Sylvan (Avlissian)
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This is a work in progress and not officially sanctioned by the team yet
Please don't use this IG yet until its completed and approved. The role, importance, grammar and even the words presented here are still subject to considerable change. This language will be blended of nanshilae and Titanian sylvan. (xiaou)
The grammar of this version of sylvan will be based heavily on that of nanshilae. The words also should be more heavily drawn from nanshilae than the Titanian variety. The goal I believe for this language is to be as similar to nanshilae as german is to english and as similar to titanian sylvan as sanskrit is to german. Effectively making the grammar that of nanshilae and the words a melange of nanshilae and titanian sylvan.
Base language
The fey 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 when he became a god.
Because the god Dru'El was fascinated by the spirit population that used to inhabit Avlis 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. Likewise, while it bears some lineage parallels to the fey languages it is quite distinct compared to other languages in the O'Man Sylvan line.
The fey races spawned by O'Ma and Titania have long been separated by the ideological differences between their two creator deities. O'Man fey languages start with Sylvan. Just as Latin is the root of many European languages O'Man sylvan is the root language of all O'Man fey languages. Each O'Man fey race will have its own language but it will bear a strong resemblance to this language similar to the way that French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese strongly resemble Latin. These major fey sub-races are: Brownie, Centaur, Dryad, Nixie, Nymph, Pixie, Satyr, Sprite and Sylph.
Similarly Titania has a line of languages which have progressed in a similar fashion although in many other game settings the elvish languages will be more exclusively influenced by Titanian Sylvan. O'man Sylvan is derived from Titanian Sylvan but bears little meaningful resemblance akin to how both German and Sanskrit are Indo-European languages but have little in common.
Speakers of Avlissian Sylvan:
Those beings able to speak O'Man Sylvan would be Centaurs (as their primary language), Druids (as a second language well studied) and O'Man fey races as appropriate for character background. This will be the language of avlissian centaurs, druids and sentient woodland creatures. This will be the "common" of the forest although fey will have their own "common".
Conjunctions:
- And Vahod
- But evalla
- Or eeona
- Nor honui
- yet besto
- so kasita
- for bespevelila
Colors:
- black seokora
- blue kaehola
- green yieroaka
- orange teeopooka
- red eadoma
- white ihyayobana
- brown eatooeosa
- purple oorogamina
- yellow aitehova
Expressions:
Excuse me !
Goodbye
Good day faele al
Good night faele ul
Hello!/Well met! Soolna!
Good day! (Hello!) faele naia
Good evening/ Good night!
Of course, certainly
Thank you dotasho
You're welcome tapa creoso
I'm sorry me raika
I speak sylvan. me galni sylvani
Do you speak sylvan? ma galni sylvani?
I do not speak sylvan, but I want to learn. me galni ho sylvani, evalla me elef noldo el
Verbs:
Infinitives end in -asota. The rest of the word is called the "stem". Therefore, to guard fenlondasota 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 yem'be
- from you yem'ma
- from him yem'ho
- from her yem'he
- from us yem'lye
- from you yem'ba
- from them yem'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
- The accent is always on the first syllable unless otherwise noted.
- Adjectives come after the nouns: friendly stranger
- The preposition "from" is ye, and it is used in much the same was as the word "the", -s.