Fasol? - Why? [EDIT - Sudre: Here, here is]

Also - there seems to be no word for "where", "when", or "how" [EDIT - for Gajewski at least]... I shall assume that the phrases are simply these:

Fado sidomido? - What place? (Where?)

Fado doredo? - What time? (When?)

Lare fado falami? - By what means? (How?)

(The word "Fasol" is an area of discrepancy between Sudre and Gajewski - This is Gajewski's word, as I promised I would favor him. I'm still uncertain and/or a little upset at having to make decisions - I'm not positive that it is right to prefer Gajewski... But Sudre says that this word means "here is" or something to that effect, but the word "mila" (behold, here/there is) already fills that role... I still feel that Sudre must have just made some minor changes like these for the better and we don't have a more recent book of his... augh. Decisions with little to no basis irk me.)

Solresol

Solresol (Langue Musicale Universelle) is a language created by François Sudre in the mid-nineteenth century. It is an "a priori" language, meaning that it's vocabulary is not based on any existing languages - Solresol is actually based on the musical scale.

Every word in Solresol is composed from only seven syllables (the musical scale) - Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si. In the current musical scale, "So" is used instead of "Sol", and "Ti" in lieu of "Si" - at the time that Solresol was created, the latter were used, so it is appropriate to continue their use when using Solresol.
I discovered Solresol around a year ago, and I recently decided to explore it deeper. This blog is my way of organizing my thoughts and presenting my ideas and input to the (virtually nonexistant [EDIT - not anymore! Check more recent posts]) online Solresol community (if they happen to find me... perhaps I shall need to find them).

There is actually very little information around on Solresol, and much of it (as far as I'm aware) has only turned up recently at the hard work of dedicated people.
[EDIT - This next paragraph is also not true anymore]
The primary source that I will use is Boleslas Gajewski's grammar of Solresol, published in 1902 (after Sudre had died). I am using this because: 1. It seems to be the most prevalent online source for most other people that are using Solresol; 2. It is the most accessible to me (an English speaker); and 3. I don't believe that Gajewski would have intentionally changed major facets of the language, so any discrepancies I am assuming are changes that Sudre made but which we do not have in publication (most of Sudre's work, as far as I know, is missing).
This work is available at these links (I provide several in the off chance that some of them stop working (as far as I can tell they are all the same)) :

http://mozai.com/writing/not_mine/solresol/sorsoeng.htm

https://webspace.utexas.edu/bighamds/LIN312/Files/SolReSol.pdf

http://www.ifost.org.au/~gregb/solresol/sorsoeng.htm

The second source I will be using is Sudre's book on Solresol, Langue Musicale Universelle [EDIT - again, not true anymore. This is really my main (only) source for vocabulary now]. I am using this second for many of the reasons provided above - primarily because it is less accessible. It only appeared online relatively recently (sometime in late 2009), and it is A. in French (which, alas, I do not speak); B. In a PDF format that doesn't allow one to search for words; C. The dictionary does not spell out words, it simply provides a picture of a musical staff with the notes on it, rendering it nigh impossible to read and reference; and D. it's just really long and the scanned pages are rather difficult to read. So basically it's just really inconvenient.  - However! It does contain some valuable information that I can decipher with motivation and the help of Google Translate, so it is an indispensible reference. The problem is that it is sometimes contradictory to Gajewski, so I had to create an order of priority, and Gajewski was just so much easier and more prevalent. 

The PDF book can be found here:

http://www.ifost.org.au/~gregb/solresol/sudre-book.pdf

There are also several dictionaries and references which are definitely worth linking to and which I will certainly use:

http://www.datapacrat.com/True/LANG/SOLRESOL/DICTIONA.HTM
(Note in the above the use of "Ti" instead of "Si" - I will of course use the latter, but it's worth mentioning that this dictionary is slightly less practical)

http://www.ifost.org.au/~gregb/solresol/sorsolex.htm
(The weakness in the above is that it is in English alphabetical order, not Solresol alphabetical order)

http://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-solresol/en/art-solresol/
(This is a site on the number system)

http://quizlet.com/group/56348/
(The above is a flashcard group that I created to help with learning Solresol - it is in progress, but I would encourage anyone interested to check it out; vocabulary in this language can be hard to process, and the flashcards certainly help. (note also that there is a checkbox to ignore stuff in parentheses - they are there to help the learner; it is unreasonable to have to type it all))

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/solresol.htm
(The above is helpful information on the various methods of expressing Solresol, including the shortahand)

Personally, I feel that from what I know of Solresol, it is an awkward language to speak - there are rules of emphasis that are difficult to grasp and employ (questions that arise include, "How do I not put stress on any of the syllables??"), and the repitition tends to make it run together. It's not impossible to do, but it seems more inconvenient (also, the chances of meeting someone who understands (or even knows about it) are very slim). For those reasons I feel that Solresol should be, primarily, a written language. It is one opinion, of course, but it makes sense. There is a shorthand that can be used to write it which makes it look less repetitive, and it is easy to mark accents while writing. I am learning Solresol for mostly personal reasons; I see it as more of a "secret code" with which I can write things to myself without others understanding than as a language with which I will frequently communicate with others. I am, of course, open to using it as a communication tool, but I feel that it is so obscure that such incidences (even on the internet) will be uncommon. [EDIT - actually, it turns out communication might be easier than I though :) ]

Solresol is unique in its ability to be expressed through a large variety of means - spoken words, music (both written and played), colors (red through indigo and violet (seven total)), numbers, written words (and abbreviations), and the written shorthand. I admire this versatility, and it is one of the things that attracted me. It seems the most useful language if one were to frequently need to communicate in secret code (which I secretly wish I did). Solresol just offers a unique opportunity to think about language in a different way, and I'd like to delve in deeper.

So there it is. My reason for creating this blog is just to express my ideas more clearly to a hopefully not too nonexistant audience, but at least to myself. I also realize that there are certainly some words and/or phrases that are just missing in Solresol, and need to be created. I plan on creating some for my use and (hopefully) for others as well, which can't happen if I don't put it on the internet somewhere.

Well that's all -
Bye :)