A Brief Study of the Dwarven Language is a book by Professor Torber Laun of Acadh Cinn. It can be found in the Royal Library in Empo Sar.
Dwarves themselves seldom teach their language to others, but after observing dwarves and their language during my stay in Tâgilime, and conversations with less conservative dwarves I met, I've managed to get translations to a number of words, and the entire set of numbers. I've also learnt that the language the dwarves use today was developed sometime during the Age of Myths to be used were non—dwarves could hear it. This new language however, slowly took the place of ancient dwarvish in most areas, and by the end of the previous age, ancient dwarvish was barely spoken anymore. After the Shadow War, almost all knowledge about the ancient dwarvish language was lost, a great grief to all dwarves.
Dwarves often talk about three dwarven "tongues"; ancient tongue, dwarrow tongue and common tongue.
A mostly extinct language, only known by a selected few. It is considered a holy language and is only used on a very few occasions. The ancient tongue was gradually replaced by the dwarrow tongue sometime during the previous age for reasons unknown.
The dwarves' own language. The origins of this language is unknown as it has very little to do with the ancient tongue of the dwarves (although a few similarities may be found). Dwarrow tongue is seldom used in communication with other races, both because very few others know the language, but also because dwarves are reluctant to teach it away.
The common tongue is the language spoken by almost everyone on Erasan. The dwarves' common tongue is a bit different from normal common tongue, but is fully understandable. One can say that they have a very distinct accent or dialect.
The ancient tongue is considered a holy tongue to most dwarves, and it is only used on specific occasions. There’s also strict rules on who may utter the words of the ancient tongue, and it is strictly forbidden to speak it so a non-dwarf can hear it.
The cardinal numbers from 1 to 9 have three genders; masculine, feminine and neutral. From ten forward, however, there's only masculine.
Note: You may choose between having “-” between the words in the number or just write it as one big word. However, numbers above 10 is usually written using numbers.
— Joining syllables: Two short words are usually pronounced as one. Come on=>"c’moan", do you=>"d'ye" etc.
— Different vowel combinations: e.g. "ou" becomes "oo"
— The use of words such as "lad", "lass" and "wee" etc.
This page was last edited on 24 April 2019, at 11:04.