#im sorry if none of the grammar is right here. i was in speech pathology for 8 years and didn't learn shit

[kagrenacs]

Hey Kayd I hope you don't mind me asking you a tes question but you seem to know a lot about it! Do you know/can you suggest a word/phrase that might be used in the elder scrolls setting to mean transgender? I'm aware there's trans characters in eso but I've barely played it and I feel like you may have talked about trans people in the tes setting before :]

 I have!!! This is a thought that frequently consumes me, I love transgenderism. Terms are bolded like morrowind characters because I have ADHD and that splits it up for me a bit more kindly.

Beyond common Tamriellic where I assume you’d just say transgender. From culture to culture it would vary. Some cultures don’t even have a strong concept of gender (Some Argonian groups, dragons, I hc the Dwemer to not have this concept). I’m going to give it my absolute best at the language stuff, but this is definitely not my forte. I could not explain to you what a verb is if my life depended on it. People who know about linguistics absolutely feel free to weigh in. 

In the Argonian language of Jel, Vastei means change, and if you add the suffix -leel, Vasteileel, it would mean something like changed person.

Looking at root words in Aldmeris, ‘Chi-’ as a prefix means changed, we don’t have much on Aldmeris I don’t think, but this guy has a huge dictionary with all those grammar rules i can never quite remember. I’m going based off that. In Aldmeris, transgender individuals might be referred to as Chimen- to change/transform. (I could have went with Chichare- changed individual but it doesn’t flow as nicely). Ayleidoon has a word ’Anyammis’ meaning life/bones (presumably referring to Earth-bones), and a word ‘Anya’ which i’ll take to mean existence. For Old Cyrodillic, you could combine the two into Chianya, changed existence. 

We don’t really have enough on Yoku to come up with any terms from canonical sources. But there isn’t gendered pronouns from what I see, just the singular ‘Dogo’. However there are words for things like ‘son’. Likewise we have nothing on Bretic, and little on Bosmeri, although Chianya could probably apply with common linguistic roots and Ayleid influence after the rise of the Alessian empire.

The Thu’um + legacy translation site might be a helpful resource too. I came up with Vazahmaar, true self in Dovahzul based off canon texts. Legacy says transgender is yaaveiliin. If you wanna get fun with it, the intermingling of cultures and language in High Rock and Cyrodiil might come up with the phrase Chiveiliin, changed gender.

Colloquially, for the Dunmer, Mephalite ‘canonically’ refers to intersex individuals. I’m not sure whose headcanon this was, but I liked the term Azuran for transgender individuals. (I also think these words get reinforced during the years of the Tribunal. Vivec refering to hirself as a Mephalite and being Mephala’s anticipation. Dev texts suggesting Sotha Sil, anticipation of Azura, is a trans man.) And I’m proposing Boethian could imply genderfluidity. In proper context.

And for the Khajiit language of Ta’Agra there’s a few phrases I can come up with. Vaba means ‘to become’ vabazeri means ‘becoming, changing from one to another’ and vaberzarita means ‘has become’. I know very little about Ta’Agra, so i’m going to trust the folks at the translation website when they say afeto means gender and Yenithka means changed. Something like Ahziss va yenithka afeto would mean I’m transgender (Literally I am changed gender). But a colloquial phrase might be Ahziss va vabazeri, I am transitioning.