Elven View of the World (Part 2)

Back in July of last year, I posted a link to a video in a post called An Elven View of the World.

I said back then that, "The Elves in my campaign worlds can occasionally step into states of (what is effectively) suspended animation, for various periods of time.  They typically do this when they are communing with their natural surroundings.  They use this time to rest and separate themselves from the mortal burdens that all of the other races of man around them have to deal with."

I've come across another fantastic video that I think shows again what I meant.  This is how elves can see the world--when they choose to do so.

An Elven View of the World

The Elves in my campaign worlds can occasionally step into states of (what is effectively) suspended animation, for various periods of time.  They typically do this when they are communing with their natural surroundings.  They use this time to rest and separate themselves from the mortal burdens that all of the other races of man around them have to deal with.

When they do so, this is reminiscent of how they experience the world.

It also reminds me of the Silmarillion, before the sun was created and the Elves lived in perpetual twilight.  I think that these views are like what they would have seen.

Tuesday Talkies: Elvish Labels

Just as French (and many other languages) characterize nouns as either masculine or feminine, High Elvish makes use of a few characterizations (hereafter referred to as ‘labels’) for its nouns. Elvish does not rely upon gender as a label. Instead, Elvish labels are the verbal signpost of how they view a given object within nature (1) or better stated, they describe the nature (2) of the item.

[Clarification may be in order:
(1) the natural world as it exists without sentient beings or civilization
(2) the particular combination of qualities belonging to something]

There are six primary natures in Elvish thinking, and hence six primary labels used in the construction of Elvish words. They are:

- Living (Alive)
- Dead (Was Once Alive)
- Inanimate (Was Never Alive)
- Natural (Of the natural world)
- Magical (Arcane)
- Spiritual (Alive, but not of the ‘seen’ world)

The standard default natures of nouns used by the Elves are ‘Natural’ and ‘Living’.  If one comes across a noun in Elvish that possesses no labels, it can be assumed that that object is natural and living.

The labels may appear as prefixes or suffixes in the language, depending on various rules of grammar to be discussed at a later time.  Also, a word may possess two or more labels.  The order of the labels in a given word will affect its meaning.  It is worth noting that there are cases when a literal reading of a noun and its associated labels will not translate perfectly into Common or even maintain the literal, by-the-rules definition in Elvish.  While this presents difficulties for those attempting to learn Elvish, the elves themselves understand that and accept that their language is not dogmatically 'correct'.

Tuesday Talkies: Direction and Time in High Elvish

As lovers of the natural world and beings who understand, in ways that man nor any other beings do, the processes of the nature world, Elves understand the importance of the sun on all life.  The sun is a symbol of their first god.  As such, the original word for sun forms the base of many different words in their language.  Excellent astronomers, the Elves paid particular attention to the motion of the sun through the sky and have used their knowledge of the sun's movement in their language.

One area of language where that fact is most apparent is in their words for the four cardinal directions.  The elves understood that the sun travels to its most northern point in the sky on the summer solstice and from that they derived their word for 'north'.  The Elvish word for north is based upon the three word bases that mean:  "Toward" + "Summer" + "Sun"

By the same token, the word for south is based upon the sun reaching its most southern point in the sky in the winter on the winter solstice.  The Elvish south is based upon:  "Toward" + "Winter" + "Sun"

East and west are based upon the word bases that describe sunset and sunrise:
"Toward" + "Sun" + "Set" = West
"Toward" + "Sun" + "Rise" = East

The above examples show that the motion of the sun and the words that describe that motion are instrinsic to the Elvish language.  Just as important are words that describe time and its measurement.  The following words need to be considered:

Year = The length of time between the sun appearing at one point in the sky and the next time that it appears in that same point (with respect to the other stars in the night sky).  The Elves have no concept of the world's rotation about the sun (if, in fact, the world does rotate about the sun) therefore the term 'year' is based upon the sun's motion around the world.

Day = The length of time between the sun appearing at its highest point during a given daylight period (noon) and the next following time at which the sun reaches its highest-most point in the sky (the next noon).

The Elvish words for 'year' and 'day' are closely related.  Other terms which relate to time-keeping, including "month" and "week", are less dependent upon the sun and are actually artificial constructs used in the formation of various calendars.  As such, they are purely cultural.  While the Elves developed some form of calendar, its specifics will not be discussed here (as I have not yet worked out the details).  One unit of time that is purely arbitrary that I have decided to define is the hour.  The elves, as the longest lived of the sentient races and, theoretically, those who have existed the longest, were the first people to split their day into twenty-four "hours".  Therefore, for most races in the world today, the day is split up into twenty-four hours.

In choosing to split the year and the day up into shorter periods, the elves looked at the natural lifecycles of most creatures in nature.  In almost all cases, all living things went through four stages of life.  The elves defined these stages as: Birth (and early growth), Maturity, Aging, and Death.  They have used these same stages in the development of their words for the seasons and the time of day.

The Elvish words for the seasons and time of day are made up of word bases that mean:

Spring = "Season of" + "Birth"
Summer = "Season of" + "Maturity"
Autumn = "Season of" + "Aging"
Winter = "Season of" + "Death"

Morning = "Time of" + "Birth"
Afternoon = "Time of" + "Maturity"
Evening = "Time of" + "Aging"
Night = "Time of" + "Death"

Tuesday Talkies: Assumptions for High Elvish

The first language that I am going to tackle is High Elvish. First, I want to comment on the fact that it is a ‘High’ Elvish as opposed to some other form of Elvish. This language is going to be created from scratch, including all of the rules of grammar, word construction, etc. One of the assumptions of this project, at least at this stage, is that all rules will be strictly adhered to. As all rules are followed, it will tend to be very formal, very regimented, with little or no use of slang. Thus, the adjective ‘High’. I’m doing this, because it will make the tongue easier to create.

At the same time, I do not believe that this would be the case for a living, constantly evolving language. No language actually used by people (even elves) in everyday life would remain true to its strictest rules. All peoples invent short cuts, shorten words, adopt slang, etc to make the use of their language easier.

Therefore, the language that I am creating will be the written form of Elvish, a formal or perhaps ceremonial form. At a later date, I may go back and revise to simplify, or make changes to the words, etc. In fact, the eventual Elvish dictionary, which is a long term goal of this project, might include both a ‘High’ and ‘Common’ Elvish. To increase its ‘realism’ (A term that I use lightly.) even further, I may develop two or more dialects—all based upon the original High Elvish, but degraded in various ways to account for common usage.

Some other general assumptions that I am making at the beginning of this process:

1. Regarding the world in which this language developed:

- The elves live(d) in the northern hemisphere of the world.
- There is one sun.
- There is one moon.
- The year is approximate to an Earth year and the day approximate to an Earth day, i.e. 365 days in a year and 24 hours in a day. (The calendar may or may not be divided into 12 months and about 52 weeks of 7 days each. Those are yet to be determined.)

2. Regarding elves in general:
- They are ‘typical’ fantasy elves in that they are almost as tall as humans but of slightly lighter build.
- They are long-lived compared to humans. (Although whether this means several centuries or two to three remains to be determined.)
- They are stewards and lovers of and livers in nature. The natural world is where they are most at home and consider it their duty to protect and preserve it.
- They are typically more magical than humans and are ‘masters’ of the arcane arts. (Whether this means that all elves possess magical abilities or not remains to be determined.)
- While there may or may not be (To be determined.) many subraces of elves, this language was developed by the ‘original’ elves and all other dialects grew out of it.

3. Regarding the elvish tongue:

- Many of the words and phrases in the language grew out of or allude to various aspects of the natural world. It is common for elvish words that describe things in nature to also describe things that aren’t specifically in nature. One specific example of this is that adjectives used to describe weather are also used to describe peoples’ moods and emotions, i.e. the elvish word for ‘stormy’ in the phrase ‘stormy weather’ is very similar to the word for ‘angry’ in the phrase ‘angry dwarf’.
- Specific grammar rules will probably be slightly different than English, though not so different as to make it intelligible. As the languages of the world contain many grammar types, I am interested in using some different type.
- Elvish will probably place more emphasis on adjectives than verbs, as the elves are concerned with beauty and how things look, smell, and feel rather than the actions of things. This is due to the fact that they are longer lived, have a mindset more in keeping with the timescales of the natural world than in the ‘human’ world, and place less emphasis on doing deeds than on being and experiencing life.

Those are the ‘entering arguments’ for the creation of High Elvish. More may come up as this process continues; if they do, I will inform you as they appear.

Next week, I will discuss some basic words and relationships-between-words to give some examples of where I see this going. After that, we will get into basic grammar structures, basic word construction, and maybe even start thinking about the types of sounds that will exist in the language.