Languages: Ottertongue (Otrin)

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 otterfolk.

 

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.

Ottertongue (Otrin)

Given the famously prideful nature of much of otterfolk society, it's no surprise that this might be the single most commonly spoken "standard", "literary" or at least "colloquial-but-formal-enough" beastfolk language in all of Aporue.

Glossary of some common Otrin terms you might hear on the street

Tro larn hma ? - pron. tro larn hmuh - "Who are you ?" (in a more literal sense "Who you are ?")
Nolamto ronha larn. - noh-lum-to ron-huh larn - "Pleased to meet you."
Loma ! - pron. lo-muh - "Halt !"
Hlí-hla-lí-la-la ! - pron. hlee-hluh-lee-la-la - "Ha-ha-ha-ha !" (otterfolk laughter onomatopoeia)

Na - pron. na - "I", "Me"
Larn - pron. larn (rh. w. "yarn") - "Thou" / singular "You"
Aol - pron. aol (rh. w. "gaol") - "He", "She" (masculine / feminine)
Alnol - pron. ul-nol (rh. w. "knoll") - "It" (neuter)

Namo - pron. na-mo - "We", "Us"
Laram - pron. larum (rh. w. "rum") - "You" (plural)
Arolo - pron. arolo (rh. w. "arroyo") - "They", "Them" (masculine / feminine / living beings)
Ahmol - pron. uh-mol - "They", "Those" (neuter / things)

Example of a brief old folk song in the Otrin language (from around Melza)

Alíhe molíra- lam, molíra-lam, eram Meloso lone Nílaholo
Halna, mamól ríhe lolom namre, alóh rím na ladírema meho

Na lód lapíla ko lekíra, hlan otalkírelmo, me ulaman te horínto
Rol na malód tah tírhla kalrídi karlom alaníla ornít me lanto

Malód tírhla alanídi karlom me olanso, mank tonok-hemla mírle me karekso
Lódra na hado tírhla omat lolom, me ulaman te oloman alk te kírmadi lanto


The fish had come over, come over, from the Melza to the Sviržava
Alas, there's not a single gal here, like the one I'm searching for

I've swam and walked, by daylight, in the depths of the night
But I haven't yet found a crawling crayfish flying high in the sky

Haven't found flying crayfish in summer, nor boat-steering trout in winter
Will I ever find that gal, in the depths of the waters or of the starry sky

This song is traditionally sung from the perspective of otterfolk males (ottermen), but the references to a gal are easily swappable for a fellow, and the song is thus also occassionally sung by equally lovelorn otterfolk females (otterwomen).

(This fictional otrin folk ballad is inspired by the Moravian folk song Vyšly ryby, vyšly, covered by, among others, the band Čechomor. The original song has the same melody and the same basic subject matter, with several simple metaphores about impossible things. The song's protagonist finds it impossible to find a woman with the sort of inner qualities he's looking for. I've just thematically adjusted the lyrics to an otterfolk perspective and their own style of metaphores, so while the lyrics are new, they're patterned quite a bit on the original lyrics. The fish going from the Melza river into the Sviržava river is also meant as an impossible metaphore, because the Sviržava doesn't directly flow into the Melza.)

Some Ottertongue grammar

The Otrin language doesn't really distinguish indefinite and definite articles. It uses pointing/indicating pronouns as its equivalent of definite articles. The letter and phoneme "l" is among the most common consonants, and there are no long vowel variants of the vowels a, u, or e. Certain consonants, such as "g", are not used at all, even though the otterfolk are known to be able to learn them. [1]

Though a separate lineage, Otrin has a few grammar similarities to some of the other mustelidfolk languages. Some of the verb constructions can form compound words, though this is fairly rare. Some of the auxilliary verb statements and negatives have loose parallels with Stoatjab, creating a single short verb with the help of a prefix or suffix. However, unlike real world English, Otrin doesn't use auxilliary verbs such as "am" anywhere near as extensively. Auxilliary verbs are only used for meanings that indicate existence, identity, possession or the state of a certain activity. As a result, though it is possible to use single-word verb forms for meanings such as "there's no / there's not", the equivalent of saying the English "I am doing" only amounts to "I doing" in Otrin.

Quick Otrin vocabulary summary

Otrin pronouns
Listed earlier. See above.

Otrin nouns
alíhe - pron. a-lee-he - "fish"
horínto - pron. hor-een-to - "night", "night time"
karlom - pron. car-lom - "crayfish" (freshwater)
karekso - pron. car-ex-e - "winter"
kírm - pron. keerm - "star"
ladírema - ladeerema - "searching"
lanto - pron. lun-to - "sky"
lolom - pron. lo-lom - "gal", "lass"
mírle - pron. meer-le - "trout"
olanso - pron. o-lun-se - "summer"
oloman - pron. o-lo-mun - "waters"
otalkírelmo - pron. ot-ul-keer-elmo - "daylight"
ulaman - pron. u-la-mun - "depths"
tonok - pron. to-nok - "boat"

Otrin verbs
alaníla - pron. a-la-neela - "to fly", "flying"
hma - pron. hma, hm-uh - "is"/"are" (for singular and plural)
lapala - pron. lup-al-a - "to swim", "swim" (present tense)
lapíla - pron. lup-ee-la - "swim" (past tense), "swam" (na lapíla = "I swam", na lód lapíla = "I have swimmed")
lekara - pron. leck-are-uh - "to walk", "walk" (present tense)
lekíra - pron. leck-ear-uh - "walk" (past tense), "walked" (na lekíra = "I walked", na lód lekíra = "I have/had walked")
lód - pron. lood (-oo- as in "door") - "have" (also auxilliary verb)
lódra - pron. lood-ra (-oo- as in "door") - "will" (also auxilliary verb)
loma - pron. lom-uh - "to halt" and the imperative "Halt !"
malód - pron. ma-lood (-oo- as in "door") - "have not", "haven't" (also auxilliary verb)
molíra - pron. moleera - "come"
molíra-lam - pron. moleera-lum - "come over", "arrived to", "crossed over into"
ronha - pron. ron-ha - "to meet"
tírhla - pron. teer-hla - "find"

Otrin adjectives
alanídi - pron. a-la-needy - "flying" (adjective)
hemla - pron. hem-la - "steering", "performing steering"
kalrídi - pron. cull-reedy - "crawling"
kírmadi - pron. keer-ma-di - "starry"
lapídi - pron. la-peedy - "swimming" (adjective)
nolamto - pron. no-lum-to (no- like in "non", -to like in "torn") - "pleased" (especially in passive verb constructions, e.g. "I am pleased")

Note that the adjective endings differ based on whether they are describing a quality of a thing, what the being or thing is performing, or what the state of a being or thing is, or what the feelings of a being are.

Otrin adverbs
ornít - pron. or-neat - "high"
hado - pron. ha-doh - "ever"

Otrin numerals
ríhe - pron. ree-he - "a single" (person, thing, etc.)
rím - pron. reem - "one" (person, thing, etc.)

Otrin prepositions, conjunctions, particles, onomatopoeia, etc.
alk - pron. ulk - "or"
alóh - pron. al-oo-h (-oo- as in "door") - "like" (something), "such as"
eram - pron. err-um - "from"
hado - pron. ha-do - "ever"
halna - pron. hull-na - "alas" or informal "unfortunately", "sadly"
hlan - pron. hlun - "by", "at", "during"
ko - pron. ko - "and"
lam - pron. lum - "over"
lone - pron. lo-ne - "to", "towards", "into"
ma, ma- - pron. ma- / muh - "not" and prefix used as "not"
mank - pron. munk - "nor"
me - pron. meh - "in"
meho - pron. me-ho (me- like in "men") - "for"
namre - pron. num-re - "here"
omat - pron. o-mutt - "that" (person, thing, etc.)
rol - pron. rol - "but", "however"
te - pron. te - "of"
tro - pron. tro - "who"
Hlí-hla-lí-la-la ! - pron. hlee-hluh-lee-la-la - "Ha-ha-ha-ha !"



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[1] - Ottertongue is by-and-large the most melodic-sounding language of the mustelid beastpeoples. This is also a tip of the hat to the fact that I consider the otterfolk the closest thing I have to elves in my setting. Well, they're the "elves" of the mustelidfolk, while the martenfolk are the "human" archetype, the wolverfolk the "northern barbarian human" archetype, and the stoatfolk the "shorter human, but swashbuckling and dashing" not-all-that-typical archetype. (The stoatfolk are... if you took the Khajit, made them stoats and barely taller than dwarves or taller halflings.)

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