I personally would change the word kendov "warrior." The dov part always struck me as odd, even though it's probably unrelated. I'd change it to something like kenaar, krifaar, or krifaan, or something short like wun.

If I could, I'd also split nok "lie" into two distinct words, one that means "to lie on the ground" and one that means "to tell a falsehood."

Which word or words would you change?

I would change so to mean "raven".

I know I've said it a thousand times before, but I really hate kodaav.

It really bothers me that inhus, mastery, is literally "master" with the Dovahzul version of the English suffix "-y." Dovahzul words are very flexible and can do other things like describe or communicate action, but to we joorre, this can be confusing. That's why I think the writers of the language made suffixes -- to clarify what the word is doing. The suffix -us/-hus makes a dovah rot describe something, or, more simply, adds a "-y" to the end of the English translation. What I reeeally don't like is that they took in, a perfectly good word that could have done just what they wanted on its own, and tacked on a suffix meant to create adjectives in order to create another noun. While it translates exactly to an English word, this use of the suffix is inconsistent and doesn't make sense in the actual dragon language. The state of being a master is not the same as being like/having similar qualities of a master. I hate when people treat Dovahzul like a word-for-word code of English. Seeing the language's own damn creators treat it like that makes me upset.  >:(

Aaliizah

It really bothers me that inhus, mastery, is literally "master" with the Dovahzul version of the English suffix "-y." Dovahzul words are very flexible and can do other things like describe or communicate action, but to we joorre, this can be confusing. That's why I think the writers of the language made suffixes -- to clarify what the word is doing. The suffix -us/-hus makes a dovah rot describe something, or, more simply, adds a "-y" to the end of the English translation. What I reeeally don't like is that they took in, a perfectly good word that could have done just what they wanted on its own, and tacked on a suffix meant to create adjectives in order to create another noun. While it translates exactly to an English word, this use of the suffix is inconsistent and doesn't make sense in the actual dragon language. The state of being a master is not the same as being like/having similar qualities of a master. I hate when people treat Dovahzul like a word-for-word code of English. Seeing the language's own damn creators treat it like that makes me upset.  >:(

Exactly, inhus should ideally mean "masterful."

It's funny that you mention that particular word. It's one word I have yet to confirm the source of. It's listed on UESP, but I can't find it either in-game or in the guide book. The source is apparently "Dragonborn game data," so I would be really eager to get my hands on a dialogue file that has dialogue for Dragonborn.

I did manage to kick out the dialogue files for the DLCs, and can confirm inhus is canon. There's also zaamhus, which means "slavery." At the very least, it's not inus and zaamus, so the suffixes are at least somewhat different.

paarthurnax

I did manage to kick out the dialogue files for the DLCs, and can confirm inhus is canon. There's also zaamhus, which means "slavery." At the very least, it's not inus and zaamus, so the suffixes are at least somewhat different.

Oooh, DLC dialogue! I want one!

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Well, I completely disagree. I don't understand how canon words can disagree with its own grammar, since they were used in some way in-game. Our goal is to expand the Dragon Language, so we should do just that: expand upon it in a manner similar to how it already was, not to disregard the canon. The canon is our sustenance; it's the only part of the language that stays the same for more than a week at a time! If you want some-ones own conlang, then that is not hard to find at all, but that's not what this site is about at all.

Thanks for posting your thoughts, IilahDovah. It's certainly an interesting discussion, and there are bound to be strong feelings on the topic.

Thuum.org has three goals - to document the language, to expand it, and to teach it. This first part is the most important; to study the language as it's presented in-game and describe it. This includes things we may not like or agree with. For example, nok meaning both separate senses of "lie" or Alduin's sometimes peculiar pronunciations. Canon is important because it's the part of the language that everyone will know outside of this site.

Canon serves as the foundation for the second part. We have certainly spent a lot of time with the language, but we still make mistakes. The fact that the word revision thread is now almost 1,000 posts long is evidence of that. In my opinion, we should have waited on expanding the language until we understood it better. That's entirely on me.

Start fiddling with the canon, and then it's no longer Bethesda's dragon language. At that point it's something else.

When it comes to teaching the language, though, we can be selective. I don't have Alduin's pronunciations described in the lessons because they're atypical. I don't teach spelling variations for certain words because they're probably typos on Bethesda's part. We could teach everyone to use praan "rest" instead of nok "lie" so there are two distinct words for both senses of "lie."

Our goals of describing the language and expanding the language may sometimes conflict, but the canon will always remain. It can't change, but our perspective on it can.

For some reason "Jun" for king doesn't sound right to me. I would make it, honestly, "Koon" which to me sounds more like its meaning is king than jun.

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Two things to consider - one, the dragon language must account for one-syllable Words of Power. It's the language's primary use, after all. This results in words with related meanings but different sounds.

I also think it's important to detach our English perspective when looking at Dovahzul words and meanings. From the reverse perspective, why isn't the English word "murder" based on the word "kill"? Why aren't "hunt" and "prey" related? Or "sun" and "day"?

Another good example is dir "to die" and viir "dying/ceasing." The concept is important enough to dragons that they would have a separate word for it rather than something derived from grammar.

^ this ^ 

As a new member (and someone who only plays Skyrim sporadically at best), I agree that Canon words and principles should remain an unchanging constant. As someone who has experience in developing conlang on my own for another game (even if I was the only one to use the language on a regular basis - and then only in written form), I will say that what is considered Canon becomes the base from which everything grows. Without it everything else just becomes a random collection of words.

Does this mean that every word makes perfect sense? No. It simply means that most words added to the conlang should have base roots in a logical place. However finding the logical connection is not always, nor should it be, easy. Look at English, French, Chinese, or any other naturally developed language and you will find many examples to verify this point.  It is illogical to think all words should be perfect.

Just my two cents.

Kogaan fah gira