Common Elvish

Also known as Tat Thìm

finish trads (idioms)

Writing System

There are two writing systems used by elves: a set of primary glyphs, mainly used to learn the language, and a set of secondary ones. The primary set contains 26 glyphs, each corresponding to a different sound, whereas the secondary set has 153 glyphs, each corresponding to a consonant and a vowel sound.

Glyphs

Primary set:

Sound	Glyph	Sound	Glyph
ɑ	a	o	o
b	b	p	p
d	d	ŋ	q
ɛ	è	ɹ	r
ɜː	e	s	s
f	f	t	t
g	g	ʊ	u
ʃ	h	v	v
ɪ	ì	θ	w
k	k	z	z
l	l	aɪ̯	ä
m	m	eɪ̯	ë
n	n	ɔɪ̯	ö

Secondary set: Learn more here

Punctuation

Punct.	Glyphs
!	!
?	?
.	.
...	-
,	,
: or ;	:

Numbers

Number	Glyph	Number	Glyph
1	1	6	6
2	2	9	9
3	3	10	#
4	4	50	5#
5	5	100	$

Geographical Distribution

It is mainly spoken around  Bælyn Mountain, Skòweryn and Dulmìr Mountain.

Phonology

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)

Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable

Sound changes (in order of application):
{p,b} → m / V_V
{nk,mk} → ŋ
m → n / _d

Morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -zɑ

Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ɹɛ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -bɑ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ŋeɪ̯
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -sɑ
Noun → verb = Suffix -baɪ̯
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -bɜː
Tending to = Suffix -pɔɪ̯
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ʃeɪ̯
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -zɛ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ŋo
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -teɪ̯
Diminutive = Suffix -seɪ̯
Augmentative = Suffix -gʊ

Syntax

Main word order

The words are positioned according to their function in the sentence: Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Adverbs (linked to verb), Verb. Verbs in infinitive are usually treated as the phrase they are a part of if they don't have a subject.

Adpositions are postpositions, meaning prepositions are always after the noun or phrase they refer to. They are: at, above, around, beside, before, among, down, of, from, across, behind, about, between, beneath, for, off, into, against, below, along, in, by, inside, onto, toward, up, as, aboard, with, without, on, to.

Nota Bene: The preposition ‘to’ is not used to indicate the receiver of an action. For example: ‘I gave my cake to you’ would be translated as ‘I my cake you gave’.

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:
• Ergative is the doer of a verb: ‘dog bites man’.
• Absolutive is the done-to of a verb: ‘man bites dog’.

Ergative	Absolutive
If starts with vowel: Prefix ɪm- Else: ɪmɑ- ìmagopì /ɪmɑ'gomɪ/ dog (doing a verb)	No affix gopì /gomɪ/ dog (done to)

Singular	Plural
No affix gopì /gomɪ/ dog	Suffix -an gopìan /gomɪˈɑn/ dogs

Nota Bete: For nouns ending in -ɑ, the plural transforms the -ɑ sound into -aɪ̯. Example: nìsa becomes nìsäan in plural form, not nìsaan.

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	è /ɛ/ the	da /dɑ/ a
Plural	mì /mɪ/ the	mä /maɪ̯/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:
• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:
• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’. Instead, the definite one is used.

The article is always placed before the noun: (Adj) Art Noun.

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st sing.	shì /ʃɪ/ I	sa /sɑ/ me
2nd sing.	ngä /ŋaɪ̯/ you	nga /ŋɑ/ you
3rd sing.	uë /ʊeɪ̯/ he, she, it	vë /veɪ̯/ him, her, it
1st pl. incl.	sìè /sɪɛ/ we (incl.)	da /dɑ/ us (incl.)
1st pl. excl.	tìè /tɪɛ/ we (excl.)	ì /ɪ/ us (excl.)
2nd pl.	sè /sɛ/ you all	më /meɪ̯/ you all
3rd pl.	ten /tɜːn/ they	ö /ɔɪ̯/ them

The difference between the inclusive ‘we/us’ and the exclusive ‘we/us’ is wether it includes the listener or not. This difference only exists for these pronouns. Moreover, the pronoun ‘I’ can be omitted if it doesn't create ambiguity.

Possessive

	Determiner	Pronoun
1st sing.	sha /ʃɑ/ my	la /lɑ/ mine
2nd sing.	gèn /gɛn/ your	mì /mɪ/ yours
3rd sing.	gì /gɪ/ his, her, its	sha /ʃɑ/ his, hers, its
1st pl.	lë /leɪ̯/ our	ga /gɑ/ ours
2nd pl.	ten /tɜːn/ your (pl)	è /ɛ/ yours (pl)
3rd pl.	mo /mo/ their	pol /pol/ theirs

The determiner is placed before the noun it refers to: (Adj) Det Noun.

The preposition pè (/pɛ/, meaning ‘of’) is also used as a possessive marker: the sentence ‘my mother's dress’ would be translated as ‘my mother dress of’. Here, if the phrase was the subject of the sentence, ‘dress’ would be in ergative while ‘mother’ would be in absolutive.

Clauses moods

Negation:

The negation is positioned just before the verb, using rä (/ɹaɪ̯/) or at the end of the sentence when there is no verb.

Exclamative and interrogative:

The punctuation is the only marker for exclamative or interrogative sentences, the words' order don't have any incidence, except that the interrogative and exclamative words are placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Vocabulary

Idioms

Meaning

Traduction

Litteral translation

Believe anything
Look too much at details
Admit one's ignorance and get the answer
Be very strict about something
Be pampered or in a good situation
Wait for a long time in the same place while remaining standing in the same position
It's very cold (weather)

Something fishy is going on
Do things out of order
Clarify or explain something
Be not extraordinary
Not assume uncertain success too early
Quickly change the subject (of conversation)
Stand someone up

Take offence
Never
Talk nonsense
Feel at ease
Get it out of someone/make them spill the beans
Meddle in other people's business
Speed up
Have work to do
Bite off more than one can chew

Be tender-hearted/Easily fall in love
Talk about someone behind their back
It's none of someone's business
It's a piece of cake
It's the end/There is no hope left
To not matter
Compromise
Criticize what one benefit from
Make a big deal out of it
Be very small
Be very sweet, to the point it's suspicious
Fail/make a mistake
Thrive/prosper
The situation is desperate
Quicken the pace/put in the work
Gain experience
Produce useful/good results
Be fooled
Pass out
Be generous
Be very lazy
It's the last straw

It's very complicated
Change one's mind/Change one's tune
Complicate things unnecessarily/Look for problems where there is none
A violent, skillful and unexpected blow
Pull the rug out from under someone
Expose the deception/discover the truth
Say (in their stead) what someone else were going to say
Be in trouble
Be in the loop/be aware of something
Be naive/be stupid
Be in the hot seat
Sleep in
Make someone believe something to play a joke on them
Someone is naive/believe anything that is said to them
Discreetly leave
Throw in the towel
Make ends meet
Something is worth it
Appearances are deceiving
Be (much) worse than someone
Not go easy on something or someone/be brutal
Be direct
Not notice anything
Talk freely
Rain down (weather)
Consider something/someone with caution/tact
Laugh reluctantly/without joy/with embarrassment
Limit losses
Rack one's brains
Worry a lot
Dress elegantly
To make a mistake
Do nothing
An open secret
Have troubles meeting one's needs (financially)
Be fooled

Notan përì
Foz è apìlmì pìftö
Tì purta pè è fublè putì

Lìg gìtna
Da nètsä thur (dough) pak masta

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Swallow snakes
Look for the little critter
Give one's tongue to the cat

Straddle something
Be like a rooster in dough

Be the crane leg


It's a duck's cold (weather, linked to hunting season)
There is an eel under the rock
Put the cart before the horse
Dot the i's/Dot the glyphs
Not break a duck's three legs
Not sell the bear's skin before killing it
Go from rooster to donkey

Place a rabbit (linked to not wanting to pay)
Take the fly
When hens'll have teeth
Talk salads
Feel like a fish in water
Pull the worms out of someone's nose
Add one's grain of salt
Press on the mushroom
Have bread on the cutting board
Have eyes bigger than one's stomach
Have an artichoke's heart

Break sugar on someone's back

Those are not someone's onions
It's cake
It's the end of beans
Count as butter
Cut the pear in half
Spit in the soup
Make it a whole lot of cheese
Be as tall as three apples
Be all honeyed/sugary

Make a white cabbage
Make one's butter
Carrots are cooked
Put in double bites
Take some bottles
Bear fruits
Be rolled in flour
Fall in apples
Have one's heart on one's hand
Have a hair on one's hand
It's the drop of water which overfill the vase
It's the cross and the banner
Change one's shotgun/crossbow/bow of shoulder
Look for noon at two o'clock

A [Jarnac]'s blow

Cut the grass out from under someone's feet
Discover the pot of roses

Take the words out of someone's mouth
Be in beautiful sheets
Be in the coup

Be born from the last rain
Be on the little seat
Do the fat morning
Make someone walk

Someone don't walk, they run

Take dwarven leave
Throw away the sponge
Make both tips join
Something is worth the candle
The cloth does not make the monk
Not reach someone's ankle
Not go with a dead fist

Not go through four paths
See only fire
Talk with broken sticks
Rain ropes
Take something/someone with tweezers
Yellow laugh

Save the furniture
Dig through one's brains
Take one's hammer to one's head
Put oneself in one's brocade
To crash
Twiddle one's thumbs
A child's secret
Pull the devil by the tail

Fall for the trap

Phonetics

Sounds

Consonant inventory: b d f g k l m n p s t v z ŋ ɹ ʃ θ
Vowel inventory: aɪ̯ eɪ̯ o ɑ ɔɪ̯ ɛ ɜː ɪ ʊ
Diphthongs: aɪ̯ eɪ̯ ɔɪ̯

Pronunciation Spelling

To help with reading the sounds, the IPA spelling is replaced with the following:

ɑ — a	eɪ̯ — ë
ɛ — è	ɔɪ̯ — ö
ɜː — e	ŋ — ng
ɪ — ì	ɹ — r
ʊ — u	ʃ — sh
aɪ̯ — ä	θ — th

Tenses

Present	Past	Future
No affix ëlo /eɪ̯ˈlo/ (pron.) learn(s)	Suffix -kɑ ëloka /eɪ̯loˈkɑ/ (pron.) learned	Suffix -nɑ ëlona /eɪ̯loˈnɑ/ (pron.) will learn

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.

Common elvish uses an affix for the perfect aspect, used before the tense:

Suffix -dɑ

ëloda /eɪ̯loˈdɑ/

have learned

Example of use with the past tense:

ëlodaka /eɪ̯lodɑˈkɑ/
had learned

Verbal moods

A verb has six possible moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative, conditional, infinitive and participle. They require a verbal marker, placed just after the verb it refers to, except the indicative mood.

The subjunctive is used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, obligation, or action that has not yet occurred. The marker is urì (/ʊˈɹɪ/).

The imperative indicates an order, a strong request or a prohibition. The marker used is uso (/ʊˈso/).

The conditional expresses a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. Sèn (/sɛn/) is used as marker for this mood.

The infinitive has the marker maè (/mɑɛ/). It is a verb form that usually expresses an action or state but does not refer to any subject.

The participle is the mood for verbal adjectives; it functions as an adverb modifying the verb. Like other adjectives, a participle can be used to modify a noun or take the place of a noun in a sentence. It can be the subject for the main verb in the sentence. As a verb, it is also employed for the passive voice. It uses the marker otì (/oˈtɪ/).

Sentence Structure

There are a few different type of clauses: coordinated independent, juxtaposed independent, relative subordinate, conjonctive subordinate and infinitive subordinate. It should be noted that a clause always includes at least a subject and a verb.

Coordinated independent clause

Independent clauses make sense even without their main clause. Coordinated clauses are introduced by a coordinating conjunction: but, or, and, so, nor, because (for), yet, only, neither, etc... These clauses are located at the beginning of the sentence; for example: ‘I love eating but I'm full’ would be translated as ‘but I full am I eating love’.

Juxtaposed independent clause

Independent clauses make sense even without their main clause. Juxtaposed clauses are separated from the main clause by punctuation. For example: ‘I love eating, I'm full’.

Relative subordinate clause

Subordinate clauses don't make sense without the main clause they're attached to. Relative clauses are introduced by a relative pronoun: who, which, what, whose, where, that, etc... These clauses are located just before the noun it refers to; if the noun is completed by adjectives, the clause is placed before the adjectives too. For example: ‘This is the food (that) I like’ would be ‘This that I like the food is’.

Conjunctive subordinate clause

Subordinate clauses don't make sense without the main clause they're attached to. Conjunctive clauses are introduced by a subordinating conjunction and have usually the role of circumstancial complements. The circumstantial complements are words or group of words that indicate in which circumstance the action takes place: at what time, in what place, in what way, for what purpose, for what cause, with what or by what. It completes the main verb and won't change the sentence's meaning if deleted. They can also be introduced by prepositions which are located at the end of the clause.

Circumstantial complements of:

• time are introduced by: when, after, before, as soon as, while, since, as, as long as, once, etc...
• place, introduced by: at, in, on (vehicle), etc...
• way (in which way the action takes place), introduced by: as, as well as, as if, so that, just as, without, according to which, etc...
• purpose, introduced by: so that, lest, etc...
• cause, introduced by: since, because, seeing that, due to the fact that, given that, as, etc...
• consequence, introduced by: so much that, to the point that, so that, etc...
• means (which means is used to carry out the action), introduced by: by (vehicle), with, thanks to, without, etc...
• concession, introduced by: while, unless, though, except that, although, etc...
• condition, introduced by: provided that, unless, assuming that, etc...

These clauses are located just before the verb they refer to. For example: ‘I ate after I cooked’ becomes ‘I after I cooked ate’.

Infinitive subordinate clause

Subordinate clauses don't make sense without the main clause they're attached to. Infinitive clauses have their verb in infinitive. It has to have its own subject. The infinitive marker maè (/mɑɛ/) is used just after the verb it's refering to. For example: ‘I told you to move your stuff’. Infinitive clauses are usually treated according to their function towards the verb. However, it is usually considered the verb's object and placed before its other ones. Here the correct order would be ‘I your stuff to move you told’.

Adjective Order

Adjectives are positioned before the noun. When there are more than one of them, the adjectives describing an opinion, a mood or an attitude are placed first while the ones that are neutral and/or factual are placed after.

Structural Markers

Discourse markers are divided into four categories: interpersonal, referential, structural, and cognitive.

Interpersonal markers

They are used to indicate the relashionship between the speaker and the listener meaning perception, agreement, disagreement and amazement.

Marker

Traduction

Look
Believe me
You know
Exactly
I'm not sure
Wow

Tè/Ono
Sa so
Ngä ramtè
Ìza
(Shì) thör rä masta
Uo

Referential markers

They're usually conjonctions and used to indicate the sequence, causality, coordination and non-coordination between statements.

Marker

Traduction

Now
Then
Because
And
But

Dog
Raz
Gìpnè
Sosh
Gu

Structural markers

They indicate the hierarchy of conversational actions at the time in which they are spoken. These markers indicate which statements the speaker believes to be most or least important through organisation, introduction and summarization.

Markers

Traduction

First of all
So
In the end

Sö
Loak
È dupsì pak

Cognitive markers

They reveal the speaker's thought process such as processing information, realization and rephrasing.

Markers

Traduction

Uhh
Oh!
I mean

Un
A!
(Shì) gìn

Dictionary

1932 Words.

Root Languages

• High Elvish

Spoken by

• Àlfar
• Dròw
• Skòwen

Common Phrases

Hello — Sìng

Goodbye — Rër
How are you ? — Tafa ngä masta ?
I'm fine — Os masta
I'm ok — Thepshè masta
Not well — Do
Please — Satìè
Thank you — Nga thaku/Thaku
You're welcome — Rat
I'm sorry — Pènzu masta
Excuse me — Sa perì
Now — Dog
Today — Dìr
Yesterday — Ush
Tomorrow — Dèngè
At — Rì
Of — Pè
In — Pak
By — Nëg/Tö
Up — De
As — Mèm/pèm
On — Ru
To — Tè
Or — Nè
So — Döpset/loak
If — Fä
Be — Masta/omì/mèfa