Languages and Dialect

[Revelations]

Well, being curious in the culture of Zalanthas, I was wondering how the different languages of Zalanthas sound compared to our RL ears, and how letters might appear. Also, if you wanted to translate a word from a certain language, by what kind of format do you go by?

Here's a few examples of what I'm asking.
Would Allundean, being an elven tongue, sound graceful as Tolkein's elven speach might sound, or is it just similar to Bendune or Sirihish as I think it is? And Bendune, having a rich language as mentioned in the docs, how might that sound?
How might letters of perspective languages appear to our eyes? Is sirihish take on the rules of Phonics?
And where do people get the certain translations of Bendune and other such languages? Like Ten Sarak? If an elf said 'Water' to a nonallundean speaker, how might it sound like, and in what format would you decide?

Just a few questions to throw out there. Going back to a distant post by Sanvean about the Armageddon book, I think seeing these kinds of stuff in it would be great as well. :wink: Like a few major letters of the major languages.

[John]

Some of these I've made up on the spot with no IC knowledge

Allundean (linked to Bendune and Cavilish in vowel usage):
I see this as sounding like french (soft and slurred). Slow spoken as well (like how Australians speak without the annoying accent). Laid back. But it does become even more slurred when angry or speaking fast.

Anyar:
Soft, slurred language punctuated with whistles, pops and tongue clicks. With the odd sirihish word.

Bendune (sounds a little like Allundean, more like Cavilish):
Soft and slurred, with lots of phrases sounding exactly the same to a non-speaker, but meaning completely different things. It isn't as "lazy" as Allundean, with people speaking faster and more precisely.

Cavilish:
Slurred, but with plenty of Sirihish sounding words.

Heshrak:
Slurred, but spoken very quickly.

Kentu:
No idea.

Mirrukim:
Guttural, with lots of hard sounds. This isn't because of Tolkien, but because of the way newbie dwarf's speak

Nrizkt:
Clicks, whines, and pops.

Sirihish:
It's english.

Tatlum:
I see this as sounding like latin. Mainly because it's the ancestor to Sirihish, which I see as being english

How might letters of perspective languages appear to our eyes? Is sirihish take on the rules of Phonics?

No idea.

And where do people get the certain translations of Bendune and other such languages? Like Ten Sarak?

From the imms Seriously, I don't know anything more then that

[Larrath]

I always imagined Sirihish to be an Arabic-sounding language.  Allundean is probably a softer sounding language, and I just imagine Tatlum to be extremely intricate and needing long sentences to convey even the most basic concept.  Maybe a bit like Greek in its sound.
I'm tempted to give Scottish to Bendune because Scottish-accented gypsies make me laugh.  Maybe something along the lines of Turkish?  Shrug.

One thing is, to me, very clear - any self-respecting desert culture has to be able to make throaty sounds and pronounce 'kh', so English is just ruled out.

[Sholdyn]

I always saw Allundean as more like the Tolkein style. Or maybe a mix between french and spanish.

D-Elves would sound like European french and spanish and city elves would sound like North American french and spanish.

That's what I would think.

[Elgiva]

And mantis are speaking Czech.  :roll:

Who else is able to say: "Prd krt skrz drn, zprv zhlt hrst zrn."?

...

And yes, that sentece actually -is- meaningful.