Calcelmo's Stone: Sentence III, Minor Revisions, and the Avatheled Kagr

Roman might have found something interesting with this one. If the linguistic mumbo-jumbo bores you, scroll down to the bottom to read about what we theorized.

##Translation

> Abakch duumarkng tuathumz amakai, th abakch avatheled kagr tuamkingth mzan.

> frey as gandra dwemera tarcel lane sou agea ye frey as emeratis avatheledia carelle sou anyamissi bisia silya

> FREY by Dwemer gifts TARCEL LANE your wisdom and FREY by music of Avatheled CARELLE your new lives SILYA

Abakch = frey as, a phrase. Abak- appears later, and is translated as frey alone, meaning that -ch = as. Indeed, later che is used, and corresponds to rias, a possible derivative of as. Roman suggests that abak means “only,” with the -ch part meaning “with” in the sense of having or owning something, which agrees with the Falmeris.

Gandra dwemera is clearly ”Dwemer gifts.” Duumarkng meets the same criteria, since duum was translated as “Dwemer” earlier. The reoccurence of ark- is annoying, since the semantics don’t line up very well. Ark- may not mean “exile,” but may just relate to things going away; this allows us to translate both “exile” and “gift” as ark-.

EDIT: Dwemeris for “gift” is ngark, given the later text. Apparently *mng just collapses into m.

Tuathumz (interestingly missing the h--typo or grammatical feature?) matches nicely with sou agea.

I’ve interpreted tarcel lane as a verbal phrase, similar to some English verbs (catch up, for example, is two words that act as a single verb). Amakai is the Dwemeris equivalent. Lane recalls la, Ayleid for “time.” Given the context, it is probably something like “preserve” or, more literally, “keep in time.”

Avatheled is a proper noun, we’re pretty sure about that. The word is definitely Dwemer in origin, since the Falmeris transliterates it, and no ‹th› appears anywhere else on Falmer part of the stone (or anywhere else in the language, for that matter; the only place I can find th in Ayleid is in the word math “home”).

Kagr is a well-known word featured in the name Kagrenac and, to a lesser extent, the ruin Kagrenzel in eastern Skyrim. Curiously, the Falmeris translates it as emeratis “music.” Roman has an idea about this phrase (avatheled kagr/emeratis avatheledia); see the theory section.

Tuamkingth is an interesting compound corresponding to sou anyamissi bisia “your new lives.” The possessive prefix is obviously there, but what about “new”? There is a correlation between the suffix -ingth and forms of bisia in the stone, and is also used in a curious way in the name of one Dwemer ruin: Nchuleftingth, which has a related name at Nchuleft. Now, if our translations are correct, -l(e)ft is a place suffix, as seen in places like Mzul(e)ft, Mzinchaleft, Bthalft.

Silya is no doubt related to Ayleid sila “shine; grow, thrive” (ref). The other verb in the phrase, carelle, I’ve translated as an auxiliary “can.” Dwemeris uses mzan for both (which could give insight into more complex phrases in Dwemeris).

Dwemeris: > Abakch duumarkng t(h)uathumz amakai, th abakch avatheled kagr t(h)uamkingth mzan.

> only-with Dwemer-gift 2P.GEN-wisdom preserve / and only-with avatheled music 2P.GEN-life-new shine

Falmeris: > frey as gandra dwemera tarcel lane sou agea ye frey as emeratis avatheledia carelle sou anyamissi bisia silya

> only by gift dwemer keep time-FUT 2P.GEN wisdom / and only by music avatheled can-PASS? 2P.GEN life-PL new shine

Translation: > “Only with the gifts of the Dwemer will you preserve your wisdom, and only with the music of avatheled will your new lives be able to thrive.”

##Revisions

Bcharn, we think, actually means “control” (previously “machine”). This led to an interesting reinterpretation of two texts: Calcelmo’s Stone (obviously), and one sliver of text in Nchardak, on Solstheim: bcharn enkagr or enkagr bcharn. As we see, kagr = “music,” and if bcharn is “control” then that leaves en-/-en, which we think is “with” in the sense of using, contrary to -ch in abak, which refers to possession.

The final translation of bcharn enkagr, then, is “control with music.”

##On Avatheled Kagr

The avatheled kagr is the actual Dwemeris name of the harmonic frequencies used in every Dwemer ruin to control and maintain the Animunculi. (It may also be the name for tonal architecture in general.) We see evidence of its use in Morrowind: any Dwemer construct brought out of close contact with a ruin ceases to function and shuts down. Additionally, we see “radio towers” on surface ruins in Morrowind, and there is a Dwemer coherer, which was an early form of radio communication.

Skyrim ruins don’t have the “radio towers” of Morrowind because they’re all underground. The temperature of Skyrim apparently wasn’t a good fit for the Dwemer, so they dug deep within the earth, probably to take advantage of potential geothermal energy.

Roman postulates an admittedly shaky, but interesting theory: the avatheled kagr changed the Falmer into their current form. Either the Dwemer used the frequencies willingly, or it simply happened naturally over time, after the Dwemer vanished (though the mention of it on the stone definitely implies the former). The Falmer changed far too much than can be explained simply by diet. The mushrooms probably didn’t help, but they weren’t the only culprit, I think.

EDIT: Maybe some evidence. Gelebor says: > The blinding of my race was supposedly accomplished with a toxin. Certainly not enough to devolve them into the sad and twisted beings they've become.

(As an interesting sidenote: Kagrenac’s name literally just means “one who uses music,” or more simply “musician.”)