This article summarizes what is understood about Ayleidoon (sometimes known as Elvish[1]), the language used by the Ayleids.
Ayleidoon Origins and AftermathEdit
The language of the Ayleids, like other Elven languages, shares a common ancestry with the Aldmeris language. Because of this, Ayleidoon shares many words with the other languages of Mer, such as "Bal", which means "stone" in both Dark Elvish and Ayleidoon. These qualities are only present between the languages of Mer.
In the aftermath of the Alessian Slave Rebellion, as the Ayleids migrated and split up, distinct regional dialects began to form. The language of Men (modern Cyrodilic or Tamrielic) appears to have been partially based on the dialect of Ayleidoon found in Cyrodiil, resulting in that variant being referred to as "Old Cyrodilic". Another variation that arose was unique to the Ayleids who lived in Valenwood, possibly influenced by the cultural exchange between the Ayleids and the local Bosmer.[2][3]
Ayleid SettlementsEdit
Below are the names (and their translated meanings, where available) of all known Ayleid settlements throughout Tamriel.
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Ayleid GrammarEdit
- Possesive Case: When referring to something's ownership of an object, an "e" is added to the end of the noun. This applies no matter where the noun is placed in relation to the object in question. For example, "Umarile Abasel" would translate to "Umaril's Forbidden Hall." "[The] Forbidden Hall of Umaril", however, would translate to "Abasel av Umarile". Notice that the added "e" is often used after the preposition "av" when denoting possession, although this is seemingly not always the case.
- Plurals: When referring to more than one object, an "i" is added to the end of the word. For example, "Sel" ("hall") becomes "Seli" ("halls"). The ending "is" is added to words that end in vowels such as "varla" which means star becoming "Varlais" meaning stars. This can also be seen in "brelye" meaning beech tree and its plural "brelyeis" meaning beech trees. Using this logic "mora" meaning a wood should become "morais" meaning woods.
- Compound Words: The Ayleid language is largely composed of compound words. These words are typically a combination of adjective + noun or noun + noun. In the latter case of two nouns (Noun1Noun2), it is normally safe to assume that the word means "Noun2 of Noun1", as in the word "Ceysel" ("shadow"+"hall"), which translates to "Hall of Shadow." When a compound word becomes plural, the normal rules apply. Note that "i" at the end of a word in a compound only denotes plurality of the word it is placed after. For example, the word "Laloriaran" is made up of the words "La" ("time"), "Lor"("dark") and "Aran"("King"). The "i" at the end of "Lori" presumably denotes plural. This means that "Lalori" becomes "dark times" instead of "dark time", which would be "Lalor". "Laloriaran" therefore means "King in dark times".
- Imperatives: In the Ayleid language, imperative verbs generally have "-voy" as a suffix. Sometimes, the imperative is identical to the infinitive.
- Definite Article The Ayleid language does not normally use a definite article. Therefore, "aran" might mean "a king" or "the king". However, when a definite noun is part of an adverbial phrase, particularly after an imperative verb, the article "an" can be added before the noun (e.g. "Epevoy an anyadena pado an sunnand", "Speak the life-treaty before the blessed-stone")*.
- * "An" should be read as "the" when translated, but the two words might not be entirely synonymous.
Ayleid DictionaryEdit
Below is a list of known Ayleid words that were, for the most part, extracted from the names of ruins found in Cyrodiil. Definitions are provided when known. Because of the large number of compound words in the Ayleid language, many words in the list will have similar parts.
AEdit
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BEdit
CEdit
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DEdit
EEdit
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FEdit
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GEdit
HEdit
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IEdit
JEdit
KEdit
LEditMEdit
NEditOEdit
PEdit
REdit
SEditTEditVEdit
GalleryEditNotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive. |