Glossary | Language

Elvish

Elvish is an eloquent language, light on the tongue with an airy sound. Even the usual consonants of common don’t hold the same harshness in Elvish. Many elves and other humanoids raised with Elvish as their mother tongue carry this light speech over in their common.

While not the easiest language to learn, Elvish is a favorite to among the linguistically gifted. Those who seek to learn this language seek out elves before any other race and are taught by full immersion. Some elves will provide a few words for the humanoid to start with but it’s not common to do so. The elves believe this technique is the best way to learn and created a better understanding of the language for everyday use.

Written Elvish is just as elegant as spoken, usually written in script by native speakers. Non-natives tend to forgo the script, which is accepted by native speakers, though the handwriting is still expected to be neat, and flourished on important documents. Sloppy writing is considered an insult.

Draconic

Draconic is a gutter language made up most of grunts and growls with the occasional tongue flick, exhales, or teeth clatter. It’s difficult for a non-dragon to learn, as the formation of these words are foreign to most humanoids. Some sounds are impossible for non-dragons to create so other sounds are substituted as an alternative. Even dragons taking a humanoid form must make these changes. Rarely is a humanoid able to perfect the speech, even when raised among dragons.

Those attempting to learn are always taught single words before attempting sentence structures. Draconic sentence structure is similar to Common, but with a possessive edge due to the mindset of dragons. There are no contracted words in Draconic, as such, dragons who don’t speak common often, tend to use the same sentence structures of their mother tongue when they do speak common.

It’s not common for dragons to write in the current age but there is a basic written form of the language that was used more extensively in the past. This written form is comprised of glyphs easily created with dragon claws and easy to decipher for most dragons no matter the cleanliness of the script. Non-dragons find this writing easier to learn than the spoken language and most of the time will stop learning after they’ve master it.

Below are phrases translated to Eira in the series:

Ion cuvk – Our kind

Lazmira, sa xruzk – Lazmira, my child

Zity , gyexy , lgunum , ziaeza , lynyvuma , lmnyvwmr , fulkis – Love, peace, spirit, loyalty, serenity, strength, wisdom.