Pointy-eared Bastards Who Love Trees in a Bad Way (translation: some worldbuilding without a story)

Mar 06, 2010 00:54

Okay, so this may not amuse anyone else the way it does me... but I'm gonna put it up anyway.

I'm going through my writing folder on my laptop... which has the full range of stuff. From the awful poetry (about 5 poems total) I wrote back in junior high/high school (I actually rather dislike poetry, too ^_^)... To the beginning of last year's NaNo (which I abandoned about 15000 words in in favor of starting a full rewrite of my Kiya story instead - I added the word counts, since I already know I can do 50000 words of a single story at this point. ^_^)... To bits and pieces of random stuff that I started writing and never finished.

And I found a file I called "elves" that I remember absolutely nothing about. There's about a page and a half of some dragon talking about how they hate elves, or something like that... and then almost two whole pages of what I titled the "Charis Vocabulary Builder"... some sort of future appendix or something, Charis being the name the humans gave this dragon race I was talking about. When I look at it, just from those two pages, it feels like I actually may have put some thought into it, though I remember nothing. And, because it caught my attention, I'm putting up that first lesson in Charis vocabulary... so you, too, can learn how to say elves (or, more literally, "Pointy-eared Bastards Who Love Trees in a Bad Way") in this language I started to make up. ^_^;;

Charis Vocabulary Builder
-Lesson 1: Charis terms for the races
term: (modified script) translation - common human term
Tfarith dho Sem: (Charis tho Zem) People of the Fiery Waste - dragons
Istfallix dho Sem: (Izchalik tho Zem) People of the Hidden Spirit Forest - the little folk OR fairies
Udhollom Othmetfallix Semmi: (Utholom Osmechalik Zenni) Pointy-eared Bastards who Love Trees in a Bad Way - elves
Mexith Sem: (Mekis Zem) People who Love Horses - humans
Xuqsi Semme: (Kushi Zenne) Mysterious High Beings - shifterfolk

The Charis (based off of the Charis pronunciation of the traditional habitat of their people, this word has long since become a loan word in the human tongue) have long held on to their traditional names for the four major races of the world. They were quite close to the little folk in ages past, though any and all knowledge that they gained from those people has long since been lost to time. This fraternity is shown in the name by which the Charis still call the little folk, a simple descriptor of their main habitat, as opposed to the terms for the other two races. The humans, with their increased use of horses in the ages before the elven conquest, quickly gained a nickname of "horse lovers" from the Charis, who did not understand the need for beasts of burden in the first place due to their huge bulk in their natural forms. This nickname eventually evolved into the traditional racial term for the youngest of the races.

The elves, however, have had a long history of tensions with the Charis. Even more than the tensions with the other races over the control of knowledge and power, the elves showed outright that they disliked the Charis and would rather they not exist. Rather than growing angry, as the Charis have always advocated keeping a firm hold on their easily sparked tempers (for the sake of keeping the race alive more than anything), the Charis turned to mocking the elven people. Their constant jabs of "treehugging fruits*," and such degrading phrases eventually developed into the one that is considered "traditional" today.

(*The word fruit, in the Charis tongue, does not hold the same connotation of "homosexual-seeming person" that it does in the human tongue. Rather, it implies that the person being described as such is weak and not even fit for mention. Fruit is almost nonexistent in the traditional Charis diet, as it does not grow in the Waste and when brought in from the outside, it spoils far too quickly to be of any use unless eaten right on the spot.)

As for the Kushi (name again taken from the Charis pronunciation, also known as shifterfolk), a people who have barely figured in any histories aside from that of the Charis... The Charis seem to hold a love-hate relationship with this race. They clearly have respect for them, as the name places them a step above a normal people (much in the same way that the elves are placed a step below). But, for reasons not known to anyone other than the Charis themselves, all of their terms for this people also have a deep seated fear built into them, one that the Charis do not show for any other being or object in existence.

basic vocabulary units of the Charis language for this lesson (modified phonetic script given in parentheses)
sem (zem) - people
semmi (zenni) - people (with a highly derogatory sub-meaning) Often translated as "bastards."
semme (zenne) - people (with a glorifying sub-meaning) Traditionally translated as "High Being," though this term means almost nothing in the human tongue. A better translation might be "Master," as this word implies some sort of power over the speaker.
dho (tho) - a non-translatable linking term that indicates belonging... X dho Y translates as Y of X.
Tfarith (Charis) - the Fiery Waste The great desert in which the Charis people live. The word Charis refers to both the people and the desert in the human tongue.
tfallix (chalik) - forest or tree
Istfallix (Izchalik) - the Hidden Spirit Forest Also known as the Green Ocean in human tongue. This is the forest where the little folk traditionally made their homes.
llom (lom) - ear
udho (utho) - a shape much like the tip of a spear, must come to a point
udhollom (utholom) - pointy-eared
me (me) - love Usually carries a sexual connotation, but is sometimes used for intense liking of a non-sexual, non-romantic bent that the speaker simply does not understand.
oth (os) - a prefix that indicates an immoral and/or socially unacceptable usage or instance of the word it is attached to
othme (osme) - perversion Sometimes translated as "love in a bad way" for humor value, particularly when referring to elves.
Othmetfallix (Osmechallik) - would be "abnormal sexual fascination with trees" if used in a normal conversation. This term is used almost exclusively to refer to the elven race.
xith (kis) - horse
Mexith (Mekis) - love of horses In this case the love is something that the Charis people feel is a difficult to understand fascination, and not sexual (sexual desire for horses would be othmexith because it is considered socially unacceptable to have sexual desire for a horse if one is not a horse oneself). Like Othmetfallix, Mexith is used almost exclusively when referring to the human race.
xu (ku) - to be feared This particular prefix is used only when referring to the Kushi. Other, less special, types of fear are shown with different word parts, and any word containing xu is seen as the greatest horror a Charis could possibly conceive of.
qsi (shi) - the unknown
Xuqsi (Kushi) - the terrifying unknown Often translated as simply "mysterious," this is one of the most misrepresented Charis words in existence. This word conveys to a Charis the entire range of fear, confusion, and lack of knowledge/understanding that they feel when faced with a Kushi. But, as the Charis have never managed to convey that same meaning to any human, most of the meaning of the word Xuqsi is lost when translated.

...Honestly, now that I re-read the vocabulary section, I wish I remembered at least something about what I intended with this. But I don't. ^_^;

...Pointy-eared Bastards Who Love Trees in a Bad Way. ...The fact that that phrase still has me giggling is yet another sign that I never really matured past junior high. ^_^;; (Though I know for sure that this isn't that old. The document was created in September of 2005.)

fun with language!

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