User:Ganaram inukshuk/TAMNAMS Extension

This is a system for describing and naming mos scales beyond the set of named TAMNAMS mosses. Both User:Frostburn (User:Frostburn/TAMNAMS Extension) and I have similar systems for how to name mos descendants, but this page describes additional naming systems that apply to mosses with non-octave equivalence intervals.

Naming mos descendants

To name mosses that have more than 10 notes, rather than giving mosses unique names, names are based on how they're related to another (named) mos and, optionally, what step ratio is needed for the parent to produce that mos.

Base names
Parent mos		Child (1st descendant)			Grandchild (2nd descendant)			Great-grandchild (3rd descendant)			kth descendant
(mos-name)		(step-ratio)-chromatic (mos-name) (step-ratio)-(mos-prefix)enharmonic			(step-ratio)-enharmonic (mos-name) (step-ratio)-(mos-prefix)enharmonic			(step-ratio)-subchromatic (mos-name) (step-ratio)-(mos-prefix)subchromatic			(kth) (mos-name) descendant (kth)-(mos-prefix)descendant
Step ratio prefixes (optional)
Parent mos		Child (1st descendant)			Grandchild (2nd descendant)			Great-grandchild (3rd descendant)			kth descendant
Mos	L:s range	Mos	L:s range	Prefix	Mos	L:s range	Prefix	Mos	L:s range	Prefix	Prefixes not applicable
xL ys	1:1 to 1:0	(x+y)L xs	1:1 to 2:1 (general soft range)	s-	(x+y)L (2x+y)s	1:1 to 3:2 (soft)	s-	(x+y)L (3x+2y)s	1:1 to 4:3 (ultrasoft)	us-
								(3x+2y)L (x+y)s	4:3 to 3:2 (parasoft)	ps-
					(2x+y)L (x+y)s	3:2 to 2:1 (hyposoft)	os-	(3x+2y)L (2x+y)s	3:2 to 5:3 (quasisoft)	qs-
								(2x+y)L (3x+2y)s	5:3 to 2:1 (minisoft)	ms-
		xL (x+y)s	2:1 to 1:0 (general hard range)	h-	(2x+y)L xs	2:1 to 3:1 (hypohard)	oh-	(2x+y)L (3x+y)s	2:1 to 5:1 (minihard)	mh-
								(3x+y)L (2x+y)s	5:2 to 3:1 (quasihard)	qh-
					xL (2x+y)s	3:1 to 1:0 (hard)	h-	(3x+y)L xs	3:1 to 4:1 (parahard)	ph-
								xL (3x+y)s	4:1 to 1:0 (ultrahard)	uh-

Mos descendant names have two main forms: a multi-part name, where the base name (chromatic, enharmonic, subchromatic, and descendant) and mos name are separate words, and a one-part name, formed by prefixing the mos's prefix to the base names. The latter is recommended for mosses with no more than three periods, as the only 4 and 5-period mosses named by TAMNAMS are tetrawood and pentawood respectively. If a step ratio is specified for the former, it may be written out fully instead of prefixed to the base word.

The term kth descendant can be used to refer to any mos that descends from another mos, regardless of how many generations apart the two are. To find the number of generations n separating the two mosses, use the following algorithm:

1. Let z and w be the number of large and small steps of the parent mos to be found. Assign to z and w the values x and y respectively. Let n = 0, where n is the number of generations away from zL ws.
2. Let m1 be equal to max(z, w) and m2 be equal to min(z, w).
3. Assign to z the value m2 and w the value m1-m2. Increment n by 1.
4. If the sum of z and w is no more than 10, then the parent mos is zL ws and is n generations from the mos descendant xL ys. If not, repeat the process starting at step 2.

As diatonic (5L 2s) doesn't have a prefix, the terms chromatic, enharmonic, and subchromatic by themselves (and with no other context suggesting a non-diatonic mos) refer to 1st (child), 2nd (grandchild), and 3rd (great-grandchild) diatonic descendants. For consistency, mos descendant names apply to mosses whose child mosses exceed 10 notes. Since all mosses ultimately descend from some nL ns mos, every possible descendant up to 5 periods will be related to a named mos.

Mosses whose children have more than 10 notes (1st and 2nd descendants only)

6-note mosses		Chromatic mosses		Enharmonic mosses
Pattern	Name	Patterns	Names	Patterns	Names
1L 5s	antimachinoid	1L 6s, 6L 1s	n/a	1A 7B, 6A 7B	n/a
2L 4s	malic	2L 6s, 6L 2s	n/a	2A 8B, 6A 8B	n/a
3L 3s	triwood	3L 6s, 6L 3s	n/a	3A 9B, 6A 9B	n/a
4L 2s	citric	4L 6s, 6L 4s	n/a	4A 10B, 6A 10B	n/a
5L 1s	machinoid	5L 6s, 6L 5s	mechromatic	5A 11B, 6A 11B	mechenharmonic
7-note mosses		Chromatic mosses		Enharmonic mosses
Pattern	Name	Patterns	Names	Patterns	Names
1L 6s	onyx	1L 7s, 7L 1s	n/a	1A 8B, 7A 8B	n/a
2L 5s	antidiatonic	2L 7s, 7L 2s	n/a	2A 9B, 7A 9B	n/a
3L 4s	mosh	3L 7s, 7L 3s	n/a	3A 10B, 7A 10B	n/a
4L 3s	smitonic	4L 7s, 7L 4s	smichromatic	4A 11B, 7A 11B	smienharmonic
5L 2s	diatonic	5L 7s, 7L 5s	chromatic	5A 12B, 7A 12B	enharmonic
6L 1s	arch(a)eotonic	6L 7s, 7L 6s	archeoromatic	6A 13B, 7A 13B	archeoenharmonic
8-note mosses		Chromatic mosses		Enharmonic mosses
Pattern	Name	Patterns	Names	Patterns	Names
1L 7s	antipine	1L 8s, 8L 1s	n/a	1A 9B, 8A 9B	n/a
2L 6s	subaric	2L 8s, 8L 2s	n/a	2A 10B, 8A 10B	n/a
3L 5s	checkertonic	3L 8s, 8L 3s	checkchromatic	3A 11B, 8A 11B	checkenharmonic
4L 4s	tetrawood; diminished	4L 8s, 8L 4s	chromatic tetrawood	4A 12B, 8A 12B	enharmonic tetrawood
5L 3s	oneirotonic	5L 8s, 8L 5s	oneirochromatic	5A 13B, 8A 13B	oneiroenharmonic
6L 2s	ekic	6L 8s, 8L 6s	ekchromatic	6A 14B, 8A 14B	ekenharmonic
7L 1s	pine	7L 8s, 8L 7s	pinechromatic	7A 15B, 8A 15B	pinenharmonic
9-note mosses		Chromatic mosses		Enharmonic mosses
Pattern	Name	Patterns	Names	Patterns	Names
1L 8s	antisubneutralic	1L 9s, 9L 1s	n/a	1A 10B, 9A 10B	n/a
2L 7s	balzano	2L 9s, 9L 2s	balchromatic	2A 11B, 9A 11B	balenharmonic
3L 6s	tcherepnin	3L 9s, 9L 3s	cherchromatic	3A 12B, 9A 12B	cherenharmonic
4L 5s	gramitonic	4L 9s, 9L 4s	gramchromatic	4A 13B, 9A 13B	gramenharmonic
5L 4s	semiquartal	5L 9s, 9L 5s	chtonchromatic	5A 14B, 9A 14B	chtonenharmonic
6L 3s	hyrulic	6L 9s, 9L 6s	hyruchromatic	6A 15B, 9A 15B	hyrenharmonic
7L 2s	superdiatonic	7L 9s, 9L 7s	armchromatic	7A 16B, 9A 16B	armenharmonic
8L 1s	subneutralic	8L 9s, 9L 8s	bluchromatic	8A 17B, 9A 17B	bluenharmonic
10-note mosses		Chromatic mosses		Enharmonic mosses
Pattern	Name	Patterns	Names	Patterns	Names
1L 9s	antisinatonic	1L 10s, 10L 1s	asinachromatic	1A 11B, 10A 11B	asinenharmonic
2L 8s	jaric	2L 10s, 10L 2s	jarachromatic	2A 12B, 10A 12B	jaraenharmonic
3L 7s	sephiroid	3L 10s, 10L 3s	sephchromatic	3A 13B, 10A 13B	sephenharmonic
4L 6s	lime	4L 10s, 10L 4s	limechromatic	4A 14B, 10A 14B	limenharmonic
5L 5s	pentawood	5L 10s, 10L 5s	chromatic pentawood	5A 15B, 10A 15B	enharmonic pentawood
6L 4s	lemon	6L 10s, 10L 6s	lemchromatic	6A 16B, 10A 16B	lemenharmonic
7L 3s	dicoid	7L 10s, 10L 7s	dicochromatic	7A 17B, 10A 17B	dicoenharmonic
8L 2s	taric	8L 10s, 10L 8s	tarachromatic	8A 18B, 10A 18B	tarenharmonic
9L 1s	sinatonic	9L 10s, 10L 9s	sinachromatic	9A 19B, 10A 19B	sinenharmonic

Names for mosses beyond 10 notes

This section outlines proposed names and naming suggestions for mosses beyond 10 notes.

Extended k-wood names

To name mos descendants with more than 5 periods, the names for wood mosses are extended to hexawood, heptawood, octawood, enneawood, and decawood. (This is not too different from Frostburn's proposal.) Names for descendants for these scales follow the same scheme as with other TAMNAMS-named mosses.

Names for wood scales up to 10 periods

Mos	Name	Prefix	Abbrev.
6L 6s	hexawood	hexwd-	hxw
7L 7s	heptawood	hepwd-	hpw
8L 8s	octawood	octwd-	ocw
9L 9s	enneawood	ennwd-	enw
10L 10s	decawood	dekwd-	dkw
11L 11s	11-wood	11-wud-	11wd
12L 12s	12-wood	12-wud	12wd
etc...

Former names worth restoring (proposed)

At one point, TAMNAMS had tenuously named mosses up to 12 notes. Following reorganization back in August of 2022, many temperament-suggestive names were replaced, and names for 11 and 12-note mosses were dropped. Of those, these names are (in my opinion) worth restoring, either because these names are noteworthy (eg, m- and p-chromatic) or because these temperament-suggestive names are better suited as names for child mosses (eg, 3L 5s was named sensoid).

11-note mosses
Mos	Name	Reasoning
2L 9s	jonatonic	Modification of an old name (joanatonic) that applied to its parent scale
4L 7s	kleistonic	Restoration of an old name
5L 6s	xeimtonic	Restoration of an old name
7L 4s	prasmitonic	Modification of an old name (suprasmitonic)
8L 3s	sentonic	Modification of an old name (sensoid) that applied to its parent scale
9L 2s	villatonic	Indirectly references avila casablanca temperaments
10L 1s	miratonic	Modification of an old name (miraculoid)
12-note mosses
Mos	Name	Reasoning
5L 7s	pychromatic	Modification of an old name (p-chromatic)
6L 6s	hexawood	Extension of -wood scales, already part of other TAMNAMS extension proposals
7L 5s	emchromatic	Modification of an old name (m-chromatic)
11L 1s	ripploid	Restoration of an old name
13-note mosses
Mos	Name	Reasoning
9L 4s	orwelloid	Restoration of an old name that applied to its parent scale

Names for monolarge mosses (proposed)

These name suggestions are based on a proposal to rename some of the monolarge mosses to be based on gemstones and minerals, following the logic set forth for the name "onyx" for 1L 6s.

Mos	Proposed name	Current name	Reasoning
1L 6s		onyx	"from a lot of naming puns"
1L 7s	spinel	antipine	Contains the substring "pine"
1L 8s	agate	antisubneutralic	Rhymes with eight
1L 9s	olivine	antisinatonic	Rhymes with nine
1L 10s	tanzanite, tenorite		"ten"
1L 11s	helenite		"ele" substring is part of "eleven"
1L 12s	zircon		Zircon is used as a birthstone for December

Other suggestions (proposed)

Mos(ses)	Notes	Name	Reasoning	Other names
7L 6s	13	tetarquintal	"Quarter fifth" scale, referencing temperaments that divide the fifth into four
11L 2s	13	maioquartal	"Major fourth" scale, as used by Tcherepnin	hendecoid (proposed by Eliora)
12L 1s	13	quasidozenal	"almost twelve"	grumpy tridecatonic (Dwarf Naming Scheme)

Other naming schemes

This section describes additional naming schemes.

Names for mos linear families (proposed)

Mosses with the same number of large steps can be described as its own family, specifically a family of related mosses of the form xL (nx + y)s. This family starts with the mos xL ys, where x < y and n = 0, and continue with mosses with the same number of large steps but a linearly growing quantity of small steps. An example of such a family is the mos sequence 5L 2s, 5L 7s, 5L 12s, 5L 17s, etc, where each successive mos has 5 more small steps than the last.

Mosses in a linear family are based on repeated applications of the replacement ruleset L->Ls and s->s on the initial mos, and reaching the nth member of a linear family requires the initial mos have a hard or pseudocollapsed step ratio. The child mos (x+y)L xs is the start of its own linear family, which relates back to the initial mos xL ys if the initial mos has a step ratio that is soft or pseudoequalized.

Names for these families describe a subset of a mos descendant family, and most mos families go by the name of (mos name) linear family or (mos-prefix)linear family.

Names of single-period mos linear families (work-in-progress)

Trivial families (names not based on "linear")
Mos	Name	Reasoning
1L (n+1)s	monolarge family	Represents an entire family of mosses formerly unnamed by TAMNAMS The name "monolarge" is chosen as it succinctly describes the only possible 1L family
2L (2n+1)s	bilarge family	Named analogously to the monolarge family
3L (3n+1)s	trilarge family	Named analogously to the monolarge family Prevents potential confusion with the name "tetralinear"
Families with 3 large steps
Mos	Name	Reasoning
3L (3n+2)s	apentilinear family	Named after anpentic
Families with 4 large steps
Mos	Name	Reasoning
4L (4n+1)s	manulinear family	Named after manual
4L (4n+3)s	smilinear family	Named after smitonic
Families with 5 large steps
Mos	Name	Reasoning
5L (5n+1)s	mechlinear family	Named after machinoid (prefix mech-)
5L (5n+2)s	p-linear family	Named after p-chromatic rather than diatonic, which has no prefix
5L (5n+3)s	oneirolinear family	Named after oneirotonic
5L (5n+4)s	chtonlinear family	Named after semiquartal (prefix chton-)
Families with 6 large steps
Mos	Name	Reasoning
6L (6n+1)s	archeolinear family	Named after archeotonic
6L (6n+5)s	xeimlinear family	Named after xeimtonic, a former name for 6L 5s
Families with 7 large steps
Mos	Name	Reasoning
7L (7n+1)s	pinelinear family	Named after pine
7L (7n+2)s	armlinear family	Named after superdiatonic (also called armotonic)
7L (7n+3)s	dicolinear or zalinear family	Named after dicotonic (also called zaltertic)
7L (7n+4)s	prasmilinear family	Named after a truncation of a former name for 7L 4s (suprasmitonic)
7L (7n+5)s	m-linear family	Named after m-chromaticralic (prefix blu-)
8L (8n+3)s
8L (8n+5)s	petrlinear family	Named after petroid, a former name for 8L 5s
8L (8n+7)s
Families with 9 large steps
Mos	Name	Reasoning
9L (9n+1)s	sinalinear family	Named after sinatonic
9L (9n+2)s
9L (9n+4)s
9L (9n+5)s
9L (9n+7)s
9L (9n+8)s

Non-octave extensions (proposed)

Equave-agnostic names (proposed)

This is a proposed scheme to name mosses regardless of the equivalence interval, either for nonoctave mosses or nested mos patterns such as with a mos cradle. Whether such a proposal is within the scope of TAMNAMS (as it currently concerns octave-equivalent and tempered-octave scales) is not known. These names are not final and are open to better suggestions.

4-note mosses (new names only)
Mos	Name	Multi-period?	Prefix	Abbrev.
2L 2s	double trivial	Yes (2)	2triv-	2trv
6-note mosses
Mos	Name	Multi-period?	Prefix	Abbrev.
1L 5s	anhexic	No	ahex-	ahx
2L 4s	double antrial	Yes (2)	2atri-	2tri
3L 3s	triple trivial	Yes (3)	3triv-	3trv
4L 2s	double trial	Yes (2)	2tri-	2tri
5L 1s	hexic	No	hex-	hx
7-note mosses
Mos	Name	Multi-period?	Prefix	Abbrev.
1L 6s	ansaptic	No	ansap-	asp
2L 5s	anheptic	No	anhep-	ahp
3L 4s	anseptenic	No	ansep-	asep
4L 3s	septenic	No	sep-	sep
5L 2s	heptic	No	hep-	hp
6L 1s	saptic	No	sap-	sp
8-note mosses
Mos	Name	Multi-period?	Prefix	Abbrev.
1L 7s	anastaic	No	anast-	aast
2L 6s	double antetric	Yes (2)	2atetra-	2att
3L 5s	anoctic	No	anoct-	aoct
4L 4s	quadruple trivial	Yes (4)	4triv-	4trv
5L 3s	octic	No	oct-	oct
6L 2s	double tetric	Yes (2)	2tetra-	2tt
7L 1s	astaic	No	ast-	ast
9-note mosses
Mos	Name	Multi-period?	Prefix	Abbrev.
1L 8s	annavic	No	annav-	anv
2L 7s	anennaic	No	anenn-	aenn
3L 6s	triple antrial	Yes (3)	3atri-	3atri
4L 5s	annovemic	No	annov-	anv
5L 4s	novemic	No	nov-	nv
6L 3s	triple trial	Yes (3)	3tri-	3tri
7L 2s	ennaic	No	enn-	enn
8L 1s	navic	No	nav-	nv
10-note mosses
Mos	Name	Multi-period?	Prefix	Abbrev.
1L 9s	andashic	No	andash-	adsh
2L 8s	double pedal	Yes (2)	2ped-	2ped
3L 7s	andeckic	No	andeck-	adek
4L 6s	double pentic	Yes (2)	2pent-	2pt
5L 5s	quintuple trivial	Yes (5)	penptriv-	5trv
6L 4s	double anpentic	Yes (2)	2apent-	2apt
7L 3s	deckic	No	deck-	dek
8L 2s	double manual	Yes (2)	2manu-	2manu
9L 1s	dashic	No	dash-	dsh

Names for these mosses are meant to be as general as possible, starting with established names that are already equave-agnostic: trivial, (an)trial, (an)tetric, (an)pentic, and pedal/manual. Mosses are named in pairs of xL ys and yL xs, where the mos with more small steps than large steps is given the an- prefix, short for anti-; this rule doesn't apply to pentic (2L 3s) and anpentic (3L 2s), where the former is the familiar pentatonic scale.

As there is only one pair of 6-note single-period mosses, 5L 1s and 1L 5s, the pair is named hexic.

With 7-note mosses, there are three pairs of mosses, whose names are based on three languages: Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. The pair 5L 2s and 2L 5s are given the Greek-based name of heptic, as 5L 2s is the familiar diatonic scale. The next pair, 3L 4s and 4L 3s, are given the Latin-based name of septenic. The last pair, 1L 6s and 6L 1s, are given the Sanskrit-based name of saptic.

This pattern is continued for all successive sequences of mosses for each successive note count: 1L ns and nL 1s are given a Sanskrit-based name, the next single-period pair after that are given a Greek-based name, and the next single-period pair after that are given a Latin-based name. The two 8-note pairs are named astaic (7L 1s and 1L 7s) and octic (5L 3s and 3L 5s) respectively. The three 9-note pairs are named navic (8L 1s and 1L 8s), ennaic (7L 2s and 2L 7s), and novemic (4L 5s and 5L 4s). Finally the two 10-note pairs are named dashic (9L 1s and 1L 9s) and dekic (7L 3s and 3L 7s).

Names for multi-period mosses are based on the name of a smaller, base mos preceded by the number of times it's duplicated (double, triple, quadruple, etc). The prefix and abbreviation of the base mos is preceded by the number of duplications. For example, 2L 2s is double trivial, its prefix is 2triv-, and its abbreviation is 2trv.

Reasoning for names

The overall motivation for these names is to give names to closely related mosses and refer to individual mosses as some member of a broader family, rather than name individual mosses. Various terms have been used to similarly describe child mosses, but not under a temperament-agnostic viewpoint.

Source of terms	Grandparent (2nd predecessor)	Parent (1st predecessor)	Mos	Child (1st descendant)	Grandchild (2nd descendant)	Great-grandchild (3rd descendant)	kth descendant
From Diatonic, Chromatic, Enharmonic, Subchromatic	n/a	n/a	diatonic	chromatic	enharmonic	subchromatic	n/a
From Chromatic pairs	sub-haplotonic (not called this on page)	haplotonic	albitonic	chromatic	mega-chromatic		n/a
				mega-albitonic	chromatic	mega-chromatic
Terminology used for this page	n/a	n/a	mos	chromatic mos	enharmonic mos	subchromatic mos	kth descendant

The format of adding a mos's prefix to the terms descendant, chromatic, enharmonic, and subchromatic is best applied to mosses that have no more than three periods. With mosses that descend directly from nL ns mosses especially (4L 4s and above), this is to keep names from being too complicated (eg, chromatic (number)-wood instead of (number)-woodchromatic).

Various people have suggested the use of p- and m- as prefixes to refer to specific chromatic mosses, as well as the use of f- and s- for enharmonic mosses. Generalizing the pattern to 3rd mos descendants shows the letters diverging from one another, notably where m- is no longer next to p- and f- and s- are no longer along the extremes. Rather than using these letters, as well as being temperament-agnostic, prefixes based on step ratios are used instead. However, temperament-based prefixes may be used specifically for diatonic descendants as alternatives to the prefixes based on step ratios.

Prefixes for diatonic descendants

Diatonic scale	Chromatic mosses			Enharmonic mosses			Subchromatic mosses
	Steps	Temp-based prefix	Ratio-based prefix	Steps	Temp-based prefix	Ratio-based prefix	Steps	Temp-based prefix	Ratio-based prefix
5L 2s	7L 5s	m- (from meantone)	s-	7L 12s	f- (from flattone)	s-	7L 19s	t- (from tridecimal)	us-
							19L 7s	f- (from flattone)	ps-
				12L 7s	m- (from meantone)	os-	19L 12s	m- (from meanpop)	qs-
							12L 19s	h- (from huygens)	ms-
	5L 7s	p- (from pythagorean)	h-	12L 5s	p- (from pythagorean)	oh-	12L 17s	p- (from pythagorean)	mh-
							17L 12s	g- (from gentle)	qh-
				5L 12s	s- (from superpyth)	h-	17L 5s	s- (from superpyth)	ph-
							5L 17s	u- (from ultrapyth)	uh-