GRAMMAR OF THE SYLVAN LANGUAGE
This is probably not the most interesting stuff, but grammar is necessary, even for imaginary languages. But I have purposefully kept it laughably simple, mostly for my own convenience. Besides, few among the Fairies want to bother with too complicated grammar rules, so they don't have any.
Making Sentences
There should probably be rules for this. But so far I just follow the rules of english. So you merely write the sentence in english, then translate all the words, and voila. This may or may not be altered later.
Short words
These are short words that are used a lot. They should eventually get their own page, or be integrated into the dictionary, but for now they're stuck here:
English Sylvan
And O
Or I
To Y
From Ye
But Ka
Not U
For He
Over Vel
Under Vol
More No
Less Nu
In Pe
Out Po
High Vele
Low Volo
On Ver
Off Vur
Of Var
Re- Je-
The -s (added to the end of the word)
Pronouns
English Sylvan
I (me) Me (Be)
You Ma (Ba)
She (her) Fea (Bea)
He (him) Fena (Bena)
It Voa (Boa)
We (us) Mea (?)
You Mab
They (f) Feab
They (m) Fenab
Possessive
My (Mine) Mel (Bel)
Your (Yours) Mal (Bal)
Her (Hers) Feal (Beal)
His (His) Fenal (Benal)
Its Voal (Boal)
Our (Ours) Meal (?)
Your (Yours) Mabel (Babel)
Theirs (f) Feabel (Beabel)
Theirs (m) Fenabel (Benabel)
Examples:
"My tree" would be
"Mel mi"
"The tree is mine" would be
"Mis feli bel"
Questionary words (words you use in questions)
Who Ge
What Goo
Where Gav
When Gal
Why Gle
How Gef
To ask a question without using a question-word, like
"Do you dance?", you merely exchange the first letter of the verb into a
"G". So the above question would be
"Ma Gilu?", which is basically
"You dance?"
Verbs
Most of the verbs are regular and follow a set pattern. To change the verb to another time, merely add the correct wowel to the end of the word. It's pretty easy, just watch:
Examples:
To Be Fel
Is Fel
I
Was Fel
O
Has Been Fel
U
Will Be Fel
A
Being Fel
IR
To Have Miril
Has Miril
I
Had Miril
O
Have Had Miril
U
Will Have Miril
A
Having Miril
IR
Plurality
Sylvan has a bit more complex plurality rules than English. While English has singular and plural forms, Sylvan has singular,
dual and plural. Which means that you have separate versions of "A tree", "Two trees" and "Many trees".
Singular: As written. "A tree" is merely "Mi", as listed in the dictionary.
Dual: A "-p" is added to the end of the word. "A petal" is "Sei", while "Two petals" becomes "Seip". If the word ends in "p", you add "-ip" instrad. This is also the case if the last two letters are already consonants.
Plural:A "-b" is added to the end of the word. "Trees" becomes "Mib". If the word ends on a "b", you add "-ib" instead. This is also the case if the last two letters are already consonants.
Numbers
The fey numeric system is based not upon ten, like ours is, but upon five. This means that they count like this: One, two, three, four, five, eleven, twelwe, thirteen, fourteen, etc, so what they call 'eleven' equals what we call six.
The naming system for the numbers is very simple. The numbers one to five have names. The next five numbers have the same names but with a prefix. This prefix changes each five numbers, just like we go from 'twenty' to 'thirty' to 'forty' every ten numbers. Clumsily explained, but perhaps it gets easier to understand by looking at the list:
1 Mimo
2 Mimeb
3 Sesa
4 Sesob
5 Seib
6 NeMimo
7 NeMimob
8 NeSesa
9 NeSesob
10 NeSeib
11 NaMimo
16 NoMimo
21 VeMimo
26 VoMimo
31 LeMimo
36 LoMimo
41 LuMimo
46 LaMimo
Back to the
Sylvan Language
Back to the
Seelie court.
Stumble!