InsaneJournal

Language

Gnomic Spoken Here
The Languages of Ella Enchanted
-Gail Carson Levine-

I made up the different languages because I liked the ones that JRR Tolkien invented in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you examine mine closely, you'll see that each one looks a bit different, and each one has a distinctive sound. Gnomic is punctuated and capitalized backward. When you speak Gnomic, you find yourself using the back of your throat a lot. You could even wind up with a sore throat! The Abdegi alphabet has fewer letters than we have in ours. Abdegi has all our vowels, but only hard consonants, like k and b. No f or s. The name of their language is its first six letters. Since the giants are such emotional creatures, noises that express their feelings, such as screeches, whistles, and howls, are part of their speech. Ogrese is sneaky, just like the ogres. It sounds soft and pretty. When you read it you'll notice that double letters are capitalized. Elfian is phonetically like English. It's simply nonsense words. Every word in Ayorthaian starts with a vowel and ends with the same vowel. I had to pay attention to this years later when I wrote Fairest, which takes place in Ayortha. In fact it was a challenge. All the Ayorthaian names had to follow the rule, and yet I didn't want them to be strange and hard to remember. Sometimes, when I give a speech, I end by saying "Thank you" in each of the languages. The five expressions below mean thank you. I had to be inventive with the Ogrese one, because ogres are not polite, so I had to come as close as I could. Gnomic: .pwich usoch wadjezZ Abdegi: Aiiiee (howl) aaau! Elfian: Cadsu (Literally, Trees.) Ayorthaian: Abensa egralve uffubensu. Ogrese: Forns mnar psySSahbuSS. (Literally, It is delicious.) Below is a running glossary I kept as I wrote the book. I didn't always keep it up to date, so there may be omissions and also words that got cut from the final book. If you match up the words with the sentences, you'll notice that I didn't pay much attention to the grammar!

ABDEGI-ENGLISH aaau: you aiiiee: I bek: already ooo: miss

ENGLISH-ABDEGI I: aiiiee already: bek miss: ooo you:aaau

GNOMIC-ENGLISH abach: with achoed: ore achoedach: baby gnome; gnome child achvudzz: food adh: its aooyeh: to go aphchuz: a place azzaqk: honorable azzoogh: my brzzay: digging choch: exclamation, like "oh!" or "oh my!" or even "eek!" choe: the Chulph: the name of the young gnome dh: is dulk: soul dyzzoch: make dyzzocha: makes ech: not, negative echachoed: human (literally, not gnome) echachoedachi: human girl child eejh: under eerth: and evtoogh: good (for) fraech: mother fraechlu: queen fraechramm: grandmother fwthchor: health glydzz: heart iqkwo: until noch: into oawk: a och: as olech: brother Plogh!: Look! pwach: we pwich: I want ssyngwyff: ogre szhoegh: gem toolk: earth ubaech: gold ufedjee: again uochludwaach: the hills of wexjhatz: polishing xicq: spoke ych: about ymmadboech: wealth yuigh: iron zchoak: home zimmzchedH: Gnome Caverns

ENGLISH-GNOMIC a: oawk about: ych again: ufedjee and: eerth a place: aphchuz as: och baby gnome; gnome child: achoedach brother: olech digging: brzzay earth: toolk exclamation, like "oh!" or "oh my!" or even "eek!": choch! food: achvudzz gem: szhoegh Gnome Caverns: zimmzchedH gold: ubaech good (for): evtoogh grandmother: fraechramm health: fwthchor heart: glydzz home: zchoak honorable: azzaqk human (literally, not gnome): echachoed human girl child: echachoedachi into: noch iron: yuigh is: dh its: adh I want: pwich Look!: Plogh! make: dyzzoch makes: dyzzocha mother: fraech my: zzoogh not, negative: ech ogre: ssyngwyff ore: achoed polishing: wexjhatz queen: fraechlu soul: dulk spoke: sicq the: choe the hills of: uochludhwaach the name of the young gnome: Chulph to go: aooyeh under: eejh until: iqkwo we: pwach wealth: ymmadboech with: abach

OGRESE-ENGLISH Aah: do ahFF: little ahmyNN: my ahthOOn: much (lots of) ehf: for eMMong: be ethSSif: are told forns: it frah: stole freh: stealing hahj: what hiFFeMM: forgive hijyNN: dinner ismyNN: we jhOOng: girl MMeu: come myNN: me; I ngah: here ohrth: always OOnger: any psySSahbuSS: delicious SShrEE: did you SSyng: eat suSS: and szEE: you thash: when thOOsh: swear uiv: will whadz: know

ENGLISH-OGRESE always: ohrth and: suSS any: OOnger are told: ethSSif be: eMMong come: MMeu delicious: psySSahbuSS did you: SShrEE dinner: hijyNN do: AAh eat: SSyng for: ehf forgive: hiFFeMM girl: jhOOng here: ngah it: forns know: whadz little: ahFF me; I: myNN much (lots of): ahthOOn my: ahmyNN stealing: freh stole: frah swear: thOOsh we: ismyNN what: hahj when: thash will: uiv you: szEE

ELFIAN-ENGLISH cadsu: trees en: is ep: before faineb: leaves ol: in pess: the poe: your sot: count ud: he vib: stay waddo: shade wattill: sly

ENGLISH-ELFIAN before: ep count: sot he: ud in: ol is: en leaves: faineb shade: waddo sly: wattill stay: vib the: pess trees: cadsu your: poe

AYORTHAIAN-ENGLISH abensa: I anja: to meet ascha: deep asura: this ecete: is edanse: behave ee: the evtame: school ischi: light iffibensi: they ii: a inyi: my iqui: and ockommo: speak (as a language) oyjento: finishing ubensaru: your ubensu: you uhu: three utyu: like, am pleased

ENGLISH-AYORTHAIAN a: ii and: iqui behave: edanse deep: ascha finishing: oyjento I: abensa is: ecete light: ischi like, am pleased: utyu my: inyi school: evtame speak (as a language): ockommo the: ee they: iffibensi this: asura three: uhu to meet: anja you: ubensu your: ubensaru