Onddo, a Fungi Language

We found that size of fungal lexicon can be up to 50 words; however, the

core lexicon of most frequently used words does not exceed 15–20 words.

Following the publication of "Language of fungi derived from their electrical

spiking activity", by Andrew Adamatzky 1 , here is an hypothetical Fungi
language.

What can be done with it is up to you. You may invent an intra or inter-species
dialogue between two mushrooms, within a full network of fungi, over the
course of a day, a week, a lunar month, or more.

The following document describes a minimal lexicon and grammar. You are free
to imagine new words and concept, or new phrases to exchange informations or
feelings between individuals.

The name of the language comes from the Basque (Euskara) word for
"mushroom": onddo 2 .

This document details the version 1.0 of Onddo.

Onddo is the work of Bruno Bord © 2022 and is published under the terms of the
CC-0 Public Domain Dedication.

Phonology & Phonotactics

None. Fungi communicate via electrical signals.
Lexicon
1. SPORES
2. GREETINGS
3. DANGER
4. GOOD / WET&WARM
5. BAD / DRY
6. BIG-QUANTITY / LARGE
7. LOW-QUANTITY / SMALL
8. GROWING
9. WATER / RAIN (flowing water, distinct from "WET")
10. DARKNESS / COLD / MOON
11. LIGHT / SUN
12. LEAF / TREE / PENUMBRA
13. ROOT
14. HEAD
15. FOOT
16. WORMS
17. ANIMALS
18. END / STOP / NO
19. POSSIBILITY / QUESTION

Grammar
The language is isolating. The most important word, or "head word" is sent first,
and then qualifiers or adjectives may be added.

Sentences are composed of a series of word. When the sentence is finished, the
individual makes a pause. The length of the pause is not clearly defined, so it
may happen sometimes that another individual would reply while the first
individual hasn't finished, resulting in much confusion for the non-fungi
"listener".
The dialog starts when an individual sends the GREETINGS word. It may be sent
several times, until either the initiating individual abandons, or another
individual replies. Usually, the replying individual should respond using
GREETINGS again, but it's not necessary. There's no scientific consensus on why
some individuals decide to reply with another word.

Apparently, fungi can have a conversation with several other individuals at the
same time. We don't know if this confuses them. Since their communication
medium is composed of electrical signals, any other fungus can "listen" to them,
so they may not care about privacy.

Example dialog
— Fungus A: GREETINGS GREETING GREETINGS GREETINGS
— Fungus B: GREETINGS
— A: WET&WARM QUESTION
— B: WET&WARM WATER LOW-QUANTITY 3
— A: ROOT GROWING LOW-QUANTITY
— B: ROOT STOP. 4 WORMS DANGER QUESTION
— A: GREETINGS 5 WORMS NOT
— B: PENUMBRA DARKNESS GROWING
— A: DARKNESS LOW-QUANTITY RAIN QUESTION
— B: RAIN NOT. DANGER
— A: SPORES

That could be translated into English like this:

— Fungus A: Greetings, anyone here?

— Fungus B: I'm here
— A: Are you fine?
— B: I'm fine, but not enough water for me
— A: My roots are growing slowly
— B: My roots have stopped (growing?). Are there worms eating you?
— A: Greetings, there are no worms.
— B: Shadows and darkness are growing.
— A: It's becoming a bit dark, do you think it'll rain?
— B: No rain, I fear.
— A: I'm going to release my spores.

1. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211926# ↩

2. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/onddo ↩

3. The individual didn't mark a significant pause here. So we've interpreted the WATER+LOW-QUANTITY

subphrase as a precision about the current state of the individual. They said they were fine, and at the same

time, they complain that their environment is dry. Hence the "I'm fine, but…" translation. ↩

4. We've put a dot here because there was a pause, but the Fungus B started talking again, so it acted like a

pause between two sentences. ↩

5. We don't know why the Fungus A sends greetings again. ↩