So...Champions'. Possessive, plural and proper. I um, need a little help here.

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ContinuityPLZ
November 18, 2015

I'm having some trouble with possessive plural proper nouns in Dovahzul here. I'm trying to name some boots in Skyrim based on my headcanon where the Eternal Champion (TES 1) was the Champion of Cyrodill's (TES 4) parent, and the Dragonborn is directly descended from COC. "The Champions' Legacy" (Faal ? Zoortah) is giving me fits, because I want to make it clear that the Legacy isn't just one thing. It's the bloodline, EC/COC's respective deeds, and the impact on the Dragonborn, and in the end really complicating things by putting it in the category of "belonging to The Champions, but in possession of the Dragonborn".

To be clear, it's a partial phrase here. I'm going for "Heel of The Champions' Legacy" to put in multiple meanings for the name (heel not meaning just boots, but also following the trail blazed by DB's forebears, being at the tail end/last member of an extremely important lineage, and generally dealing with hundreds of years worth of messy consequences arising as a result of EC and COC's actions). "Hot on the heels" in every sense of the phrase, right down to DB's choice in footwear.

Long story short, I'm at a loss from both a grammar and translation perspective here, and I'm a little too invested in this particular character to just wing it on anything. Not even the name of DB's boots.

Category: General

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paarthurnax
Administrator
November 18, 2015

Translating to another language, it'll be difficult to preserve the double meaning you want with the English word 'heel'.

Sossekaal would mean 'blood of the champion', referring to the champions own blood and power, as well as the bloodline your character is from.

Vennesekaal would mean 'winds of the champion', ven connotating both literal wind (to walk or fly on), as well as the currents of time, fate, and so on.

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Frinmulaar
November 18, 2015

From the grammar perspective, you can make a possessive in two ways, "X do Y" and "XseY". Both mean roughly "X of Y". Тhe noun can then become plural by the usual method of doubling the last sound and adding -e.

To take the examples paarthurnax gave, Sos do kaalle, Sossekaalle, Ven do kaalle, Vensekaalle, or even Vennesekaalle.

(Any noun can also be its own plural, but I imagine you would want the number of the champions to be recognizable as greater than one.)

-3

dovah saviik
November 18, 2015

you can change it to plural by adding an -e to it

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So...Champions'. Possessive, plural and proper. I um, need a little help here.

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