User:Ganaram inukshuk/TAMNAMS

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This page is a work-in-progress, proposed rewrite of the following page: TAMNAMS

TAMNAMS (read "tame names", from Temperament-Agnostic Mos NAMing System; also pronounced /tæmnæms/), devised by the XA Discord in 2021, is a system of temperament-agnostic names for scales – primarily octave-equivalent moment of symmetry scales – as well as their their intervals, their associated generator ranges, and the ratios describing the proportions of large and small steps.

No other changes to lead section.

Credits

No changes.

Step ratio spectrum

No changes.

Naming mos intervals

No changes.

Naming mos degrees

No changes.

Mos pattern names

This section contains unapproved namechanges. They are provided for reference.

TAMNAMS uses the following names for octave-equivalent (or tempered-octave) mosses with step counts between 6 and 10. These names are optional; interval size names and step ratio names can be combined with conventional xL ys names.

Prefixes and abbreviations for each name are also provided, and can used in place of the prefix mos- and its abbreviation of m-, as seen in mos-related terms, such as mosstep and mosdegree, and their abbreviations of ms and md, respectively. For example, discussion of the intervals and scale degrees of oneirotonic uses the terms oneirosteps and oneirodegrees, abbreviated as oneis and oneid, respectively.

This list is maintained by User:Inthar and User:Godtone.

TAMNAMS mos names
6-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Etymology
1L 5s selenite sel- sel References luna temperament (selenite is named after the moon); also called antimachinoid[1].
2L 4s malic mal- mal Sister mos of 4L 2s; apples have concave ends, whereas lemons/limes have convex ends.
3L 3s triwood triwd- tw Blackwood[10] and whitewood[14] generalized to 3 periods.
4L 2s citric citro- cit Parent (or subset) mos of 4L 6s and 6L 4s.
5L 1s machinoid mech- mech From machine temperament.
7-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Etymology
1L 6s onyx on- on Sounds like "one-six" depending on one's pronunciation; also called anti-archeotonic[1].
2L 5s pelotonic pel- pel Common name, referring to the sister of 5L 2s; pel- is from pelog; also called antidiatonic[1].
3L 4s mosh mosh- mosh From "mohajira-ish", a name from Graham Breed's naming scheme.
4L 3s smitonic smi- smi From "sharp minor third".
5L 2s diatonic dia- dia
6L 1s archaeotonic arch- arch Originally a name for 13edo's 6L 1s scale; also called archæotonic/archeotonic[2].
8-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Etymology
1L 7s spinel spin- sp Contains the string "pine", referencing its sister mos; also called antipine[1].
2L 6s subaric subar- sb Parent (or subset) mos of 2L 8s and 8L 2s.
3L 5s checkertonic check- chk From the Kite guitar checkerboard scale.
4L 4s tetrawood tetrawd- ttw Blackwood[10] and whitewood[14] generalized to 4 periods; also called diminished[3].
5L 3s oneirotonic oneiro- onei Originally a name for 13edo's 5L 3s scale; also called oneiro[4].
6L 2s ekic ek- ek From echidna and hedgehog temperaments.
7L 1s pine pine- pine From porcupine temperament.
9-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Etymology
1L 8s agate ag- ag Rhymes with "eight", depending on one's pronunciation; also called antisubneutralic[1].
2L 7s balzano bal- bal Originally a name for 20edo's 2L 7s (and 2L 11) scales; bal- is pronounced /bæl/.
3L 6s tcheretonic cher- ch In reference to Tcherepnin's 9-note scale in 12edo. Also called cheretonic[2].
4L 5s gramitonic gram- gram From "grave minor third".
5L 4s semiquartal cthon- cth From "half fourth"; cthon- is from "chthonic".
6L 3s hyrulic hyru- hy References triforce temperament.
7L 2s armotonic arm- arm From Armodue theory; also called superdiatonic[3].
8L 1s subneutralic blu- blu Derived from the generator being between supraminor and neutral quality; blu- is from bleu temperament.
10-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Etymology
1L 9s olivnie oli- oli Rhymes with "nine", depending on one's pronunciation; also called antisinatonic[1].
2L 8s jaric jara- jar From pajara, injera, and diaschismic temperaments.
3L 7s sephiroid seph- seph From sephiroth temperament.
4L 6s lime lime- lim Sister mos of 6L 4s; limes are smaller than lemons, as are 4L 6s's step sizes compared to 6L 4s.
5L 5s pentawood pentawd- pw Blackwood[10] and whitewood[14] generalized to 5 periods.
6L 4s lemon lem- lem From lemba temperament.
7L 3s dicoid dico- dico From dichotic and dicot (dicoid) exotemperaments; pronounced /'daɪˌkɔɪd/.
8L 2s taric tara- tar Sister mos of 2L 8s; based off of Hindi word for 18 (aṭhārah), since 18edo contains basic 8L 2s.
9L 1s sinatonic sina- si Derived from the generator being within the range of a sinaic.
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Alternate name based on the name of its sister mos, with anti- prefix added.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Spelling variant.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Common name no longer recommend by TAMNAMS due to risk of ambiguity. Provided for reference.
  4. Shortened form of name.

Extending the named range

For a discussion of names for mosses with fewer than 6 steps, see <link>. For a discussion of names for mosses with more than 10 steps, see <link>.

Naming mos modes

No changes.

Generalization to non-mos scales

No changes.

Extending the named range

The following text should be added as subsection of Mos pattern names, to the appendix section TAMNAMS/Appendix#Reasoning for mos pattern names.

Extending the named range to smaller mosses

Expanding the named range to include mosses fewer than 6 steps entails naming pentatonic and tetratonic mosses, and smaller. These names are provided for completeness and are chosen to be as general as possible and to avoid bias or flavor, under the reasoning that such step patterns are common and broad in tuning that their names can be validly reused in non-octave contexts.

The exception to this are the names monowood and biwood, which must refer to an octave-equivalent mos pattern of 1L 1s or 2L 2s, respectively. Additionally, the name monowood is recommended over trivial to refer to an octave-equivalent 1L 1s scale.

2-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Must be octave-equivalent? Etymology
1L 1s trivial triv- trv No The simplest valid mos pattern.
monowood monowd- w Yes Blackwood[10] and whitewood[14] generalized to 1 period.
3-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Must be octave-equivalent? Etymology
1L 2s antrial atri- atri No Opposite pattern of 2L 1s, with broader range. Shortening of anti-trial.
2L 1s trial tri- tri No From tri- for 3.
4-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Must be octave-equivalent? Etymology
1L 3s antetric atetra- att No Opposite pattern of 3L 1s, with broader range. Shortening of anti-tetric.
2L 2s biwood biwd- bw Yes Blackwood[10] and whitewood[14] generalized to 2 periods.
3L 1s tetric tetra- tt No From tetra- for 4.
5-note mosses
Pattern Name Prefix Abbr. Must be octave-equivalent? Etymology
1L 4s pedal ped- ped No From Latin ped; one big toe and four small toes.
2L 3s pentic pent- pt No Common pentatonic; from penta- for 5.
3L 2s antipentic apent- apt No Opposite pattern of 2L 3s.
4L 1s manual manu- manu No From Latin manus; one thumb and four longer fingers.

Extending the named range to larger mosses

Names for larger mosses are not provided with the expectation that such larger mosses can be seen as an extension of a smaller, TAMNAMS-named mos; that is, by including altered forms of the scale's naturals.

As an example, the C major scale (of 5L 2s) has the nominals C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Adding C#, D#, F#, G#, and A# to these produces one of twelve modes of either 5L 7s or 7L 5s, both of which are child (or daughter) mosses of 5L 2s.

Reasoning for mos pattern names

The following is a rewrite to a section to the TAMNAMS appendix.

The goal of TAMNAMS mos names is to choose memorable but aesthetically neutral names for the most common octave-equivalent mosses that are also agnostic of regular temperament theory. More in-depth reasonings for names are given here.

General reasonings

Use or reference established names if they do not cause confusion

Notable non-temperament names are incorporated into TAMNAMS. Examples of such names include mosh (from Graham Breed's naming scheme), tcheretonic (in reference to Alexander Tcherepnin's 9-note scale), oneirotonic, balzano, and diatonic.

Temperament-based names are generally avoided except where the temperaments in question are exceptionally notable. Names include pine, hyrulic, jaric, ekic and lemon; however these reference (in the case of hyrulic) or are heavily abstracted forms of the original temperament names of porcupine, triforce, pajara, echidnoid, and lemba, respectively.

Temperament-based names ending in the prefix -oid – namely machinoid, sephiroid, and dicoid – refer to exotemperaments which, when including extreme tunings, effectively cover the entirety of the corresponding mos. Therefore, edos with simple step ratios for that mos will correspond to valid tunings (if not by patent val, then with a small number of warts).

Name mosses most likely to see use

Names are given to mosses that are the most likely to be used by musicians. As such, TAMNAMS primarily provides mosses within the range of 6 to 10 steps (or 2 to 10 steps, when including the extended named range for mosses with 6 steps or fewer). This range is chosen to avoid naming large mosses for the sake of naming, though some mosses outside the named range have been given unique, though possibly idiosyncratic, names of their own.

Name-specific reasonings

Monolarge mosses

Monolarge mosses (mosses of the form 1L ns) were originally left unnamed due to the tuning ranges for these mosses being so large that they were unhelpful with knowing how they sound. This position was changed as of August 2022, and names have been given since it's useful for describing structure in situations where one does not want to use the mathematical name, and especially in such contexts, a specific tuning will likely be specified.

Originally, onyx (1L 6s) was the only unique name, not based on affixing the anti- prefix to the name of its sister mos (6L 1s, archeotonic). The original reasoning is given verbatim:

"1Ln-ic's" and "nL1-ic's (like, the -ic suffix applied to MOSS names, collectivised for 1Lns and nL1s) sounds like "one-el-en-ics" or "en-el-one-ics" which abbreviated sort of sounds like "one-ics" => "onyx". Then "onyx" sounds sort of like "one-six". Furthermore the onyx mineral comes in many colours and types, which seems fitting given this is the parent scale for a wide variety of MOSSes; specifically of interest being 7L 1s (pine), 8L 1s (subneutralic) and 9L 1s (sinatonic). Finally, the name "onyx" is also supposed to be vaguely reminiscent of "anti-archaeotonic" as "chi" (the greek letter) is written like an "x" (this is related to why "christmas" is abbreviated sometimes as "X-mas") and other than that, the letters "o" and "n" and their sounds are also present in "archaeotonic", and "x" is vaguely reminiscent of negation and multiplication. There is also something like a "y" sound in "archaeotonic" in the "aeo" part (depending partially on your pronounciation).

Names for all monolarge mosses within the named range (6-10 steps) were given unique names following in the spirit of onyx:

  • 1L 5s is named selenite, as the mineral called selenite is named after the moon. 1L 6s is supported by luna temperament, thus indirectly referencing it.
  • 1L 7s is named spinel, as it contains the substring pine, in reference to its sister mos of 7L 1s (pine).
  • 1L 8s is named agate, as it rhymes with "eight", depending on one's pronunciation.
  • 1L 9s is named olivine, as it rhymes with "nine", depending on one's pronunciation.

Multiperiod mosses

Multiperiod mosses are given unique names that are not reliant on duplicating the name of a mos from the expanded named range, namely manual, pedal, pentic, and antipentic.


(Original text)

Similarly, the inclusion of mosses of the form 1L ns using the "anti-" prefix (or an- for less-than-six-note mosses) was also for a practical consideration; although the tuning range is very unhelpful for knowing what such a mos will sound, it is nonetheless useful for describing structure in situations where one does not want to use the mathematical name, especially given that in such situations the tuning will likely be specified somewhere already. Jaric and taric specifically were chosen over bipedal and bimanual because of this, and to a lesser extent, lemon and lime were chosen over antibipentic and bipentic respectively (and for consistency with that their parent MOSS, 4L2s, is named citric).

Malic (2L 4s), citric (4L 2s), lemon (6L 4s), and lime (4L 6s)

The names for 2L 4s and 4L 2s come from Latin malus and citrus, meaning 'apple' and 'citrus', respectively. Apples have concave ends, whereas lemons and limes – both types of citrus fruits – have convex ends. Both are ubiquitous foods, justifying their use for these fairly small mosses.

Additionally, "citric" is the parent mos of 6L 4s and 4L 6s, named after the citrus fruits "lemon" and "lime", respectively, under the reasoning that lemons are larger than limes, as are the step sizes of 6L 4s compared to that of 4L 6s.

Subaric (2L 6s), jaric (2L 8s), and taric (8L 2s)

The name "subaric" alludes to the fact that 2L 6s is the largest proper subset mos of both jaric (2L 8s) and taric (8L 2s).

The name "jaric" alludes to a few highly notable and generally inaccurate (with the exception of diaschismic) temperaments that exist in the tuning range of this MOSS. Specifically, notice how the letters and sound of "jaric" has (or is intended to have) a lot of overlap with pajara, diaschismic and injera (listed in order of increasingly sharp fourths; note that diatonic fourths and 4-jarasteps are equated in jaric, a notable property).

The name "taric" was named based on it being the only TAMNAMS-named mos with a basic tuning of 18edo and it was also named based on rhyming with jaric (as they share the parent mos 2L 6s).

Pedal (1L 4s)

Pedals are operated with feet, which have one large toe and four small toes. Also comes from words like "bipedal", where in TAMNAMS, "bipedal" would literally mean a pedal scale with a period equal to half of some chosen interval, although such a scale would have either two right feet or two left feet depending on orientation chosen. If you think "car"/"vehicle" when you think "pedal" and don't think (or want to think) much about feet then you can think about "beeping" (as beep is the 7-limit 4&5 exotemperament). Because this name relies so heavily and fundamentally on there being 1 large and 4 small steps per period, it is appropriate to generalise for any size of period you would want. In that regard, same goes for manual, pentic and anpentic.

Machinoid (5L 1s)

Machine is the 5&6 temperament in the 2.9.7.11 subgroup with a comma list of 64/63 and 99/98.

This temperament is supported by 5, 6, 11, 12, 16, 17, 22, 23, 27, 28 and 33 equal divisions, with non-patent val tunings including 5+5=10e, 5+10e+12=21be, 5+5+5+5+6=26qe, which are mentioned here for demonstrating virtual completeness of the tuning range, and the unusually large 33edo tuning being to show 11edo's strength as a tuning.

Sephiroid (3L 7s)

Sephiroth is the 3&10 temperament in the 2.5.11.13.17.21 subgroup with commas including 65/64, 85/84, 105/104, 169/168, 170/169, 221/220, 273/272, 275/273.

This temperament is supported by 3, 10, 13, 16, 23 and 26 equal divisions, with non-patent val tunings including 6eg, 7e*, 19eg, 20e, 29g, 32egq, 33ce, 36c.

* Extreme tunings even occasionally go outside of this range like with 7e, but this would never be considered a good tuning.

(Note that q in the above is a placeholder symbol meaning that the generator 21 is warted.)

Note therefore how practically a full range of tunings is covered both in breadth and depth.

Dicoid (7L 3s)

Dichotic is the 7&10 temerament in the 11-limit with commas including 25/24, 45/44, 55/54, 56/55, 64/63 and is an extension of the 5-limit exotemperament dicot which tempers 25/24, equating 5/4 and 6/5 into a neutral third sized interval, which is the generator. To help justify using these temperament for inspiration for the name, note that:

This temperament is supported by 7, 10 and 17 equal divisions, with non-patent val tunings including 14cd(=7+7), 20e(=10+10), 24cd(=17+7), 27ce(=17+10).

Note there are many more warted tunings than this with even more extreme tunings, which makes it reasonable to loosely associate the exotemperament with the range of vaguely saner tunings.

Armotonic (7L 2s)

The name "superdiatonic" has seen some precedent of use on the Xen Wiki to refer to the mos pattern 7L 2s, so is accepted as a possible name, but "armotonic" is preferred due to its clarity as "superdiatonic" could reasonably be confused as describing sharp-fifth diatonic scales. This mos is part of a series of mos patterns (5+2k)L 2s, which starts with diatonic (5L 2s, k=0) and superdiatonic (7L 2s, k=1), hence the reasoning for that name; like 5L 2s, 7L 2s is also a fifth-generated scale and has a structure similar to diatonic in some ways, but with more large steps. Because of the ambiguity, the name "armotonic", in reference to Armodue theory, is TAMNAMS' recommended name, but "superdiatonic" is allowed in contexts where it's truly unambiguous if the writer prefers it.

On the term diatonic

In TAMNAMS, diatonic exclusively refers to 5L 2s. This is because while diatonic has accrued a variety of exact meanings over time, it has a clear choice of referent when talking about MOS scales: 5L 2s with an octave or tempered-octave period.

Former names

Several names have been changed significantly, as naming principles have evolved to what they are currently, or due to the meaning of certain names being called into question. Former names are provided here for reference. Spelling changes and short-lived names are not included here.

5-note mosses
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
No significant changes.
6-note mosses
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
1L 5s unnamed antimachinoid (current) August 2022 Inclusion of monolarge names, as described above.
2L 4s antilemon malic (current) August 2022 Signifies sisterhood with 4L 2s.
3L 3s No change.
4L 2s lemon citric (current) August 2022 Signifies parenthood of 4L 6s and 6L 4s, and sisterhood with 2L 4s. Old name now refers to 6L 4s.
5L 1s No change.
7-note mosses
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
1L 6s unnamed onyx (current) August 2022 Inclusion of monolarge names, as described above.
2L 5s antidiatonic pelotonic; antidiatonic TBD TBD
3L 4s No change.
4L 3s No change.
5L 2s No change.
6L 1s No change.
8-note mosses
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
1L 7s unnamed antipine (current) August 2022 Inclusion of monolarge names, as described above.
2L 6s antiechinoid subaric (current) August 2022 Signifies parenthood of 2L 8s and 8L 2s.
3L 5s sensoid checkertonic (current) August 2022 Referenced temperament (sensi) was not suitable as an exotemperament.
4L 4s tetrawood; diminished tetrawood (current) February 2024 The name tetrawood is advised over diminished, but the latter still sees some use.
5L 3s No change.
6L 2s echinoid ekic (current) August 2022 Former name altered.
7L 1s No change.
9-note mosses
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
1L 8s unnamed antisubneutralic (current) August 2022 Inclusion of monolarge names, as described above.
2L 7s joanatonic balzano (current) August 2022 Referenced temperament (joan) was not suitable as an exotemperament.
3L 6s tcherepnin tcheretonic TBD TBD
4L 5s orwelloid gramitonic (current) August 2022 Referenced temperament (orwell) was not suitable as an exotemperament.
5L 4s No change.
6L 3s No change.
7L 2s superdiatonic armotonic; superdiatonic December 2022 The name armotonic is introduced as an alternate name.
armotonic; superdiatonic armotonic (current) February 2024 The name armotonic is advised over superdiatonic, but the latter still sees some use.
8L 1s No change.
10-note mosses
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
1L 9s unnamed antisinatonic (current) August 2022 Inclusion of monolarge names, as described above.
2L 8s antidimanic jaric (current) August 2022 New name chosen to be independent of manic, now called manual.
3L 7s No change.
4L 6s dipentic lime (current) August 2022 New name chosen to be independent of pentic.
5L 5s No change.
6L 4s antidipentic lemon (current) August 2022 New name chosen to be independent of pentic.
7L 3s dicotonic dicoid (current) August 2022 Altered to signify dicot as an exotemperament.
8L 2s dimanic taric (current) August 2022 New name chosen to be independent of manic, now called manual. Signifies sisterhood with 2L 8s.
9L 1s No change.
Mosses with more than 10 notes
Pattern Former name(s) Changed to Date of change Reasoning
4L 7s kleistonic Not part of named range August 2022 Dropped when 10-note limit was established, but still sees some use.
7L 4s suprasmitonic Not part of named range August 2022
5L 7s p-chromatic Not part of named range August 2022
7L 5s m-chromatic Not part of named range August 2022