Talk:Fairy Common
Notes made while working on this
I don't know if this is considered proper practice but I'm using the discussion pages to hold the notes, reminders and so forth I took while working on this. Maybe its helpful to the process. 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!
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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.
Done for now
This is probably the most complete of the three languages I've been working on. A second pair of eyes to check for consistency and logic would only help but aside from adding the narrative paragraph on the fey of avlis and the role of fairy common this article is complete and all three have been booted teamside for consideration.