Thuum.org

A community for the dragon language of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Thuum.org

A community for the dragon language of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Question Board


Anonymous
April 8, 2017

Immortal

Before I ask my question I just wanted to say a thank you to the guys of this site, I came to get a quick question answered and stayed for a lot longer than I intended (searching to see if my question had been answered already and satisfying my own curiosity), truly fascinating how interesting a fictional language can be :)

So my question is twofold: 1) Is there a direct translation for immortal or something very close? If not, near as I can figure the next step would be to take Krii "Kill" and add the negative connotation Ni to make Nikrii "Unkillable"
2) When throwing words together (specifically for a name), is there a convention to follow? Odahviing taken part-for-part would come out "Snow Hunter Wing" so I would think there is some rule here.

Throwing it all together;. I'm trying to make "Immortal/Unkillable Blood God"
So is it (barring an actual word for Immortal) Nikriisosrah ?

Thank you for your time and this wonderful and fun site.

Category: Translation


2


paarthurnax
Administrator
April 8, 2017
Good question, you're on the right track! There's the prefix "Vo-", very similar to "un-", which makes a word mean the opposite (e.g. Vokul "evil", Vomindok "unknown", etc.).

You have a few options here. Vojoor "un-mortal" would be the most direct translation. However, "Joor" is often a condescending or even vulgar term, so using it wouldn't carry the same gravitas as "immortal". In-game, Alduin refers to himself as "unslaad" (ceaseless/eternal/unending), which might be the best option to go with as it not only expresses the inability to be killed, but timelessness as well.

Now for dragon names, the only rules to be aware of are that most are three syllables, and the words that make up them are usually adjectives, verbs, or nouns. The order doesn't particularly matter as each Word of Power stands on its own as a sort of descriptor. A notable exception is Durnehviir "curse never dying," where "Neh" doesn't make much sense without the context of "Viir".

"Unslaadsosrah" is definitely within the realm of possibility. However, to make it a nice three syllables, we might go with "Ulsosrah" ("eternity blood god").

1


Frinmulaar
April 8, 2017

1) The closest existing lexical entries to 'immortal' are unslaad and unahzaal, both meaning 'unending'. Some possible bases for a negated compound are joor 'mortal' (noun) and viir 'dying, ceasing, having an end' (adjective). The customary negator would then be vo-, which is seen more commonly than ni-.

2) The strict form of a draconic name template allows exactly three monosyllabic words. Most should be able to act as nouns, that is, nouns or strong verbs or strong adjectives (Alduin, Paarthurnax, Odahviing, Vulthuryol, Mirmulnir, Viinturuth). Additionally, adverbs like neh 'never' can occupy the middle position between two nouns (Durnehviir). The atypical loose form allows four syllables, non-monosyllabic components, or both (Relonikiv and possibly Sahrotaar).

For an approximation of 'Immortal Blood God' within the strict template, I suggest Ulsosrah. Ul 'eternity' connotes something that exists at every point in time.


1


Frinmulaar
April 8, 2017

"why does Unslaad shorten to Ul- instead of say Un- ?"

Thanks for the catch. Ul is a completely unrelated, independent word from unslaad, though with a similar meaning. Click the words to view their dictionary pages. There is no 'shortening' in this sense in dragon names -- the way to get rid of polysyllables is substituting a different word, and here we got lucky.


0


Ulsosrah
April 8, 2017

(This is the same person, just got too wrapped up and forgot to make an account before)
Just wanted to thank you both for the swift and informative replies, there's so much to learn here!

So I like how the name ends up, I just wish to understand the mechanics: I see that a dragon name needs to be monosyllabic, but why does Unslaad shorten to Ul- instead of say Un- ?


0


Ulsosrah
April 8, 2017

Oh I see now, lucky indeed :)

Thank you so much for your time and knowledge!


Edits: A-h-a and A-h seem to keep changing to 4 with this text input... strange.