A Conlang is a portmanteau of “constructed language” and refers to a language that has been purposely constructed, including the phonology, the grammar, and vocabulary. Conlangs are used a lot in many different works of science fiction and fantasy. Some of the best known conlangs are Tolkien’s elvish (link: https://www.elfdict.com/) and Klingon (link: https://www.kli.org/) from Star Trek. There are dozens of conlangs that can be found in literature and in film/ television.
The elvish language used in the Constable Inspector Lunaria Adventures is a type of conlang. Now, we are far, far away from actually having the elvish that is used in our books from being anything close to a real conlang. What we have created is a bunch of vocabulary words that we sprinkle into the novels, like so much seasoning, to add linguistic flavor to our stories and give them more life. But who knows, maybe someday a dedicated fan will take our smattering of words and create a real language. That’s what Dr. Marc Okrand did with Klingon. (link: https://www.kli.org/about-klingon/klingon-history/)
So, while nobody is probably going to start speaking our version of elvish in anything close to a true language, we wanted to share some of the words we have created that add to the linguistic side of our worldbuilding. Our elven language started way back in 2005 with random words created using the help of a very early version of the LangMaker software (link: https://langmaker.github.io/langmake/) to help us create the Ados: Land of Strife RPG setting. Since that very early beginning, we have added to the language, often pulling words from other languages (like German and Latin), and making changes to them to fit elvish spelling.
Most of the letters in our elvish have similar sounds to English and other European languages. We like to use “Pf” instead of just “f” in many words (the “p” is silent), and we also tend to string a lot of vowels together in words. In some, like “ae” the vowels become a diphthong to make a sound like “aye” (like a sailor acknowledging an order). If a word has 3 vowels together, like “Áeo” like in the word “Áeorias” the vowel sounds would be “aye” with a long “o” sound that blends into the “r”. “Aye-or-ee-as” (4 syllables.) If the same vowel is repeated in the word, like “aa” or “ee” or “ii”, it has the long vowel sound from English.
We don’t expect that people will become experts in our version of elvish. Sometimes we have problems remembering what the “rules” are for speaking it ourselves. But we hope that this will help you better read the words when you come across them in our books.
A select list of elvish vocabulary:
English | Elvish | Pronunciation |
and | pfa | fah |
antsy | anseii | an-see-eye |
blood | bloed | bl-ohd |
blooded | bloeden | bl-oh-den |
elf | pfeta | fee-tah |
elves | pfeten | fee-ten |
good | reis | [rīs] (like rice) |
good day | reis se | [rīs] see |
good evening | reis inellen | [rīs] in-ellen |
good morning | reis hoestii | [rīs] hoe-steye |
good night | reis naeht | [rīs] naye-ght |
half-blood | halpbloed | halp-bl-ohd |
half-blooded | halpbloeden | halp-bl-oh-den |
hello | alvoe | al-voh |
hi (hey) | voe | voh |
holy, sacred | sai | s-eye |
I'm sorry | pfe'l ghelred | f-eel gh-eel-red |
knight | knehtlaar | neht-lar |
magic | pfedai | fee-day |
morning (dawn to noon) | hoestii | hoh-stee |
new elf / new elven | napfeta | na-fee-tah |
no | nu | nuu |
not elven | nul Pfeta | nul fee-tah |
of | fey | f-aye |
please, you're welcome | doséth | doh-seth |
tavern, bar, pub | kniipen | kn-eye-pen |
teach | sháda | sh-ay-dah |
teacher | shádost | sh-ay-dohst |
teacher of magic | shádost fey pfedai | sh-ay-dohst fee-day |
thank (express gratitude toward) | Áeorias | aye-or-ee-as |
yes | Áree | a-ree |
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