Here it is... This is the guide that Tokoz wrote for the alternate dragon language...
Tokoz?s Guide to the Dragon Language
By Tokoz Honorforged
With help and stabilization by Celly Leafsong
Preface
Why me? That?s probably the big question those who know me are asking. Well? I don?t know. I suppose it had to be a Helian at least. The Lunus wouldn?t do it. And because I actually had to be taught our native language later in life (my first language was common), it made sense to I?d at least have to take notes on what I was learning.
Celly pestered me too and tried to make it sound like a really noble endeavor, until not only was I convinced that it could be done, I was convinced that I could do it mostly by myself.
So here it is: a basic primer on speaking Krieg Praefer, probably the oldest language in Istaria, and surely the best.
Tokoz Honorforged
Pre-Lesson
Basic Vowels
(Word stinks for this, so there will be a Word version and a WordPerfect version.)
A vowel by itself is pronounced as a short vowel. To make the vowel long, an e is added after it. This is only done with the standard vowels, a e i o and u. In addition to these soft vowels, the dragon language adds four hard vowels, k z g and s. These are pronounced pretty much on their own, with maybe in some cases (especially if a biped is trying to pronounce it) a slight soft vowel following. These would sound like ka, ze, ga, and se respectively. There is only one form of the hard vowels.
Observant people will notice that there is no oo as in book, and ee as in keep sound mentioned above. That is because these sounds are very hard to form for dragons. When dealing with dragons speaking common, it is important to remember that they are very self-conscious about saying words with those sounds in them. Some Lunus dragons will even refuse to speak the sounds, replacing them instead with e and oe.
Tense
There are only three forms of tense to dragons and they are not always used. New hatchlings and very old dragons (who no longer care about such things as time) are excused generally from their use.
A hatchling who fails to use the proper tense would be prompted to do so if there was some confusion. (ie Did you mean, ?I want gnome for dinner? or ?I wanted gnome for dinner.? or ?I will want gnome for dinner.??)
Very old dragons, whether the dropping of tense is due to pride or senility (I?m not implying that the two are the same), are never prompted no matter how confusing what they said becomes. The confusion is accepted. Interestingly enough, however, this makes it so that pride is very rarely a factor for a dragon dropping tense. If they do so simply because they want others to acknowledge their age, then they are stuck with others being confused for the rest of their long lives. To do otherwise would be to admit they were faking it, which would be viewed badly.
As will be demonstrated in later lessons, tense is shown by a modifier to the subject of the sentence. No other parts of the sentence are changed. The standard form of the subject means that the sentence is referring to something that is happening now, while a suffix of ?tae? refers to the past and ?gr? (remember g is a hard vowel) refers to the future.
Lesson 1: Existance
Referring to oneself is the beginning of learning any language. As a matter of fact, the first three words most dragons learn are ?mother,? ?father,? and ?I.? Not necessarily in that order.
In this and all lessons I will start with the common word and then demonstrate the dragon word. In cases where the accent is constant between all clans, I?ll demonstrate the accent. If no accent guide is given, that means that either I forgot to put one in, or that some clans might pronounce the word differently.
I (am) - Ri
I have - Ritae (riTAE)
I will - Rigr (riGR)
You said that very well, but to really develop the proper accent, you need to think more about someone growling. Saris usually have the easiest time grasping the dragon accent.
While dragons do greatly enjoy referring to themselves, they do find it necessary at times to refer to others. There are two ways they can do this, formally and informally. Informal is very used in dragon society. The use of the informal seems to have come into their society to refer to bipeds.
The hatchling that refers to an adult or ancient dragon by the informal might as well have defecated in their elder?s repast, for all the insult that it gives.
As with many other areas of dragon society the two forms are used differently by the factions. Lunus continue with the traditional use of the formal for dragons only. There are cases of dragons being exiled from Dralk for referring to a biped by the formal.
Helian have expanded (and thus, according to the Lunus, belittled) the use of the formal, but expanding its use to all allied races. There are then, some words that are only used by the Helians.
Here?s one formal way to refer to someone else:
you (are) - bemi (BEmi)
you have - bemitae (bemiTAE)
you will - bemigr (bemiGR)
Very good. Remember that emphasis changes with tense, so present tense almost doesn?t sound related to future and past tense. Now for the informal.
you (are) - di (di)
you have - ditae (diTAE)
you will - digr (DIgr)
Emphasis is reversed on that last one, so be careful.
Next, we?re going to cover the formal pronouns. Note again that Lunus only use the formal in referring to other dragons. They also refrain from using the generative (referring to what gender someone is) except in cases where it must be used for biped races. A female ruxus might be referred to as a she by a Lunus dragon, but a female Saris is still an ?it.?
Ok, we?ll do some pronouns now, starting with the formal for he and she.
he (is) - nech she (is) - noch
he was - nechtae (nechTAE) she was - nochtae (nochTAE)
he will - nechgr (nechGR) she will - nochgr (nochGR)
Once you have those down, it makes the informal pretty simple.
he (is) - ech she (is) - och
he was - echtae (echTAE) she was - ochtae (ochTAE)
he will - echgr (echGR) she will - ochgr (ochGR)
There are two forms of the neuter generative in the language. For the sake of simplicity, I?ll refer to them as it (unknown) and it (known). It (unknown) is used in cases where the gender is not known, or unspecified. An example would be in writing, where referring to the reader directly. The writer has no way of knowing the gender of the reader, so uses the pronoun it (unknown). An unhatched hatchling would also be referred to as an it (unknown).
Unknown Known
it (is) - kir it (is) - st (sT)
it was - kirtae (kirTAE) it was - st?tae (st?TAE)
it will - kirgr (kirGR) it will - stgr (stGR)
Next for ways to refer to groups.
we (are) - rano
we were - ranotae (RAnotae)
we will - ranogr (RAnogr)
The last pronoun of the lesson also uses a formal and informal and follows the same guidelines for use based on faction as are used for all other pronouns we?ve discussed so far.
Formal Informal
they (are) - mala they (are) - grala
they were - malatae (malaTAE) they were - gralatae (gralaTAE)
they will - malagr (malaGR) they will - gralagr (gralaGR)
Hopefully this gives you enough of an idea of how to use tense that you?ll be ok in the future lessons. Remember, only the subject gets the tense modifier. Apostrophes are used in writing to prevent confusion if a vowel is repeated, as in st?tae.
Lesson 2: Greetings and Farewells
There are three classes of greeting to dragons: ceremonial, formal, and informal. This lesson covers all three and in that order. The student is cautioned very strongly on the first and last classes: only use them if prompted to do so by your listener.
Dragons in general find great humor in the ceremonial greeting being used when unnecessary and are quick to take offense if an informal greeting is used where the formal is demanded. Knowing when to use the formal versus the informal is best suited to a book on etiquette, not language, but a speaker but a speaker who always uses the formal should never offend anyone. The other forms of greeting are provided so that if prompted, one may use them.
Ceremonial Greeting
This greeting is only used (as the name implies) during dragon ceremonies by specific people at specific times. Fortunately, by the time Sleeper was destroyed, this set of phrases was being spoken pretty much by rote, or it would cause cultural pain to hear it out of context.
Two dragons approach each other and the younger lowers its head and says:
The sun shines on the Sleeper?s back.
K daenar daena tak k daelar?fa kama.
The younger dragon then raises it?s head to look the elder in the eye and the older dragon says:
May it always shine on your wings in flight.
Da st?gr daefa daenar tak bemi?fa masto?g daefar.
Nice, but not very practical, or lefg, as the dragons say. It should be easy to see why it would be amusing to say out of context. (Right: Funny to a dragon. ?Celly)
Titles and Formal Greetings
Dragons do have titles that they use for each other before the name, similar to saying ?Mr.? or ?Mrs.?. Neither faction would ever dream of using a dragon title on a non-dragon. When speaking to another race then, no title is used, only the name.
Age of Dragon Title
Hatchling Banar (baNAR)
Adult Praefer (PRAEfer)
Ancient Krieg
A title is never used without the name following it, although use of the name does not require use of the title.
Formal Greetings
Formal greetings have fallen out of use by bipeds today except, oddly enough, in the military, where they are referred to usually as the ?greeting of the day.?
The usual form is in two parts. The first part is either ?good? or if the dragon issuing the greeting is in a more pensive or even religious mood, ?Drulkar?s?
good - salak (salAK)
Drulkar?s - Drulkar?fa (DRUkarfa)
The second part refers to the time of day.
morning - varnas (varNAS)
afternoon - betak (beTAK)
evening - akdae (akDAE)
So to greet someone in the morning, one would say either ?Salak varnas? or ?Drulkar?fa varnas.?
Sometimes if they time is not known, or if the person is new to the language and wants to remember only a single form of greeting, one could say ?Salak daenar? or simply ?Good day.?
So if someone were formally greeting me then, they could say, ?Salak daenar, Praefer Tokoz.?
The proper response to a formal greeting varies slightly up to this point. One option is to simply return the greeting.
Celly: ?Salak daenar, Praefer Tokoz? Good day, dragon Tokoz.
Tokoz: ?Salak daenar, Celly.? Good day, Celly.
In all cases the following answer can be applied, but its more likely if the greeting started with Drulkar?fa.?
Celly: ?Drulkar?fa belak, Praefer Tokoz.? Drulkar?s morning, dragon Tokoz.
Tokoz: ?St, Celly.? It is, Celly.
The response, ?st,? is used often in religious ceremonies to allow the audience to acknowledge something that was said. It?s similar, but more mellow than the biped, ?amen.?
Another type of formal greeting is the clutch motto, or guild motto (in dragon only guilds). This would be something that a person would say when greeting anyone, either of their clutch or guild or not. A motto might be something like ?Masto?g faema!? or ?Wings up!?
The one receiving the greeting then responds with their own clutch or guild motto. The correct response to a guild or clutch greeting when you don?t have one, is NOT to repeat back the motto, but rather to simply give the greeting of the day (good morning, good day, etc?)
Informal Greetings
After getting this far, the reader is probably wondering, ?My word, can?t dragons just say, ?hi??? The answer is yes, but really only between friends or at the very least, regular acquaintances. These are the equivalents of ?hi? and ?hello.?
hi - dae hello - daenar
Notice that these words also refer to ?light? and ?day? respectively.
Farewells
There isn?t a formal way to say goodbye. There?s just several ways to say it and one simply chooses the one that?s most appropriate to the situation. In any case where salak is used, Drulkar?fa may be used in it?s place.
good night - salak grt
good morrow (see you tomorrow) - salak tamadaenar
goodbye - salak maloe
bye - maloe
see you later - fallidaenar
(and my personal favorite)
Don?t let a tail wind beat you.
Falk ak zepa s ramat yaenar fatan bemitae.
The last one sounds really informal, but its used usually like a ?break a leg? or ?go and get ?em.?
Lesson 3 ? Numbers, Times, and Dates
Numbers
If a dragon is writing a specific number, then one uses the numeral. If a dragon is referring to (in the case of Lunus) a group of ten or less dragons or (in the case of Helian) ten or less dragons and/or bipeds, the number is written out.
zero - slar
one - afa
two - grot
three - mal
four - jat
five - dat
six - sat
seven - sef
eight - tab
nine - afabit
ten - bit
From 11 to 19 are just a case of saying ?bit? followed by the second digit. 11 would be ?bit-afa,? 12 would be ?bit grot,? and so forth. For higher numbers, the number is a compound word of ten and its first digit if below 100. So 58 would be datbit-tab and 99 would be afabitbit-afabit (which is sometimes used as a tongue twister by hatchlings.
Higher numbers follow a similar pattern to common.
hundred - mas
thousand - tas
million - kumo
So, I?ll just give a few examples of large numbers to give the reader an idea.
3,247,591 ? malkumo, grotmas jatbit-sef tas, datmas afabitbit afa.
47,000,000 ? jatbit-sef kumo
Times:
Not much needs to be said about specific times, since they are simply numbers, but references to time units are given here.
second - nali (or nali?afa)
minute - naligrot
hour - nalimal
day - nalijat (or daenar)
week - nalidat
month - nalisat
year - nalisef
decade - nalitab
century - nali?afabit
millennia - nalibit
from now - tafamit
half -semater
next -falli
Notice that the base ?nali? is used in all cases. Don?t get confused and miss a time unit. One number of unit off can mean as much as 900 years!
I?ll give some common usages:
an hour and half from now - s afa nalimal migr s semater amit
30 seconds - malbit nali?afa?g
next week - falli nalidat
Days of the week:
Sunday - Afanalijat
Monday - Grotnalijat
Tuesday - Malnalijat
Wednesday - Jatnalijat
Thursday - Datnalijat
Friday - Satnalijat
Saturday - Sefnalijat
Months follow the same pattern as days of the week:
January - Afanalisat
February - Grotnalisat
March - Malnalisat
April - Jatnalisat
May - Datnalisat
June - Satnalisat
July - Sefnalisat
August - Tabnalisat
September- Afabitnalisat
October - Bitnalisat
November- Bitafanalisat
December - Bitgrotnalisat