New Canthan : any hints to the meaning of unknown symbols ?

[Bananaaaaaaa.7035]

I've spent the last few months studying New Canthan, understanding how it works, looking for unknown logograms out in the open world and redrawing them.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:The_Turtle_Academy/Canthan_Language_Research#Open_World_research_and_speculations

I'm reaching a point where I can't seem to find any new hints in the world or online... so as I walked into Dingus the other day I asked him if Matthew Medina would answer if I asked him for hints. He said "Surely, but it probably won't be the answer you want".

I guess this is where I should be asking ?

 

[Yasai.3549]

The poster for Xunlai has the same first character as Jade BH's symbol. 

I'm guessing Xun is the Canthan pronounciation for Jade (which is pronounced Yù in chinese mandarin btw hence I made the connection that it's a one-meaning symbol)

This means the =口 is Canthan text for lai 

This means the two Tech related Tofu characters are somewhat related to invention and engineering and could sound like lai. (Some eastern text use character prefix or suffix to give the character its "sound" while the supporting prefix or suffix alters the meaning of the character. Good evidence that Canthan text uses a similar system is the Profession symbols literally being Man + symbol relating to the profession)

 

I've only skimmed through the page so this is the sort of understanding I can draw regarding the unknowns. Sorry not much help 😛 but I hope this gives you some insight. 

 

Edited March 20 by Yasai.3549

[Bananaaaaaaa.7035]

I did write that the two symbols looked identical (resembles the Jade Brotherhood's emblem - probably means "jade")

Also I'm not really interested in pronunciation but "Xunlai" used to be the name of a bank, so it's not very likely that it could mean "jade tech". It could maybe work with "Hyeoksin" though :

Quote

In 1829 CC (1319 AE), Hyeoksin Jade acquired the assets, patents and trademarks of the Xunlai Guild, an old banking guild managed by Luen Ai

(source: wiki)

If you're interested in this kind of research I'd be happy to share ideas with you

44 minutes ago, Yasai.3549 said:

I'm guessing Xun is the Canthan pronounciation for Jade (which is pronounced Yù in chinese mandarin btw hence I made the connection that it's a one-meaning symbol)

This means the =口 is Canthan text for lai 

 

[Yasai.3549]

31 minutes ago, Bananaaaaaaa.7035 said:

I did write that the two symbols looked identical (resembles the Jade Brotherhood's emblem - probably means "jade")

Also I'm not really interested in pronunciation but "Xunlai" used to be the name of a bank, so it's not very likely that it could mean "jade tech". It could maybe work with "Hyeoksin" though :

If you're interested in this kind of research I'd be happy to share ideas with you

 

You're probably right about the Tofu not being related to tech. I really didn't wanna fall too hard on real life languages but the more I think about it, the more the Tofu is probably lai indeed.

Lai in mandarin translation to rely/trust 

Now Jade Trust sounds really bank-y huh?

Question is why did they modernize the character for Jade but not "Trust"? Maybe not all words are modernized at all. 

[Bananaaaaaaa.7035]

Yep, if you read my entire wiki page you'll notice that a lot of New Canthan logograms are identical to Old Canthan. They just changed the typography/style to make it look new. Among these we find "man", "woman", the classes that didn't change from gw1 to gw2 (war, elem, necro...)...

But yeah my point was that I'm reaching a kind of dead end in my search for the meaning of many symbols and I'm looking for a fresh PoV or a little hint from the devs TT

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

On 3/20/2024 at 2:05 AM, Yasai.3549 said:

The poster for Xunlai has the same first character as Jade BH's symbol. 

I'm guessing Xun is the Canthan pronounciation for Jade (which is pronounced Yù in chinese mandarin btw hence I made the connection that it's a one-meaning symbol)

This means the =口 is Canthan text for lai 

This means the two Tech related Tofu characters are somewhat related to invention and engineering and could sound like lai. (Some eastern text use character prefix or suffix to give the character its "sound" while the supporting prefix or suffix alters the meaning of the character. Good evidence that Canthan text uses a similar system is the Profession symbols literally being Man + symbol relating to the profession)

 

I've only skimmed through the page so this is the sort of understanding I can draw regarding the unknowns. Sorry not much help 😛 but I hope this gives you some insight.

The organization's full name is Xunlai Jade. So it would make sense that Xunlai Jade and Jade Brotherhood both have a symbol for Jade in them.

Since the order of the poster has the assumed Jade icon first. I imagine the poster's text is "Jade Tech" - this would explain why the second symbol are on jade tech protocols.

Which is to say:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:UserThe_Turtle_Academy-CL~unknown11.jpg = Jade

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:UserThe_Turtle_Academy-CL~unknown5.jpg = Tech

It's curious that there's a very similar icon also used on jade tech protocols as the above theorized "Tech" symbol, which seems to be part of Engineer's contruction. Maybe this symbol means "technology"? Shorthand versus longhand?

Edited March 23 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Bananaaaaaaa.7035]

Yup. This is what I had guessed as well