RESOURCE Conlang ~ Drakine

(I just figured why not post this here)

As a roleplayer, I have a few races I've developed- or adapted, in some cases- one one such race is the Euthoran dragon, made up of around two dozen individual species. For those of you who followed Fyreborne when I was still updating it, the dragons in that were of this race.

Over time I started developing their native language, called Drakine, or drákirou in their language. I've been working at this for over two years, but only semirecently started making it good. With a better understanding of IPA, romanization, and how languages in general work, I think I'm doing fairly well.

I'll mostly be using this thread to share updates and developments; you can see my actual work here: click
You can also see a visual reference sheet of the runes, IPA, and romanization here: click

Most of the stuff in that subforum is for my own notes; if you have any questions on how stuff works, or you have any tips, feel free to ask me here.
-----
And now, time to randomly share an example of how the sentences and roots actually work.

I was working on the vocabulary and making progress with verb types when Flimzy wanted me to translate something from a show or some such for him, just because. So I did it for practice.

Original sentence: I am a ship's cook
Closest equivalent in Drakine: Ri tsisiá skeséla thera-miçavel.
Literal meaning: I am ship's meat-burner.

Breaking down each word:
Ri tsi-siá ske-sél-a thera-mi-ça-vel

Ri = I
Tsisiá = am, infinitive of [to] be, "tsi" + conjugation "siá"
Skeséla = Belonging to a ship or "river tower"; ske "tower" + sél "river" + -a (possessive suffix)
Thera = meat
Miçavel = Burner, or literally "burn maker". "Burn" is further separated into the root "mi", for energy (often associated with heat), and and arbitrary "ça". The suffix "-vel" is used to attach to nouns, rather than verbs, and means "a creator of <noun>."

Omitted:
I = a; often left out of sentences like this.

[14:31] Keileon The thing is that dragons find the active cooking of food to be a strange activity so to them it's literally just burning the food

 

Flimzy wanted me to translate the name of a spell for him, "Galaxy Drop".

After a few tries (which included unsuccessfully trying to translate Galaxy as "Star Cloud") I came up with "Sky of Falling Stars": Kári en Sedereí.

Kári = Sky (root Ká, high)
en = of
Sedereí = Falling Star; sed (to fall) + ereí (star; root iri, light)

 

I think I've gotten a bit obsessed with Drakine character names, because I was working on a writeup for one of my characters and this sentence happened:

Mimring Thunderscale (proper English name Radiant Scales of Lightning (direct translation Radiance Lightning-Scale; root meaning Glowing Aura of Electric Armor); proper Drakine name Memiring Atirifámi)

To explain this:
- Given name (Mimring Thunderscale) is as such to allow easier pronunciation in human English. (As an aside, the first name actually comes from Heroscape.)
- Proper English name is the proper translation of the words given in the proper Drakine name. Drakine grammar rules apply here, so while "memiring" is actually a noun meaning "radiance", it is applied as an adjective when paired with a surname.
- The root meaning is actually kind of fun.
-- "Mem" is a root meaning aura or radiation, and "iri" means light. Together, they form the word "memiri" which is a verb meaning "to glow" (radiating light, basically). A Drakine suffix (which I still need to fully write a list of) is applied, turning the verb "memiri" into the noun "memiring", meaning radiance as explained before. What the -ng suffix does is actually turn a verb into a noun by applying the meaning "a product of <verb>" and can be influenced by the roots; so "memiring" directly means "a product of glowing" and can be translated into "radiance", "shine", or "glow", all in their noun forms.
-- "Atirifámi" is a compound word, so it's slightly more complicated.
---- "Atiri" is a word that means "lightning". It comes from the roots "di", electric and "iri", light. Strictly going by the roots (electric light), it can be interpreted a multitude of ways, most commonly as "flash", "lightning", or "electric". All three of these have their own words ("irised", "atiri", and "dion" respectively ["di" on its own is not a word, unlike "iri", and thus only expresses a connotation rather than a direct meaning]). I kind of arbitrarily took the most basic meaning because it was already an adjective, but I could have also gone with "flashing" here.
---- "Fámi" means scale, or more specifically a dragon's scale. I haven't actually fully worked out the roots for this word (or why it's specifically a dragon's scale) but "fám" is a root that implies armor/something armored.

 

(this is old but I forgot to crosspost from acanthite so yeah)

So I was trying to come up with the proper Drakine name of one of my characters and came up with this.

(These are the notes from my dump forum and the fragments just show how stuff works)

(Word for word that is:
Change those near the void's edge heals and comforts)

On that note, I've decided that Drakine follows a Subject-Object-Verb structure, which makes translations extremely awkward to figure out.

 

sign up now for keileon's drakine language arts class

Spoiler: long log

[05:14:17] Keileon Well, I accidentally just created a Drakine word for the Christian devil.
[05:14:39] Keileon Raios --- Temptation; an attractive and dangerous idea or object
[05:16:22] Zio Lol
[05:17:08] Keileon I'm just trying to fill in some gaps with Drakine names .-.
[05:21:11] Keileon Alright got one name done
[05:21:13] Keileon Alethios --- Graceful Tyrant
[05:21:54] Keileon Broken into (a)-le-t(h)i-os; cruelty-rule-grace
[05:23:28] Zio Nice
[05:24:02] Zio "you're gonna suffer, but you're gonna be happy about it..."
[05:24:07] Keileon lel
[05:34:14] Keileon Ausurath (aus su ra th) --- trust-nature-animal
[05:34:15] Keileon I
[05:34:23] Keileon Have no idea how to translate this
[05:45:30] Keileon Zio ideas?
[05:47:26] Keileon Etçchakul (et ç cha ku l) --- time-arcane-water (???)
[05:47:28] Keileon . . .
[05:47:33] Keileon Drakine is weird.
[05:53:02] Keileon Thermador (the ir ma do r) --- food-light-seek-fear (Seeks to Devour Light and Fear)
[05:53:04] Keileon ._.
[05:56:10] Zio Sorry distracted
[05:57:17] Zio Time arcane water?
[05:57:39] Zio I would imagine something to do with the flow of time
[05:58:15] Keileon I meant for trust-nature-animal
[05:58:20] Keileon ...
[05:58:29] Keileon I just realized how fitting that name is though
[05:58:53] Keileon Because Ausurath rules a very... tribal, shapeshifter-run territory
[06:00:55] Zio Trust nature animal...
[06:01:13] Zio Alpha male/pack leader?
[06:01:20] Zio some such the like?
[06:01:26] Keileon I know what it could mean, just not how to condense it
[06:01:34] Zio brb reconnect
[06:01:48] -->| ZioPhone (Ziolang@hidden-5co81b.pools.spcsdns.net) has joined #CoE
[06:02:00] Keileon Drakine roots in names also /rarely/ stray from explicit meaning
[06:02:16] Keileon For example like
[06:02:39] Keileon The root "ku" means "water". Not "flow" or "current".
[06:02:56] ZioPhone Driving so gimme a few minutes before I respond~
[06:03:00] Keileon kk
[06:05:37] |<-- Zio has left irc.paradoxirc.net (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
[06:10:55] ZioPhone Ok
[06:12:10] =-= ZioPhone is now known as Zio
[06:12:29] Zio so their roots are more literal then
[06:12:35] Keileon Yeah
[06:12:45] Zio mmk
[06:14:04] Zio Beast Aligned with Nature...?
[06:14:52] Keileon Maybe?
[06:15:18] Keileon Trust the Nature of the Beast?
[06:15:30] Zio Ooh thats nice
[06:15:41] Zio but uh
[06:16:05] Zio are both meanings on nature found in the same root?
[06:16:10] Zio *of
[06:16:21] Keileon In general, yes
[06:16:38] Keileon Drakine came to that conclusion the same way English did
[06:18:20] Zio [Au] Light-lightning Time
[06:18:33] Zio Ausurath in Degol
[06:18:36] Keileon Eh?
[06:18:37] Keileon oh
[06:18:55] Zio Hazurathul
[06:19:49] Zio So like
[06:19:59] Zio Flash/flicker of time
[06:20:14] Keileon For a moment I thought you were leaving because "[Au] light-lightning time" is literally "Auirdios"
[06:20:31] Zio [The] flash/flicker of time
[06:20:37] Zio Lol!
[06:21:02] Keileon Wait no I'm mixing up roots
[06:21:10] Keileon Time is et, not os
[06:21:11] Zio transliterating is fun

[...]

[06:48:24] Keileon ... tfw creating a character's name tells you more about the character than you even knew in the first place
[06:48:26] Keileon Mordicai --- Sorrow in Storm-Light's Memory
[06:48:40] -->| Dark|BELL (DarkPhone@hidden-1v5e9h.cpe.pppoe.ca) has joined #CoE
[06:49:21] Zio Yay home
[06:49:35] Zio Now to eat cereal
[06:49:54] Keileon Mordicai's full name translates to "Sorrow in Storm-Light's Memory, Comforted at the Void's Edge"
[06:49:59] Keileon And I'm just going like
[06:50:07] Keileon "Wait... what even happened?"
[06:50:53] Cerberus into the void
[06:50:54] Zio That's so much cooler than blind love =<
[06:50:56] Cerberus He can fly
[06:52:43] Cerberus duRARARA IS ON NETFLIX
[06:56:01] Keileon ... Hm.
[06:56:08] Keileon I wonder...
[06:56:28] Keileon Cerby, Makait Deíroul
[06:56:30] Keileon :V
[06:56:51] Zio And that makes two harry potter references today *shot*
[06:57:02] Keileon (I'd like to see if you can get that without looking it up)
[06:57:29] Cerberus given the context (or just, you know, it being said to /me/ in general)
[06:57:34] Cerberus "go fuck urself"
[06:57:36] Keileon lol
[06:57:37] Keileon no
[06:57:58] Zio something something something song
[06:58:05] Zio =D
[06:58:08] Cerberus It seems kind of familiar. And yeah, end makes me thing song
[06:58:13] Keileon In fact give me a moment to make a full sentence
[07:00:33] |<-- Zio has left irc.paradoxirc.net (Quit: Fragments of a Finite Eternity)
[07:01:04] -->| Ziolang (chatzilla@hidden-csgn16.om.cox.net) has joined #CoE
[07:01:05] =-= Mode #CoE +v Ziolang by ChanServ
[07:01:07] Keileon Cerby, kra Makait Deíroul ru seliféá thosei Rait
[07:01:19] Keileon (that was harder than it should have been)
[07:02:05] Ziolang something This Dream and words things stuff [/loltotallydidn'teventry]
[07:03:27] Cerberus (My only guess at Makait Deíroul was 'The Song of Death' for some reason)
[07:03:27] Keileon Again, I'd rather you not look up- I want to see how well you do
[07:04:13] Keileon Assuming Zio also is not looking it up, you're allowed to cross-reference each other
[07:04:52] Ziolang I'm cross-referencing with skill names and such
[07:05:00] Keileon That's fine too
[07:05:01] Ziolang Not going very well...!
[07:05:12] Cerberus I don't know any of the words-- I haven't even memorized Aken's 'catchphrase' for Earth, Arise
[07:05:15] Ziolang Cause they don't come with the translation =<
[07:05:35] Keileon pls
[07:05:44] Cerberus I can, uh, confirm it does not concern changing Euthora, though
[07:06:16] Keileon Hint: "tho" is a new root meaning "anger"
[07:06:56] Keileon (tell me if/when you give up)
[07:07:11] Cerberus I already have
[07:07:19] Keileon Sigh. Alright then
[07:07:21] Keileon Zio?
[07:07:32] Ziolang I fear I am quite unlearned in Drakine
[07:07:39] Keileon Is that a yes?
[07:07:58] Ziolang ... but I'm also insanely stubborn
[07:08:01] Keileon lol
[07:08:13] Keileon Gonna PM Cerby the answer then
[07:09:09] Ziolang Naw, there's no way I'll get this with the tools I have
[07:09:19] Keileon okay
[07:09:31] Keileon [07:08:35] Keileon I literally told you to go bother Shadow about This Dream
[07:10:01] Keileon Deíroul is a new word meaning "Mind-Song" or "Dream"
[07:10:12] Keileon Rait is the Drakine word for "shadow"
[07:10:28] Keileon Thosei is "to anger"
[07:10:38] Keileon The rest is mostly sentence structure
[07:11:41] Ziolang ...
[07:11:44] Ziolang wait wait wait
[07:11:46] Ziolang wait
[07:11:48] Ziolang wait
[07:12:01] Ziolang I was... /right/ about it meaning "This Dream"?
[07:12:04] Keileon Yes
[07:12:08] Ziolang I was 100% joking
[07:12:10] Keileon I have no idea how you got that
[07:12:21] Ziolang 100%
[07:12:22] Ziolang joking
[07:12:31] Cerberus TIL Zio is Dark/Psychic
[07:12:33] trran Yo why are yall still up. I'm in my second class today.
[07:12:37] Ziolang I had no clue what it meant... lol!
[07:12:55] Cerberus u aint our mum tryrn
[07:21:12] Ziolang alright CR trades were accepted
[07:24:57] Keileon http://keileon.createmybb3.com/thread-54.html
[07:25:01] Keileon Taking a break
[07:25:09] Keileon (some of the spoilers are empty)
[07:27:58] Cerberus ooh okay let me try
[07:31:25] Cerberus "Ait alethios keltiá" welp
[07:31:58] Keileon The graceful tyrant hunts
[07:32:07] Cerberus even that's probably wrong but I wanted to add "beneath the sun's judgment" or something
[07:32:15] trran I am da peepee hunter
[07:32:17] Cerberus But I couldn't find anything like beneath
[07:32:31] Keileon pff
[07:33:02] Cerberus "Sedká --- Below" Ah, okay
[07:33:23] Keileon Cerby, I /know/ this language. The only thing that tripped me up was the conjugation and even then I went with context
[07:33:47] Keileon Also
[07:33:56] Keileon your grammar is probably off
[07:34:29] Keileon Reform that sentence (with [judgment] in place of the actual word because I likely don't have it)
[07:34:49] trran Ok there language mama. Your baby can have other influences. Don't worry he's just seqrching for clarification o.o
[07:35:11] Keileon I'm just pointing it out
[07:35:28] Keileon Because Drakine follows a different sentence structure than English
[07:36:02] Ziolang Kuda sent you an message
[07:36:06] Ziolang over ZEJ
[07:36:09] Cerberus I assumed I must be missing something since it's going right from the subject of the sentence to the verb
[07:36:10] trran It just felt like pride in this language was poked at and you were trigger'd lel
[07:36:29] Cerberus and I feel like Drakine is more eloquent than that
[07:36:30] Keileon Cerby; yeah
[07:36:33] Keileon Zio; noted
[07:36:45] Keileon Tyran; you're misinterpreting~
[07:36:53] Keileon It was a correction more than anything
[07:36:55] Ziolang Kuda; words
[07:36:57] trran Hah I got the lobgest response
[07:36:58] Ziolang =D
[07:37:05] Ziolang I completed the cycle~
[07:37:32] trran Chanserv; yeah
[07:37:38] Keileon English would have the sentence go "the graceful tyrant hunts beneath the sun's judgement"
[07:37:58] Keileon Drakine would go "the graceful tyrant beneath the sun's judgement hunts"
[07:38:08] Cerberus Huh
[07:38:23] Keileon Subject-Verb-Object vs Subject-Object-Verb
[07:41:58] Ziolang Zio goes sleep vs Zio sleep goes
[07:42:14] Keileon *to sleep
[07:42:15] Keileon :V
[07:42:25] Ziolang >=V
[07:42:48] Ziolang but yeah
[07:42:50] Ziolang byeeeee
[07:42:53] Keileon kk
[07:42:58] |<-- Ziolang has left irc.paradoxirc.net (Quit: In hollow shells of broken dreams we breach the rising calm.)
[07:44:47] Cerberus "Ait alethios sedká [ait] memiring en ait kor keltiá." Still not right, most likely
[07:44:55] Cerberus too much ait
[07:45:10] Keileon "ait" can sometimes be cut from a sentence
[07:45:35] Keileon You could fairly easily go like
[07:46:14] Keileon "Ait alethios sedká kora memiring keltiá"
[07:46:53] Keileon Rule of thumb: if "x of y" makes something too unwieldy, you acn usually go "y's x"
[07:46:55] Keileon *can
[07:47:01] Cerberus "-a --- Applied to nouns --- Possession" Oh, there. I was looking for possessives

[...]

[07:52:36] Cerberus Looking into translating Shadow's signature
[07:52:50] Cerberus for giggles
[07:53:08] Cerberus (even though a third of the words probably won't have directly available translations)
[07:53:41] Cerberus M-Maybe I should start with his usertitle...
[07:53:52] Keileon One more issue, btw
[07:54:01] Keileon "Alethios" is a name
[07:54:04] Keileon not a word
[07:54:05] Keileon lol
[07:54:08] Cerberus I thought it would be
[07:54:15] Cerberus I liked it nonetheless
[07:54:23] Keileon Yeah, it works
[07:55:10] Cerberus A typical Drakine-speaker would know what you meant if you said it to them, right? (Even though they might think you odd)
[07:55:43] Keileon Yes
[07:56:21] Keileon It's basically the equivalent of... well, being named "Starlight"
[07:56:40] Keileon Except those kinds of named are the norm for dragons
[07:56:47] Keileon *names

 

An updated sheet for the Drakine script. Later I'll go over it with the ink pen tool and possibly show the script in practice and how to write the runes.

Spoiler

Would you guys actually want me to do a weekly or monthly thing where I talk about Drakine for a bit and explain things like grammar/word creation/dragon names/etc? I think it'd be fun, but then I'm biased.

No major developments, but I did make an official Drakine term for Burst Mode.

 

I translated the blurb in my signature. Had to make a few new words, but I was able to go surprisingly far without doing so.

 

I took a riddle-poem I heard ages ago, adjusted it to suit my needs, and translated it into Drakine.

Feel free to attempt to solve the riddle. Try not to use the original riddle to solve it though. If you were present for the Discord conversation don't just reveal the answer.


Ria vir tiil ait darz tsiçá, sor ita ait sken tsiçá revet,
Ria tar irr thera neduçá, sor irr thesi arrátsa.
Ria nri ait kári tsiçá irr, sor irr sedi irr revet,
Ria gel arras ait rakh, tor irr suls revet.
Ria nihzou ait diávir irr- sor ait sedku revet irr-
Ait imsai ru imsúisiá, nihtir mareít ri roulsei.

Spoiler: Translation

My first is at the peak but is not on the mountain,
My second found in meat but never in food.
My third is in the sky but is not in flight,
My fourth by the beast yet not in nature.
My last in the storm, but not in the rain,
And standing before you, all that I have sung.

My first at the peak is, but on the mountain is not,
My second in meat found, but in food never.
My third the sky is in, but in flight is not,
My fourth the beast by, yet in nature not.
My last the storm in- but the rain not in-
And before you standing, all that I have sung.

Spoiler: Original Riddle

"My first is in adventure but isn't in trip
My second in ferry but isn't in ship
My third is in chalice but isn't in cup
My fourth's in ascending but isn't in up
My fifth is in error but isn't in flaw
My last is in talon but isn't in claw
My whole is a beast who will eat you for dinner
Unless in this riddle game you are the winner"