Let's Speak Trokh!

[robject]

Trokh is a polysynthetic 'ritual/trade' interlingua spoken by Aslan everywhere. Here are some useful phrases.

Ke'waitaitlaiye! Greetings!
Yayeilao. Pardon me.

Tiya'e... Where is...
...khtirtyu? the/a pub?
...Lifakhtyu? the Hiring Hall?
...Sa'ityu? the Trader's Guild?
...Hketoyetyu? the TAS Hostel?

Yei'iu'e. It's here.
Yei'ekaosiy. It's over there.

Aikhar / Aokhar. I [m] understand you [m/f].
Yeikhar / Yaokhar. I [f] understand you [m/f].

Aii'khar / Aoi'khar. I [m] don't understand you [m/f].
Yeii'khar / Yaoi'khar. I [f] don't understand you [m/f].

Aiyeawl lyryeh roue'hao. I [m] have twenty credits.

In the following examples, I show how one center particle changes the sense of the question.

Tloaeiayeiwyoea. What's the price quote?
Tloaeiayeikhawyoea. What's this ridiculous price you're trying to foist on me/us?
Tloaeiayeihtaraiwyoea. What price are we getting nowhere on deciding on then?
Tloaeiayeihtowaawyoea. What's the price you say it should be?
Tloaeiayeihliaewyoea. What's the price (that we're working out)?
Tloaeiayeiwaowyoea. What's the final price then?
Tloaeiayeifyawyoea. What's the price (I'm joining in on the haggling)?

 

[robject]

My assumption: I pronounce the apostrophe (') as a glottal stop. It might be something else instead, like a pitch-accent.

 

[Garnfellow]

Love it. Probably the most important phrases for the average Hisol’i in Aslan space would be apologies.

 

[robject]

Love it. Probably the most important phrases for the average Hisol’i in Aslan space would be apologies.

That's a good point. So, let's work on apologies in Trokh.

How about one that is based on saying "I am not civilized" by way of excuse.

stem: /wihtea/ "to be civilized"
negative: i'wihtea, to be not-civilized

prefixes, in order:
indicative: Ke'-
1st person singular (male): ai-

So a simple version is Ke'aii'wihtea, I am uncivilized. But why stop there?

locative out of sight, "unsightly": raoua-

suffixes, in order:
-kaola "a lot", very much
-riht always / continual / eternal

For a grand total of:


Ke'airaouai'wihteakaolariht. I am a very unsightly, perpetual, incurable barbarian.

 

[Timerover51]

You are not speaking it, you are typing it, and maybe making up the translations.

Let us hear you speak it.

 

[robject]

You are not speaking it, you are typing it, and maybe making up the translations.

Let us hear you speak it.

Hmmm, maybe I should figure out what the Aslan have to say about smartasses.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

Hmmm, maybe I should figure out what the Aslan have to say about smartasses.

I believe that would rather depend upon the gender of the Aslan in question. A female would have something to say about it, while a male would be more inclined to do (or, rather, dewclaw) something about it.

 

[Timerover51]

Hmmm, maybe I should figure out what the Aslan have to say about smartasses.

That is your option. Tolkien developed several languages for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, Elvish being the one probably most thoroughly developed. Elvish can be spoken, and was spoken in the movie version of the book. Online dictionaries and English to Elvish translations exist, and can be found online. Dwarvish has considerable Old English and Norse influences it in, but again can be viewed as a consistent languages.

I am simply asking that if you wish to speak Aslan, you give it the same systematic treatment that Tolkien did for his languages. In the Classic Aslan Module that came on the Classic CD, Aslan word generation comprises a single page, page 27, and is done using die rolls, starting with the number of syllables in the word. Using that, I could readily come up with my own version of Aslan, assign English translations to the individual words, but have no basis for grammar, sentence structure, verb usage, are there feminine and masculine forms of the adjectives and adverbs and verbs, what prepositions might be used, if any, in short, all of the additional basics of a language.

Having studied Egyptian Hieroglyphics, I can write a grammatically correct sentence in Ancient Egyptian, and with difficulty speak it, with the sentence being understood by another person with a knowledge of Ancient Egyptian. Whether my pronunciation would be understood by an Ancient Egyptian is another matter. I should alson note that my professor in Hieroglyphics could sight read them and translate them into English on the fly.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

My assumption: I pronounce the apostrophe (') as a glottal stop. It might be something else instead, like a pitch-accent.

If I remember correctly, Trokh phonemes are said to be both egressive and ingressive in nature. That is, some are spoken while exhaling, others while inhaling. If so, then perhaps the apostrophes are diacritical markings indicating a respiration shift that would otherwise go unnoted.

 

[robject]

I am simply asking that if you wish to speak Aslan, you give it the same systematic treatment that Tolkien did for his languages.

Oh! I misunderstood your post, then. You're asking if this is based on a grammar. It is, and I have a starting point for a grammar sketched out, just enough to be able to build some grammatical phrases. Tiny, but extant.


The reason I misunderstood you, is because of course Trokh not only looks impossibly strange to prounounce, but it is intended to not be easily humanly pronounceable.

You can understand then why I took your previous post that way. By asking me to speak aloud the words, it sounded like you were essentially asking me to do something you knew couldn't quite be done.

 

[robject]

I've attached my Trokh grammar, such as it is, to the original post.

 

[robject]

What is your name?
Tloaei-yei-kto'yu-tlaiye?

My name is _____.
Ai-kto'tu-tlaiye _____.

 

[robject]

PDF updated in original post.