by Clyde Heaton
| Dragon | Races | - | Dwarves | Dragon 66 |
Students of comparative anthropology
have long been frustrated by dwarves,
that secretive lot of undersized humanoids
of unknown origin; indeed, almost
everything about them is a mystery.
Their homes, mines, and ancient ruins
abound in all the worlds we have dreamed
or discovered; their tombs and temples
are covered with runes (which, due to
the dwarves’ regrettable resistance to
magic, are largely undecipherable), and
their diminutive, sturdy forms are found
in all humanoid careers (except, of
course, those requiring the study of
magic). Yet, despite their omnipresence,
we know almost nothing about them.
They are great linguists, speaking many
tongues, but are never heard speaking
Dwarvish. If pressed about the history or
origins of their race, they change the
subject; if asked about their personal
lives, they grow truculent. Indeed, most
non-dwarves can’t even tell a female
dwarf from a male!
At last, a breakthrough has been made.
Boru O’Bonker, that illustrious pursuer
of knowledge, has learned something of
Old Dwarvish, the ancient ceremonial
tongue and script of the dwarf priests
and gleemen.
Boru has not been able to publish his
work; in fact, we are not even sure where
he is at this time. He was last seen in the
Purple Mug Tavern, deep in discussion
with one of his colleagues. He was just
getting to the point of his remarks when
a pair of very short, heavily armed gentlemen
entered the establishment. They
professed interest in him, asking the
barkeep if he had been seen there. The
publican hastened to point him out, but
he was nowhere to be seen. His colleague
said he might have slipped out
the back door, and the two gentlemen
quickly departed in search of the errant
academician. But neither he nor they
have been seen since.
When I returned to my rooms that
night, I found that Boru had been there.
He left his notes on dwarvish lore and a
short note asking that the work be put to
good use. Hereafter follow his notes.
OLD DWARVISH DECIPHERED
by Boru O’Bonker
For many years, I have studied the little
folk of many lands and worlds, being
aided by my own short stature and quick
wits.
In this work, an effort is made to pass
on the knowledge I have gained from my
study of the runes and songs of the
mountain dwarves of Sa-Marin, written
and sung entirely in Old Dwarvish.
In common usage, dwarves of today
speak a hodgepodge of the old tongue
and other languages with which they
come in contact every day. The use of
Old Dwarvish is restricted to ceremonial
and traditional uses. This is the language
used for heroic lays, historical epics, and
epitaphs. It is found in contemporary
speech only incidentally.
Its lack of common use is explained by
the fact that Old Dwarvish is a primitive,
often cumbersome tongue. It served well
until dwarvish society evolved to the
point where complex, abstract subjects
had to be spoken of; it speaks adequately
of what one does or has, but not well of
what one feels or thinks. It is written with
an alphabet of twenty letters, representing
consonant and vowel sounds very
similar to the Common tongue. The
sounds remain the same, but the runes
used vary from tribe to tribe. The common
letters not used in dwarvish are C, F,
H, Q, Wand Y. The rest are pronounced
as harsh or guttural sounds and assembled
into syllables of two, three or four
letters.
The number of letters in a syllable
gives a clue to its meaning. A two-letter
syllable always starts with a vowel. If it
ends in a consonant, it is a verb. If the
syllable has two vowels, it represents
possession or tense (see the following
examples), and is always placed before
the word it modifies:
Ai (did) = past tense
Aa (does) = present tense
Au (will) = future tense
Auai (will have done) = future perfect
(a special case)
Ua (possessive) = my/mine
Ui (possessive) = your/yours
Ue (possessive) = her/his/theirs
A three-letter syllable always consists
of two consonants separated by a vowel
and represents a noun or modifier. If the
vowel is repeated, forming a four-letter
syllable, it denotes a plural; bar means
“tree” and baar means “trees.”
The first syllable of a Dwarvish word is
the subject of what would be a phrase in
Common; the remaining syllables modi
fy this subject and each other. As an example,
the Common phrase “a big oak
tree” would be a three-syllable word in
dwarvish, organized as “tree-big-oak”
(in dwarvish, bardurzog).
Dwarves, by their nature, are realists
and materialists. They have difficulty relating
to planes and energies beyond the
physical, which both protects and insulates
them even as it limits them. In keeping
with dwarves’ emphasis on the material
aspect of the world, nouns always
come first in Old Dwarvish grammar.
The first word is always the subject of a
sentence, the second word is the object,
and the verb comes last, preceded by a
tense indicator.
Hence, the sentence “The dwarf cut
the tree” would be reorganized as “Dwarf
tree did cut,” and translated into Dwarvish
as follows:
Dwarf tree did cut.
/Kaz bar ai ak/
The slash marks before and after the
sentence are the only punctuation used,
very similar to ancient Anglo-Saxon
practice. Articles and most prepositions
are not used.
Old Dwarvish does not use complex
sentences; the above example is a very
simple one, but the grammar will always
be the same. More complicated or more
detailed concepts are expressed by adding
modifying syllables to the basic
noun and verb syllables. In actual practice,
certain stylized sentences have come
to have meaning in the abstract beyond
the literal meaning of the words, through
long usage in songs and tales.
Another example: The sentence “The
fat dwarvish woodcutter cut down my
big oak tree with an axe” would be reorganized
and translated as follows:
Dwarf-fat-cutter-wood my
tree-oak-big did cut-down-axe.
/Kaz-tur-bak-bar ua
bar-zog-dur ai ak-ton-zak/
Once reorganized and translated, the
sentence would be properly written as:
/Kazturbakbar ua
barzogdur ai aktonzak/
This example illustrates or suggests
some of the general characteristics of
the language, namely these:
1. Tense or possession is shown by the
syllable preceding the word.
2. Modifying syllables apply only to
the word they appear in, pertaining either
to the first syllable of the word or to the
syllable preceding the modifier, as in
“dwarf-fat-cutter-wood.” The syllable
“wood” modifies “cutter” as well as (indirectly)
“dwarf.”
3. The length of a word is limited only
by the complexity of a concept or the
longwindedness of a speaker.
4. There is often a structural relationship
between nouns and verbs; “cutter”
(bak) and “axe” (zak) have the verb “to
cut” (ak) as a common root. While this
does not apply directly to grammar, it
may help in translating an inscription using
unfamiliar words. This was a great
help in understanding my first real exposure
to Dwarvish music, The Building of
the Mountain Keep.
Dwarves’ traditional songs are entirely
independent of the rules of other forms
of poetry and song. Their music is
rhythmic, usually percussive, with only a
few tones. The lyrics do not rhyme, except
by chance. Instead, the lines match
in number of words and number of syllables
per word, and are chanted to rhythmic
music, the deep voice of the dwarvish
gleeman blending with his instrument
to produce an oddly beautiful
sound.
It was in a dark, somber setting that I
first heard this lay, The Building of the
Mountain Keep:
/Kaazlantal paanlurmak aa anrut/
/Kaazruldul bukzonmur ai ulman/
/Ua raazdin junzonbur ai ogdog/
/Ua raazlur ruklukbur au ulnon/
/Kaazlukbur kurmarluk aa urrut/
/Maazdogdin gunbursar aa ogdog/
This was translated for me by a young
dwarf maid who thought I was a dwarf
from an isolated tribe that had lost the
old tongue. Some of the nuances are
lost, but the sense of the first verse of the
lay is intact.
“Dwarves tell the tales with pride
How the fleeing tribe found safety here
And in their wisdom built their homes
Swearing never again to flee a foe
So we build in skill a fortress strong.”
This verse gave me the key I needed to
my study of Old Dwarvish. If my identity
and race are not discovered by the ones I
am studying, I can continue and possibly
complete my knowledge of the tongue.
The small vocabulary I have positively
deciphered (see above) is appended to
this writing, in hopes that it will help others
involved in the same work.
Ak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c u t
Ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fight
An . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tell
Ar . . . . . . . . . . work, make
Az . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . beget
Bak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cutter
Bar . . . . . . . . . tree, wood
Buk . . . . . . . land, country
Bur . . . . . . . . . . . . . strong
D u r . . . . . big, heavy, iron
Dul . . . . . . . flight, escape
Dum ... mine, excavation
Din . . . . . . . wisdom, wise
Dog . . . . . . . . . . skill, craft
Gun . . . . . . . . . . . . fortress
I j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . conquer
In . . . . . . . . . think, reason
Jun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . home
Kad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . stone
Kaz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dwarf
Kur . . . . . . oath, promise
Lan . . . . . . . . . . . memory
Lur . . . . bravery, courage
Luk . . . . . . fierce, terrible
Mur . . . . . . . . safe, shelter
Mar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . great
Maz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I, me
N o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . never
Pan . . . . . . . tales, history
Pog . . . . . building, house
Ob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . buy
Og . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . build
On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sell
Rut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pride
Rul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fear
Raz . . . . . . . father, parent
Ruk . . . . . . . . . foe, enemy
Sar . . . high, a high place
Sut . . . . magic, unknown
Ta l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . long
Tur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fat
Uk . . . . . . . plant, cultivate
Un . . . . . . . . . . . live, dwell
Ur . . . . . . . . . strike, forge
Zak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . axe
Zin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . silver
Zog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oak
Zon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . gold