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| Xoroho Hellspeaker |
The many examples of Darktongue words and nouns found in the canonical sources show that Darktongue follows a familiar pattern of (mostly) CV and CVC syllables. In terms of pronunciation, all we have is American English approximations, for instance here on the glorantha.com web-site. Initial “X”, for instance, looks like it is pronounced [z], and most words are paroxytones, so the name of our friend Xoroho here is probably pronounced zo-RO-ho.
So, anyway, what I have done is I have taken all Uz names and words I have been able to find in the various canonical sources and I have broken them down into syllables. The syllables are listed here. The idea is to freely recombine them so as to create new Darktongue names and words.
A few elements are personal additions, like:
- Making a distinction between initial x- and initial z-, which induces a slight pronunciation difference
- Considering that many finals are actually the same sound, and that Greg Stafford has transcribed them differently because of the difficulty of transcribing Darktongue into American English
- Transforming the expected sound into something else (for fun)
- Considering that Darktongue <s> is slightly different (again, for fun)
Some sounds and/or syllables are hapax legomena, e.g., <f>; you may want not to use them.
Darktongue Sound & Syllable List
a [a]Ca CaC ar Car Cang Can aC az a
b, initial [b]
ba bang bar bas be beer bi bo bom boom bor boz bu
b, final [b]
ab clob glob zub
ch, initial [t͡ʃ]
chak chur
d, initial [d]
da dag dar de dee dem den do dol dood
d, final [d]
dood glod ud
e [e]
e en eC Ce Cem Cen Cer CeC Ceッ
ee [i:]
ee beer meel Cee
f, final [f]
zaf (hapax legomenon)
g, initial [g]
ga gag gan gar ge ger gic gig go gor gork gu
g, final [g]
dag gag gig kag kog rag trag twag xag xig
h, initial [h]
han he hi ho hom hor hy
i [i]
i in gic yil Ci Cig Cik Cing
j, initial [d͡ʒ]
jak jes
k, initial [k]
ka kag kan kang kar karth kat ke kee ker keッ ki ko kog ku kurz ky
k, final [k]
chak drok gic jak lak mook rak ric
gl/kr, initial [ɢ/q]
clob cro gla glob glod kro
ch, final [q]
gork tuch
l, initial [l]
la lak lar le lee len li lo loッ
l, final [l]
dol mal meel ol yil
m, initial [m]
ma mal man mar mee meel mi mo mon mook mor
m, final [m]
bom boom den han hom um xem
n, initial [n]
na nee no
n, final [n]
an den en gan in kan len man mon oon ran ron xen
ng, final [ŋ]
bang kang ting zong
o [o]
cro kro ol xio Co Com Con Cong Cor CoC Coッ
oo [u:]
boom dood mook oon
ow [o:]
tow
p [p]
pa pand pi
qu, initial [kw]
quar
r, initial [r]
ra rag rak ran ras re ree rer ri ric ro ron ror ruz
r, final [r]
ar Car Cer Ceer Cor Cur
s, initial [sˤ]
sli so su
s, final [sˤ]
bas jes ras tas
t, initial [t]
ta tas ting tor tow tuch
t, final [t]
et kat
th/tr, initial [tˤ]
drok tha trag tro twag
rth/rz, final [tˤ]
karth kurz pand
u [u]
chur kurz ruz tuch ud um uz zub Cu
v [v]
va var vo vu
x, initial [zˤ]
xag xem xen xi xig xio xo
y, consonant [j]
ya yil
y, vowel [aɪ]
hy ky
z, initial [z]
zaf zar zo zong zu zub
z, final [z]
az boz ez ruz uz
zh, initial [ʒ]
zha
gemination, final†
keッ loッ
†Notes
Square brackets [ ] indicate the IPA pronunciation
ッ means the following syllable starts with a double consonant; cannot occur at the end of words
C indicates any consonant
V indicates any vowel
The following don't sound particularly Darktongue, I have considered them as hapax legomena:
- Gothant, Iverd, Orshad (three trollkin names from Pavis and Big Rubble)
- Syllables with an initial w- (Degla Wat and Heka Iwog, Dark Trolls, Griffin Mountain)
