Language Charts:
As I like to make things too complicated for myself, and I’m slightly neurotic about having the perfect word for things, I decided that I needed a couple reference charts.
The first set of charts are the words I’ve started using for gender and age-specific descriptions of other races since using woman for an elf just does not work for me. Generally speaking, I only use these words when the gender or age actually matters to what I’m saying, otherwise I use the gender neutral or generic race term, and some terms (i.e. mother, child, etc) I use for everyone.
The second set of charts is all the various words/phrases in dwarvish and elvish that I've used periodically (or as names for people) and got tired of looking up. Most of the words relating to the heart, love or the soul are things that I use to mean soulmate from time to time.
Finally, just as a general note. I’ve also been trying to standardize my use of dwarven/dwarvish and elven/elvish since I’ve been pretty inconsistent before now. So for the future, I’m going to try and use the –en ending for things involving the actual race and the –ish ending for things made by that race. So dwarven hands (made of dwarves) and dwarvish steel (made by dwarves).
(And yes, these were supposed to be actual tables, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that in html)
As I like to make things too complicated for myself, and I’m slightly neurotic about having the perfect word for things, I decided that I needed a couple reference charts.
The first set of charts are the words I’ve started using for gender and age-specific descriptions of other races since using woman for an elf just does not work for me. Generally speaking, I only use these words when the gender or age actually matters to what I’m saying, otherwise I use the gender neutral or generic race term, and some terms (i.e. mother, child, etc) I use for everyone.
The second set of charts is all the various words/phrases in dwarvish and elvish that I've used periodically (or as names for people) and got tired of looking up. Most of the words relating to the heart, love or the soul are things that I use to mean soulmate from time to time.
Finally, just as a general note. I’ve also been trying to standardize my use of dwarven/dwarvish and elven/elvish since I’ve been pretty inconsistent before now. So for the future, I’m going to try and use the –en ending for things involving the actual race and the –ish ending for things made by that race. So dwarven hands (made of dwarves) and dwarvish steel (made by dwarves).
(And yes, these were supposed to be actual tables, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that in html)
Race |
Child |
Young Adult |
Adult |
Noble/Royal |
Male Dwarves: |
Dwarrowlad |
Dwarrow |
Dwarf Lord/King |
|
Female Dwarves: |
Dwarrowmaid |
Dwarrowdam |
Lady/Queen |
|
Gender Neutral Dwarves: |
Dwarrowling |
Dwarf/dwarves |
||
Male Elves: |
Elflet |
Elverel |
Elf |
Elf Lord/King |
Female Elves: |
Elfle |
Elfine/Elf-maid |
Elfess |
Lady/ Queen |
Gender Neutral Elves: |
Elfling |
Elf/elves |
||
Male Hobbits: |
Lad |
Hobbit |
Thain |
|
Female Hobbits: |
Lass |
Hobbitess |
||
Gender Neutral Hobbits: |
Fauntling |
Hobbit/Halfling |
||
As Said By Orcs: |
(Race)-Spawn |
(Race)/She-(Race) |
||
Terms for Mixed Races (follow the gender/age rules of the second race as shown above) |
|
Dwarf/Hobbit |
Dwobbit |
Dwarf/Elf |
Dwelf |
Dwarf/Man (I don't know if I'll ever actually use this) |
Dwaman (Dwoman, Dwalad, Dwamaid) |
Man/Elf (Had to go with Tolkien here) |
Half-Elf |
Orc/Anyone |
Half-Orc |
Khuzdûl (words) |
Rough Translation |
'abanshundû |
stone-brains |
adjân |
hope |
Azanulbizar |
Dimrill Dale |
âzyung/ âzyungâlh |
love/lovers |
âzyungaz |
of love's origin |
âzyungel |
love of all loves |
bavonursinh |
fire-crowned lady |
ghivashel |
treasure of all treasures |
gimlinh |
star-lady |
Iglishmêk |
Dwarven sign language |
inùdôykurdaz |
sons of the heart |
karash/karrash |
mark/brand(s) |
kurdu/karûd |
heart/hearts |
karûdulganaz |
hearts of god's origin (i.e. heart-mates) |
Khazâd |
dwarves |
Khazad-dûm |
Moria |
khuzdith |
a young dwarf |
mabarûn |
bed-man (imp. kept man or prostitute) |
Mahal |
Aulë |
mahkurush |
to form a bond |
maimhir! |
(be) burned (IMP) |
mingal |
sky |
nadad |
brother |
nadadith |
little brother |
Nargûn |
Mordor |
rukhsinh |
female orc |
sanâzyung/ sanâzyûng |
true love/ true loves |
Sigin-tarâg |
Durin’s Folk/the Long-Beards |
Tharkûn |
Gandalf (lit: staff-man) |
ukrash |
greater/greatest symbol/mark |
umùrad/umùrâd |
soul/souls |
umùradulganaz |
soul of god's origin (i.e. soul-mate), |
uzayang |
greatest love |
Khuzdûl (phrases) |
Rough Translation |
amrâlimê |
My love (lit. Love of mine) |
Aznân gabil ai-fnadumên! |
A great darkness upon you elves |
Du Bekâr |
To arms |
Ênâd-nurt gêdul |
Happy birthday |
Imrid amrad ursul |
Die a death of flames |
innikh dê |
Return to me (IMP) |
îsh kakhfê ai‘d dûr rugnul |
Lit: May my excrement be poured upon the naked-jawed (ones) |
Khazâd ai-mênu |
The dwarves are upon you |
khuzd tada bijebî âysîthi mud oshmâkhî dhi zurkur ughvashâhu |
A dwarf that takes a wife must guard her as his greatest treasure |
Ma zatâbhyûrizu galabur, zatâbhyûrizu mohilur |
Do not be wise in words; be wise in deeds |
Nî ikrit fund |
Never trust an elf |
Sul ghelekh barkûr ra turg |
All is well with axe and beard |
Thadulur kuthu barufizu oshmâkha ra tûm fulz muneb meregizu |
Family and halls above merriment (lit: Only when your family is guarded and your halls are prosperous should you feast) |
Alnasi mê |
I love you (s) |
Sindarin (words) |
Rough Translation |
ada |
daddy |
fae |
spirit |
herdir |
master |
meleth |
love |
nana |
mommy |
rŷn |
chasing hound |
Sindarin (phrases) |
Rough Translation |
Aur onnas alwed |
Happy Birthday (lit: blessed birth) |
le suilon, melui nin |
I greet you, my sweet (reverential) |
mae g'ovannen |
well met |
meleth nin |
my love |
mellon nin |
my friend |
melui nin |
my sweet |
Profile
rata_toskr- Antarctica-or-bust
Comments
There's a discussion of them (and their plurals) here:
http://lizardcouncil.proboards.com/thread/1886/awk-help-ellon-elleth-plurals
Feel free to ignore me if there's a reason. Just thought you mightn't know. :)
But also yes, because I prefer a word that I can think of as "the Westron version." Using Ellon and Elleth, etc. when writing from the pov of a character that doesn't speak Sindarin doesn't make sense to me and I rarely write from the pov of elves. It's the same reason I generally use dwarf/dwarrow/etc. instead of Khuzd/Khazad and elf/elfine/etc. is a better match to that.
I have either put way too much or way too little thought into this ;-)