Nouns & Articles
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Key Points
- For plural nouns, repeat the last letter and add -e.
- Use faal for "the" in reference to proper nouns.
- Articles rarely used and often absent in speech.
What are Nouns?
A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns form a major part of any language; more than 550 of the language's ~640 words can be used as a noun in some way. In this lesson we'll examine the grammar related to nouns and the articles that describe them.
Making Plural Nouns
A noun that is plural refers to multiple persons, places, things, or ideas. The opposite of a plural noun is a singular noun, which refers to only one person, place, thing, or idea. The English plural suffix is usually -s.
In the dragon language, the last letter of the noun is repeated, and the suffix -e is added to the end. For example, dovah becomes dovahhe, jun becomes junne, and zul becomes zulle. See the Alphabet & Pronunciation lesson for how to pronounce this -e.
Some words like rotmulaag and kaaz might change more in plural form. Aa or ii in the final syllable can be reduced, forming rotmulagge instead of rotmulaagge, and kazze intsead of kaazze.
This plural rule is not strict. Where in English some nouns are their own plurals (sheep, fish, or moose), all dragon nouns can potentially be their own plurals. The Word Walls are the starkest example of this, where plural suffixes are not featured at all. This may also be seen in songs or poetry where an extra syllable needs to be removed.
Nouns that end in a vowel like zii or zahkrii do not have plural forms.
When translating, keep in mind what is a noun and what is a verb. In "He runs down the street", "runs" is a verb, not a noun. Don't add a plural suffix to your verbs!
What are Articles?
The term article refers to the words the and a/an, both commonly used in English. Below are the equivalent dragon articles:
| the (informal) | fin |
| the (formal) | faal |
| a / an | aan |
Faal is used to reference a proper noun or something held in high regard. For example, "the sword" would probably use fin, but "the Sword of Talos" would use faal instead. Aan is for both "a" and "an", regardless of whether the next word begins with a vowel or consonant.
Dragon articles are almost always cut with exception of faal. The words fin and aan are removed wherever possible. For example, the sentence "The sword of the king is sharp" would be "Zahkrii do jun los kinzon" (lit. "Sword of king is sharp"). If we want to be respectful, we might keep faal in reference to jun: "Zahkrii do faal Jun los kinzon".
Cases where articles are kept include poetry or lyrics, where they can provide a needed extra syllable.
Exercises
1. Rewrite the following sentences in English as if they were in the dragon language, keeping the rules on articles in mind:
- By the gods, I saw a dragon.
- The Jagged Crown must not fall into the wrong hands.
- I wish you a good day.
- A warrior, a mage, and a thief stand in a room.
- By gods, I saw dragon.
- The Jagged Crown must not fall into wrong hands.
- I wish you good day.
- Warrior, mage, and thief stand in room.
2. Give the plural forms of the following nouns:
- Yol
- Strunmah
- Zii
- Hokoron
- Yolle
- Strunmahhe
- Zii
- Hokoronne
3. In the following sentence, would you keep the or remove it? "The Mask of Vokun lies buried in his crypt."
4. Write out the pronunciations of the following plural nouns:
- Tuzze
- Krongrahhe
- Hahhe
- Nahgahdinokke
- "Tooz-zey"
- "Crone-grah-hey"
- "Hah-hey"
- "Nah-gah-dee-nok-key"