Languages: Wolvertongue (Gulonic)

Language setting elements.

We have already covered the more obscure, dead, rare or secret languages of the human cultures of Aporue, in the Orbis Furum.

We shall now loook at the often very different-sounding languages of the various beastpeople species of Aporue and the languages and dialects of their particular cultures. Today: The languages and dialects of the wolverfolk.

It's still disputed among emerging professional linguistic scholars (one of the few people who bother with beastpeople languages or dialects at all, besides some stalwart beastpeoples themselves), whether the languages of the different species emerged entirely naturally, or were more of a byproduct of social and political pressures on beastpeople species, including pressures caused by fear or bigotry of humans towards beastpeople species.

The proponents of the "ancient natural origin hypothesis" (or "natural evolution" hypothesis) tend to reject this suggestion wholesale, or at least in most cases. In turn, the proponents of the "Archontian experimentation origin hypothesis" (or "magical evolution hypothesis") maintain that it is one of the most sensible explanations for the emergence of distinct and unique beastpeople languages. The latter argue that the very nature of these languages is a priori, that is, made from wholecloth, to prevent or at least mitigate the risk of outsiders finding out about the contents of conversations, correspondence and various writing.

Note that none of the known Aporuean beastpeople languages use tonality in their vowels, and only use short and long vowels or vowels with umlauts. This is likely due to the influence of the human languages they coexist with.

All of the pronunciations in each of the following sections are approximations of pronunciation in contemporary English.

Wolvertongue (Gulonic)

The native language of the wolverfolk, also known formally to emerging linguistics researchers as "Gulonic". This is one of the rare beastpeople languages that are still in common and wide use among its native speakers, even though the wolverfolk frequently trade with humans and other beastpeoples and thus also know and use other languages. Some of the rarer wolverfolk that have moved abroad tend to speak the Wolvertongue a lot less than in their traditional homelands in northern Aporue (and thus become more rusty in remembering it and using it on a daily basis). There are not only the more typical "core dialects" of Aporue "Gulonic", but also more peripheral dialects, such as the western dialects influenced by the languages of the Sablemen, or by the domestic language of humans from Metsämaa, or the easternmost, overseas dialect, spoken by the smaller community of wolverfolk on Hrímland (their dialect strongly influenced by the local language and dialects of human Hrímlandic settlers).

Example of a folk song in Wolvertongue


Nokbehrézh além

Verhú geur dá-behrál hru ágzi há zírn
Hru kanhrag arév ahm grazh súrklu argramin
Agrab há karv hru rahar farín

Veranhú zhasro nrek behárl fed-há-nehd, almro
Garhuvo dá-badrag há arhálo há naléro
Navlúr hru Farín, verhú nuremo

Bruke verfraso rahar druné ubru zírni
Geur nibehrézh norlúm bru gravafé sirgil

Verhú geur behrál hru ágzi há zírn
Hru kanhrag arév ahm grazh súrklu argramin

Dá-tevir gláne halumo rahar rénihogam
Mrár érg surso ménhe gúbru-derkam
Hru mav ver hlémso dá-grahba-zarsvu
Nárar grahba-hnarín verhú

Bruke verfraso rahar druné ubru zírni
Geur nibehrézh norlúm bru gravafé sirgil

Zár gú nár mre arksa gah há dérego nárar nádreku
Sagmúv fahrakag érg amgraho resad argéz unra nárar hurdku


Outlander Song

We're from a land of ice and snow
Of the midnight sun where the hot springs boil
Axe and claw of our ancestors

We'll trade with lands near and far, longing
To fight the horde and cry and sing
Hall of Ancestors, we're coming

Forth we sweep our paws through snow
From inland mountain to rugged shore

We're from a land of ice and snow
Of the midnight sun where the hot springs boil

The wind softly fondles our greenfields
They can whisper many blood-tales
Of how we calmed the battle-storm
Your battle-lords we are

Forth we sweep our paws through snow
From inland mountain to rugged shore

So now you had better stop and build your ruins
Because acceptance can win the day despite all your defeats

(An old folk song indeed. Who knows how old it really is...)

Some Wolvertongue (Gulonic) grammar
The "á" (long "a") vowel sounds simply like a longer pronounced "a" and is identical to the Martish pronunciations of the same phoneme and letter. The "ú" (long "u") vowel sounds like the "oo" in English "room", the rarer "í" (long "i") vowel sounds like the "ee" in "deer" or "ea" in "dream". The "é" (long "e") is analogous to its equivalent in French or in some west Slavic languages. The "zh" is read like English transcriptions of Slavic ž, Navajo "zh" or the "j" in French "Jean".

There are certain forms of declension in Wolvertongue, particularly noun declension. For example, as in the above example of a wolverfolk song, the noun zírn ("snow") is modified into zírni ("do something to snow") when its placement in the sentence indicates something is being done to it (e.g. to walk "through snow" is correctly ubru zírni, not ubru zírn).

One feature of Gulonic that might have been inspired by human languages is the continued use of patronymic family names instead of conventional surnames. This has occured not only with Hrímlandic wolverfolk, living among Hrímlanders who have an identical tradition in their own language, but also among the core, continental wolverfolk. To compare with real world examples, Hrímlandic people use the suffix -dautír for patronyms given to the daughter of a family, analogous to real world Icelandic -dóttir, whereas the wolverfolk (both on the Aporuean mainland and the island of Hrímland) use the wolvertongue's own (fictional) patronymic suffixes -narf (used for sons of a family) and -núar (used for daughters of a family). Thus, the son of a wolverineman named Harve or Harver will have the masculine patronymic Harvenarf ("son of Harve”) and Harve's or Harver's daughter will have the feminine patronymic Harvenúar ("daughter of Harve”). [1]

Another feature that is inspired by real world human Scandinavian languages is that after writing an "s" after an "r", the "s" is pronounced as a palatalized consonant, similar to the situation in Swedish (surnames like Hjerson in Swedish are actually pronounced "Hyershon" in English, contrary to expectations). Unlike the real world Swedish situation, the "s" pronunciaton changes to a more "z"-like pronunciation, rendering the "s" as a "zh" sound (analogous to the sound of French "j" in words like jaune, Jean, etc.).

Quick Wolvertongue vocabulary summary


Wolvertongue nouns
agrab - pron. ag-rub - "axe"
ágzi - pron. aagzi - "ice"
além - pron. ul-ém - "song"
arév - pron. ar-év - "sun", "Sun"
badrag - pron. bud-rug - "horde", derogatory word for adversaries and enemies
derkam - pron. der-cum - "tales", "stories"
druné - pron. drun-eh - "paws"
farín - pron. fareen - "ancestors"
fahrakag - pron. fuh-rah-cug - "acceptance"
grahba - pron. gruh-ba - "battle"
gúbru - pron. goob-ru - "blood"
hnar (sg.), hnarín (pl.) - pron. hnar, hnar-een - "lord", "lords"
hrag - pron. hrug (rh. w. shrug) - "night"
hurdku - pron. hurd-ku - "defeats"
karv - pron. carv (almost like "carve") - "claw"
nádreku - pron. naadreku - "ruins", "remnants (of buildings)"
narf - pron. narf - "son", "male offspring"
navlúr - pron. nuv-loor - "hall", "mead hall"
norlúm - nor-loom - "mountain"
núar - pron. noo-ar - "daughter", "female offspring"
rénihog, rénihogam - pron. rénihowg, rénihowgum - "greenfield" (sg.), "greenfields" (pl.)
resad - pron. res-ud - "day"
sirgil - pron. sear-gill - "shore"
súrklu - pron. soor-klu - "springs"
tevir- - pron. tev-ear - "wind"
zarsvu - pron. zar-svu - "storm"
zírn - pron. zeern - "snow"

Note that there is some noun declension in Wolvertongue. "Through snow" is not ubru zírn, but instead ubru zírni.

Wolvertongue verbs
-hú - "be" / "is" / "are" (auxilliary verbal suffix, used instead of "be")
-an- - "will (do)" (inserted into existing present tense verbs to create future tense)
almro - pron. ulm-ro - "longing", "having longing feelings"
amgraho - pron. are-gra-ho - "win"
argramin - pron. are-gra-min - "they boil" (passive verb, something is happening to a thing)
érg - pron. eh-rg - "can", "is able to"
fraso - pron. fruss-oh - "to sweep"
garhuvo - pron. gar-hu-vo - "to fight"
halumo - pron. ha-lu-mo - "fondles", "is fondling"
hlémso - pron. hlém-so - "to calm", "work on calming down"
mre - pron. mre - "have", "had" (also in the sense of "should")
naléro - pron. na-lé-ro - "to sing"
narhú - pron. nar-hoo - "you are" (the pronoun nár ("you") is integrated into the verb)
nuremo - pron. - nur-eh-mo - "coming", "approaching"
surso - pron. sur-so - "to whisper"
verhú - pron. ver-hoo, ver-who - "we are", "we're" (the pronoun ver ("we") is integrated into the verb)
veranhú - pron. ver-un-hoo, ver-un-who - "we will", "we'll" (the future tense of verhú, indicated by the -an- element)
verfraso - pron. ver-fruss-oh - "we sweep"

Wolvertongue adjectives
grazh - pron. gra-zh - "hot", "scalding"
gravafé - pron. gruv-uf-eh - "rugged"
kanhrag - pron. cun-hrug - "midnight", "midnight-related"
nibehrézh - pron. ni-beh-ré-zh - "inland"
nokbehrézh - pron. nock-beh-ré-zh - "outlander", "of an outlander", "foreign"

Wolvertongue adverbs
argéz - "despite"
bruke - "forth", "forward"
gláne - "softly"
sagmúv - "because"

Wolvertongue pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, onomatopoiea, etc.
ahm - "where"
bru - "to", "towards"
dá- - a prefix for nouns, used to to point to a specific thing, creature or person (essentially the definitive article of Wolvertongue)
geur - "from"
gú - "now"
há - "and"
hra - "of"
mav - "how"
ménhe - "many"
nárar - "your"
nrek - "with"
rahar - "our"
ubru - "through"
ver - "we"
zár - "so"

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