Chavie
06-09-2006, 04:14 PM
let me know it's all right
____________________________
You may have noticed Chavie has a funny way of speaking. It's called wor sa fa chal, and it is basically a chanting system she uses to induce a sort of mental high that helps her harness her spellcasting powers.
There are varying levels of wor sa fa chal; Chavie uses more consonants when she realizes people may not understand what she's saying otherwise. But, unless I slip up, the basic structure is consistent. Understanding the vowels is most important, I think, so we'll start there.
VOWELS
If you're familiar with Japanese the vowels should be a piece of cake, because they're very similar. Not totally similar, but very. In wor sa fa chal, a is said like the a in father. It is used to replace the short a sound, and often the short u sound, and almost always the schwa (backwards e) sound. E is somewhere between the e in get and the e in melee. I is pronounced like a long e, though sometimes when it's usntressed it's shortened to the short i English speakers are more familiar with. O is the long o, as in boat, except when it's followed by an r, when it becomes the o in oar. U is usually like the u that isn't in voodoo but is sometimes like the oo in took. The latter is usually used when the word using u ends in a consonant.
Dipthongs are seldom used; the only one she uses is ao, which is pronounced like the ow in ouch. (W used on purpose, because, like the u in voodoo, I think it's funny.) If the word with the ao sound ends in an n, the n is dropped, as ao is inherently nasal and the n becomes redundant. (Down becomes dao, sound becomes sao--the d in sound might survive if it can be drafted into the beginning of the next word.)
Every other vowel combination is reverted to its root short vowel: The long a sound as in wait becomes an e, the long i sound as in hide becomes an a. (Though we're taught that silent e makes vowels longs, phonetically it's often not-so-silent i that really does the work.) The ou in our, however, becomes an ar.
CONSONANTS
The more consanants a word has, the less likely she is to use that word, as it throws off her groove. Scourge is such a word; it is rendered skej, though she'd rather leave the k out of it. She loves soft consonants, and seldom omits them from words; hard consonants, especially consonant blends or consonants at the end of a word, are simplified or omitted. Often if in a sentence there is a word ending with a consonant and the following word begins with a vowel, she will carry the ending consonant to the beginning of the next word.
(Additionally, many words ending in a vowel dipthong involving the i ending--such as the long a or e sounds--transform the i into a y and carry it over to the next word, if the next word begins with a vowel. So I am becomes a yam, say it becomes se yit.)
Th is not an acceptable sound for Chavie. The soft th (as in theater) is typically made into a t; the th found in there is usually made into a d. However, the is always te, though the above rules would imply that it should be pronounced da. One of the exceptions that proves the rule, I suppose.
If a consonent blend she finds disagreeable seems inevitable, an apostrophe is put between the two consonants to seperate them slightly. Try becomes t'ra, and barely qualifies as two syllables.
STYLISTICS (or, Where do I put this information?)
Each syllable becomes a seperate word and is written in lower case. The seperation of syllables into words is part of the sound of wor sa fa chal. Those tiny pauses in between syllables give the "language" a sort of choppy melody. It's written in lowercase because, to me, this indicates a lack of inflection or a certain seamlessness in the speaking. It also allows CAPITAL LETTERS to be used for emphasis, since the WoW chat interface doesn't allow for italics.
Of course, Chavie isn't really speaking a mangled version of English. But I don't know Orcish or Gutterspeak--the languages themselves hardly exist--so I write in English, and hope it's understood that though I'm typing English phonetics, what others are hearing is mangled Orcish or Gutterspeak phonetics.
SAMPLE SENTENCES
One sentence Chavie uttered in guild chat, back in her Grim days, when Taegol was talking about his auction house adventures was "te gol has al te gol". In common wor sa fa chal, "taegol" and "the gold" are said the same way.
Wor sa fa chal is, of course, words of a child.
Good night and goodbye become, respectively, gu nat and gu ba.
- BABEL TEXT
No conlang (though this hardly counts as a conlang) is complete without its translation of The Babel Text (http://www.langmaker.com/db/Langmaker:Babel_Texts), so here is said text in common wor sa fa chal (what you're likely to hear in guild chat), translated from modern English (http://www.langmaker.com/babel/englniv.htm):
Na te hol wol had wan len gej an da ka mon spik. As men muf is war, de fao da plen in Shi Nar an se tel der. De sed tu i cha der, "Kum, les mek bik san bek dem to ro li." De yus bik in sed af ston, an tar for mor tar. Den de sed, "Kum, le tus bil dar sel fa si ti, wit a ta wer dat ri ches tu te he vens, so dat wi me mek a nem for ar self an na bi ska ter do ver te fes af te hol er't." Bu te Lor kem dao tu si te si ti an te ta wer dat te men wer bil din. Te Lor sed, "I fas wan pi pul spi kin te sem len gej de haf bi gun tu du dis, den no tin de pan tu du wil bi im pa si bel for dem. Kam, le tus go dao an kon fus der len gej so de wil na un der san di cha der." So te Lor ska ter dem fra der o ver al te er't, an de stap bil din te si ti. Dat is wa it was kal Ba Bel--bi kas der te Lor kon fus te len gej af te hol wol. Fra der te Lor ska ter dem o ver te fes af te hol er't.
The Babel text in true wor sa fa chal would begin as follows: Na te ho wo ha wa le ge a da ka mo si. As you can see, this is unintelligable to anyone but the speaker, and is not used in communication.
Understand that any of the above rules can be waived when she deems it necessary for communication.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
____________________________
You may have noticed Chavie has a funny way of speaking. It's called wor sa fa chal, and it is basically a chanting system she uses to induce a sort of mental high that helps her harness her spellcasting powers.
There are varying levels of wor sa fa chal; Chavie uses more consonants when she realizes people may not understand what she's saying otherwise. But, unless I slip up, the basic structure is consistent. Understanding the vowels is most important, I think, so we'll start there.
VOWELS
If you're familiar with Japanese the vowels should be a piece of cake, because they're very similar. Not totally similar, but very. In wor sa fa chal, a is said like the a in father. It is used to replace the short a sound, and often the short u sound, and almost always the schwa (backwards e) sound. E is somewhere between the e in get and the e in melee. I is pronounced like a long e, though sometimes when it's usntressed it's shortened to the short i English speakers are more familiar with. O is the long o, as in boat, except when it's followed by an r, when it becomes the o in oar. U is usually like the u that isn't in voodoo but is sometimes like the oo in took. The latter is usually used when the word using u ends in a consonant.
Dipthongs are seldom used; the only one she uses is ao, which is pronounced like the ow in ouch. (W used on purpose, because, like the u in voodoo, I think it's funny.) If the word with the ao sound ends in an n, the n is dropped, as ao is inherently nasal and the n becomes redundant. (Down becomes dao, sound becomes sao--the d in sound might survive if it can be drafted into the beginning of the next word.)
Every other vowel combination is reverted to its root short vowel: The long a sound as in wait becomes an e, the long i sound as in hide becomes an a. (Though we're taught that silent e makes vowels longs, phonetically it's often not-so-silent i that really does the work.) The ou in our, however, becomes an ar.
CONSONANTS
The more consanants a word has, the less likely she is to use that word, as it throws off her groove. Scourge is such a word; it is rendered skej, though she'd rather leave the k out of it. She loves soft consonants, and seldom omits them from words; hard consonants, especially consonant blends or consonants at the end of a word, are simplified or omitted. Often if in a sentence there is a word ending with a consonant and the following word begins with a vowel, she will carry the ending consonant to the beginning of the next word.
(Additionally, many words ending in a vowel dipthong involving the i ending--such as the long a or e sounds--transform the i into a y and carry it over to the next word, if the next word begins with a vowel. So I am becomes a yam, say it becomes se yit.)
Th is not an acceptable sound for Chavie. The soft th (as in theater) is typically made into a t; the th found in there is usually made into a d. However, the is always te, though the above rules would imply that it should be pronounced da. One of the exceptions that proves the rule, I suppose.
If a consonent blend she finds disagreeable seems inevitable, an apostrophe is put between the two consonants to seperate them slightly. Try becomes t'ra, and barely qualifies as two syllables.
STYLISTICS (or, Where do I put this information?)
Each syllable becomes a seperate word and is written in lower case. The seperation of syllables into words is part of the sound of wor sa fa chal. Those tiny pauses in between syllables give the "language" a sort of choppy melody. It's written in lowercase because, to me, this indicates a lack of inflection or a certain seamlessness in the speaking. It also allows CAPITAL LETTERS to be used for emphasis, since the WoW chat interface doesn't allow for italics.
Of course, Chavie isn't really speaking a mangled version of English. But I don't know Orcish or Gutterspeak--the languages themselves hardly exist--so I write in English, and hope it's understood that though I'm typing English phonetics, what others are hearing is mangled Orcish or Gutterspeak phonetics.
SAMPLE SENTENCES
One sentence Chavie uttered in guild chat, back in her Grim days, when Taegol was talking about his auction house adventures was "te gol has al te gol". In common wor sa fa chal, "taegol" and "the gold" are said the same way.
Wor sa fa chal is, of course, words of a child.
Good night and goodbye become, respectively, gu nat and gu ba.
- BABEL TEXT
No conlang (though this hardly counts as a conlang) is complete without its translation of The Babel Text (http://www.langmaker.com/db/Langmaker:Babel_Texts), so here is said text in common wor sa fa chal (what you're likely to hear in guild chat), translated from modern English (http://www.langmaker.com/babel/englniv.htm):
Na te hol wol had wan len gej an da ka mon spik. As men muf is war, de fao da plen in Shi Nar an se tel der. De sed tu i cha der, "Kum, les mek bik san bek dem to ro li." De yus bik in sed af ston, an tar for mor tar. Den de sed, "Kum, le tus bil dar sel fa si ti, wit a ta wer dat ri ches tu te he vens, so dat wi me mek a nem for ar self an na bi ska ter do ver te fes af te hol er't." Bu te Lor kem dao tu si te si ti an te ta wer dat te men wer bil din. Te Lor sed, "I fas wan pi pul spi kin te sem len gej de haf bi gun tu du dis, den no tin de pan tu du wil bi im pa si bel for dem. Kam, le tus go dao an kon fus der len gej so de wil na un der san di cha der." So te Lor ska ter dem fra der o ver al te er't, an de stap bil din te si ti. Dat is wa it was kal Ba Bel--bi kas der te Lor kon fus te len gej af te hol wol. Fra der te Lor ska ter dem o ver te fes af te hol er't.
The Babel text in true wor sa fa chal would begin as follows: Na te ho wo ha wa le ge a da ka mo si. As you can see, this is unintelligable to anyone but the speaker, and is not used in communication.
Understand that any of the above rules can be waived when she deems it necessary for communication.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.