A Brief Grammar and Description of the Ta'agra'iss Languages

As authored by Falx Vantinius, Imperial Diplomat to the Manedom of Pa'alatiin, 4E 126

Though the languages of the Bosmer, Altmer, and ancient Ayleids and Dwemer are all attested and evidenced to have descended from the old Aldmer language spoken when the elves were still new to the world, the languages of the Khajiit peoples (here collectively named "Ta'agra'iss", the native name for such that man and mer typically refer to as "Ta'agra") bear seemingly no relation to such; nor do they bear a relation to the languages of men or the strange Jel tongue of Argonia. Indeed, evidence points to the Ta'agra'iss languages being a third language family in Tamriel, though one whose child languages are still all closely related and who is heavily influenced by the likes of Altmeris, Bosmeris, and our own Cyrodillic. Language being the key to understanding culture, and culture being the key to influencing people, I have compiled a brief overview of Ta'agra'iss to aid my successors in this position as well as any others who have business with the Khajiiti people.

The Ta'agra'iss family may as well be classified as a single linguistic isolate with some dialects in a continuum, in layman's terms as a language unrelated to any other with some dialects unintelligible to one another, were it not for the political split of the old Manedom of Elsweyr into it's two constituent manedoms. Current political climate notwithstanding, the main Ta'agra'iss languages are Pa'alatiini, which seems to be the language of the majority of the Khajiit and is the lingua franca of Pellitine; and Ne Quin-ali, the common tongue of the more northerly Anequina. There are other, minor tongues which vary from village to village sometimes to the point where a Khajiit from a more easterly village would be forced to use Pa'alatiini or Ne Quin-ali to communicate with one from a more westerly village. However, these villages are so remote my staff could not locate a citizen of any of them, and my assignment is with Pellitine, not Anequina, so any vocabulary described here will only hold accurate with any certainty for the Pa'alatiin language.

For the consonants, the Khajiit have B, Ch, D, F, G (which is always hard), H, J (which is pronounced as the s in pleasure), K, Kh (which is pronounced as the word loch is in the Bruma dialect) L, M, N, P, R (which they pronounce as we do), RR (which is pronounced rolled against the ridge of the teeth), S, Sh, T, Th (which is alwas pronounced as in thin, never that) V, W, Y (which is never a vowel) and Z; and for the vowels they have but A as in "ah", E as in "bed", I as in "It", O as "go" but farther back in the mouth, and U as in "boot". In addition to these basic sounds, they also count "Q", "-", and " ' " as letters, with the first sounding the same as "K", but used in the middle or end of a word; the second representing the pause in "uh-oh"; and the last used to connect titles and adjectives or in retained spellings of yore such as m'ath, or sugar. Finally, it should be noted that Ta'agra'iss makes a distinction between the lengths of sounds, and notes this by doubling the more lengthy letter. The spelling of Pa'alitiini has also only recently been standardized, so one may see signs or notes with "q" at the beginning of a word, "k" in the middle, or other oddities.

The grammar of Ta'agra'iss is fairly complex and far more like the languages of Mer than our own language, having eleven cases and no articles such as a or the. The marker for case is always on the object of the statement and the clitic for this is seperated from the word by an " ' "; for example, "the man goes to the tra'house", or "he is without a fu'sword". The Ta'agra'iss languages also have a system of deriving various parts of speech from other words not unlike ours; the -er ending used in Cyrod words like "runner" is represented as -iit in Ta'agra'iss, the -i or -n ending as in "Altmeri" or "Argonian" is always -i, to represent "one who is" an adjective one adds -e to the adjective, and the -ing ending we add to verbs such as "running" is represented as a sole -r. Plurals are formed by adding -ei if the word terminates in a consonant, and -j if it terminates in a vowel; and adjectives either attach to the beginning of a word with " ' " if they are monosyllabic or occur after the word if they are polysyllabic. The adjective rule applies for both nouns and verbs, for example do'shurh'do, "it is good to be brave", which is comprised of "do'", good, and "shurh'do", to be brave.

THE CASES OF TA'AGRA'ISS

The verbs are likely where Ta'agra'iss deviates the most from the familiar to Cyrodillic. The verbs have conjugate or change depending on who they refer to, with endings referring to either the present or the past (the future being formed with the desiderative "to be" followed by the present form of the verb) and the first person or the second and third. In addition, the verb may be in any one of four moods: basic, desiderative, dynamic, or abstract. The basic verb might be called the "default" form of the verb, and is the form used for any concept that isn't covered by other moods; the desiderative verb indicates that the subject of the verb wants something, as the name implies; the dynamic form of the verb confers an entirely new meaning somewhat related to the original meaning; and the abstract mood is entirely unusual. The abstract verb does not conjugate, unlike other moods, and is used to describe an action devoid of perpetrator or specific recipient, for example the verb "rawli", "to rain" is used in this form as no being causes natural weather, nor is natural weather directed an an individual; in addition to this, the abstract can be used to form sencences with passive voice by placing the subject after the verb. I have described the verb moods and their conjugations below.

BASIC MOOD

DESIDERATIVE MOOD

DYNAMIC MOOD

Though there are yet more complexities of Ta'agra'iss, this note grows ever longer, so I shall leave them to another. Instead, I shall close with a traditional ending for papers of this sort — a translation of the Dragonborn Prophecy.

"Kaq'zi kel'mekjzeri tra'otos aa-mash toor nirni,

"When bad-rule(dynamic) takes its place at corners eight(focus) world,

Kaq'zi aa-Fasiiri Dwemejj vabakasash kava ket Alq thavin,

When Tower Brass(focus) will walk and Time changes(abstract),

Kaq'zi aa-durrabata krii kel'mikhna ket Fasiiri Tethtan vabakasash moqa,

When gifted thrice(focus) bad-succeed and Tower Red will tremble,

Kaq'zi aa-Mane Aqa kel'mikhna tor meq ket krii Zhed'Fasiiri

When Ruler Dragon(focus) bad-succeed his seat of power and fall(abstract) White-Tower

Kaq'zi fu-Fal'Fasiiri vabakasash va fu-Mane ket krohr,

When split Snow Tower will be without king and bleeding,

Barriit-Nirni vabakasash halazbazeri, ket Drejar shanbazeri tra-Ma'aqa Vris."

The Eater of the World will awaken, and the Wheel turns the Dragonborn Final(allative)."