Surface III · AfaOS
The Forge
Where the words that do not exist yet are commissioned, argued, and coined. The machinery is public, the votes are on arguments, and the council answers in writing. The pilot commission is open.
Why the Forge exists
If the future is artificial intelligence, and there is no Igbo word for artificial intelligence — where is the room for Igbo in the future? So we forge one: agwụ, the spirit of knowing bound to thought itself, and igwe, iron — the thing man forges, our oldest technology of light and energy. Together, agwụigwe — a made mind of forged thought. In a world where language is power, we must remember to speak.
The word list is the whole English dictionary laid open for translation — search any word to see if Igbo has it, if it's being argued, or if no word has been recorded yet. The science, mathematics, and social-science terms are marked as priority gaps and shown first.
Open commissions
No commissions yet.
The gap list
Concepts waiting for words. Gaps arrive from word suggestions, the margins of the novel, and sweeps — an editor opens a commission when a gap is ready for candidates.
The gap list is empty — suggest a word.
- 1
Gap
A concept Igbo has no word for — found by AI sweeps, the novel's margins, or anyone who notices one. Proper nouns and scientific nomenclature route to naturalized borrowing instead.
- 2
Commission
An editor opens the gap: the concept described from the thing itself (never from the English word), the semantic field the worldview assigns it, and its precedent kin.
- 3
Candidates
Anyone may propose — human or AI, always labeled. Term, tone pattern, morphemes with root-registry references, pattern ID, reasoning trace. The full argument, on the table.
- 4
Screen
Rejection rules 1–5 run in code at submission: syllable structure, tone presence, root membership, affix harmony, pattern declaration. Rules 6–10 go to human screeners.
- 5
Vote
The oha votes on the argument, not the vibe — the full derivation record is in front of every voter. Rival candidates fight in the same arena, so proliferation dies inside the process.
- 6
Council
Linguists, d'bia, designated elders. Ratify, return with notes, or overrule — with published reasoning. Authority is distributed, and its exercises are auditable.
- 7
Ratified
The word enters the lexicon, backfills into term-links across the novel and Codex, and emits its derivation record to the training corpus. If nobody uses it for two years, it goes dormant and the commission reopens.
The root registry — live
Every coined word's morphemes are foreign keys into attested roots, seeded from the Ọ̀nìchà dictionary. This table is the crown jewel.
Browse the roots →
Where the AI is fenced
The model may sweep for gaps, draft labeled candidates, and pre-flag violations — advisory only. It never ratifies, never assigns tone as fact, never publishes without human review. Its Igbo is weak; this platform exists to change that honestly.