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DF2014:Elven language

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This article is about an older version of DF.
Not to be confused with Quenya or Sindarin.

The Elven language is one of the languages the player will come across. This language is used in-game for the names of the universe, continents, rivers, elven governments and settlements, elves, artifacts and engravings. However, as of yet, it lacks everything necessary for proper conversation, like grammar or personal pronouns.

Alphabet

The letters of the Elven 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
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A B C Ç D E È É F G H I Ì Í K L M N O Ò Ó P Q R S T U Ù Ú V W Y Ÿ Z
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a b c ç d e è é f g h i ì í k l m n o ò ó p q r s t u ù ú v w y ÿ z

Of these 34 letters, 13 are vowels (A, E, È, É, I, Ì, Í, O, Ò, Ó, U, Ù, Ú); the 21 others are consonants.

The letters J and X of the ISO basic Latin alphabet do not occur in the Elven alphabet.

Letter frequency

N Letter Frequency
1 A 1762 17.05%
2 B 133 1.29%
3 C 426 4.12%
4 Ç 14 0.14%
5 D 155 1.5%
6 E 1428 13.82%
7 È 59 0.57%
8 É 53 0.51%
9 F 372 3.6%
10 G 10 0.1%
11 I 1398 13.53%
12 Ì 58 0.56%
13 Í 61 0.59%
14 K 17 0.16%
15 L 548 5.3%
16 M 508 4.91%
17 N 528 5.11%
18 O 451 4.36%
19 Ò 26 0.25%
20 Ó 38 0.37%
21 P 113 1.09%
22 QU 47 0.45%
23 R 582 5.63%
24 S 153 1.48%
25 T 146 1.41%
26 TH 466 4.51%
27 U 193 1.87%
28 Ù 13 0.13%
29 Ú 14 0.14%
30 V 163 1.58%
31 W 135 1.31%
32 Y 141 1.36%
33 Ÿ 106 1.03%
34 Z 19 0.18%

Graphemics

  • Digraphs th and qu.
    • h only occurs in the digraph th.
    • q only occurs in the digraph qu.
  • Only allowed consonant cluster sl.
  • Elven has no diphthongs.
  • Possible syllable structure (C)(C)V

Diacritic meaning

The Elven language has two diacritics (◌̀ and ◌́) used on four vowels (e, i, o, and u). Its possible that this is just a simpler version of the Dwarven language's system, with just high and low pitch. It's also possible that the two diacritics represent short and overlong vowels, and no diacritic represents a long vowel.

It's interesting that A stands out as the one vowel with no diacritics, while in Dwarven it's the one with the most.

Vocabulary

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

The average word in the Elven language is 4.993 letters long. The longest known words are thitathi ("admire"), thafatha ("battle"), riquethi ("chop"), lethathi ("glum"), thavetha ("mauve"), thethéfa ("meal" (paste)), cèthutha ("mine"), tithithi ("pepper"), quathari ("play" (perform)), thawathi ("post"), naquithe ("rabble"), thatheci ("rustic"), nethitha ("squid"), fithithe ("stretch"), thanetha ("ungodly"), and tholatho ("waste").

The average word has 2.556 syllables. Words either have two or three syllables.

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