ailurin words, wizard terms, and name pronunciations
A list of terms and their meanings:
(this is mostly for my own reference)
Ailurin - Cat language; predominantly conveyed through body language. The vocalized part of the language is a "pitched" language, more sung than spoken. It is mostly vowel based.
Ehhif - Human
Houiff - Dog
“Sweet Queen around us!” - Exclamation
Hihhh - Curse word; “just got that hihhh thing fixed!”
“Hunt’s luck” or “‘Luck” - Greeting and farewell; like good morning and good luck
Iau - The Queen; Goddess
Fwau - curse word
Vhai’d - damned
The People - overarching term for the entirety of the feline species.
O’hra - opera
Queen - female
Tom - male
Ffeih - refers to both neutered and spayed cats.
“Dai stihó” or “Dai” - A greeting in the Speech. Roughly means ‘go well’.
The Powers That Be - The Powers who created all existence; who the wizards work for.
The Lone Power - The Power that created death and works against the other Powers; who the wizards combat.
The Speech - A language that all wizards can speak; allows universal communication.
The Oath - The oath all wizards take (though it does vary from species to species).
"In Life's name and for Life's sake, I assert that I will employ the Art which is its gift in Life's service alone, rejecting all other usages. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so -- till Universe's end."
(I think this is the one from Young Wizards; need to look up and transcribe the feline version.)
On names:
The Speech may translate everything else, but names are an oversight here. Since Wizardy requires a lot of specifics, changing how one naturally pronounces a name can be very detrimental. For this reason, the People have a hard time saying some names, mostly human ones, due to their own language being vowel heavy and lacking most the hard consonants that humans use.
Examples of this are:
Carl = Har’lh
Tom = T’hom
Kit = Khi-t
(this is mostly for my own reference)
Ailurin - Cat language; predominantly conveyed through body language. The vocalized part of the language is a "pitched" language, more sung than spoken. It is mostly vowel based.
Ehhif - Human
Houiff - Dog
“Sweet Queen around us!” - Exclamation
Hihhh - Curse word; “just got that hihhh thing fixed!”
“Hunt’s luck” or “‘Luck” - Greeting and farewell; like good morning and good luck
Iau - The Queen; Goddess
Fwau - curse word
Vhai’d - damned
The People - overarching term for the entirety of the feline species.
O’hra - opera
Queen - female
Tom - male
Ffeih - refers to both neutered and spayed cats.
“Dai stihó” or “Dai” - A greeting in the Speech. Roughly means ‘go well’.
The Powers That Be - The Powers who created all existence; who the wizards work for.
The Lone Power - The Power that created death and works against the other Powers; who the wizards combat.
The Speech - A language that all wizards can speak; allows universal communication.
The Oath - The oath all wizards take (though it does vary from species to species).
"In Life's name and for Life's sake, I assert that I will employ the Art which is its gift in Life's service alone, rejecting all other usages. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so -- till Universe's end."
(I think this is the one from Young Wizards; need to look up and transcribe the feline version.)
On names:
The Speech may translate everything else, but names are an oversight here. Since Wizardy requires a lot of specifics, changing how one naturally pronounces a name can be very detrimental. For this reason, the People have a hard time saying some names, mostly human ones, due to their own language being vowel heavy and lacking most the hard consonants that humans use.
Examples of this are:
Carl = Har’lh
Tom = T’hom
Kit = Khi-t