v50 Steam/Premium information for editors
  • v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
  • Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
This notice may be cached—the current version can be found here.

Difference between revisions of "Dwarven language"

From Dwarf Fortress Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 143: Line 143:
  
 
=== Notes ===
 
=== Notes ===
−
Interestingly, the language lacks words like dwarf (possibly bistök-udos, "hairy man"), human (technically they have ''udos'' ("man")), goblin or elf (though one could use ''dák-enur'' ("tree-hug") for that). However, it is not lacking words for "pearl" (''kovest'') or "pumpkin" (''fongbez'') which do not even exist in-universe. It might be assumed that "Dwarf" is simply the dwarven word for dwarf, and that they call other races by their chosen moniker - but this would be the only word with "w" in it, which would be strange.
+
Interestingly, the language lacks words like dwarf (possibly bistök-udos, "hairy man"), human (technically they have ''udos'' ("man")), goblin or elf (though one could use ''dák-enur'' ("tree-hug") for that). However, it is not lacking words for "pearl" (''kovest'') or "pumpkin" (''fongbez'') which do not even exist in-universe.
  
 +
The letter W does not exist elsewhere in Dwarven language, so it is unlikely that the word "dwarf" is the native moniker of dwarves for themselves. However "dwarf" might be adopted from the original dwarven word for their own kind, and similarly they might call other races by their respective chosen monikers. "Dwarf" would then be some another language's approximation of the native Dwarven pronunciation, whose correct Dwarvish spelling could purely hypothetically resemble forms such as "dorf" or "dvôrfum".
  
 
{{gamedata}}
 
{{gamedata}}

Revision as of 18:19, 9 January 2016

Not to be confused with Khuzdul.

The Dwarven language is one of the four languages the player will come across, besides Elvish, Human and Goblin. This language is used in-game for the names of the universe, continents, rivers, dwarven governments and settlements, dwarves, artifacts and engravings. However, as of yet, it lacks everything necessary for proper conversation, like grammar or personal pronouns.

Alphabet

The letters of the Dwarven alphabet are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A À Á Â Ä Å B C D E È É Ê Ë F G H I Ì Í Î Ï K L M N O Ò Ó Ô Ö R S T U Ù Ú Û V Z
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a à á â ä å b c d e è é ê ë f g h i ì í î ï k l m n o ò ó ô ö r s t u ù ú û v z

Of these 40 letters, 25 are vowels (A, À, Á, Â, Ä, Å, E, È, É, Ê, Ë, I, Ì, Í, Î, Ï, O, Ò, Ó, Ô, Ö, U, Ù, Ú, Û); the 15 others are consonants.

The letters J, P, Q, W, X, and Y of the ISO basic Latin alphabet do not occur in the Dwarven alphabet.

Letter frequency

N Letter Frequency
1 A 7.91%
2 À 0.13%
3 Á 0.16%
4 Â 0.31%
5 Ä 0.30%
6 Å 0.28%
7 B 2.75%
8 C 0.48%
9 D 3.81%
10 E 6.29%
11 È 0.14%
12 É 0.13%
13 Ê 0.26%
14 Ë 0.27%
15 F 0.45%
16 G 3.95%
17 H 5.49%
18 I 6.21%
19 Ì 0.14%
20 Í 0.15%
21 Î 0.33%
22 Ï 0.28%
23 K 4.39%
24 L 5.84%
25 M 4.69%
26 N 5.67%
27 O 6.53%
28 Ò 0.16%
29 Ó 0.17%
30 Ô 0.24%
31 Ö 0.29%
32 R 5.95%
33 S 8.57%
34 T 8.39%
35 U 5.51%
36 Ù 0.14%
37 Ú 0.12%
38 Û 0.27%
39 V 0.78%
40 Z 2.06%

Phonology

Vocabulary

Main articles: Noun dictionary, Verb dictionary, Adjective dictionary, and Prefix dictionary

The average word in the Dwarven language is 5.084 letters long. The longest known word is ngathsesh, meaning "puke".

Notes

Interestingly, the language lacks words like dwarf (possibly bistök-udos, "hairy man"), human (technically they have udos ("man")), goblin or elf (though one could use dák-enur ("tree-hug") for that). However, it is not lacking words for "pearl" (kovest) or "pumpkin" (fongbez) which do not even exist in-universe.

The letter W does not exist elsewhere in Dwarven language, so it is unlikely that the word "dwarf" is the native moniker of dwarves for themselves. However "dwarf" might be adopted from the original dwarven word for their own kind, and similarly they might call other races by their respective chosen monikers. "Dwarf" would then be some another language's approximation of the native Dwarven pronunciation, whose correct Dwarvish spelling could purely hypothetically resemble forms such as "dorf" or "dvôrfum".

V · T · E
Races
Divine · Dwarven · Elvish · Goblin · Human · Kobold
Modding
Text Sets
Retrieved from "https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Dwarven_language&oldid=222769"