Dahmek

SPOKEN BY

Dahmek is spoken by the women on the planet Eho Dahma, in the Damiriak solar system.

DOCUMENTED BY

K Gerard Martin explored their world in the Carreña series: Carreña 1: The Fall of Evanita, Carreña 2: Lamina, and Carreña 3: Imperative Birth. The language is further described in Cerafina’s Damiriak Language Handbook.

BEHIND THE WORDS

The Damiriak solar system is home to a race of women who live on three of the planets: Eho Miriam, Eho Dahma, and Nimsant. Eho Miriam was the home world, and people spoke Old Damariak until the men died off because of emissions from the sun, Seris. The women who colonized Eho Dahma developed the Dahmek language.

DERIVATION OF THE LANGUAGE

Dahmek descended from Old Damariak.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE

Words contain more consonants than vowels.

Dahmek uses a root-word construct.

Sentences follow a subject-verb-object structure.

A TASTE OF THE LANGUAGE

artelsk (verb)—to insist

beilbark (noun)—dagger

darlais (verb)—to enjoy

enrilushiarst (verb)—to interrogate

falirme (noun)—stream

giart (noun)—boss

haufu (adjective)—healthy

igalirf (noun)—incursion

kairsfp (noun)—jail

liaurk (verb)—to raid

miorpalirtu (adjective)—radioactive

naltripu (adjective)—faithful

olfesharlt (noun)—apartment

pelirp (noun)—mail

renf (noun)—sun

sharlade (adjective)—heroic

talurn (noun)—memory

ufert (noun)—identity

vaiforp (noun)—dinner

wiensf (noun)—home

PHILOLOGICAL FACTS

Dahmek uses the Deibuth alphabet, which contains twenty-seven symbols, each with an upper-and lowercase form.

A trailing e is added to words ending with the Deibuth letters corresponding to w, b, v, m, d, dh, z, zh, g, and ng. All three of the languages spoken in the Damiriak solar system use the same words for numbers.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

Pick up a copy of Cerafina’s Damiriak Language Handbook, by K Gerard Martin, to learn more about Dahmek than you probably know about your native tongue.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Review the works listed above and the resources listed in the bibliography.

SPEAKING OF LANGUAGES

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

—Bertrand Russell