Dermorian Language
| This page under development by Thara - Thara 15:57, 29 April 2008 (EDT) |
The Dermorian language (named Gádèrmará "Jah-there-mah-rah") is the language of the Dermorians. It features an elaborate case system. The Dermorians themselves being nomads has resulted in the necessity for Dermorians to invent new words, causing Gadermara to become agglutinative; although there is evidence that this was not the case early in its development as a language.
Writing System
Dermorian is perhaps somewhat unusual in that its writing system, while still alphabetical with 26 letters, features no upper or lowercase system. The writing system is strongly phonetic- possibly because the language had evolved so little since writing was developed (nothing ever changes for Dermorians).
Much like the land of Dermoria, with its endless flowing rivers and valleys, the Dermorian script is an extremely smoothly flowing language. Ancient Dermorian legend has it that this script was a gift from their mythical goddess (no Dermorian believes in this god any longer, at least since the time of Vodùl). The script was tradionally hand painted with plant dyes (and rarely-- blood). A writer would dip their finger into dye and draw a single stroke. It's common for a Dermorian to teach eir children calligraphy, consistent with the philosophy of beauty in Dermorian culture.
Pronunciation
Dermorian is a weakly tonal language. The 3 tones are rising (high), falling (low), and middle. In this article, these tones are written in the latin alphabet by indicating the acute, grave and no accent respectively: á, à, a. They will always be written over the last vowel over which they affect as the tone changes occur over the course of a syllable.
Syllables are not inherently emphasized.
| Written | Short |
|---|---|
| A | Father |
| B | Boat |
| C | Cheese |
| D | This |
| E | Enter |
| F | Feel |
| G | James |
| H | Henry (but more frequently just weakly aspirated) |
| I | See |
| J | Yawn |
| K | IPA: /x/ Huge (but a little bit stronger) |
| L | Lamb |
| M | Mother |
| N | No |
| O | York (pronounced Boat when long) |
| P | Not used except in loanwords |
| Q | Never used |
| R | Real (English nasal style) |
| Rr | Perdón (trilled in Nordic or Spanish style, not rolled) |
| S | Sore |
| T | Thaw |
| U | Moo |
| V | Very |
| W | Water |
| X | Ship |
| Y | Fur |
| Z | French Je (soft Dermorian "G") |
| Æ | Hat |
Vowels can be lengthened by writing them twice in a row. This can be done to all vowels, although in some (Æ) it is exceptionally rare. A long vowel is about twice as long as a short vowel, which is saying something as Dermorian is spoken slow to begin (Excrutiatingly slow, some say).
Dermorian has no diphthongs per se; when multiple vowels are seen in a row, they are each to be pronounced independently (which can lead to some amusing consonant-free words). In fact, coupled with the tonal system, this quality has permitted the language to influence the development of Dermorian music in very interesting ways. Note that as the Dermorian letter j is always used as a consonant, which means the English word "eye" sound can be written "aj".
Dialects
The few historical tribes of Dermorians had interacted frequently enough that Dermorian failed to diverge to any large degree. An interesting phenomenon is the increasing disuse of significant amounts of some of the cases (when it is not critical to meaning) among young Dermorians, possibly because of a huge amount of modern interaction with non-Dermorians. A Dermorian joke is: "How long does it take an Ylian to learn Gádèrmará?" "Fewer every day!" indicating how the language has suddenly become simplified.
Grammar
Dermorian is generally Subject-Verb-Object (as in English), although there are various common grammatical constructs that cause this order to change. Adjectives precede their nouns.
Cases
Dermorian has the following cases:
- nominative
- dative
- ablative
- genitive
- locative
- instrumental
- temporal
- causal-final
Words may be singular, dual and plural.
Dermorian has no noun gender (even for personal pronouns) which is interesting as many other far less complex languages in Yliakum do. The lack of personal gender might be an indication of the gender equality in Dermorian society - a feature common in naturalistic cultures.
The instrumental case is also used to describe the use of a spell.
Vocabulary
| This section is really not yet hashed out entirely Thara 15:57, 29 April 2008 (EDT) |
Noun Forms
| Type | Dermorian Nominative | Dative | Ablative | Genitive | Locative | Instrumental | Temporal | Causal-final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ~ | ~g, ~ìg | ~d, ~ùd | ~m, ~ìm | ~eàs | ~eàt | ? | ? |
Basic Words
Nouns
- home: fantarà
- hello: térrà
- water: jénsà
- tree: jénerà
- food: dénerà
- life: dén
- fire: déven
- mother: eaa
- father: eoo
- companion: árolílja
- love: élsaà
- sword: févhe
- fight: tévease
Verbs
- Go: ske
- See: Vre
- Eat: Tlexe
- Want: géspèrre
- Write: presja
- Fight: tévnàre
(Need to add declension for verbs)
Pronouns
Dermorian pronouns for "things that don't talk but are alive" such as trees or animals. They are called the "Alive" pronoun below.
| English | Dermorian Nominative | Object | Dative | Ablative | Genitive | Locative | Instrumental | Temporal | Causal-final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I (s.) We (dual) We (pl.) |
Dò Lox Lot |
? | ? | ? | Dòm Lom Lom |
? | Dòrat Loxat Lotat |
Never used | Never used |
| You (s.) You both You all |
Ri Rix Rit |
? | ? | ? | Rim Rixim Ritim |
? | Rorrat Roxat Rotat |
Never used | Never used |
| Alive You (s.) Alive You both Alive You all |
Rri Rrix Rrit |
? | ? | ? | Rrim Rrixim Rritim |
? | Rrorrat Rroxat Rrotat |
Never used | Never used |
| He/Her/Alive It (s.) They, Alive They (dual) They, Alive They (pl) |
Fala Falax Falat |
? | ? | ? | Fam Falam Falam |
? | Farrat Faxat Fatat |
Never used | Never used |
When referring to "Alive" things that are more personally known, it is common to use the "Dermorian" pronoun. For example, if a Dermorian were to develop a spiritual bond with a plant, they may use "Ri" to address it as opposed to "Rri". Plural forms are not used as an indication of respect.
While Dermorian features no definite article ("the"), the genitive first person articles are used in almost exactly the same way, except following the definite noun (consistent with the rule of nouns before adjectives). Modern orthography is to glue them together as one word:
- dévenímlòm - The fire (literally: Our fire)
In general, when words have their order reversed, it's common for the latter to shift to falling tone. As a rule, all such definite articles feature this transformation.
Example Sentences
- Do géspèrra dénerà - I want food/I'm hungry
- Do térnarà févheàt - I fight with swords
- Ri déveneàt! - Cast Fire! (literally: You fire)