Necrontyr (language)

Introduction

The Necrontyr language is the unified-language of the former population of the planet Naogeddon, and the surrounding space. In its present form, it is a flowing language used for high level internal commerce, cultural discourse and legal terminology in the Necrontyr Empire of the C'tan. The language has no common roots whatsoever with human languages, except in some crossovers of nouns. It is generally expected that all children be given a working grasp of the language (among the various others used in the nation) upon leaving mandatory education. Despite this, only a small proportion of the population use the language conversationally, except in special circumstances. Of special note is a broad technical vocabulary with highly specific and concise terms for many obscure phenomena, for this reason, it is commonly used as the linga-franca in the fields of scientific endeavour throughout the empire. There are also many Necrontyr speakers in the nation of Menelmacar, where the language has less official roles, but it still retains some uses to the people.

The extensive history of the language throughout its long period of development results in an archive of ancient archaisms rarely used in present speech that is many times more voluminous than the vocabulary actually in use. Most words, especially nouns, have changed unrecognisably since the language's inception as a generalised species-wide language in around 202,000,000 BCE. Divergent dialects have usually been reabsorbed into the mainstream language over time as the reasons for their divergence (such as geographical or ideological isolation) are resolved, or the new languages decline in use to extinction. Such languages include night-Necrontyr, a group of dialects used by long-haul space-voyagers before the development of Faster-than-Light travel, and Syvaxir, a language used on the formerly isolated world of Syvax IV.

Today, the Necrontyr, and also other C’tani nationals for the reasons cited above use necrontyr, but also as a deliberate means of exclusion of foreigners from conversation use the language. This is especially common (though by no means universally effective) when citizens wishing to discuss matters in private wish to retain the convenience of foreign servants, such as the large number of guest-workers, most commonly from Pilon, employed in service roles in the country, being on-hand. It is also used as the solitary language of almost all high-level government secrets, due to the dense nature of the high-necrontyr script, and the inability of even most necrontyr to read this script. Similarly, most weapons and combat vehicles bear interfaces and instructions only in this language to prevent easy comprehension by outsiders. It is also used as a computer programming language, as there is an extensive knowledge base of natural-language-programming in all dialects of Necrontyr.

Technical Details

Necrontyr possesses a morphology that occasionally dictates odd alphabetical structures. In general, the anglicised form of the language (necrontyr transcribed into English lettering, a common enough form, especially used by those unfamiliar with the divergent typographical sets of the language) has the following alphabet:

ABCDEHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWY

With the following vowels:

AEHIORU

R is considered a vowel due to its extreme popularity in short morphemes, such as Rn, a poetic word (the modern form is Ra) meaning Lord or Master, depending on context, and generally used as a suffix to names or titles, such as.

However, this alphabet is by no means exhaustive, and there is a robust base of characters in each script to represent practically phonetics that may be made by necrontyr, and many archaic terms use an almost entirely different alphabet. An example of this would be the archaism C'vó, a term used for asteroids, specifically those in a dense belt orbiting a star in a broadly circular fashion, as opposed to other forms including clouds and diffuse orbital structure groupings.

Sample Verbs and Conjugation

Present Tense Regular Verb Conjugation:

Regular verbs are conjugated by their endings. In general, the infinitive and personal cases are identical, ending in an -a. It should be noted that it is optional but unfashionable (except where speech or text flows better with such an addition of course) to include a term such as I when using verbs like this. 'Icia' suffices for 'I am' as well as 'A icia' (the use of A as both the suffix and as the term for 'I' is believed to be co-incidental, with both emerging separately). Such matters generally fall under the purview of personal preference.

-a - Icia – Infinitive

-a - Icia – I am
-ad - Iciad – You are
-an - Ician – He/It is
-in - Icin – She/It is
-se –icise – We are
-sä –icisä – You are
-san –icisan – They are
-sin –icisin – They (All female) are, obsolete.
Also possible are affixations such as
-dn - Icidn - One is.
-jid - Icijid - It (derogative) is.
-it -Icït - Be (Imperative)

Ä - The ä character represents a double ä, but this is unappealing to necrontyr, and is so generally contracted into a slightly different glyph in text. Icisä, for example, can be acceptably (if not nicely) written as Icisaa. Ï is the same, a double i.

Other sample verbs:
Aca - To be, obsolete.
Arisa - To Forgive
Asana - To Eat
Belda - To Go, obsolete
Eana - To Love (Romantically or Personally, subject is male)
Eiana - To Love (Romantically or Personally, subject is female)
Ejina - To Love (An object)
Eyralia - To Dwell
Haira - To See
Hera - To Go
Helmia - To Hear
Hesta - To Want
Issia - To Have
Itara - To Write
Jaera -To Make
Menda - To Move
Nelata - To Think

Irregular Verbs:

Venat - To Kneel Helanral – To Hear (alternate)

Venat is an example of the simple 'First Alternative' Irregularity. It conjugates so:

-at - Venat – Infinitive

-at - Venat – I kneel
-adt - Venadt – You kneel
-ant - Venant – He/It kneels
-int - Venint – She/It kneels, obsolete in this tense
-set –Venset – We kneel
-säs –Vensäs – You kneel
-sand –Vensand – They kneel
-sind –Vensind – They (All female) kneel, obsolete.
----
-dnt - Icidn - One kneels.
-jidt - Icijid - It (derogative) kneels.
-it -Venit - Kneel (imperative)

Helanral is an example of a more complex irregularity, and is an older form of verb dating to a period where efforts were made to simplify verb conjugation and is retained in modern language because it uses the same morpheme as 'ear' making it more quickly learnt by children. It conjugates so:

-al -Helanral – Infinitive

-al -Helanral – I hear
-dal -Helanrdal – You hear
-nal -Helanrnal – He/It hear
-nal -Helanrnal – She/It hears, obsolete
-sald -Helanrsald – We hear
-salf –Helansalf – You hear
-sale –Helanrsale – They hear
-sale –Helanrsale – They (All female) hear, obsolete.
----
-nal - Helanrnal - One hears
-adal - Helanradal - Hear (imperative)

Basic Phrases

(OOC Note: The Necrontyr Vocabulary is a work in constant progress (and in a big pile of papers in some cases) and so is not available in full here.)

Ere - Please
Asa så - Thank you
Arisi - Sorry
Icia arisi - I'm sorry
Kar icisä - How Are You?
Kar icisä så - How Are You? (A less 'polished' form)
Icia iran - I'm Good
A icia iran - I am good (A less polished form, but regarded by some as more correct, hence
similar to I am as opposed to the contraction in English)
Icia aiserel - I am well/healthy.
Icïtaiserel - Goodbye (Lit. Be well - Contracted)
Ici'rel - Bye (Informal contraction of the above)
Sa ere - Yes Please
Sa - Yes
Ca'asa'så - No thank you. (Contraction)
Ca - No

Å represents another alternative glyph in written necrontyr, which means either the same as ä or is simply an alternative pronunciation, on a case-by case basis. Å should be pronounced with a high tone, whereas ä should be pronounced as a double a.

Numbers

0-25 only

0. Aro
1. Alac
2. Dria
3. Eren
4. Sil
5. Sem
6. Aruk
7. Sep
8. Erl
9. Nai
10 Alaca
11. Alacra
12. Alacdri
13. Alaceren
14. Alacsil
15. Alacsem
16. Alacaruk
17. Alacsep
18. Alacerl
19. Alacnai
20. Adria
21. Adriara
22. Adriadr
23. Adriaeren
24. Adriasil
25. Adriasem