So back when last names were first introduced, I picked a 'skra' sounding one. Because at the time all I knew was...apostrophe means s'kra!
Does "Ran'darath" actually have any kind of close translation I accidentally nailed? I've done similar checks for dwarven and toggish language stuff, but the s'kra language doesn't seem to have a concise reference I can find.
(Look, it was like 15 years ago and I was in junior high)
I'm a badger, I be badgerin'
KROONERMANREVENGE
GABRIEL4
Re: Translation?
04/24/2016 11:09 PM CDT
https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/S%27Kra_Lexicon
The good news: You haven't picked any letters or letter combinations that don't exist in the language.
The speculation: There isn't a known word "darath". Rath'a is gods. Rath may be the singular version of that or perhaps the s'kra equivalent of a lower-case version of it. E.g. god vs. God. Dai is steel or metal, so conceivably da could be a shortened version of that. Putting the two together could possibly mean god-metal or something similar. This all is unlikely, however, since while the language is very fond of compound words (two words stuck together to make one new word) such words always appear to be joined by an apostrophe and without any shortening of either of the joined words. That said, it's certainly still possible that it has morphed over time into a single non-compound word from an original compound form, and family names would be more likely to break rules than a normal word might be, so there's that.
As for the actual compound part of your name I can't find anything that would fit for "ran", so no ideas there.
The good news: You haven't picked any letters or letter combinations that don't exist in the language.
The speculation: There isn't a known word "darath". Rath'a is gods. Rath may be the singular version of that or perhaps the s'kra equivalent of a lower-case version of it. E.g. god vs. God. Dai is steel or metal, so conceivably da could be a shortened version of that. Putting the two together could possibly mean god-metal or something similar. This all is unlikely, however, since while the language is very fond of compound words (two words stuck together to make one new word) such words always appear to be joined by an apostrophe and without any shortening of either of the joined words. That said, it's certainly still possible that it has morphed over time into a single non-compound word from an original compound form, and family names would be more likely to break rules than a normal word might be, so there's that.
As for the actual compound part of your name I can't find anything that would fit for "ran", so no ideas there.
KROONERMANREVENGE
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 06:05 AM CDT
>This all is unlikely, however, since while the language is very fond of compound words (two words stuck together to make one new word) such words always appear to be joined by an apostrophe and without any shortening of either of the joined words.
I'm going to show off just how little I know of languages. Does it do this similar to German, where they literally just slap two words together to create concepts?
Thanks for the help Gab.
I'm a badger, I be badgerin'
I'm going to show off just how little I know of languages. Does it do this similar to German, where they literally just slap two words together to create concepts?
Thanks for the help Gab.
I'm a badger, I be badgerin'
FAMEBRIGHT
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 12:18 PM CDT
German compounds maintain the glottal stop that divides words, though it's more complicated than that, so yes maybe? German does still features blends, clippings, and other word creation processes that reduce or eliminate word components.
With exceptions, DR languages are just arbitrary reskins of English though.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
With exceptions, DR languages are just arbitrary reskins of English though.
Re: Life mana Spell preps
You raise your hands in the air. You wave them like you just don't care. Somebody says, "Hey!" Somebody says, "Ho!" Somebody screams.
DR-NAOHHI
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 02:04 PM CDT
I can't make a call on any actual translation, but I can tell you that S'Kra Mur was originally based off Hawaiian.
You'll also want to consider it's in game structure, too. Not every thing has a direct translation, or only one meaning. Not all words are shortened, either, and I'm not sure we've ever confirmed what the singular/plural modifiers are, though there's speculation that's on elanthipedia.
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NaOH+HI
You'll also want to consider it's in game structure, too. Not every thing has a direct translation, or only one meaning. Not all words are shortened, either, and I'm not sure we've ever confirmed what the singular/plural modifiers are, though there's speculation that's on elanthipedia.
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NaOH+HI
SARKRANIS
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 04:47 PM CDT
>>DR-Naohhi: You'll also want to consider it's in game structure, too. Not every thing has a direct translation, or only one meaning. Not all words are shortened, either, and I'm not sure we've ever confirmed what the singular/plural modifiers are, though there's speculation that's on elanthipedia.
I know you're not the S'Kra race champion (and already have a lot on your plate), but I would really like to see the language fleshed out some more, including guides on grammar and pronunciation.
I would also really love to see S'Kra items be given a makeover similar to what has been done for Rakash. While some of our items (like the gamantang) are adequately fleshed out, there are a lot of old weapons floating around where we can only speculate based on appraisals and word components that appear in the lexicon.
"Empathy doesn't make people nice." --GM Armifer
Empath new player guide: https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Empath_new_player_guide
Empath hunting ladder: https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Empath_hunting_ladde
I know you're not the S'Kra race champion (and already have a lot on your plate), but I would really like to see the language fleshed out some more, including guides on grammar and pronunciation.
I would also really love to see S'Kra items be given a makeover similar to what has been done for Rakash. While some of our items (like the gamantang) are adequately fleshed out, there are a lot of old weapons floating around where we can only speculate based on appraisals and word components that appear in the lexicon.
"Empathy doesn't make people nice." --GM Armifer
Empath new player guide: https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Empath_new_player_guide
Empath hunting ladder: https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Empath_hunting_ladde
GABRIEL4
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 07:03 PM CDT
The in game languages don't take vocabulary from rl languages they are based on as far as I am aware, but rather grammatical structures... buuuut, vocabulary wise, "ran" is google translating as "vessels" in Hawaiian. So if you wanted to, I suppose you could translate it as god-metal vessel. Perhaps that would be a way of saying meteor or meteorite. A fancified english version might be Starmetal or Starstone.
THAYET
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 07:08 PM CDT
They borrow grammar and phonology. Clipping (where longer words or compound words become shorter) is also a consistent thing across most or all real life languages so I think it would be weird if S'Kra did not also feature it.
Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com
"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com
"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
GABRIEL4
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 07:18 PM CDT
There are a few examples of shortened parts of compound words that I could find in the known S'kra lexicon, but most of the compound words there don't have any shortening.
Interestingly, there's nothing about compound nouns on the wiki articles on Hawaiian that I could find, although for full disclosure I didn't look very hard. Plurals are indicated through the article and not the noun, generally, however, so the same noun form is used for both singular and plural.
One other thing I found interesting is that Hawaiian words never end in a consonant, whereas S'kra Mur words clearly can. So I'm not entirely sure what part of Hawaiian it is supposed to be based on.
Interestingly, there's nothing about compound nouns on the wiki articles on Hawaiian that I could find, although for full disclosure I didn't look very hard. Plurals are indicated through the article and not the noun, generally, however, so the same noun form is used for both singular and plural.
One other thing I found interesting is that Hawaiian words never end in a consonant, whereas S'kra Mur words clearly can. So I'm not entirely sure what part of Hawaiian it is supposed to be based on.
DR-NAOHHI
Re: Translation?
04/25/2016 09:30 PM CDT
Neither am I, to be quite honest. I'm just sharing what former GM Bartlebee shared with me when I first expressed interest in our in game languages. It's the best lead I can give you on non-official translations.
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NaOH+HI
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NaOH+HI
LADYSABLE
Re: Translation?
04/26/2016 03:18 PM CDT
> Does "Ran'darath" actually have any kind of close translation I accidentally nailed? I've done similar checks for dwarven and toggish language stuff, but the s'kra language doesn't seem to have a concise reference I can find.
Fortunately, a bit of creative backstory can make up for a player who didn't know anything about racial naming conventions, and just used their old DnD favorite... It's easy enough to say that something went askew when you (or your parents) formally submitted citizenship papers. Maybe the bureaucrat was tired, or hard of hearing, or just didn't like S'Kra, and dropped a few of the letters that he didn't feel were particularly important. Happens all the time IRL - my greek relations quite proudly told the immigrations officer that their family name was Papamanoloupolis ("The Priest of the People of the Mountain", more or less). Said officer, being underpaid and overworked, decided to do a bit of helpful editing, and dubbed them the Mallos family, instead.
I was kind of in the same straights with Aislynn Ranloa - not a terribly "S'Kra" name, once I came to understand what that was, so I always left room in the backstory to explain it. Basically, Aislynn was found as a young child wandering south of Leth by one of the Warders, looking like she had taken on a mountain face-first. When the Warder asked where'd she'd come from, and what her name was, the child whispered, stuttered, cried and stammered (with a broken jaw, and speaking in S'Kra, which the poor elf didn't understand), "Aeyvyn zhra'hhan, kho'grah", or something along those lines, which hopefully roughly translates to "My name was taken, honored watcher.". When the girl wouldn't speak another word to anyone, not even other S'Kra, she was given the best approximation of those sounds they could manage as a name. She still has no clue who her parents were, or if she has family anywhere (and probably never will, given the character's age).
~Aislynn Ranloa (aka "I dunno, you're very tall, please don't shoot me!")
Fortunately, a bit of creative backstory can make up for a player who didn't know anything about racial naming conventions, and just used their old DnD favorite... It's easy enough to say that something went askew when you (or your parents) formally submitted citizenship papers. Maybe the bureaucrat was tired, or hard of hearing, or just didn't like S'Kra, and dropped a few of the letters that he didn't feel were particularly important. Happens all the time IRL - my greek relations quite proudly told the immigrations officer that their family name was Papamanoloupolis ("The Priest of the People of the Mountain", more or less). Said officer, being underpaid and overworked, decided to do a bit of helpful editing, and dubbed them the Mallos family, instead.
I was kind of in the same straights with Aislynn Ranloa - not a terribly "S'Kra" name, once I came to understand what that was, so I always left room in the backstory to explain it. Basically, Aislynn was found as a young child wandering south of Leth by one of the Warders, looking like she had taken on a mountain face-first. When the Warder asked where'd she'd come from, and what her name was, the child whispered, stuttered, cried and stammered (with a broken jaw, and speaking in S'Kra, which the poor elf didn't understand), "Aeyvyn zhra'hhan, kho'grah", or something along those lines, which hopefully roughly translates to "My name was taken, honored watcher.". When the girl wouldn't speak another word to anyone, not even other S'Kra, she was given the best approximation of those sounds they could manage as a name. She still has no clue who her parents were, or if she has family anywhere (and probably never will, given the character's age).
~Aislynn Ranloa (aka "I dunno, you're very tall, please don't shoot me!")
KROONERMANREVENGE
Re: Translation?
04/26/2016 06:40 PM CDT
The exact phrase I used in discussions with another player was 'Ellis Island'ed it'.
I'm a badger, I be badgerin'
I'm a badger, I be badgerin'
