VUAKEDH: AN ALTERNATE VARGR LANGUAGE
Vuakedh is the language of Vargr from the Domain of Antares, and
variants of it are spoken in the Antares Pact and the Julian
Protectorate. Bhyarrvouf, Goughzar, and Rafe all speak pure Imperial
Vuakedh, though 'Vouf occasionally sprinkles his language with idioms
and phrases from more "barbarian" cultures and Rafe and 'Zar usually
prefer Galanglic, which is easier on the human vocal system.
Vuakedh, like most of the Irilitok tongues, is very different from the
Gvegh dialects of the Spinward Extents; it has a multitude of unique
phonemes that require much training to distinguish, and a hint of the
tonality found in Bilandin (Old Vilani). Because of this, there are
two immediately obvious differences between speech and conversation in
Vuakedh and in Gvegh: one is that Vuakedh is an incredibly compact
language, with almost no word having more than two syllables, and the
other is that charisma is asserted through tone rather than word
structure or timing. To a Gvegh Vargr, an Irilitok Vargr sounds more
like a pseudobio robot with limited programming than a real sophont,
and Irilitok jokes about the ten years it takes for a Gvegh speaker to
finish a sentence are widespread. Vuakedh uses prefixes instead of
separate word particles in many cases, only occasionally repeats
itself for emphasis, and creates verb and adjective structures with
tonality and emphasis. All of this leads to very short sentences with
a wealth of compact meaning. It is the most efficient of all Vargr
tongues, and perhaps the most compact language of any major race short
of the Hiver touch-speech.
VOCABULARY:
Ghih = left, feminine
Zouh = right, masculine
kae = Oh (derived from a dog's yelp)
kakh = accursed
tsakha = literally "filth", in context, "dung", "garbage", or "rotten meat"
(hence 'Vouf's common phrase, "Kae, kakh tsakha!" = "Oh, Goddamn Shit!" For
an Irilitok Vargr, this is an uncommonly long curse.)
ya- = Prefix to words, meaning "The" (as in "YaVek", The Prince)
vek = Prince (one of the four character types in stories)
dzough = Empire Builder (another of the four)
ivik = Taker (and another)
ongo = Paranoid (fourth vargr character type)
irilitok = Vargr from the Antarean vicinity; the most "civilized" Vargr.
(This is not a Vuakedh word; the preferred local term is "Kedhak.")
kedh = home or place of origin
vua = communication
vuakedh = "the speech of home"
gvurrdak = literally, "Vargr from Gvurrdon." Idiomatically, "barbarian."
aeghz = Star
kharr = Warrior (a generic term for a respected personage w/r/t bravery)
vouf = Scholar (a generic term for a respected personage w/r/t wisdom)
bogh = Nobleman (a generic term for a respected personage w/r/t dignity)
takh = Powerful beyond reasonable need (colloquially used to describe
nuclear weapons: "YaTakh" = "The Bomb")
var = generic term when referring to any sophont
rro = generic term for "Vargrkind" as separate from other races (see "var";
according to Antarean social custom, Rafe is "var" but 'Zar is "rro")
vargr = Vargr. As in every other Vargr language, the word "vargr" stands alone
in Vuakedh. While "var" comes FROM "vargr", the word itself has no
root, and the "rgr" phoneme is used nowhere else in the language.
si- = Greater (a term of elevation; can mean rank, competence, high birth, etc)
also used to identify a duty obligation.
ba- = Prefix indicating connection (Like the word "of" in passive voice)
te- = prefix indicating past tense, modifying noun root
ki- = prefix indicating future tense, modifying noun root
su- = prefix meaning, literally, "gift of" or "by the hand of" also indicates
a personal obligation if used to identify a person.
dvok = pack; by extension, immediate family or work/social group
sidvok = Great Pack
badvok = Gift of (the/my/one's) pack
fe = yes
YaFe! = yes indeed!
uur = no
YaUur! = positively NO!
feuur = perhaps
uy = and; also a linkage in midword to indicate plurality
zough = literally "rope"; figuratively, that which binds things together.
aeng = a word or syllable to link other concepts; has several different uses.
(for instance, the corsair band Kharaengzough means Warriors of the Binding)
samshkarkh = Furious effort, literally "running straight up".
knaerrvargh = a Vargr who is the object of fun in others' eyes; can be
complimentary (the life of the party), descriptive (a court
jester or comedian), or derogatory (a laughing stock).
roukh = a fool, especially a puffed-up fool who magnifies his errors with
his ego. From the Gvegh "Rukh," meaning "Prince."
sudvok = miracle; literally "gift from the Great Pack."
aeggra = a profusion or exaggerated multiplicity
guezkhe = sufficient
guezdhe = beyond sufficient; good or excellent
thagk = rock
kabra = valuable
kirik = white
kouf = blue
threbh = green
sued = red (from "suedzuk")
khebreyth = literally, "crazed (rabid) animal", figuratively "criminal."
bhasto = sick, afflicted (literally "mangy")
kenegh = blind
kenegh uy bhasto = doubly accursed ("blind and mangy")
oum = the seat of thought, can mean "brain," "mind" or "soul"
Ouma = The All-Mind, the closest thing Irilitok Vargr have to a God figure
bhastoum = literally, "mentally ill"; figuratively, "crazy" or "thoughtless"
byegh = honorable, dignified (hence kharrbyegh = "paladin")
aekhae = void (literally zero, nothing)
aekhfe = empty now!
skhei = air/atmosphere
aenrra = brother (from the Gvegh, interestingly enough; plural, "aenrruy")
aerroghz = chaos (pure entropy)
aerrghzoum = panic (mental chaos)
fierrogh = literally, an Antarean life form resembling a six-foot slug;
figuratively, a nasty or loathsome beast
gough = creator
zar = flexible person
goughzar = innovator
vres = to sit on one's haunches
kegh = alert, watchful
vreskegh = "sit down but be attentive"; in military parlance, "stand down."
ghuek = sleep
ghuekegh = literally "sleeping alertly"; idiomatically refers to "sleeping
with one eye open", but technically refers to a computer set in "sleep" mode.
gzourkegh = "I'm not alert"; essentially I'm about to fall asleep.
gzoukighuek = "I'll need sleep soon";
zhabh = warm
ghuekzhabh = "warm sleep"; technically, warm idle mode for a reactor.
mikh = time
rrobyegh = "honored vargr"
I think "su-" could have an interesting figurative meaning as well: the
notion of "being in someone's debt", which is how Vargr generally view
low-charisma sophonts. To say, for instance, that one is "suvek" means
that one is an underling of a/the Prince; Rafe would characterize himself
as "sutedvok" ("in the debt of (my) former pack"), meaning that he feels a
sense of shame for his catastrophic failure in Daibei, which resulted in
the deaths of all his companions in a firefight with SolSec agents. If he
felt like speaking in Varglic (analogy to Yinglish etc. :-), he might even
specify himself as "suLynne"....
One might say "su-Bhyarrvouf" (or, more formally, "su-BaHaThagk-Kabra")
if one wanted to be specific; other than that, one would be expressing
an opinion of one's superior by referring to him as "kharr", "vouf", or
"bogh". Rafe would pick "kharr", but then again, I think Rafe and 'Zar
have somewhat different opinions about 'Vouf.
gzou (1st person, to be, singular: I am)
gzoh (2nd person, to be, singular: You are)
gzui (3rd person, to be, singular: He/She/It is)
dzou (1st person, to be, plural: We are)
dzoh (2nd person, to be, plural: You are)
dzui (3rd person, to be, plural: They is)
Vui dzoughuek? (Why are we sleeping?)
ve = what
va = who
vou = where
vai = how
vae = which
vui = why
vo = when
vei = how much
and add the 'kh' (an implied growl) for nasty/emphasis to any of them.
=> phrases not yet broken down into particles and words not yet defined:
bhranda kghfe zhdaetso? = idiomatically, "How are things on your end?"
pullup = literally, "bitch in first heat," idiomatically, well, YOU know.
(one pullup, two puyallup)
Elissa (translation) => Athugz
we need words for "tooth" and "claw"
also "human" and "aslan"
and the "Great Pack"
COUNTING:
Counting is done with a set of ten digits that are represented by ten
unique vowel phonemes. They are written here with the prefix "s", which
is used when a number stands alone.
sae = zero
sou = one
soh = two
sui = three
sai = four
see = five
seh = six
suh = seven
sah = eight
sei = nine
Digits can be mixed to represent large numbers without extra syllables,
and an extra consonant may be used to indicate the presence of a decimal
point or a grouping of numbers to represent ideas like "thousand" or
"million" (though Vuakedh does this in groups of four digits at a time
rather than three). What is critical is that every one of the ten basic
digits has only one vowel sound, and that vowel sound is unique to it.
Example:
four billion,eight hundred ninety-six million,seven hundred
and twenty-three thousand and fifteen
= 4,896,723,015
= 48:9672:3015
= jainaggheikfebukorrhuimaetousee
Note the order of consonants: increasing, s t m dh r k b kf gh n j. The
lengthened consonants ggh and rrh indicate breaks for digit groupings.
The plosive "p" is used to represent a decimal point, and the consonants
for place value are the same as for numbers greater than one, but in the
reverse order: t for tenths, m for hundredths, etc.
NAMES:
The tradition of naming in Antares is that the parent of the same sex
gives the last syllable of his or her name to be the first syllable of
their children's names, and then chooses the last syllable. All names
are two syllables long. For example, Khombhyarr's children are
Bhyarrbogh, Bhyarrvouf and Bhyarrkharr. Goughzar's father was Rrangough,
and his siblings are Goughseud and Goughzaell.
("reyf" = self-stick post-it note paper) |-D
>Here's a list of over 200 words/syllables that *should* be legal
>Vuakedh. That assumes that every word in the database you just
>sent me is legal Vuakedh.
>
>You see, in addition to the word generator I have which uses the
>standard MT language tables, I have another word generator which
>is much more general purpose. It takes a list of words (*ANY*
>list of words) and produces more words that are constructed using
>the same rules as the input list. Specifically, it looks at all
>the legal vowel/consonant combinations in the input list, and then
>constructs a triple frequency table. Once this is done, it randomly
>generates words which do not violate the construction of the input
>list.
>
>If I run it long enough, I can generate every possible unique
>combination available from the original input. The only thing
>it *can't* do is get creative and go beyond the original constraints.
>
>Does this help?
> -------------------------------CUT HERE--------------------------------------
>
>ae | kaeggra | rrdakhe | tsae |
>aeggr | kaegh | rrough | tsaeggra |
>aegh | kaekhaen | rroukha | tsah |
>aek | kaenegh | rrvar | tsai |
>aekh | kak | rrvargh | tsak |
>aekhe | kakha | rrvarr | tsamshkabr |
>aeneggr | kakhaekh | saegh | tsamshkae |
>aenegh | kakharkh | saek | tsamshkaeghz|
>aengo | kakhe | saekha | uurrdakh |
>aerr | kar | saekhe | uurro |
>aerrdak | kargh | saengo | uurrouf |
>aerrdakh | kargr | saerrdak | uurrvargr |
>aerrogh | kargra | saerrdakh | uurrvarkh |
>aerroum | karkh | saerro | uurrvarr |
>aerrvarrv | karkhagk | saerrogh | vargh |
>bha | karkhe | sak | varghz |
>bhae | karkhebh | sakh | vargra |
>bhaerrvarghz| karr | sakhagk | varkh |
>bhagk | karrdakh | sakhast | varkhar |
>bhar | keneggr | sakhe | varkhe |
>bhargh | keneghz | samshkabr | varkhebh |
>bhargra | keng | samshkae | varkhebr |
>bharkhast | kengo | samshkak | varro |
>bhastok | kha | samshkakh | varrogh |
>bhastouf | khae | samshkar | varroum |
>boghz | khaeggra | samshkargr | varrvar |
>byeggr | khaeghz | samshkarr | varrvarrd |
>byeggra | khagk | souf | vekh |
>byeghz | khargh | sough | vekhae |
>dzou | khasto | soukhargr | vekhagk |
>dzouf | khastok | soum | vekhast |
>dzoughz | khastough | sudvou | vekhebr |
>dzoukh | khastoukh | sudvouf | vok |
>dzoum | khe | sudvough | vou |
>feuurr | khebh | sudvoukh | vough |
>feuurrdakh | khebha | suezdhe | voukh |
>feuurrogh | khebra | suezdhebh | voukhe |
>feuurrou | kiril | suezdhebr | voukhebh |
>feuurrouf | knae | suezkh | voum |
>gued | knaegh | suezkha | zou |
>guezdhebh | knaeghz | tak | zouf |
>guezdhebr | knaerr | takhagk | zoum |
>guezkh | knaerrdakh | takhargr |
>guezkha | knaerrvarkh | takharr |
>guezkhaekh | kou | takhast |
>guezkhagk | kough | takhe |
>guezkhast | koukhast | takhebr |
>guezkhebh | koum | tha |
>guezkhebr | ong | thae |
>gvur | ou | thasto |
>gvurr | ouf | thastok |
>gvurrdakh | ough | thastough |
>gvurro | oughz | threbha |
>gvurrouf | ro | threbhagk |
>gvurrvarkh | rogh | threbhargr |
>irik | roghz | threbharrv |
>iril | rou | threyth |
>kabrebh | rough | threythagk |
>kabrebr | roum | threythrebr |
>kabreythr | rrdak | threythreyth|
I don't know if this'll help, but maybe it get you guys to
do something productive and stop whining about who's the
final authority on Irilitok Vargr speech. :^)
I enhanced the grammar-analysis program I wrote to construct
'proper-sounding' words, so that as part of it's debug
capability, it now writes the internal syllable frequency
matrix it constructs to a dump file, where I can peruse it
at my leisure. I ran the existing list of Vuakedh words
through it, and got this as a result:
Vuakedh Syllable Frequency (derived from existing samples):
ae = 2 ghz = 4 kna = 1 rro = 3 th = 1 zhd = 1
aeg = 2 go = 1 kou = 1 rrv = 1 tha = 1 zou = 4
aek = 1 gou = 2 mik = 1 sae = 1 thr = 1
aen = 2 gue = 2 ong = 1 sah = 1 thu = 1
aer = 3 gvu = 1 ou = 1 sai = 1 tsa = 1
aet = 1 iri = 2 ouf = 2 sak = 1 tso = 1
ath = 1 ivi = 1 oug = 5 sam = 1 uur = 3
ba- = 1 kab = 1 ouk = 1 see = 1 uy = 1
bh = 3 kae = 1 oum = 4 seh = 1 var = 3
bha = 2 kak = 1 pul = 1 sei = 1 vek = 1
bhr = 1 kar = 1 reb = 1 si- = 1 vok = 1
bog = 1 ked = 2 res = 2 so = 1 vou = 1
bye = 1 keg = 3 rey = 2 soh = 1 vre = 2
dzo = 1 ken = 1 ro = 2 sou = 1 vua = 2
fe = 3 kgh = 1 rog = 2 sud = 1 vur = 1
feu = 1 kh = 5 rou = 1 sue = 1 yaf = 1
fie = 1 kha = 3 rr = 1 suh = 1 yau = 1
gh = 12 khe = 2 rra = 1 sui = 1 ya- = 1
ghf = 1 kir = 1 rrd = 1 tak = 1 zar = 2
ghu = 3 ki- = 1 rrg = 1 te- = 1 zha = 2
producing a total of 166 syllabic hits. To generate a full
Vuakedh language template, I need 216 each of initial consonant,
vowel, and final consonant. Either we artificially inflat some
of the values in the above list, or you guys need to invent some
more words! :^)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
a ae ai au ya yae yai yau
e ei ye yei
i yi
o ou oe oi yo you yoe yoi
u ue ui yu yue yui
y-
b+ bh+ br+ bhr+
k+- kh+-
g+- gh+- ghz- gz+- gr+ grr+ gk-
h- hh- hhk-
d+- dh+- dz+- dhr+ dhz+-
f+- fh+
v+- vgh- vgk-
t+- ts+- th+ thr+
m- n- ng- ngh-
r+- rg- rkh- rgh- rz-
rr+- rrg- rrkh- rrgh- rrz-
s+- sh+- st+- sht+- shk+- skh+-
z+- zgh- zdh- zh+ zhd+
[Note: Consonants marked + are initial only, - are final only, +- are both.]