It's safe to say that most of the languages of the southern continent are related to Sartoran. Some of the language families are arbitrarily named, the distinction being more political than not. Thus if you know Sartoran well, you can usually at least make yourself somewhat understood across the continent, with varying degrees of success. The Chwahir have different roots, and there are evidences of other languages blended in, especially on the other continents.
Sartoran itself is an anomaly. Unlike Venn, whose language (unlike their name, a Sartoran word) mages have been able to trace back through the world gate to Norse and Anglo-Saxon antecedents, Sartoran seems to have a mix of Latin roots and elements that don't translate to Earth at all, indicating access to humans through another world gate, which means yet another mysterious jog through time.
Sartoran pronouns diverge according to clusivity and not so much relative status, as does the Sartoran offshoot Kifelian, or Colend's language. There is the term for 'we' that means the speaker and self, and 'we' that means the circle of listeners, and also 'we' indicating speaking for a circle not present.
Current Sartoran Slang"
'honas' means outsiders, that is, places too small to be included on the inside of maps. For Sartor, with its hierarchy of circles, this can mean unimportant people of every degree.
'selas' means the opposite of honas-- those inside the map, or the insider circle.
Basic words:
'sar' means leader, ruler, and is a prefix
'sir' personal prefix
'tor' means people--humans as a collective term
'co' a group, not a clan or a 'tor' (everyone); with 'el' added it became the word for chosen people, skilled, etc. That devolved into 'coAL' for guilds. 'coel' eventually inflated the way 'star' has inflated for us, and became a prefix for 'select group'--the name 'Colend', where 'co' in kifellian came to mean country, means beloved country.
'coal' (pronounced coh-all) guild
'Heis' Name (from Heias, or 'my name')
'Heselendi' Name Day
'fen' or 'ven' are groups of people. Some think the origin meant 'clan' but by the time the Venn adopted the word, the meaning had shifted to "the" people, connoting an elite group as distinct from "tor" or the general rabble. The morvende, however, had adopted the word before the Venn ever troubled the surface, adding "mor" which meant "makers" but could also connote "other"
'brand' horse
'mord' hand (another Venn adoption, the word for hand being 'mund, mond' which became 'leader')
'ias' (yas) meant first person pl possessive, but came to mean ownership or lordship
'hyal' means land--a word that, in various forms, shows up all over: Heil, Hael, Hal, etc)
'va', 'fa' 'vaw' or 'vau'--water
'aer' or 'air' wings, later became 'sails'
'ael' shines, beams (degraded into 'ial', 'yal', 'yel' when other languages broke off, and connoted 'superior' SEE 'coel')
'al' bright (in the early days, there was a distinction between many forms of light; later, this word blended with 'rael'
or 'sacred light' (the sense of light in the realm of the spirit)
're' as a prefix meant brightly lit, though 're' as a word meant 'sun-touched' or meaning self-generating light
're' as a suffix meant anticipation
'de, di' day, days; 'dei' was not just plural, but came to mean daylight
'an' word
'ran' man, 'ras' woman at earliest; developed into suffices indicating male and female; 'eran' and 'eras' came to mean boy and girl; adding an 'm' became diminutive
ardrael' truth (agreed-on fact)
'atan' sun
'atanael' later 'atanial' shining sun; by the time the 'ial' had developed, the implication was of precedence
'atanrael' blessed sun, sacred light
'oth' color
'roth, rath' good
'daraen' friend
'feraen' friendship, harmonious co-existence, later alliance
'joel, joael, honorifics on greeting, variation in meaning depending on circles (known and unknown)
'flar' and later 'fler' or 'fhler' (sound the h) meant group-harmony, or group-agreement, or treaty
'elendal' the infinitive form for 'to love, to cleave to' (it too had many variations)
'denal' to make
'elen' love
'limis, limissi flower (blossom), plural
'nadar' to walk
'selen' root word for personal harmony, but it has both evolved and become complicated with emendations (see 'nair'); 'selas' within the group, circle, etc (see honas, outside the group)
'malen, malend' grace-in-being, grace-in-motion
'nair, nar, nereh', all relating to musical harmony
'lee' ship
'fer' new as in created without human agency
'diav' new by human agency
_>'dan' stone, 'dien' (dee-en) plural for stones, when it's important to distinguish individual stones; 'dana' stone-aggregate
'shaerm' warmth (many connotations, most vanished with light variations, became 'sherm' for warm to touch)
'zath' storm-with-lightning (often used as an adjective for anger)
'hun' or 'hon' absence of, without, missing ('honas,' outside the circle or group)
'has' setting (connotation of diminishment; the sun didn't just set, it diminished) from verb 'hasdal'
'meth' (later 'met') death
'emeth' truth (word brought from Earth), gradually came to mean finality
'yeres emeth' best way to translate that is 'social contract' but the Old Sartorans saw it as sacred, moral law
Relating to time
'di' day
'lan' week
'Andi' firstday
'Nadi' Twoday
'Ixdi' Threeday
'Athlan' Midweek
'Mordi' Fiveday
'Tandi' Sun day (was Atandi)
'Sandi' (from Queensday--Restday)
'rad, dar, das, rennet' winter, spring, fall, summer--all prefixes
numbers have evolved over the years. 'beth' for three was Old Sartoran.
See also
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