Languages: Melzish dialect, Melzish argot and their linguistic relatives

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Melzish dialect, Melzish argot and their linguistic relatives

I had previously already looked at PRE some of the older and more obscure human languages and the various beastpeople languages of my Orbis Furum setting. However, I've neglected to actually cover the day-to-day, everyday language you hear in Melza and its vicinity. I think now would be a good time to finally cover it, at least a bit, given that Melza is the main focus of my storytelling and gaming in the setting.

What follows is something of a comparison between Melzish, the local dialect (and de facto official language or at least national colloquial language) of Melza and its Barony, with local Melzan argot (discussed earlier behind that first link above), and with the neighbouring or more foreign languages and dialects that influneced the development, vocabulary, phonetics and grammar of Melzish. For the first time ever, you'll also get a rough comparison of what some of the other central Aporuean languages sound like, at least roughly.

Real world English	Melzish (Melzan dialect)	Melzan argot	Lesanian language	Ďamaran language	Lokytian language	Ruteňan language
Bread	Keňer, Chalb	Keňer ("dough", "money", lit. "bread")	Chajleb (read Khayleb)	Kanyér	Barod, Barode	Cholob (read Kholob)
Dragon	Darak, Šárkan, Dräche		Darak, Žarkaň	Sárakány, Zsárkany	Därchern	Zmejk (read Zmeyk)
Melza Avenue (riverfront street)	Melcagazňa, Melzagazňa	Širažáľab, Širavájlov ("Broad-trough", "Braith-trough")	Melzarujulca, Melzaruláca	Melczuda, Melczfajóluda	Melzagassňe	Melcaridoha
Road	Dráža, Úťa, Wejch, Hradzska	Rýha, Sturuha ("cratch")	Cezad, Dárha, Hradaská	Uda, Váruda	Wejg, Wijg	Dorha, Diroha
Street, Avenue	Gasuľca, Gazňa, Štreka, Rad	Žáľab, Vájlov ("trough"), Sturž ("gull", "gully", "chute")	Uláca, Ulca, Ujulca	Udáca	Schtaraus, Gassňe	Ridoha, Mistidorha
Sword	Marč, Karda, Šard, Šaršuň, Šaršňa, Vaga, Vagľa	Lečaň, Mrévča ("strand", lit. "lecsó", "language"), Cvendžra ("lord", lit. "ringer"), Špivk ("lard", lit. "marrow")	Mäč, Meča, Šaršún	Karad, Vágla	Schwéred, Schweřd	Mveč, Mvéč, Mvič
Sabre	Šárbja, Šárbľa	Kósňa ("scythe"), Hólňa, Hoľeň ("shin"), Ovstrihoľeň ("shank")	Šabeľa, Šabaľca	Szábja	Särbel, Säble	Šabila

Apologies for not including the Lengelian language and Markanian language. Though they are close relatives of the Lesanian and Ruteňan languages, they are quite a bit farther away from Melza or don't have a particularly big population of native speakers in Melza. This is why I've omitted them in this particular overview.

As you can see in the above table oveview, Melzish is one of those cosmopolitan dialects that emerged as a sort of blending of various neighbouring languages and dialects, developing in essence as a sort of mixed language, or even almost something like a creole.

Though the phonetics of some of the central Aporuean languages come fairly close to resembling real world central European languages (be they of Slavic, Germanic or Ugrofinnic origin), you can notice that none of the words fully matches the pronunciation of their real world counterparts. In an intentional cultural touch, though there are some unusual grammar elements to the phonetics of these fictional languages (that their real world counterparts don't have, e.g. the very Czech-seeming ř letter in fantasy "German"), the phonoesthetics of each of these languages still sound quite similar to the real world counterparts of each language. This broad phonaesthetic similarity makes it easier to identify which particular fictional language is a counterpart to which real world language.

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Author's note

Given all the real world inspirations - and humour - in my fantasy setting, the particular main influence on the fictional dialect of Melza was the dialect of "Pressburgish" (jokingly known as prešpurčina, prešpuráčtina), the dialect of old Bratislava, once known as Pressburg (Prešporok in a more Slavic rendering). The most influential languages behind the origin of the Melzish dialect are the in-universe Lesanian, Ďamaran, Lokytian and Archontic, and this is very much my fantasy analogy of the most influential languages behind the origin of the Bratislava/Pressburg dialect being Slovak, Hungarian, German and Latin (the real world equivalents of each fantasy language).

Besides the Pressburgian inspiration, though, Melzish also takes inspiration from numerous other dialects, mainly from other large cities with a long history dating back to the Middle Ages, all cities in the cultural and linguistic sphere of Slovak dialects, Hungarian dialects, Carpathian German dialects, Yiddish dialects, western Ukrainian (Ruthenian) and Rusyn dialects. For example, some of Melza's classic argotisms, such as keňer, are actually older argotic terms from Košice. Keňer is a sort of local folksy slavicization of real world Hungarian kenyér ("bread").

You know the old joke about a language being a dialect with a state, army and navy... Well, much like how Luxembourg has its own Letzebeurgisch dialect, that's similar to some west German dialects and Low Countries Germanic dialects, or how Montenegro has its own national dialect distinct from Serbian and other South Slavic languages (albeit not spoken as much as Serbo-Croatian), Melza also has its own particular dialect, and it also originated more as a merger of various other dialects, as well as influences and loanwords from other languages.

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Other Thick as Thieves linguistic overviews
- Dead, rare and secret languages of human cultures
- The Archontic alphabet and its history
- Beastpeople species languages (Part 1)
- Beastpeople species languages (Part 2)
- Personal names and family names in Aporue