Nanousian

Nanousian the name of the language spoken by the Dwarves of the dwarven Imperium. Around the time of the disappearance of Al-Kanish the dwarves formed one of the mightiest military organisations on Astronasia, inventing many of the martial terms and tactics, which has caused most languages to still use nanousian words when describing these terms.

Writing System

The Nanousian script is made out of an collection of runes. The dwarves rarely write down their runes on paper or papyrus as they believe the written word is for eternity and the short fragile life of these materials would just not do, instead the runes are carved into wood, stone, or iron objects and slabs where they might be preserved.

Phonology

Nanousian puts allot of stress on the first syllable of a word. All syllables other than the first one are unstressed and are subjected to greater amounts of phonological weakening.

Morphology

Nanousian nouns are distinguished by grammatical case, with a suffix determining its use in the sentence: subject, predicate, etc. A case for a given word is formed by suffixing a case ending to a part of the word common to all its cases called a stem. Stems are classified by their last letters as vowel or consonant.

Vocabulary

Aurum

Gold

Bastardis sanguinum

Friend

Ferrum

Iron

Gigas

Giant

Gratias

Thank you

Lapis

Stone

Nahum

No

Nanous

Dwarf

Nanousi

Dwarves

Rupe

Cliff

Salvete

Greetings

Semper

Yes

Tyria

Purple

Common Phrases

Salvete bastardis sanguinum!

Greetings friend.

Postea vide bastardis sanguinum!

I bid you farewell friend.

Te excusaris.

My apologies

Hic est qui sum...

I am...

Qui vis fieri?

What’s your name?

Illic es haud licet?

How are you?

Sanguis intellegere non possum te.

Sorry, I don’t understand.

Dabis mihi...

Can I have...

Ubi reperire possum...

Where can I find...

Idioms

Percute jaculo terram.

Literal: Strike the earth. Actual meaning: Good Luck.

Cor meum ad ferrum.

Literal: My heart is as iron. Actual meaning: My words are true.

Et spiritus odore sicut draco.

Literal: Your breath smells like a dragon. Actual meaning: I can see that you are lying.

Ut interficiam de gigas in insidiaberis calcaneo eius

Literal: Slash his giant's heel. Actual meaning: Strike an enemy where it hurts.

Tu es enim ad tyria piscatum!

Literal: You are fishing for purple dyes! Actual meaning: You are on a fools errand.

In aurum civitate!

Literal: By the golden city! Actual meaning: For god's sake.

Cum septem annulos in manibus.

Literal: With seven rings in hand. Actual meaning: With great speed.

Velut in Jagdevid

Literal: Like a Jagdevid Actual meaning: To pull off something so stupid that it becomes glorious.

Sicut feles in tabernā biberent Calpurnia.

Literal: As a cat at a tavern. Actual meaning: Getting drunk from little alchohol.

Common Female Names

Argenta, Bellatrix, Connie, Drusilla, Estella, Flavia, Gloria, Hortensia, Isabel, Jill, Kamila, Latonya, Myla, Noreen, Oralie, Patrycja, Romy, Scilla, Tori, Ula, Vesta, Wikolia, Yustina, Zella

Common Male Names

Aurel, Brutus, Claudius, Dante, Emilio, Ferrus, Gaius, Horace, Isaur, Julius, Kai, Lycius, Marcus, Nero, Ora, Plum, Quinton, Ricimer, Scipio, Tiberius, Urbain, Valens, Walenty