There are a couple dragon names that are still without translation. A few of these stuck out to me because they contain the same word:

• Naaslaarum, naas-laar-um
• Voslaarum, vos-laar-um
• Nahfahlaar, nah-fah-laar

Naaslaarum and Voslaarum are the dragons encountered together in the Forgotten Vale. Nahfahlaar is the Dovahzul name of the dragon Nafaalilargus who appears in Redguard.

The last one is the best lead since we can translate at least two of the words: "fury for ____". "Laar" might be its own word, or be related to "Laas", "life", or "Aar", "slave". Any ideas on what "Laar" could possibly mean given the above?

Bringing this back up with a new theory regarding a full translation for Nahfahlaar.

There are two main possibilities: nah + fah + laar and nah + fahl + aar, that is, "fury for ___" or "fury ___ servant."

The first is convenient because it would mean laar is shared across all three of the above names. The second, though, makes sense given Nahfahlaar's history of being a servant of Tiber Septim, and allying with other mortals.

Fahl at first glance seems like an impossible word since ah is featured at the end of syllables, not in the middle. By the rules, it should be spelled as faal, which is already a word. Well, there are two canon examples that contradict this rule: wahl "to raise" and nahl "living." Fahl fits right in. The fact that it's a homophone with faal doesn't outrule the possibility, since nahl is a homophone with naal "by."

So, fahl is a possible word. But what does it mean? Turning back to wahl and nahl, both originate from longer words: wahlaan "creation," also the past tense "raised/built," and nahlaas "alive." They are pretty direct relatives.

The only known word that could match fahl is fahliil "elf." To go further, we'll have to dig into some grammar.

There are possessive suffixes that can stand for pronouns like "my," "our," and "your." One of these is -u, and is used to form Bormahu. It refers to Akatosh, and means "our father." The one that interests us is -iil, which means "your."

The crux of this theory is that fahliil could be a construction similar to bormahu; "your ____." Looking at similar words, the one that strikes me is paal "foe." What if the word for "elf" was originally a construction that meant "your foe," referring to the elves as the foe of the Nords? In this scenario, fahliil is a corruption of an original construction paaliil. Fahl, then is an obsolete equivalent to paal.

This makes Nahfahlaar "fury foe servant."

I'm cool with that. (I noticed no one has responded even though this has been on a whole year, and I kind of felt bad.)

Fahl being a mutation of Paal sounds reasonable, though I have the slightest feeling that's not what the producers were thinking originally. Nahfahlaar's name evolved to Nafaalilargus, so it's perfectly plausible. I say add Fahl to the dictionary as 'foe,' or something similar, and have it be synonymous with paal.

I have not the slightest clue.

Hmm... that's an interesting idea. I do like the idea of fahl as a word, and what you've said makes sense. However, that still doesn't explain the other two untranslated names which don't include the word fahl. What they do have in common is the word laar, so considering the other dragon names, I think it more likely that laar is its own word. Unfortunately that doesn't bring us any closer to understanding the words in these names or their meanings.

I'm also a little iffy about fahl's relation to paal. I can see how and why you might have come to that conclusion, but there are a lot of rotte that rhyme but whose meanings have nothing to do with each other. I'll take two words, for example, very similar to fahl and paal -- fah, for, and pah, all. Not really related. Just like lah, magicka, bah, wrath, dah, push, etc. 

I really like Nah Fahl Aar, though. :( And I have absolutely no theories about what laar might mean, or fahl, or vos or um. Vomindoraan. 

Fahl = Paal is pretty far-fetched. I am convinced that Nahfahlaar is Nah-Fahl-Aar, whatever fahl might mean.

I have a sneaking suspicion that laar could mean "lake" and um could mean "under," "beneath," or "below." There are three words I'm deriving these from: naar "summit," tum "down/within," and lumnaar "valley."

Lumnaar hypothetically means "low summit," where lum means "low" (from tum). Um would be the root of both of these.

Laar as meaning "lake" stems from its similarities to naar "summit," as both are geographical features. However, there are obviously similar words that aren't geographical features; paar "ambition," maar "terror."

Of the two, um meaning "below" is more sensible. Laar meaning "lake" requires some stretch of the imagination.

Actually, it might be related to mortal kind. For example, it might be another word for man, or even the word mortal itself.

That was my first theory. My second theory is it has to do with gods or daedra.  I noticed Kynareth doesnt have a dragon name, instead its just Kyne. Laar might be just a word for Kynareth, or another god, such as Arkay, Dibella, Julianos, Stendarr, Talos, or Zenithar

Other than that, i have no clue

I have no new information, but I just want to say that I'm now calling Voslaarum and Naaslaarum the Laario Bros.

Fahl may be a possible word for pale, white, cold, icy, ... My reasoning for this is the Falmer - they were in Skyrim long before the Nords & might even have been there long before the Dragons - there isn't too much information about when they came to Skyrim or Nortern Tamriel at all for that matter. Tho Falmer is of Aldemrian origin a word, Aldmeri as a language has been around for extremely long & hasn't changed much throughout the Era's (if anything, Altmer are keen to preserve traditions & traditional language).

Alternately, Fhal translates as "Fence" - it originates from English so it could very well be an original name inspired by the same sources as all other canon words.

I was so happy to find this/Paarthie's old (locked) post about this topic. (And yes I am absolutely "necroing" this topic, so there.)

This is frustrating, just like the Dov Ah Kiin / Dovah Kiin mindboggle. Honestly, both are probably correct. And why not, as the Dragonborn is at once both and neither mortal and dragon. 

So maybe in this case, both possibilities are correct.

Either way you have a mercenary dragon who is called "Fury for/on behalf of ____" or "Fury ___ servant". Both work. But the former has a stronger connotation as the dragon was essentially hired. Or was he? Maybe the lore says he was hired but in reality he was enslaved or for whatever reason made himself a servant. Nahfahlaar did "escape" though according to the Atlas of Dragons, leaning toward the servant angle.

I too tried to think of what Laar might mean for all three, what Um might mean for the lake twins. I thought then maybe that was too easy, and likely none of those terms means anything to do with a lake or their literal position. 

We know dragons can share name elements. Nahfahlaar and Nahagliiv (Nah). Paarthurnax and Vulthuryol (Thur). Nahfahlaar and Sahrotaar (Aar). 

We should also keep in mind other translated dragon names. Do other dragons have prepositions in their names? (as in Fah). No. All known dragon name translations have strong speech elements (noun/adj/verb). 

So if Nah Fah Laar is grammatically improbable for a dragon name, then it has to be Nah Fahl Aar. 

That just leaves the translation, which honestly could be anything.

Yoooo.....

So, about Fahl.

In line with Wahl-Wahlaan (to build-built) and Nahl-Nahlaas (living-alive), what about Fahl-Fahluaan?

If Fahluaan is "one who gardens" (or cultivates, which does not only correspond to crops) - as in the given example, the Gardener of Men is Hermaeus Mora who collects knowledge...

would, could not Fahl mean "garden" (n/v) or "grown/cultivated" (part.)? Or, loosely, "collect/ed" or even "care/d (for)"?

Nah Fahl Aar as Fury Garden Servant follows known dragon name grammar (as a noun/adj/verb). It doesn't make much sense, sure, but nor does Odahviing have anything to do with "snow" for what we know.

Great thoughts, scrptrx!

I too tried to think of what Laar might mean for all three, what Um might mean for the lake twins. I thought then maybe that was too easy, and likely none of those terms means anything to do with a lake or their literal position. 

Here's another old thread of mine about what um might mean regarding the lake twins. It's not certain but any means, but I think the theory that um means something close to "below" or "beneath" has some legs.

We should also keep in mind other translated dragon names. Do other dragons have prepositions in their names? (as in Fah). No. All known dragon name translations have strong speech elements (noun/adj/verb). 

The only name I'd like to bring up here is Durnehviir ("curse never dying"), insofar as neh 'never' is neither a noun, adjective, or verb and doesn't stand on its own in the name. It just makes things more complicated because I don't think we can absolutely rule out Nah Fah Laar. (Plus laar is a missing component in three dragon names, wouldn't that be nice to solve all at once!)

In line with Wahl-Wahlaan (to build-built) and Nahl-Nahlaas (living-alive), what about Fahl-Fahluaan?

One ray of light here is that fahl is indeed a possible word given wahl and nahl.

Fahluaan 'gardener' uses the suffix -aan also seen in krivaan 'murderer', tovitaan 'searcher', and possibly some other words like ronaan 'archer' and sonaan 'bard'. So without any alterations, the word for "to garden/cultivate" would hypothetically be fahlu rather than fahl.

Anyway, there are two possible words that fahl may be related to: fahluaan 'gardener' and fahliil 'elf'.

Just throwing this out there for discussion, something interesting to note is that Nahfahlaar may be the same dragon that appeared in Redguard, named Nafaalilargus If true, then Nafaalilargus is probably a "Cyrodiilization" of Nahfahlaar. Could the Cyrodiilized name provide a clue? Was his name once Nahfahliilaar?

Any avenue we take in trying to identify Nahfahlaar's name is going to involve some guesswork and assumptions, so in my mind it's a matter of which path has the least assumptions.

Thanks for unlocking this thread!! This is something I'd really like to keep thinking about... at least until I force myself to come to a decision, as I will be writing about it.... :)

Thank you Paarthie for making that list of -aan words. You're absolutely correct that the unalterated root would be Fahlu. If that's the case, then it could be similarly argued that Fahl cannot be a word unless, by some weird twist of linguistics, Fahlu (garden) is somehow derived from a possessive noun. (???) ha. 

I was about to write that all dragon names have three syllables, but I'm biting my tongue as I look again at the list (http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dragon#Named_Dragons) and see:
Relonikiv (Rel Onik Iv = Dominate Wise ?)

So now that we know dragons can (rarely) have 4+ syllables, Nah-fahliil-(l)aar is 100% possible, and, honestly, likely. One would just have to decide if the last syllable is Laar or Aar as both are seen in other dragon names. 

I will make the strong assumption that the -gus suffix is the major Cyrodiilization as it's Romanesque. I'm 100% putting my money on them being the same dragon. 

"Fury Your Foe Servant" (thanks Paarthie) is a really good bet, unless of course one can figure out what Laar means and if it's the correct syllable. 

Oh, and to your argument about Never (Neh) is a good one.

So bringing this post back to what it was originally....

Nah Fah Laar  -  Fury for the ___

I mean, it's an awesome dragon name, if that's what it is. And now I'm agreeing that it's not all that improbable.

(and another separate spammy reply...)

I just read your 'um' post linked above and yep, I think you're onto something.

But I still think it's too easy to say Laar is lake ;)