Belari-scal (be-lari-skal)

I wasn’t that fluent in Belari-scal, but at least I knew how to say ‘hello’. For kobolds, it translated more to ‘you eaten yet?’, since they always seemed to be hungry. At least, it was a friendly greeting...

— From the field journal of Windtracer Tela Kioni, Automatic Crystal Expedition

Belari-scal is the common language used by kobold tribes across the breadth of the Planus Continent. It’s a soft language that heavily uses vowels interspersed with sporadic, harder sounds in the second syllable. The result is a language that has almost musical quality when spoken.

The language itself is unique, as many scholars believe it may predate the rise of The Ancient Order's ‘common trade language’. Some suggest that Belari-scal may be a direct descendent of the root language that gave rise to the Ancient Order’s own trade dialect. It also may have some connection back to the ancient draconic languages of legend.

Because of the many kobold tribes found along the Belari River region and their trade with Ishnanor, it’s common for many of the locals to be fluent in both the common language of Planari and Belari-scal. This language is often colloquially called ‘kobold’ or ‘koboldese’ outside the Planus regions.

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Sample Sentence

...he turned to face the wind on the shore...
ʻōnt wae ho marðo ma pīp ʻōnt nūha ma want pavja ʻau wet

Pronunciation

/ʋae̯ paːˈnuːha hoi̯ˈlo keːt ʋet hal keːt pau̯ˈɠiŋgont/

Belari-scal word order

he turned to face the wind on the shore

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory

b d f g h j k l m n p r s t v w x z ð ŋ ɓ ɗ ɠ ɣ ɲ ʃ ʄ ʋ ʔ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g	ʔ
Implosive	ɓ			ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ		x ɣ	h
Approximant		ʋ				j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory

a ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aː aːi̯ aːu̯ e eː i iː o oi̯ ou̯ oː u uː

Diphthongs

ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aːi̯ aːu̯ oi̯ ou̯

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure

(C)V(C)

Stress pattern

Second — stress is on the second syllable

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʋ	w
ʔ	ʻ
aː	ā
eː	ē
iː	ī
oː	ō
uː	ū
̯

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Grammar

Main word order

Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.

Adjective order

Adjectives are positioned before the noun.

Adposition

prepositions

Nouns

Singular	No affix wēɣ /ʋeːɣ/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate last part of last syllable wēɣēɣ /ʋeːˈɣeːɣ/ dogs

Articles

Definite	kēt /keːt/ the
Indefinite	lāi /laːi̯/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

Pronouns

1st singular	kaill /kai̯ll/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ʻāut /ʔaːu̯t/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	wae /ʋae̯/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	wāuss /ʋaːu̯ss/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	ā /aː/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	kae /kae̯/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	lo /lo/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	wu /ʋu/ my
2nd singular	lai /lai̯/ your
3rd singular masc	ma /ma/ his
3rd singular fem	pai /pai̯/ her
1st plural	ʻaeh /ʔae̯h/ our
2nd plural	nae /nae̯/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ki /ki/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st person	Prefix e- emao /eˈmao̯/ (I/we) learn	Prefix oi̯- oimao /oi̯ˈmao̯/ (I/we) learned	Prefix ʋo- womao /ʋoˈmao̯/ (I/we) learned (long ago)
2nd person	Prefix aːi̯- āimao /aːi̯ˈmao̯/ (you/you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix no- nomao /noˈmao̯/ (you/you all) learned	Prefix ko- komao /koˈmao̯/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)
3rd person	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lou̯- loumao /lou̯ˈmao̯/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix paː- pāmao /paːˈmao̯/ (he/she/it/they) learned	Prefix i- imao /iˈmao̯/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)

Belari-scal uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ka - ka mao /ka mao̯/ will learn

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb

If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix koi̯-

Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj])

If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt
Else: Suffix -unt

Adjective → verb (to make something [adj])

Suffix -ou̯

Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun])

If ends with vowel: Suffix -h
Else: Suffix -aːh

Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic)

If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -au̯t

Noun to verb

Prefix mu-

Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb])

Suffix -eːh
Tending to = Suffix -i

Verb → noun (the act of [verb])

Suffix -aːu̯

Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge)

If ends with vowel: Suffix -x
Else: Suffix -ix

One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter)

If ends with vowel: Suffix -ss
Else: Suffix -ae̯ss

Place of (e.g. wine → winery)

Suffix -ai̯sj
Diminutive = Suffix -ai̯rʧ

Augmentative

Suffix -au̯nt

Dictionary

2984 Words.

Spoken by

• Nelda
• Sulta
• Tav
• Tirak

Common Phrases

Buzet’el

'You eaten yet?' (a common greeting)

Ah’sa’kee!

'Go to it!' (considered a common battle cry)

Numbers

Belari-scal has a base-10 number system:

1 - pū

2 - ā

3 - ma

4 - le

5 - wu

6 - hoi

7 - lo

8 - hau

9 - hill

10 - pāi

100 - ʻūu

1000 - wut

Writing System

The Belari-scal alphabet, known in short as the Belar, is unique among the written languages on the Planus Continent. Other written languages can trace their roots back to Ancient Order dialects. Belari-scal cannot. The written form of Belari-scal is a pictographic language believed to predate The Ancient Order's trade language.

In Belari-scal, each flowing letter of the alphabet represents a simple concept, item, emotion, or action. Some examples would be a letter for ‘flat’, another for ‘grass’, and a third for ‘many’. Therefore, letter order matters, as swapping the order of two letters can convey completely different meanings. Some scholars have likened the written form of Belari-scal to be ‘using smaller words to create compound words’.

For example, ‘flat’ ‘many’ ‘grass’ could mean a grassy plain. But if the letter order was changed to ‘flat’ ‘grass’ ‘many’, someone reading that would understand it to mean ‘an area of flattened grass’.

Lorekeeper Notes

Oh, this language. It's harder than it seems to learn. But once you do, it's very expressive. - Lorekeeper Gwelunis Istril
How so? - Lorekeeper Ihodis Jenro
It's almost a chant-like quality. I still say it may be a direct connection to lost dialects in the earlier days of the Ancient Order. - Lorekeeper Gwelunis
I see your point there. It's like 'living history' in its own way. - Lorekeeper Ihodis
It's certainly the most polite language I've ever learned. It gets right to the point of matters! - Lorekeeper Rudigar Brockhouse
I... what? Yes, it's very expressive, but what do you mean? - Lorekeeper Gwelunis
Well any language where you greet each other by asking 'you eaten yet' ranks top of my list of favorite languages! It gets out what's important right away! - Lorekeeper Rudigar