Nanshilae
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Base language
The elves of Avlis were created by a god named Dru'El. In his mortal life, he was a human who got instructions from the elven god Corellon Larethian on how to make elves when he became a god.
Dru'El was fascinated by the spirit population that used to inhabit Avlis before the time of the gods. Unfortunately, most (almost all) of them were wiped out in the battle between the nine gods and the evil Negerai invader god which nearly destroyed Avlis in the beginning. The population of spirits was low to begin with because even before the major deities ascended to godhood, the Negerai had gated in hoards of Tanar'ri which began to EAT the spirits.
Still, Dru'El wanted the language of his elven people to be the same language that was once spoken by the benevolent nature spirits that inhabited the world. He made due with whatever fragments could be found and filled in the rest himself. Thus, the elven language on Avlis today is a derivative of the spirit language and therefore differs greatly from elven languages on other worlds such as Krynn or Toril or Middle Earth.
The word the spirits used to describe themselves as a whole was "Nanshae" (pronounced: non-SHAY). Later over time, the elves adopted this word to describe the elven species as a whole, but it was spelled Nanshi and pronounced "NON-shee". However, the elves in the Northern part of the country still use the old pronunciation of "non-SHAY".
Apostrope's in the Avlissian elven language are often used to denote the word "of", much like slang English will use o', as in "pile o' stuff". Except in elven it's proper usage. The Avlissian elven word for land is Tana (TA-na) and the early elven name for their nation was Tan' Nanshi, later shortened to T'Nanshi, or "Land of the Elves".
Interesting note about Drangonari Elves:
The drangonari elves were a creation by the god Angadar. When he ascended to godhood, he immediately got the lofty idea to create a race of his own, and taking the form of one of his enemies, an avariel (winged) elf, Angadar corrupted the form into the drangonari. They are almost identical to the avariel in stature and build, and they even once had leathery wings in place of the angelic wings of the avariel. Also in place of soft white skin they have dark green scales much like a lizard, and they always have black hair.
Through an unknown and disasterous series of events, 99.99% of all drangonari lost their wings, and the ones born today do not have them at all. Few remaining ones do, and they are considered to be direct descendants of Angadar himself, whom the drangonari all revere, even if they don't openly worship him.
Angadar was once a mortal elf born on Toril, which is the planet of the Forgotten Realms setting. The elven language which HE speaks IS the Forgotten Realms elven language, and that is the language which he taught to his creations.
So on Avlis, the old elven language that is seen in so many other campaign worlds is actually the spoken language of the drangonari! So, you may want to watch what language you speak in front of the Avlissian high elves!
Conjunctions/Prepositions:
- And V'
- But eval
- Of ' (pronounced as a sharp cutoff of the word it follows)
- Or oo
- Nor nui
- yet bes
- so cas
- for besvel
- into bel'
Colors:
- black sekor
- blue kehol
- green yerak
- orange tepook
- red edom
- white laban
- brown soos
- purple oorgmin
- yellow tehoov
Numbers:
| 1. hod | 10. esra | 100. rish |
| 2. shta | 20. shny | 1,000. esrish |
| 3. loash | 30. lasha | 10,000. esra esrishen |
| 4. bah | 40. arba | 100,000. rish esrishen |
| 5. maysh | 50. mishya | 1,000,000. goodesrish |
| 6. shaysh | 60. shish | |
| 7. sheev | 70. shvi | |
| 8. shmoe | 80. mona | |
| 9. taysh | 90. tish |
When counting, you should go from the largest to smallest number, using v' (and) for hooking on the last numeral placement.
When a number is > 1 of a large number (hundreds, thousands, millions), the multiple is plural (rishen, esrishen, goodesrishen) on that large number's nanshilae word.
If something is 11,000-19,000 it will be expressed as esra v'hod esrishen - esra v'taysh esrishen for the thousands place.
In the case of 100,000, the "hundred" in the thousands place will always be single (rish) even when it is more than 1
(see the 200,000 example below)
Example:
- 11... esra v'hod
- 37... lasha v'sheev
- 100... rish
- 104... rish v'bah
- 200... shta rishen (two hundreds)
- 350... loash rishen v'mishya
- 225... shta rishen shny v'maysh (two hundreds twenty and five)
- 2,000... shta esrishen (two thousands)
- 2,148... shta esrishen rish arba v'shmoe (two thousands, one hundred forty and eight)
- 4,321... bah eshrishen loash rishen shny v'hod (four thousands, three hundreds twenty and one)
- 12,345... esra v'shta esrishen loash rishen arba v'maysh (10 and 2 thousands, three hundreds, forty and five)
- 200,000... shta rish esrishen (two hundred thousands)
- 12,345,678... figure it out yourself!
Expressions:
Excuse me Reyalan!
Goodbye Oo'good'toova!
Good day Yoom toova!
Good night Leiulia toova!
Hello!/Well met! Pelail!
Good day! (Hello!) Yoom pelail!
Good evening/ Good night! Lieulia pelail!
Of course, certainly Bevoodai!
Please Rabaleh
Thank you Dot'ooli!
You're welcome Bevoodai!
I'm sorry Silath ni
I speak elven. Eni doober nanshilae.
Do you speak elven? Doober ta nanshilae?
I do not speak elven, but I want to learn. Eni li doober nanshilae, eval eni retzelath moderas.
Family:
Note:
In the case of neices and nephews, the term depends on if they are the son/daughter of your brother or sister.
The term for wife and husband will often interchange nanshileesh(an) with adom(an) if the spouse is human.
| Mother | aym | Aunt | looda | Grandmother | aym'benir |
| Father | oovu | Uncle | loond | Grandfather | oovu'benir |
| Sister | ooktan | Cousin | vanloond | Great Grandmother | aym'benir'goodel |
| Brother | ookt | Neice | vat'ookt(an) | Great Grandfather | oovu'benir'goodel |
| Daughter | vat | Nephew | van'ookt(an) | Granddaughter | vat'benir |
| Son | van | Mother-in-Law | aym'oohevith | Grandson | van'benir |
| Wife | nanshileeshan'oohevith | Father-in-Law | oovu'oohevith | Great Granddaughter | vat'benir'goodel |
| Husband | nanshileesh'oohevith | Great Grandson | van'benir'goodel |
Verbs:
Infinitives end in -as. The rest of the word is called the "stem". Therefore, to guard shemaras stem is shemar
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Grammar
| Singular | Plural |
| Thayt - house | Thayten - houses |
| Ray - battle | Rayen - battles |
| Nan - field | Nanen - fields |
| Dera - way | Deran - ways |
Single/Plural:
If the word ends in a consonant, add "-en". 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 'Eni shemar
- You guard Ta shemar
- He/She/It guards Loo/Lah/Loo shemar.
Plural verbs, add -u to the stem:
- We guard Nethnu shemaru
- You guard Tem shemaru
- They guard Loom shemaru
Present Perfect tense:
In the present perfect tense, it is not necessary to use the pronoun. Thus, I guarded, "Eni shemarti", can be "shemarti". Accent is on the second syllable in this tense.
- I guarded shemarti
- You guarded shemarta
- He guarded shemaroe
- She guarded shemarah
- We guarded shemarnu
- You guarded shemartem
- They guarded shemaroo
Future imperfect:
- I will guard Eni e'shemar
- You will guard Ta tee'shemar
- He/She/It will guard loo/lah/loo ye'shemar
- We will guard Nethnu ne'shemar
- You (pl) will guard Tem tee'shemaru
- They will guard Loom ye'shemaru
Converting a verb to a noun:
Take the stem and add the 'ith' ending. (Some verbs like Sheras (to sing) do not follow this rule.)
Examples:
- taynas (to give) becomes taynith (giving)
- tikvooas (to hope) becomes tikvooith (hope, or hoping)
There is no distinction in elven between the gerund (-ing ending) form of a verb turned into a noun and its non gerund form. Thus, hope and hoping are both tikvooith, 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 elven tongue is the verb "to be" (hayas). In elven, the verb "to be" is implied in the present tense.
- I am good. Eni toova.
- You are good. Ta toova.
- He is good. Loo toova.
- She is good. Lah toova.
- We are good. Nethnu toova.
- You are good. Tem toova.
- They are good. Loom toova.
Past Perfect:
- I was good. Hayti toova.
- You were good. Hayta toova.
- He was good. Hayoe toova.
- She was good. Hayah toova.
- We were good. Haynu toova.
- You were good. Haytem toova.
- They were good. Hayoo toova.
Future Imperfect:
- I will be good. Eni e'hay toova.
- You will be good. Ta tee'hay toova.
- He will be good. Loo ye'hay toova.
- She will be good. Lah ye'hay toova.
- We will be good. Nethnu ne'hay toova.
- You will be good. Tem tee'hay toova.
- They will be good. Loom ye'hay toova.
Pronouns
1st Person:
- I - Eni
- We - Nethnu
2nd Person:
- You - Ta
- You -Tem
3rd Person:
- He/She - Loo/Lah
- They - Loom
Indirect pronouns:
- me ni
- you ta
- him loe
- her loah
- us lenu
- you (pl) tem
- them loom
Indirect pronouns with prepositions:
- from me M'ni
- from you M'ta
- from him M'loe
- from her M'loah
- from us M'lenu
- from you M'tem
- from them M'loom
Showing possession:
The elven 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".
You can make statements of possesion by adding the proper personal ending to the root "Yayn'", as below:
- I have (literally: There is to me): Yayn'ni
- You have (There is to you): Yayn'ta
- He/It has (There is to him/it): Yayn'loe
- She has (There is to her): Yayn'loah
- We have (There is to us): Yayn'lenu
- You have (pl) (There is to you): Yayn'tem
- They have (There is to them): Yayn'loom
To make these negative, add the word no, "Li" in front of them.
- I don't have Li Yayn'ni
- You don't have Li Yayn'ta
- He/it doesn't have Li Yayn'loe
- She doesn't have Li Yayn'loah
- We don't have Li Yayn'lenu
- You don't have (pl) Li Yayn'tem
- They don't have Li Yayn'loom
Misc Notes
- The accent is always on the first sylable unless otherwise noted.
- Adjectives come after the nouns: friendly stranger gartha havera
- The preposition "from" is M', and it is used in much the same was as the word "the", Le'.