Speaking Haakish, Volume 1 (book)

Speaking Haakish, Volume I

Index

1. Alphabet and Phonology
2. Pronunciation
3. Accent
4. Nouns
5. Adjectives
6. Adverbs
7. Pronouns
8. Prepositions

1. ALPHABET AND PHONOLOGY

1a. The Dwarven runic alphabet contains the following letters (along with several "variants" created by two orthographic marks, the doubling mark and the W mark):

A (with variants AA and AW)
B
D (with variant DW)
E (with variants EE and EW)
F
G (with variant GW)
H
I (with variants II and IW)
K (with variant KW)
L
M
N
O (with variants OO and OW)
P
R (with variant WR)
S
T (with variant TW)
U (with variants UU and UW)
V

AE
CH
DH
KH
SH
TH

1b. Dwarven words should NOT have the following letters: C (except CH), J, Q, W (except in variants), X, Z.

1c. Sequences of unlike vowels: So standard Dwarven wouldn't have words with AI, AO, AU, EA, EI, EO, EU, IA, IE, IO, IU, OA, OE, OI, OU, UA, UE, UI, UO.

1d. Long consonantal clusters. Generally no more than two consonants will stand next to each other, but W and H don't count. So a word like "snaLTH" ["razor"] is fine since TH stands for a single consonant. There are some exceptions with clusters involving L and R (like "SKRadis" ["tailor"]). Longer clusters CAN stand when combining two base words. So "giMSTaan" ["gemstone"] is acceptable, coming from "gim" and "staan".

1e. In the standard writing of Dwarven, consonants are not doubled except as a result of compounding. There is, however, an old system of transliterating Dwarven into Common or Gamgweth which indicates a short vowel by doubling a single consonant that follows it. Long vowels were not written double as they are now. So the words that we now transliterate "mel" ["sphere"] and "meel" ["flour"] would have appeared in that system as "mell" and "mel" respectively. The newer system is more accurate and should always be followed, but acquaintance with the old system is necessary for any serious student of Haakish.

1f. The following combinations at the start of words are typically Dwarven: HL, HN, HR, HV, KV, SV, KN.

2. Sounds

The sounds of Haakish vary from location to location, though the pronunciation considered the most authentic by the Dwarves themselves is that of Kwarlog. The vast majority of Haakish speakers actually deviate from it to one degree or another and the pronunciation of Hibarnhvidar is the most widespread. Except as indicated, the pronunciations given below are those one would hear in Kwarlog.

2a. There are 6 vowels in Haakish, with 5 of the vowels having a long variant and a labial variant, for a total of 16 separate and distinct vowel sounds. In transliteration the long variant is written double (so "AA" for long "A") and the labial variant with a following W (so "AW" for labial "A"). AE has no variants.

2b. The short vowels are pronounced roughly as follows:
A - as in Common hard (often indistinguishable from O in Stone Clan)
E - as in Common pet
I - as in Common pin
O - as in Common caught
U - as in Common put
AE - as in Common hat (pronounced great by some speakers outside of Kwarlog)

2c. The long variants are pronounced as follows:
AA - as in Common father, but held slightly longer
EE - as in Common rain (sometimes written AI in Stone Clan)
II - as in Common seen (sometimes written EE in Stone Clan)
OO - as in Common go, but without a W sound at the end.
UU - as in Common moon

2c. The labial variants are pronounced as the short vowels with a noticeable rounding of the lips and W sound at the end. Speakers from Hibarnhvidar usually base the labial variant sounds on the long variant and as a result UU and UW are pronounced identically by them.

2d. The consonants sound very much like their counterparts in Common:
B - as in Common bed
D - as in Common door
DW variant - as in Common Dwarf
F - as in Common fold
G - as in Common gold, never like gem
GW variant - as in Gamgweth
H - as in Common house
K - as in Common kick
KW variant - as in Common quarter
L - as in Common loud
M - as in Common meat
N - as in Common need
P - as in Common peace
R - as in the Common roll (trilled by most speakers in all positions)
S - as in Common sit
T - as in Common tick
TW variant - as in Common tweed
V - as in Common valley
CH - as in Common church
DH - as in Common the
KH - as in Common loch
SH - as in Common shoe
TH - as in Common thing

3. ACCENT

3a. Haakish words are primarily accented on the first syllable. If the word has 4 or more syllables, there is also a secondary stress falling on every other syllable toward the end of the word. So HIbarnhVIdar, THUmalmer, LEKnistawf, AWthamBArad, and so on.

4. NOUNS

4a. Where there are nouns and verbs from the same root, the noun is distinguished by a lack of the final vowel. So "fnis" is "sneeze (noun)," "fnisa" is "to sneeze (verb)." Generally, other nouns tend to end in consonants, but not necessarily, so "eka" ["widow"].

4b. Nouns denoting agents are formed from verb stems by dropping the final vowel and adding -is. So "grima" ["to bite"] can be transformed into "grimis" ["biter"], "frake" ["to destroy"] into "frakis" ["destroyer"]. NOTE: Not all nouns that end in -is are of this origin.

4c. Nouns denoting implements can be formed similarly with the suffix -il. So "skova" ["to push"] becomes "skovil" ["an implement to push," i.e. "a shovel"], "delva" ["to dig"] becomes "delvil" ["an implement to dig, spade"]. NOTE: Not all nouns that end in -il are of this origin.

4d. Abstracts in -ur. So "kachur" ["quantity," lit. "muchness"] from "kach" ["much"].

4e. Diminutives in -li and -ili. So "munar" ["mouth"] becomes "munarli" ["kiss," lit. "little mouth"]. This is added after changes are made for plurals. Another common form of the diminutive is to reduplicate the first consonant of the word (not counting h if followed immediately by another consonant) and the first vowel. So "lehlek" ["small chain"] from hlek and "sested" ["little town"] from sted. H in SH, CH etc. does not appear in the reduplication. "kakhal" ["pebble"] from khal.

4f. The suffix -red = group. So stedis = "towner, citizen" stedred = "citizenry"

4g. Nouns change form only to indicate singular and plural forms and for no other reason. Some nouns change an internal vowel to reflect the distinction [cf. man vs. men in Common], some add a suffix [cf. cat vs. cats] and some make no change at all [cf. deer vs. deer].

4h. The vowel of the next-to-last syllable of a simple word determines the class into which the word falls. If the word has only one syllable, it's vowel determines the class.

If that vowel is an A vowel, it changes to the corresponding E vowel. So "sklar" ["color"] becomes "skler" ["colors"], "mawrdh" ["murder"] becomes "mewrdh" ["murders"] and "akhawa" ["lake"] becomes "akhewa" ["lakes"].

If that vowel is an O vowel, it becomes the corresponding I vowel. So "droten" ["slave, subject"] becomes "driten" ["slaves, subjects"], "sowk" ["crime"] becomes "siwk" ["crimes"], and so on.

If that vowel is an I or E vowel or AE, it remains unchanged, but the suffix -ren is added to the end of the word. If the word already ends in -r, then only an -n is added. So "twiv" ["doubt"] becomes "twivren" ["doubts"], "ferar" ["side"] becomes "ferarn" ["sides"] and "iik" ["oak"] becomes "iikren" ["oaks"].

If that vowel is a U vowel, it remains unchanged and no suffix is added. So "thugur" ["emotion"] and "thugur" ["emotions"].

VOWEL Changes To Suffix Added A, AA, AW E, EE, EW (none) O, OO, OW I, II, IW (none) I, II, IW, E, EE, EW, AE (No change) -ren U, UU, UW (No change) (none)

4i. All words that end in the suffixes -il and -is form their plurals by adding -ren and making no change to the vowel. See above, 4b and 4c.

4j. In a compound word the last word that makes up the compound determines the plural class. So "staanwrit" ["stonemason"] becomes "staanwritren" ["stonemasons"], not "steenwrit." "Okiskart" ["oxcart"] becomes "okiskert," not "ikiskart" or "okiskertren." In the first example, the last element is "writ," in the second it is "kart," and their appropriate plurals ("writren" and "kert") determine the plural for the whole compound. There are a few compound words which have lost the force of being compounds and are illogically made plural according to the standard rules, but these are relatively few.

5. ADJECTIVES

5a. Comparatives are formed with "mag," such as "mag har" ["higher," lit. "more high"]. Superlatives with "magast," so "magast har" ["highest," lit. "most high"].

5b. Adjectives can be formed from most nouns by suffixing -ik (after removing final vowels if necessary), so "gulth" ["gold'] can be made "gulthik" ["golden"]; but not all adjectives necessarily end in -ik and many are indistinguishable from nouns based on form. This process is reinforced by the fact that most nouns can be readily used as adjectives.

5c. Nouns ending in -il and -is (denoting tools and people/animals respectively) simply replace the final consonant with k to form adjectives. So "okis" ["cow"] can be transformed into "okik" ["bovine"].

6. ADVERBS

6a. Adverbs are formed from adjectives (and occasionally from nouns) by appending the suffix -gig (or -ig after words ending in -g or -k or some long consonantal clusters).

6b. Comparison of adverb is like that of adjectives (see 5a).

7. PRONOUNS

7a. The personal pronouns are as follows:

1st person singular - ag ["I/me"] 2nd person singular - darg ["you"] 3rd person singular masculine - en ["he/him"] 3rd person singular feminine - til ["she/her"] 3rd person singular neuter - aal ["it"] 1st person plural - vir ["we/us"] 2nd person plural - derg ["you"] 3rd person plural - enren ["they/them"]

7b. There are two archaic forms which are found in older texts. They are: 3rd person plural feminine - tilren ["they (i.e., those females)/them"] 3rd person plural neuter - eel ["they (i.e., those things)/them"] "Tilren" and "eel" have generally dropped out of use, "enren," which was originally only the masculine 3rd person plural pronoun, is now used in all cases.

7c. The personal relative pronouns are "gwen" ["who/whom"] and "gwal" ["what, which"], the former having an animate or personified antecedent, the latter an inanimate one. There is no separate genitive form corresponding to Common "whose." Rather, one simply uses "ut gwen."

7d. The interrogative personal pronouns (and adjectives) are identical to the relative personal pronouns, so "Gwen?" ["Who?"], "Gwal?" ["What?"], "Ut Gwen?" ["Whose?"], etc.

7e. The intensive personal pronouns are formed by prefixing tos- to the personal pronouns. So "tosag" ["I myself, me myself"], "tosdar" ["you yourself, you yourself"], etc. The appropriate form can also follow a noun, for instance, "Kertigen tosen..." ["Kertigen himself..."].

7f. The reflexive pronouns (which refer back to the subject of the sentence) of all but the third person plural are formed by suffixing -tos to the personal pronouns: "agtos" ["myself"], "dartos" ["yourself"], etc. The reflexive pronoun of "enren" is the irregular "entros." [The archaic feminine "tiltros" is also found.]

7g. The definite article has a single form: "sa."

7h. The indefinite article has a single form: "nin."

7i. The demonstrative pronouns "hin" ["this"] and "dath" ["that"] are also used as adjectives. Similarly used is what one grammarian termed the "impatient demonstrative" "hindath" which can be translated either "this" or "that" depending on the context, but which implies that the listener knows (or more precisely, should know) to what the speaker refers.

7j. The indefinite pronouns "stundan" ["someone"] and "stundil" ["something"] contain the prefix "stund-" which appears also in the adjective "stundik" ["some"]. It is not, however, a productive prefix otherwise and, in fact, originally meant something like "occasion, occurrence."

8. PREPOSITIONS

8a. The most common prepositions in Haakish are:
aft - after
aftar - behind
anfar - upon
at - to
atvard - toward
bi(n) - concerning
du(n) - against
endan - contrary to
faar - from
far - above)
fawr - by
ga(n) - in
ganat - into
hind - on behalf of
hnuur - around
indal - beyond
khil - according to
knar - off
mit - through
nak - near
suun - with
svot - on
thand - owing to, thanks to, on account of, etc.
uf - under
ufar - over
und - up
ut - of
vut - at

8b. The prepositions bi, du and ga have the forms bin, dun and gan before words beginning with a vowel.

8c. The definite and indefinite articles are commonly omitted after a preposition. So "ga sa drift" and "ga drift" are both acceptable for "in the gallery," though nothing but context will tell one whether "ga drift" represents "ga sa drift" or "ga nin drift."

8d. All of the prepositions can also, where appropriate, be used as adverbs: "En vare nak," "He is near" and "En vare nak hol," "He is near the cave." Likewise in compound verbs: "Til attika atmaarg," "She will arrive tomorrow," from "at" ("to") and "tika" ("come"). Compare "Aal dweere nak dath stad," ("It stood near that place"), "Aal dweere nak," ("It stood nearby") and "Aal nakdweere, ("It stood nearby," literally, "It near- stood.").