Ancient Elven

Ancient Elven is the language the Elves developed during the second generation of Malin's children. The Elven tongue was almost exclusively spoken. Evidence for this is found in the ruins of Inwe, where the writings of early Dark Elves were in an ancient dialect of the common tongue.

It has been rumoured that Elvish was also the language of nature, which the Elves either learned through study or was taught to them by certain deities. They then had the power to converse with nature directly, allowing them to guide the growth of trees and migration of animals as if by magic. If this were true, Elvish, assuming someone was capable of mastering the long-forgotten cadence of the words, would be a very potent language indeed.

Following the first war with the Dwarves in the early history of Aegis, the use of the language became very limited as many who had spoken it were killed in battle. The younger generations began communicating with other races and the language of Common swept across Malinor. Somewhere between the 7th and 10th centuries of Aegis the use of Ancient Elven became extremely limited and it remains unknown as to the exact reasoning, though common perception suggests that it was outlawed for some reason. There remained only a few texts that contained Ancient Elven spread throughout Malinor.

With High Prince Native establishing the capital of Laurelin and centralising the Elves, these books were brought into Laurelin's library where scholars again became interested in the language of the Ancestors. Through much vigorous study and scrutiny the language was pieced back together just before the Undead declared war on the living, however correct pronunciations were impossible to decipher. Further understandings were made during the investigation of Inwe in the 14th century of Aegis where archaeologists uncovered original texts depicting the language in more traditional uses.

As the populace of Aegis migrated to Asulon the scholars kept careful grasp on all that they had learned of the Ancient Language. Most congregated in Haelun'or with the High Elves where they could be left in peace to shape their collective knowledge into a usable language. The reformation of Ancient Elven started slowly as a few words began to spread firstly within the city of the High Elves, then broader into the populace of Malinor.

Language

Ancient Elven draws almost no similarities to Common ((English)) except that it is read left to right. Sentences are commonly structured subject-object-verb and words are formed using a seed word and an affix, or by joining two seed words with the use of an apostrophe (').

Some words that have been commonly introduced into every day speech are: Elven Word Translation into Common karin'ayla Good day ker'ayla Good night/evening van'ayla Farewell Mali Elf Bortu Dwarf Uruk Orc Valah Human Tali'bortu Halfling llir/lliran Friend(s) laurir Noble Mali'aheral High Elf (literally 'blessed Elf') Mali'ame Wood Elf Mali'ker Dark Elf

((A full and frequently updated Ancient Elven guide is [Ancient Elven is the language the Elves developed during the second generation of Malin's children. The Elven tongue was almost exclusively spoken. Evidence for this is found in the ruins of Inwe, where the writings of early Dark Elves were in an ancient dialect of the common tongue.

It has been rumoured that Elvish was also the language of nature, which the Elves either learned through study or was taught to them by certain deities. They then had the power to converse with nature directly, allowing them to guide the growth of trees and migration of animals as if by magic. If this were true, Elvish, assuming someone was capable of mastering the long-forgotten cadence of the words, would be a very potent language indeed.

Following the first war with the Dwarves in the early history of Aegis, the use of the language became very limited as many who had spoken it were killed in battle. The younger generations began communicating with other races and the language of Common swept across Malinor. Somewhere between the 7th and 10th centuries of Aegis the use of Ancient Elven became extremely limited and it remains unknown as to the exact reasoning, though common perception suggests that it was outlawed for some reason. There remained only a few texts that contained Ancient Elven spread throughout Malinor.

With High Prince Native establishing the capital of Laurelin and centralising the Elves, these books were brought into Laurelin's library where scholars again became interested in the language of the Ancestors. Through much vigorous study and scrutiny the language was pieced back together just before the Undead declared war on the living, however correct pronunciations were impossible to decipher. Further understandings were made during the investigation of Inwe in the 14th century of Aegis where archaeologists uncovered original texts depicting the language in more traditional uses.

As the populace of Aegis migrated to Asulon the scholars kept careful grasp on all that they had learned of the Ancient Language. Most congregated in Haelun'or with the High Elves where they could be left in peace to shape their collective knowledge into a usable language. The reformation of Ancient Elven started slowly as a few words began to spread firstly within the city of the High Elves, then broader into the populace of Malinor.

Language

Ancient Elven draws almost no similarities to Common ((English)) except that it is read left to right. Sentences are commonly structured subject-object-verb and words are formed using a seed word and an affix, or by joining two seed words with the use of an apostrophe (').

Some words that have been commonly introduced into every day speech are: Elven Word Translation into Common karin'ayla Good day ker'ayla Good night/evening van'ayla Farewell Mali Elf Bortu Dwarf Uruk Orc Valah Human Tali'bortu Halfling llir/lliran Friend(s) laurir Noble Mali'aheral High Elf (literally 'blessed Elf') Mali'ame Wood Elf Mali'ker Dark Elf

((A full and frequently updated Ancient Elven guide is here.))