Ral
Ral, or The Râl, is an archaic language formerly spoken by the inhabitants of Ayrwll. It distinguishes itself from other languages mostly by its utter lack of articles, which are replaced by word endings, and its way of deriving nearly all adjectives and nouns from the root forms of verbs. Its words are quite long, and it is not unusual to find a sentence in English to have a third of the words in its Râl translation, and twice the number of letters.
Contents
Grammar
Sentence Structure
The word order of a sentence in Râl is loosely defined as "Acting Noun - Verb - Object", though "Acting Noun - Object - Verb" is also possible and slightly less common. Adjectives are placed either before or after the noun, both are equally common. Adverbs are placed directly before the verb or at the end of the sentence.
Verb Conjugation
All verbs are conjugated in the regular form, that is, by attaching the proper ending to the root form.
- Infinitive
Infinitive Form : -are
- Singular Present
- First Person : -a
- Second Person : -as
- Third Person : -at
- Plural Present
- First Person : -ai
- Second Person : -asi
- Third Person : -ati
- Singular Past
- First Person : -ata
- Second Person : -atas
- Third Person : -atat
- Plural Past
- First Person : atai
- Second Person : atais
- Third Person : atait
The future form is equivalent to the Imperative, or Command form. Thus there is no difference between predicting something that will happen in the future and commanding it.
- Imperative
- Singular : -ar
- Plural : -ari
The singular form is used almost always nowadays, even for sentences with the plural.
Nouns
Regular nouns are formed by attaching a suffix to a verb form. Regular nouns are classified as one of the following:
Processive Case
This form stands for a process that is occurring - such as "The Rising", Antoran, or "The Breaking", Rentaran.
- Singular Processive : -an
- Plural Processive : -ani
Impersonal Objective Case
This form stands for the product of a process that has occurred. It is always an inanimate object that is referred to. This form is used quite rarely in common speech and outside of poetry, since usually the object of the process is not defined by the process. For example, the morning sun might be metaphorically named "The Risen One", or Antoren, but outside of a poem it would sound highly unnatural.
- Singular Impersonal : -en
- Plural Impersonal : -endi
Instrumental Case
This form is used for inanimate actors, or objects that are used for certain processes. Thus a quill would be "A Writer", or Cartaya in the Instrumental case. A piece of paper, or any sheet used for writing might be named Cartenaya, since its instrumental purpose involves being the object of the writing process.
- Singular : -aya
- Plural : -ayar
Personal Actor Form
- Singular Male Actor : -andon
- Singular Female Actor : -anda
- Plural Actors : -andim
Personal Objective Form
- Male Object : -endon
- Female Object : -enda
- Plural Objects : -endim
Irregular Nouns
Irregular nouns can take almost any suffix - even suffices that are used by other forms -, and can not be formed back into verbs. One example for that is "elar" which is the singular form for "star". The plural form is "elari", and there is no verb root.
A modernized version of the language attempts to replace these with more consistent regular forms, but it is used very rarely. In that version, for example, "star" is translated as "inanimate shiner", and thus a calumaya - even though that form is also used for lanterns.
Adjectives & Adverbs
- Active Process : -andê
- Finished Process/Static : -endê
- Present Adverb : -ando
- Future Adverb : -antoro
- Past Adverb : -antoto
The tenses for the adverb are adjusted according to the tense of the verb, not of the property itself. Thus to say, "The Sun rises brightly", one would use the present adverb of "bright", and for "The Sun rose brightly", the past adverb would be used.
Vocabulary
Râl places the greatest importance on verbs, and most other word forms are derived from a verb. This can be seen in the colors (caryende, "red") being derived from verbs (carye, "to be red") even though these verbs are obsolete in common usage. As indicated in the grammar section, every verb can be formed into any other word form, such as a noun or adjective. Some nouns and adjectives are "irregular", meaning that they do not have a root verb. A Râl verb is by definition never irregular (although some strange exceptions in its conjugation may arise).
Verbs
The following verbs are part of the Râl vocabulary. It should be noted that some of them (like "blacken") are rarely used as a verb, and usually in one of their other forms, such as an adjective or a noun. All colors are used as a static adjective, thus "black" is moryende.
allye: lose antore: rise aramore: create arare: count avatare: to name ayare: join/unite azgare: hurt (feel pain) belare: justify belye: gray calare: land calumare: shine cartare: write carthare/carthrare: burn carye: redden caytare: keep ("be a steward over") conduare: rescue core: grow dizre: be uncertain (used as Instrumental or Adjective) ermarie: glorify estylare: hope evenare: happen (come to pass) ezkede: not-know, be in ignorance of ezkedore: lit. not-think, be stupid ezraye: die, also extinguish/destroy (non-persons) folore: keep (high) gartare: improve gemare: give (gift/donation) gurtaye: slay gwamdare: protect haraye: greet/hail hestore: fall hiscanyare: possess power (commonly used as Instrumental or Adjective) ilyare: gladden kachtare: devour kadore: do magic kede: know kedore: think (occasionally "remember") khantore: sing khescare: avenge/be wrathful lastare: hear lasvidare: phrophesy (foresee) layare/laiyare: travel lenare: give (lend/sell) lentare: work letrare: tire lissare: tremble lorye: to dream lotare: weep more: to shadow morye: blacken nalaye: dispense nayare: live nimye: whiten nyvrare: begin (sometimes renew) oranare: change (also: differ) râlare: speak ramare: begin rancare: wander ravire: use wrongfully (abuse) raytare: age (grow older) rentare: break rulore: heave selye: yellow shalare: owe tare: be tynare: make perfect theodare: lit. to be divine (Theodan = God/god, note the lack of personification) tilyare: heal ulayare: come uzare: wait valare: rule valaiyare: guide ("rule travel") vidayare/vidare: see volare: desire zamore: to be in agony
Miscellaneous Words & Prepositions
an': for, unto (marking purpose or destination) calray...: it-must-be-that... car: by carcûn': with cûn': and corcûn': but/although dizcar: if dizcûn': or dizray...?: is-it-true that...? dizyan: then ec': of (short form) ecar: of ezrah: no gar: more (comparative escalation) hiscar: when ocar: from (place) oyan: to (place) ram: yes ron: in (locational preposition, spatial) run: during/while (locational preposition, temporal) samar: water sa: shall (female subject) so: shall (male subject) sa'm: shall-I (first person, female) so'm: shall-I (first person, male) ty': most (superlative escalation) ucar: from (time) uyan: to (time) 'yan: to (time/place determined by preceding form/context)
Nouns
Some of these nouns are not irregular, but derived from verbs in a non-intuitive way. These are marked with the verb they are derived from.
A plural is commonly formed by appending an -i. Where other plurals are used, this is marked explicitly.
anaur: tomorrow (lit. "unto-day", the day until which the current or following night lasts) anzul: tonight (ditto) Aramon: Creation auryan: day Carthrammen: Fire cyar: vessel elar: star Ezraith: Destruction/Void laiyarya: road (from laiyare, travel) Lastrohannen: Earth Samaræa: Water sol: Sun (only accurate for Earth's sun, but common usage extends it to the day star of any world) solantor: Sunrise/East (a time or a direction, respectively, depending on context) solestor: Sunset/West (ditto). Occasionally spelled "solhestor". telaran: color tildrin: shore tildrinyen: shores (irregular plural) vashnor: sky/heaven Vashnorya: Air/Wind zulyan: night
Adjectives
lannen: eternal orande: changing orende: changed/different
Numbers
Râl employs the decimal system. The root forms of its numbers from zero to nine are derived from certain verb roots.
- 0 : Ezrayanth (from Ezraye, to destroy/die)
- 1 : Aramanth' (from Aramore, to create)
- 2 : Dizrayanth (from Dizraya, uncertainty)
- 3 : Hiscanyanth (from Hiscanya, power)
- 4 : Khantamanth (from Khantabokh, Good)
- 5 : Rahmothanth (from Rahgamoth, Chaos)
- 6 : Khescayanth (from Khescaya, Wrath/Vengeance)
- 7 : Cyaranth (from Cyar, vessel - an irregular noun)
- 8 : Scylluthanth (from Scylluthankh, Evil)
- 9 : Controdanth (from Controdorr, Order)
(Note that Order, Chaos, Good and Evil are used with their respective meaning in the four-fold alignment system common to some fantasy worlds.)
To form higher decimals, the first syllable (for example, His, Rah, or Cya) is taken and attached to the following suffixes.
10: mez 100: coth 1000: tan 10000: meztan 100000: cothtan 1000000: tandis
Thus, 6,431,203 would be
Khestandis Khancothtan Hismeztan Aratan Dizcoth Hiscanyanth
To form an 'ordinal' number word, like first, second, third, etc, only an -ê is attached to the normal word, thus Aramezê is Tenth.
Expressions
- Ezkedan ezkarzat, cór'tat ezkedoran.
Ignorance ("Non-knowledge") is no shame, but Stupidity ("Non-thought") is.