Hinanesti: Revisiting My Previous Post
On reflection, I'm dissatisfied with my previous entry. Particularly the use of the male and female suffixes. Esenndi (elven) culture is pretty egalitarian where gender roles are concerned; there are some slight tendencies about who does what, but no firm rules. It's the Chaotic part of their alignment in action―everyone's free to pursue whatever career or path suits them as an individual, regardless of gender. So it stands to reason Esti would not have a lot of gendered nouns.
(And anyway, one of those "slight tendencies" is for ce'eseth (female elves) in positions of leadership.)
So, I'm gonna start over. Cor is still the root adjective, but let's say the modern common form is corin (/ˈkɒrɪn/), and it's gender-neutral. If you really need to specify a particular ruler's gender, the male or female suffix can be used like any other adjective, affixed to the end, or even the beginning if you want to especially emphasize it.
(Better have a good reason, though. The last time Queen Iolandë got pissed off, the Pomarj fell.)
That would make words like "kingship" and "kingly" gender-neutral as well: Corinthas and corinnyr, respectively.
Something else I decided was that there were too many things ending in th. So I changed the "-ness" suffix from -ryth to -(n)nil:
tel'Corin dil ent drii ent firennil
/tɛlˈkɒrɪn dil ɛnt driːɪ ɛnt ˈfɪrɛnɪl/
(the'queen of and air and dark-ness)
The Queen of Air and Darkness
(And anyway, one of those "slight tendencies" is for ce'eseth (female elves) in positions of leadership.)
So, I'm gonna start over. Cor is still the root adjective, but let's say the modern common form is corin (/ˈkɒrɪn/), and it's gender-neutral. If you really need to specify a particular ruler's gender, the male or female suffix can be used like any other adjective, affixed to the end, or even the beginning if you want to especially emphasize it.
(Better have a good reason, though. The last time Queen Iolandë got pissed off, the Pomarj fell.)
That would make words like "kingship" and "kingly" gender-neutral as well: Corinthas and corinnyr, respectively.
Something else I decided was that there were too many things ending in th. So I changed the "-ness" suffix from -ryth to -(n)nil:
- aelennil (/ˈeɪɨlˌɛnɪl/): n. greatness
- eirennil (/ˈɛərˌɛnɪl/): n. sharpness
- firennil (/ˈfɪrɛnɪl/): n. darkness
- ralennil (/ˈrɑːlɛnɪl/): n. brightness
tel'Corin dil ent drii ent firennil
/tɛlˈkɒrɪn dil ɛnt driːɪ ɛnt ˈfɪrɛnɪl/
(the'queen of and air and dark-ness)
The Queen of Air and Darkness