Saurian
Saurian is the language of the Rangos, more or less unchanged from the language of the ancient Lizardmen in the World that Was.
Saurian is vaguely inspired by real world Mesoamerican languages but with a bestial twist. It is somewhat difficult for humans to pronounce correct.
Very few non-Rangos bother to learn Saurian. Very few Rangos are willing to teach Milk drinkers their language. Nevertheless a few swear words and insults have cropped into the vernacular of mammals in the West.
Skinks, Sauri, and Kroxigor all speak the same language but Skinks tend to have considerably far larger vocabularies than Saurus who tend to have far larger vocabularies than Kroxigor.
On a related note, Skinks can generally learn the tongues of other races and cultures much faster and easier than Sauri and Kroxigors.
Nonverbal Communication
The Saurian language is largely contextual and nonverbal, especially if the speaker is a Saurus or Kroxigor. Rangos can communicate a lot with the movements of their eyes, tails, tongues, necks, etc. Even when speaking in foreign languages, Rangos tend to gesticulate a lot. Some humans find this intimidating, annoying or humorous. A few culturally assimilated Rangos have learned to restrain their body movements when talking to other humanoids. Slapping one's tail to the ground can be a sign of respect like saluting a superior or honored equal or it can be a sign of derision based on body posture. Slapping tails together is usually a sign of friendship. Entwining tails is usually a sign of intimacy. A tail to the face is a serious insult though a tail slap to the body of another is a more gentle admonishment akin "hurry up!" Tail waving with arm gesticulation shows extreme agitation. Opening ones mouth and fully extending the tongue is a sign of anger or disappointment whereas a toothy snarl is a direct challenge. Head bobs are a form of communication that humans have a lot of trouble translating. A rango bobbing his head can connote anger, approval, boredom, submission, or a simple polite greeting depending on context of the situation, body posture, vocal intonation, speed, and the type of eye contact. If one Rango's head bobbing is out of sync with another this can signify disapproval or annoyance but if two Rangos are bobbing their head in perfect synchronization that could signify either a total agreement or a challenge.Tenses
-a-: This is a letter added between nouns and verbs to note the present tense in some words. As nouns tend to come first in High Saurian and verbs second, this can be an important addition to clarify whether a particular Skink or Saurus is doing something, or has done it in the past. See "Cuaqatec" in the Dictionary section.
-an/-ax: -an/-ax is a construct most frequently appearing in other constructs that have connotations of place. This is not to say that tl- is the designator for a temple or a city, it simply states that -an is most frequently seen in constructs dealing with a particular place, or type of place. It can be used in conjunction with nouns and verbs, etc, to form more specific words denoting location. -ax is a fairly rare element in High Saurian, usually used to denote battlefields or certain parts of the landscape that are no longer present.
-Kai: -Kai may have originally been written as kaa or ka'a, with the glottal stop removed when the long vowel was changed. This may be interpreted as a word having to do with the passage of time, as things that are ancient, forgotten or lost (the three accepted words used to translate -kai) require some amount of time to have passed before they become ancient, forgotten or lost. Perhaps ka'a referred to the time it takes Lizard society to forget something commonly known or conceived. If this is so, further extrapolation may lead to ka'a originating in a construct "kahuan" or "ka'an." This hints at some bygone connection between the two words, as things that are lost or forgotten are commonly associated among warm-bloods and Lizards with the darkness or deep jungle, such as those that overtook many of the dead cities of Lizard society.
Creating Things: The act of creation was, understandably, very important to the Lizards. Thus, any construct dealing with the creation of something new is always said to be "in the process of" doing whatever it is doing. This is even done if it would create a stack of "of" words in the translation to warmblood tongues. To denote the peculiarity, the usual -a- construct signifying "in the process of" is changed to read -da-. While the act of creation is less sacred to modern Rangos than to the modern Lizardmen of yore, this grammatic convention remains.
Sentence Structure
Noun Order: In Rango society, the act itself is what holds the weight, and the conditions come second to it, even considering the committer of this act. Thus, nouns usually come first in a word or construct which contains them. It is possible to use words in Saurian which do not contain nouns, but not typical. The word directly following the noun is considered to be the primary modifier, though more than one adjective or verb might be stacked on it. Thus, a word such as Tenxololoqarazonaggaroth would be "Carrying the Word of Fiery Death to Naggaroth" whereas Tenxloqoloarazonaggaroth could be translated as "Carrying the Word of Death-Fire to Naggaroth." As the Old Ones are seen as the originators of all, the only exception to the noun order rule involves Their names, as nothing exists or occurs without Their presence and action.
Adjective Order
Adjectives: There are two ways of creating adjectives in Saurian. Almost all nouns can be used as comparative words, and those ending in -a will have that changed to -i, such as in chochi, or "Like the Jaguar." Exceptions for this are adjectives that already end in -a, such as itza, or "first." Thus, the construction -chi as an adjective might have had its origins in a construction -cha, a noun meaning "jaguar" or "ghost." Otherwise, nouns ending in vowel sounds have -q appended, whereas nouns ending in consonantal sounds have -oq appended.
Adjectives as Plural Nouns: By adding the appropriate plural construction to an adjective like Kai or Loq, one can create plural nouns like loqli, or "Fierce Ones" and kaitl, or "Forgotten Ones."
Adverbs: Most High Saurian adverbs are created by adding an -oq to the end of a noun or adjective, much in the same manner as many warm-blood languages. Again, it raises a philosophical and historical question of which group was the originator of this concept.
Adverb-Adjective Endings: It is entirely possible for a word to end in -oqoq. In these cases, the word is assumed to be both adverb and adjective.
Denoting the Dead: As -tec is a way of denoting the living, -tex would be a way of denoting the dead. This incorporates the use of -x as an indicator of the past tense and departed things or lives. Thus, loqtexli'ihuan, the Dead of the Jungle. "Loqtec" was once very rare in ancient High Saurian, as a creature cannot truly be alive and dead at the same time, generally only referring to free willed undead creatures but modern Rangos to describe living creatures that are mortally ill or wounded.
The Saurian language is the work of many authors over a very long period of time on the Warhammer fan website Lustria-Online, the defunct fan website The Temple Pyramid Vault.
A few words and syntax comes from officially published Games Workshop book. Most of it is fan made and compiled on this thread. I made some minor adaptations from this thread because in the setting of Westhammer, the Slann are all dead and the Old Ones are now half-forgotten.
I created many of the terms and phrases myself. Largely compiled on the vocabulary section of this thread.but for much of this material, I am the compiler of this information, not the originator of it. I also put together most of the nonverbal communication aspects myself, though I was advised from online friends who owned pet lizards or had a background in herpatology (the study of lizards).
