Dravanian Language Dictionary, Translation or Generator?

[Knight Kat]

So the Hevensward trailer shows that the Dravanians have their own language, and that the lore and localization team have made part of it translatable. I am not sure how all that works, but I figure they must have a dictionary or something for it.

 

Did anyone happen to see or hear anything more about it? My own internet search did not turn up much.

[Whittledown]

I wish I could help you!

 

Maudit has scars on his back where Dravinian cultists carved him up to seal a curse that was laid on him. The scars say something in Dravinian. I would love to be able to actually show what they look like instead of just saying 'they appear to be a language'.

 

If you find out anything more please update this thread!

[Berrod Armstrong]

Anonymoose and friends don't seem to have anything solid just yet, they're still struggling with the linguistics of the phrase 'Akh Afah'.

 

(Though from what I see it looks like it means 'Our Savior'). 

 

Maybe they'll do a dev blog post on it someday!

[Kage]

The only thing we have is from when Fernalwhes gave us the translation for the song at the Vegas FanFest sadly

[Knight Kat]

The only thing I found was this:

 

The next part is sung in dragonspeak:

 

Dys an sohm in

Rhos an kyn

Sah djahs afah an

Mah morn narr

 

Which translates into:

 

our slumber disturbed

my brothers wake

vengence will be ours

the saviors must perish

 

http://gamerescape.com/2014/10/21/heavensward-everything-we-know/

 

However, the problem is that some of the Dravanian lines have four words while the English translation of that line is three words. "Dys an sohm in" = "our slumber disturbed". That is the problem.

 

At least it gives us an idea of what the language sounds like.

[Gegenji]

However, the problem is that some of the Dravanian lines have four words while the English translation of that line is three words. "Dys an sohm in" = "our slumber disturbed". That is the problem.

 

I think it's only a problem insomuch as that their word may be a compound of two words that's translated into English as one.

 

If "Dys an sohm in" more directly translates to something akin to "our big sleep stopped" or something, then it's not so much an issue. Well, it still is I suppose, but there's a feasible workaround to the whole "they use more words" problem. It just becomes a matter of figuring out what words are the nouns and what words are the adjectives that change them from one English word to another.

 

... If that's the case at all, of course. Linguistics!

[Sounsyy]

I'm by no means a linguistic expert, but one thing I notice in common with the Dravanian lines of the song is that every time there's a possessive pronoun (in the english translation) the Dravanian word "an" appears in the line.

 

Our slumber = Dys an

My brothers = Rhos an

Our vengeance = afah an

 

So I believe the Dravanian word "an" being used in the phrase may turn a word, which may not have otherwise been possessive, into a possessive. For instance, "Rhos kyn" might mean "The brothers wake."

 

I believe there's a few real world languages which behave in a similar way by not having/using articles such as "the" or "a" because they are implied, but will compensate by throwing in an added word or suffix which will explain ownership of the sentence's subject.

 

But again, I'm far from being a linguistic expert like Fernehalwes so take all that with a heaping of salt.

[Gegenji]

I'm by no means a linguistic expert, but one thing I notice in common with the Dravanian lines of the song is that every time there's a possessive pronoun (in the english translation) the Dravanian word "an" appears in the line.

 

Our slumber = Dys an

My brothers = Rhos an

Our vengeance = afah an

 

So I believe the Dravanian word "an" being used in the phrase may turn a word, which may not have otherwise been possessive, into a possessive. For instance, "Rhos kyn" might mean "The brothers wake."

 

Wow, that's a nice catch. I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out.

 

... Now you got me musing on things that might not even be there - like I'm noticing imperatives often have "-ah" words. Will be and must perish. Even vengeance may be a derivative of something akin to "must kill."

 

I wish I wasn't so rusty in my linguistics.

[Dat Oni]

Sad this language isn't like Al Bhed, where the alphabet is literally just rearranged from the english one.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I'm by no means a linguistic expert, but one thing I notice in common with the Dravanian lines of the song is that every time there's a possessive pronoun (in the english translation) the Dravanian word "an" appears in the line.

 

Our slumber = Dys an

My brothers = Rhos an

Our vengeance = afah an

 

So I believe the Dravanian word "an" being used in the phrase may turn a word, which may not have otherwise been possessive, into a possessive. For instance, "Rhos kyn" might mean "The brothers wake."

 

Wow, that's a nice catch. I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out.

 

... Now you got me musing on things that might not even be there - like I'm noticing imperatives often have "-ah" words. Will be and must perish. Even vengeance may be a derivative of something akin to "must kill."

 

I wish I wasn't so rusty in my linguistics.

 

This could be fun to reverse. I have this "thing" for grammar and syntax. Maybe the programmer. Maybe the linguist. But I bet we could make something to barf out random sentences with enough data.

[V'aleera]

Building further on Sounsyy's speculation I'd like to point out that "Dys an sohm in/Our slumber disturbed" is unique within the stanza in that it's spoken in the past tense. Which may mean that "in" is simply a particle that affects the tense of a subject (in this case making it past tense).

[Gegenji]

Building further on Sounsyy's speculation I'd like to point out that "Dys an sohm in/Our slumber disturbed" is unique within the stanza in that it's spoken in the past tense. Which may mean that "in" is simply a particle that affects the tense of a subject (in this case making it past tense).

 

If that's the case, then the third stanza should have its own tense marker to imply future tense. And the fourth is sort of a future imperative.

 

Actually, I'm starting to think there might be something here. Each sentence could simply be noun-verb coupling (which you can boil any language down to, really), and all the other words imply possession and tense. Like so:

 

Dys an sohm in/our slumber disturbed

(My/Our) Slumber - to disturb [past tense]

Literally: "Slumber our disturb was."

 

Rhos an kyn/my brothers wake

(My/Our) Brothers - to wake [present tense]

Literally: "Brothers our wake."

 

Sah djahs afah an/vengeance will be ours

To possess/have/obtain - (my/our) revenge [future tense]

Literally: "Will obtain revenge our."

 

Mah morn narr/the saviors must perish

Saviors - to perish [future imperative]

Literally: "Must saviors perish."

 

Such a format would be easy to put together and use. You'd just need a list of nouns, verbs, and the words that imply possession and tense. I'd infer how adjectives might work, but none of the stanzas use those. However, if this is right, "in" would imply past tense, "sah" would imply future, and "mah" would be the future imperative. A past imperative ("had to") might be "nah" or something similar.

 

... Of course, there are flaws in this. "In" is at the end while the other two are at the front. You'd figure the tenses would be in the same place for proper conjugation... unless it's linked in order to the verb like the possessive is linked to the noun. This would make "sah" and "mah" the verb and noun, respectively, and "djah" and "narr" setting tense and tone.

 

Really, I think it's the third stanza that's balking my ideas. Probably a sign that I'm completely off the mark.

 

... Darn it, what do you people have me doing? And why do I keep thinking of more and adding onto it like a madman?

 

... Okay, okay, I'm done fiddling with it. I'm driving myself nuts.

[Goodfellow]

This calls to mind something Fernehalwes said about the Ramuh battle lyrics in Old High Sylphic:

"Remember, the Eorzean (English) translation to the right here is actually a 'localization' made so that the lyrics would fit the melody/available syllable count, as well as rhyme."

 

If you follow the link and read his breakdown of the lyrics there, some of the lines really don't match up after localizing and re-poeticizing them, so without a clue or something from Fern, we may be grasping at straws.

 

Of course, all that just makes it even more fun, and far be it from me, amateur linguist that I am, to discourage anyone.

 

So do carry on.

[Kage]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/201988-Revelations-from-Final-Coil-SPOILERS?p=2690935&viewfull=1#post2690935

 

"Akh Morn" means “circle of death.”

“Akh Afah Amphitheatre,” which means “eternal circle” which is Shiva's battlefield1

[Knight Kat]

Woo! We got a little more lore of Dravanian language now.

 

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/215647