Comprehensive Gargish, Vol 1 Intro
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Title: Comprehensive Gargish, vol. 1 intro
Author: Ben-Tas
Chapter One :Intro
Gargoyle is a Common corruption of gargl, the Gargoyles' name for themselves and their language. An informal word for gargl as the name of the Gargoyle language is Gargish. Spoken Gargish is grammatically rather felxible.
Distinctions between nouns, adjectives, and verbs are indicated by gestures and intonations. This flexibility is also apparent in the names of magic spells derived from Gargish phrases. Vas Sanct Lor, for instance is drerived from the Gargish Vas Saengkt Lor, but it is equally correct to say saengkt lor, or even lor saengkt vas.
Gargoyles tend to omit words they consider to be uncecessary complications, like pronouns, and they often speak in infinitives. While a Human attempting to speak Gargish might come up with something like 'i est ker i le vid u prae'-'I'm certain that I've seen you before', a Gargoyle would simply say 'ker le vid prae' (or more idomatically, ker prae vid le) "to be certain having seen before".
With practice, it's possible to deduce the implied pronouns in a Gargoyle sentance, but it's not always easy.
Unlike spoken Gargish, the written language has no way to mark the intonations and gestures that make the speech intelligible, so there are suffixes that mark words as being verbs, nouns, adjectives, and also indicate the tense and aspect of verbs. In many cases, these are words which are meaningfull by themselves, such as the adjectival suffix -de , which means "of" in isolation. Here is a list of the most common suffixes:-char "part" (names a tool used for doing a certain action, such as agrachar "weapon"-de "of"(marks adjectives or adverbs formed from nouns, verbs, and other words)-ku "with" (forms adjectives, such as mirku:watery-le "end"(marks the past tense or perfective aspect of verbs.)-lem"one"(simi lar to english -er, as in baker, writer etc.)-re"begin"(marks future tense of verbs)-sa"able"(simila r to english -able, -ible)-tas"quality"(ma rks abstract nouns, such as amotas"love" vs. amo"to love")-te"in"(marks present tense or imperfective aspect of verbs)-ve"like"(forms adjectives, such as misve"similar"
Chapter Two:Names
Most Gargoyles have names that describe their profession.
Lensmaker "Lorrelinlem" is an example of that type of name. Other names are meaningfull, like Behlem "Just One". But many gargoyles, particularly the elite, have names which are meaningless in themselves, like Draxinusom. A number of these names are listed in the vocabulary.
Chapter Three: Writing
Gargoyles have an alphabet of 30 characters, arranged ina 5x6 pattern. Similar sounds are grouped together by rows and columns. For instance, the first row, transcribed as p b m f v u, represents the sounds produced by the lips, and the sounds in the first column are all voiceless stops. (the remaining rows are t d n s z e, ch j ny sh zh i, kl gl nl hl l o, and k g ng h r a.) The letter u also serves to represent w at the beginning of a syllable when followed by a vowel. The sequence k-u is sometimes pronounced ku, as in kuante, but more frequently kw(traditionally transcribed as qu), as in quas. Three of the letters (ny, nl and hl) serve only to complete the chart, and are not found in contemporary spoken Gargish, a relic of Ancient Gargish. The Gargish language has long and short vowels. They are not normally distinguished in spelling, except where this would cause confusion. For example, uus means "up". but us means "diligence". I this document, long vowels are marked with an accent: us vs. u'us, su'm vs. summ.
Chapter Four: Samples
Here are a few samples of Gargish sentences translated literally, then into more idiomatic English.
1. Teresta sit lem antenda no'm.
place-that lie ones not-have-of name.
Here lie those that had no names.
2.Estati'm i' perle lorrel re inwislor ko'dex ad quad.
that-time I used light-change begin make-know-light codex upon cube. Then I used the lens to form an image of the codex upon the cube.
3. A'nte esta terreg ma'ni'te mu'r ani'sh zen.
In that place-home living number strange creature.
In that land live many strange creatures.
4. A qua lemmu'r wiste, an zen anku vol verde wi's.
but what ones-number knowing, not creature not -with wing true of knowledge. But as everyone knows, no creature without wings is truly intelligent.
5. A'nte ko'dex skri'le pri' ben esh ver res qui' quae. in codex written one well and ture answer any problem
within the codex is written the one right and true answer to any problem.
6. Anvolde lem ansa lo'k, esh anten ski'tas de volde lem.
not-wings-of ones not-can speak, and not-have know-ness of wing-of ones. The wingless ones cannot speak, and lack the intelligence of the winged ones.
7. Tu' rete ku kli' axi: u'n, or, esh us.
All beginning with three principle: control, passion, and diligence.
All begins with the three principles:...
8. Ita anai de axi vidu'kte trak semde bentas, ord.
thus not-there is of principle see-guiding toward seven of quality, order. thus the absence of all the principles points toward teh seventh virtue, Order.
Thus completes Volume One. Volume Two begins the dictionary of Gargish.
About the Author: Ben-Tas Dragon, was born Bentley Tristan though his father a scholar took his family to live with the Garg peoples early in his life where he was exposed to the Gargoyle language and culture. His name Bentley was turned into Ben-tas the Garg word for virtue because it sounded similar.
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