You have opened the floodgate for ask spams fjjffdjdjd! I wanted to ask first about the language: what inspired you? Do you follow a set of rules or just go with what looks cool? Do they have an alphabet? Any chance of hearing how the most important stuff (especially names) is pronounced?👀
OMG you just asked about one of my favourite topics ever around this world lmao
So, the goal eventually would be to be two fully functional languages, Ahnol and So'Kaï, respectively the languages of the Ahn’né and the J'kaï, and have some common words and titles translated into the languages of the Fées, the Naïades, the Ëkos and the Changeformes. The Dracs' language is a bit different, because I'm basically using a regional language from my country and tweaking it a bit for them, so it's not like I'm coming up with it from scratch like I did with Ahnol. So'Kaï is currently at the point I'd like to get with the other languages, which means a bunch of important words used by people in the story.
I was, of course, inspired by Tolkien just as a concept, but the language in itself is a combination of a bunch of things. I've learned seven languages in my life, even if I'm not fluent in all of them, and I've always been interested in them. So, for Ahnol, I based the syntax structure on French, which is S+V+C, or Subject, Verb and Addition. Then, I just began making up words until I had enough that I begun noticing a pattern in sounds I had made unconsciously. When I noticed that pattern, I stuck to it to make a consistently-sounding language. So eventually, it began to sound like the regional languages from my country, mixed with Japanese and Chinese. I'm also using some of the additional letters we have in French, like é, è, à, ç, the little triangle symbol like this = î and the two-dots symbol like this= ï
It has very consistent rules for how it's pronounced and it's relatively easy to understand. Time works like in Chinese, where every sentence is present tense and you just add a time signifier. In English, that would look like this: I was hungry // Yesterday, I am hungry. So the latter is basically how it works.
Unlike French, which its heavily based on in other aspects, I refused to add gender markers and the formal and familiar "you" we have, because the first sucks and the second, although fun, was more complicated than I wanted to get at the time (that changed but at this point it'd be too much work to invent both "you"s)
There is an alphabet and I even made a custom font so I could type the words in documents or when I'm drawing something. The alphabet looks roughly like this (this is an earlier version but the only picture I currently have on my computer, but there's like one tiny difference in the current version so this will do)
The alphabet is clearly based on Ogham, which I'm very familiar with because of my religion, culture and practice. Because the Ahn’né live exclusively in forests, it made sense to use something literlaly called the Alphabet of the Trees as an inspiration.
Right now, Ahnol is completely usable, but it looks vocabulary, which is what makes a language rich. Since I basically add new words whenever I need them in the story, I have a wild variety of words atm.
Excuse my voice, I went to a metal concert with my sister that went on for almost 5 hours and had four bands, including the legendary Gojira, so my throat is busted. But here's a list of words and short phrases, what they mean, and how they're pronounced, as well as some of the most important characters’ names
link to the sound file
(rough transcript of names)
Naradrilen’né Anathÿ O’sha
Olaÿ Erenalui
Mehetÿl of Ashbloom Domain
Hé’noûr of House Faon’den (Faon’den’né Hé’noür)
Aubiel
Sheoril Ashall’dil
Jora Dil’norr
Eobel (Naradrilen’né Eobel)
Orril (Naradrilen’né Orril)
and hey, if you want to use what I give you later in this post to make some sentences of your own, I’d love to see them lol I haven’t copied everything from my language file because I want to protect my work a little bit, but I use Ahnol pretty extensively in the game so I thought it’d be cool to share some with you and everyone else
Thank you so much for this question, I had so much fun writing all this. I might post a language breakdown in the lore tag of the blog for later, we’ll see. And if you have any other question, I would be DELIGHTED to gush more about the world of Enschka.
[everything below the cut is copied straight from my language file on my computer, so it has annotations, French thrown in the middle of it and it has literal translations as well, marked as ‘lit.’, short for ‘literally’ (for ex, I love you is Je t’aime in French, but the literal translation would be Je aime toi. Or in reverse, Je m’appelle John translates to My name is John but the literal translation, so word-for-word, would be I am me called John)]
PRONOUNS & BASICS
mün: to be
ih: I, me
noür: you
wa'ih: you far away (like in japanese, sore/kore/are)
ara: they (gender-neutral singular third person)
araï: they (gender-neutral plural third person)
ihnoü: us
ihn: mine
noüh: yours
arani: theirs (no distinction of singular/plural)
ushihi: ours
ushihnoü: together
aa: yes
eo: no
i: and, also
asharr'noür: thank you (lit. blessed be you)
dil asharr: you're welcome (lit. bless the white -implied, bless the white instead of me)
aa: yes
eo: no
i: and, also
asharr'noür: thank you (lit. blessed be you)
dil asharr: you're welcome (lit. bless the white -implied, bless the white instead [of me])
TITLES
o'sha: gender-neutral word for a ruler
a'sha: king specifically, since the ahn’né don't have those they invented the word for other cultures
shalle: master
ha'norr: healer (the magic of hands)
irhashal: mage (master of life)
ashto'ïreq: shadowwalker (lit. walk in the dark)
vallemek: warrior
oshallem: soldier (lit: warrior of the queen)
irhamek: battlemage (lit: warrior of life)
erenmek: councillor, specifically for war (lit. the one who sees war)
ETHNICITY
olaÿé: dreamers
sila'né: sylvains
héki'né: septs
POINTS CARDINAUX
héki: septentrion
arheyü: after-sky
oshaji: stone
sheo: sea
COLOURS
dil: white
dila: light
ïreq: black
ïreqa: dark
nara: red
eri: blue
sato: green
lunil: yellow
faon: gold
adoo: marron
FAMILY
eranga'a: sibling
essa'a: older sibling (like Chinese. this is familiar way, like "big sis/big bro" but gender neutral)
osso'a: younger sibling (same)
irha'a: twin/beloved sibling/sibling of life because of irha
ushana: companion, partner
nooqa: parent who provided the stasis (familiar)
anooq: idem (soutenu)
neqe: parent who provided the constant stream of irha (familiar)
aneq: idem (soutenu)
PHRASES
ih shalle'deo: I don't know -something implied- (literally meaning I don't master -something-)
quera ihqari: come with me
ihqari: with me (works with any pronoun or noun, subject or speaker first, then the thing being with the subject)
asharr'uil: blessed be [...]
shallon ihqari: i love you (lit. love with you)
GREETINGS & SAYINGS
for bonded people:
peace for you: noür thyna'shi (lit. you peace is for)
and prosper: i n'ahanni (lit. et t'prospère -même raccourci que dans je t'aime par ex)
formal greeting:
asharr'uil noür dil'oshallonri: Be blessed on this day, you who is beloved by the White (lit. blessed be you, sun beloved)
ushihnoü ashto dilero: may we walk together under the light of the White (lit. together walk the sun under)
PET NAMES & NICKNAMES
oyami: precious (gender neutral)
(ihn)ushana: (my) companion (gender neutral, with the possessive it becomes a full word)
(ihn)venhael: (my) bonded (gender neutral, same)
oshallonri: beloved
SWEARING
(scale of #1 to #5 from less offensive to worse)
shkaï: putain (#1 used like putain, is a bastardized version of Kaï, the angel island)
irha'o: connard/connasse (#3 gender neutral insult, lit. without irha/without a soul)
mera: salaud/salope (#4 gender neutral, short version of Merathÿ, the traitor queen)
VERBS
quera: come, follow
quera'deo: stay put, don't follow
shalle'rea: to know something, to have mastered something
asharr: to bless
asharr'ui: to be blessed
shallon: to love, (lit. to master emotion)
shallon'ui: to be in love
ahanni: to prosper
eren: to see
eren'ui: to be seen
ashto: to walk
arahn'ui: to give birth
NOUNS
dil: the sun/the white, light
norr: hand
irha: life/centre (also the name of the particles that form their life-force and magic)
ahnol: language of the ahn’né
ahn: the small fairy-like creatures who inhabit the Dreaming Woods and are born from the irha in the trees. Also how the ahn’né talk about themselves in their language
sooreth: cloud
sooreth'irha: clouded heart, ahn’né slang for half-blood/mixed people
thyna: peace
sil: tree
sileo: bois (du bois, pas les bois/forêt) (common first name)
soori: a type of tea, very bitter, from the Ashtou Chain
nalui: friend
olanéi: the dreaming elm (lit. the ones who speak the dreams into existence)
lemek: conflict, though used also in the context of war
ol: langue (autant le muscle que le concept de language)
olaÿ: dreams, songe
ishell: the wrapped tunic worn by Dreamers over their undershirt and pants
thÿrun : the facepaint worn by members of a specific House to denote their status
yüe: the sky
qeraÿo: a follower, someone who subscribes to a belief
yano: wind
shi: "-day" or celebration (Dreamer-day is olaÿ-shi for ex)
jarré: snow
oshaji: stone
sheo: sea
asharri: god/the divine, as in a general term for a god when not using their name (ex: the gods have spoken)
arahn: birth
mer: carer, caring person
ant: star/celestial body
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