Fairy Common
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Work in Progress
I don't have team approval on this so don't use this IG yet please. Instead of making 18 fey subrace languages fairy common is a simple answer to the question of what language fey speak. There are still more languages than there are likely available INT bonus points to go around but the priority of a full blood fey's language capacity will probably be ordered like:
- 1.) Their racial language (sprite, nymph, etc)
- 2.) Fairy Common (allowing them to speak to all other fey. Titanian & Avlissian. Seelie & Unseelie)
- 3.) Sylvan (Avlissian type is spoke by Centaurs, Druids and will act as "common" in wild areas among all sentients in residence, Titanian type is spoke by the Titanian court)
- 4.) Special case for Titanians (see below)
- 5.) Nanshilae
- 6.) Common
This is going to alienate the fey from the wider world and while it makes sense & I don't see a way around it I don't see this as being necessarily a problem. In mythology they are always portrayed as a separate society anyway. Maybe we should build on that instead of making them more like really tiny elves.
Special Note Regarding #4 Above: With regards to Titanian fey the priority may change somewhat since both varieties of Sylvan are potentially quite useful to them. Also a consideration of the social status of the Titanian fey in question might be important. If she is of higher status then she may not deal with the wider world and not bother to learn Avlissian Sylvan. A Titanian with no skill or interest at court may be unable to speak Titanian Sylvan although surely this would be highly frowned upon should she ever be formally expected to!
Base language
The fey races of Avlis were created by a god named O'Ma. In his mortal life, he was a human who got instructions from the fairy goddess Titania on how to make fey races when he became a god.
and so on...
Conjunctions:
- And O'
- But eva
- Or ee
- Nor nui
- yet bes
- so cas
- for bespev
Colors:
- black seyo
- blue kaho
- green yeeri
- orange poki
- red adomai
- white yoban
- brown teosa
- purple gamina
- yellow kaite
Expressions:
Excuse me sumimasa!
Goodbye gootay!
Good day faele al!
Good night al ul!
Hello!/Well met! (Hello there) Soy na!
Good day! (Hello!) al ganki!
Good evening/ Good night! ul ganki!
Of course, certainly majiday!
Thank you ninfa!
You're welcome Bevodi!
I'm sorry namo
I speak sylvan. ni doba fae.
Do you speak Sylvan? Fima ta doba fae?
I do not speak sylvan, but I want to learn. ni fima dobi fae, eval ni etzlath melay.
Verbs:
Infinitives end in -sota. The rest of the word is called the "stem". Therefore, to guard fenlondsota stem is fenlond
| to attack | to leave |
| to be able to | to like, to enjoy |
| to bless | to listen |
| to buy | to lose |
| to call | to love |
| to cast | to read |
| to come | to remember |
| to create | to rest |
| to die | to return |
| to drink | to save |
| to eat | to say |
| to excuse | to see |
| to feel | to sell |
| to finish | to sing |
| to forget | to sit |
| to fly | to speak |
| to give | to stand |
| to go, to walk | to take |
| to hate | to travel |
| to heal | to think |
| to help | to understand |
| to hit | to want, to need, to desire |
| to hope | to watch, to guard |
| to journey | to win |
| to kill | to write |
| to know | to run |
| to learn |
== Grammar == God someone help me here...
| Singular | Plural If the word ends in a consonant, add "-en". If the word ends in a vowel, add "n". |
| - house | - houses |
| - battle | - battles |
| - field | - fields |
| - way | - ways |
Single/Plural:
If the word ends in a consonant, add "-ia". If the word ends in a vowel, add "n ".
Present Indicative tense
Singular verbs, remove the as ending and use the stem by itself:
- I guard me fenlond
- You guard tapa fenlond
- He/She/It guards lohodo/lahoda/Voa (Boa) fenlond
Plural verbs, add -u to the stem:
- We (us) guard fenlondlyeu
- You guard fenlondmabu
- They guard fenlondfeabu (f) / -fenabu (m)
Present Perfect tense:
In the present perfect tense, it is not necessary to use the pronoun. Thus, I guarded, " me fenlondia ", can be " fenlondia". Accent is on the second syllable in this tense.
- I guarded fenlondme
- You guarded fenlondma
- He guarded fenlondloha
- She guarded fenlondlaho
- We guarded fenlondlye
- You guarded fenlondba
- They guarded fenlondfeab (fenlondfenab)
Future imperfect:
- I will guard me ea fenlond
- You will guard ma ea fenlond
- He/She/It will guard lohodo/lahoda/Voa (Boa) ea fenlond
- We will guard lye ea fenlond
- You (pl) will guard fenlondba
- They will guard fenlonfeab (fenlonfenab)
Converting a verb to a noun:
Take the stem and add the ' ith' ending. will allow some verbs to not follow this
Examples:
- (to give) becomes (giving)
- (to hope) becomes (hope, or hoping)
There is no distinction in sylvan between the gerund (-ing ending) form of a verb turned into a noun and its non gerund form. Thus, hope and hoping are both ..., and you must know the context of the sentence to figure out which is which.
The verb "to be".
The only irregular verb in the avlissian sylvan tongue is the verb "to be". In sylvan, the verb "to be" is implied in the present tense.lohodo/lahoda/Voa (Boa) fenlond lohodo/lahoda/Voa (Boa) fenlond
- I am good. me faelteva
- You are good. ma faelteva
- He is good. lahodo faelteva
- She is good. lahoda faelteva
- We are good. lye faelteva
- You are good. ba faelteva
- They are good. feab / fenab faelteva
Pronouns
1st Person:
- I - me
- We - lye
2nd Person:
- You - ma
- You - ba
3rd Person:
- He/She - lahodo/lahoda
- They - feab / fenab "
Indirect pronouns:
- me be
- you ma
- him ho
- her he
- us lye
- you (pl) ba
- them sen
Indirect pronouns with prepositions:
- from me yef'be
- from you yef'ma
- from him yef'ho
- from her yef'he
- from us yef'lye
- from you yef'ba
- from them yef'sen
Showing possession:
The sylvan language does not use the verb to have in the same way as most other languages. Instead of saying "I have", they are literally saying "There is to me". (eller y be)
You can make statements of possession by adding the proper personal ending to the root " ellerybe'", as below:
- I have (literally: There is to me): eller'y'be
- You have (There is to you): eller'y'ma
- He/It has (There is to him/it): eller'y'ho
- She has (There is to her): eller'y'he
- We have (There is to us): eller'y'lye
- You have (pl) (There is to you): eller'y'ba
- They have (There is to them): eller'y'sen
To make these negative, add the word no, " ho " in front of them.
- I don't have: ho eller'y'be
- You don't have: ho eller'y'ma
- He/it doesn't have: ho eller'y'ho (hmm...)
- She doesn't have: ho eller'y'he
- We don't have: ho eller'y'lye
- You don't have (pl): ho eller'y'ba
- They don't have: ho eller'y'sen
Misc Notes
.
Orleron wrote: O'Ma and Titania have different versions of sylvan, with O'Ma's version being derived from the same spirit language as elven, and thus related about as closely as Sanskrit and German, which are both Indo-European languages.
Each race within both fairy races has its own dialect of sylvan, which is regarded as a separate language, and is about as close as Italian and Spanish.
The relation as I see it then for spirit languages follows:
|--Avlissian Spirit Language (dead and no longer known)
|--Nanshilae (Nanshi & Magya are about as related as German and English)
|--Magya (The language of arcane magic all wizards learn)
|---Avlissian Sylvan(built from Nanshilae and Titanian Sylvan)
|---Sprite
|---Nymph
|---Sylph
|---Dryad
|---Nixie, etc
|---Fairy Common (spoken by both Titanian & O'ma fey)
I've based much of what I've done here on the page on Nanshilae because I thought that would be appropriate for what this started as. However this language would in all likelihood have migrated more and more to the Titanian influence since it would have to accommodate the Titanians and since the Sylvan that the avlissian fey are likely using to communicate with non-fey races is also in part built from Titanian. I will try to square the grammar and make it blend 50/50 with nanshilae where possible. I've kind of de-hebrewed the nanshi here and added more suffixed vowels like -ay or -i to make it more sing-song on the assumption that the hebraic influence on nanshi is essentially the spirit language since the influence from Titania will probably be cobbled together from other works of fiction regarding Titania/Fey/Sylvan. Also, there is a fair bit of Japanese and Spanish folded into the word list. Finally I found a terse word list of actual "sylvan" so that is where everything else comes from. I expect to not only have to alter the grammar heavily but change the word list considerably, removing much of the present word list and instead of basing the alterations on the root nanshilae from japanese & spanish base it instead off the titanian sylvan language. Anyone is welcome to work on these of course.
Some nonsense sounds from the pixie voice set as found in a google search with my guesses on what they mean. Seems a good phonetic template to me for the style to shoot for:
(Fliji yuma boogba! ---I'm going to knock you out! [literally] Now darkness make! )
(Migio falafay - iga! --- I'll cut you - jerk! [literally] {I} become dangerous -damn {you}!)
(Soolna? -- Yes?)
(Wimi, ninfa! -- Oh, thank you!)
(Namo...fima ni. -- I'm sorry ...I can't.)
I really think that as a matter of phonetic style this small list of phrases is something exceptionally appropriate to aspire to emulating. Expect to see these folded into this language somehow. Since this will likely be the "face" of the language of fey on avlis I'm all about making it as stylistically appropriate as possible.