Old Tongue
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The Old Tongue is a fictional language from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time fantasy series. It is depicted as a now-dead language, spoken only by scholars and certain nobles, but still plays a role in the plot of the books.
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History
The Old Tongue was spoken during and shortly after the Age of Legends. Due to the ensuing turmoil of the Breaking of the World, the Trolloc Wars, and the War of the Hundred Years, the records of this time period are generally fragmentary at best; however, it seems that a sufficient knowledge of the language itself has survived for those who wish to learn it to do so. (Many nobles, for example, are expected to learn the Old Tongue, though few do to any meaningful degree; a fair number of Aes Sedai seem to have some knowledge of it as well, to say nothing of the scholars to whom such things are of great interest.)
But though it has long since passed out of use, its importance should not be underestimated. It is the language of such great figures as Lews Therin Telamon and the Hundred Companions, as well as that of the Forsaken. It was spoken by a society that was, by all remaining accounts, quite advanced in most respects, and it was the language of those who struggled to mend their shattered societies in the aftermath of the Breaking. It did nothing less than survive a minor armageddon, and usher in the dawn of a new world.
At present, the Old Tongue can still be seen through names of places (e.g. Manetheren or Aridhol), things (e.g. names of Aiel warrior societies), inscriptions (e.g. "Tia mi aven Moridin isande vadin"), and in certain phrases used in conversation.
Grammar
Grammatical knowledge of the language remains sketchy at best, but a few observations can nonetheless be made concerning its phonology, morphology, and syntax.
Phonology
The exact phonological value of many letters and digraphs can only be guessed at, but the pronunciations provided by Jordan for some of the more important words offer at least some semblance of a guide. Further, given that the author's own native language is (American) English, one can perhaps make a few inferences accordingly.
Consonants seem to represent more or less the sounds an English speaker would expect:
- b: [b]
- c: [k]
- d: [d]
- f: [f]
- g: [g]
- h: [h]
- j: [dž], possibly others
- k: [k]
- l: [l]
- m: [m]
- n: [n]
- p: [p]
- q: extremely rare in the extant lexicon, and seen only in the presence of 'u' to produce the sound [kw]
- r: [ɹ] note: this is the IPA transcription for the sound as it appears in English - the transcription [r] in fact represents a trilled 'r'
- s: [s] initially or in the presence of unvoiced consonants; [z] following or between voiced sounds
- t: [t]
- v: [v]
- w: [w]
- y: [j]
- z: [z]
Also, a few consonantal digraphs have been observed.
- ch: [tš]
- sh: [š]
- th: [θ], probably [ð] as well
Several others appear, though their pronunciation, again, can be only guessed at.
- kj: ?
- jh: ?
To date, no 'x' has been seen in any known Old Tongue words.
Vowels, as mentioned, are less certain; the Old Tongue demonstrates a degree of orthographical irregularity that, if not equal to, is at least reminiscent of Modern English. The diphthong 'ai', for example, is seen as both [e] and [ai] at various times (though the latter is the more common phonetic value), and in at least one word - shai'tan - its component letters are pronounced separately ( [šeItan]/[šeiItan] ).
- a: [a], [e/ei], [Λ], possibly [æ]
- e: [i], [e], [ε]
- i: [i], [I]
- o: [o], [a]
- u: [u]
Also as mentioned previously, the Old Tongue also makes use of several diphthongs.
- aa: [a]
- ai: [aj], [e]
- ae: [e/ei]
- ei: [e/ei], [aj]
- ie: [i]
- oo: [u]
- ou: [u]?
It should be stressed once more that these phonetic values are quite tenative, most particularly in the case of vowels and diphthongs.
Morphology
Much like Modern English, the Old Tongue retains little morphological diversity (if, indeed, it had very much to begin with); the only attested forms of nominal and adjectival declension are those used to produce a plural form of the word in question, and it is unclear whether these are the relic of a more complex system of declension, or simply an isolated phenomenon. It is also uncertain of just how many classes of noun and adjective there are, but at least four have been observed to date.
The 'first declension' (so termed entirely arbitrarily by the author of this article, for nothing more than the sake of convenience; all such future terms should be considered to be similarly artificial) is marked by the addition of an 'i' to word's end in the plural. Shar ('blood'), for example, becomes shari in the plural, as in the name of the Aiel society Tain Shari ('true bloods').
Second declension words take an 'a' in the plural, also appended directly to the end of the word. The singular form of 'eye', for instance, is sei, and the plural seia.
The third declensional pattern is somewhat more unusual, involving the removal of a letter rather than the addition of one, as in the word dareis. Here, the presence of the 's' indicates the singular form of the word for 'spear', and it's absence the plural - 'spears'. (This would seem to indicate that the Old Tongue is not a context-free language.)
Fourth and (provisionally) last, the most irregular declension seen to date. As with the first and second declensions, some words of the fourth simply add their plural marker - 'n' - directly to the end of a word, as in the adjective tain ('true', singular form tai). Others, however, involve a more involved inflectionary process, such as the word for 'people' - the singular athan becomes the plural atha'an (whether this would be pronounced more like [aθa:n] or [aθa?an] is unclear).
It is entirely possible that still other 'declensions' exist, as many of the observed words do not necessarily seem to follow the aforementioned paradigms; or perhaps those observed words simply do not inflect, with these four patterns representing nothing beyond the more tenacious vestiges of an already all but vanished synthetic typology.
Also of note is the presence of what appears to be an appositional genitive, in such phrases as siswai'aman ('spears of the dragon') and tai'daishar ('lord of glory'), where aman and daishar mean 'dragon' and 'glory' respectively. The lack of any observed genitive case-form, and lack of morphological diversity in general, seem to suggest apposition as a likely explanation for the observed phenomenon, though the given meanings could, alternatively, be merely translations of adjective-final phrases into good idiomatic English - i.e. one would probably be more likely to say 'lord of glory' than 'glory lord'. If the former is indeed the case, however, it provides an interesting contrast to cases in which the use of a preposition is evidently preferred, such as Far Aldazar Din ('Brothers of the Eagle') or Far Dareis Mai ('Maidens of the Spear').
The details of verbal inflection, regrettably, are even less clear than those of nouns - the same verb has rarely been seen in more than one form, if at all. Indeed, the majority of attested words are in fact nouns, adjectives, or various particles, with very, very few verbs known at all. The best example provides only the murkiest of ideas of what Old Tongue conjugation may be like, and it involves the verb 'to be' at that. (There's no telling if it exhibits the same irregularity as its Indo-European counterpart, but given Mr. Jordan's self-stated goal of creating a language that mimics the oddities of its real world counterparts, it seems at least plausible.) At any rate, below is a (quite) partial table of the verb 'to be' as it has been seen to date.
- 1st per (sg.) | misain
- 2nd per (sg.) | ?
- 3rd per (sg.) | isain, ain (difference in meaning, if any, unknown)
- 1st per (pl.) | ?
- 2nd per (pl.) | ?
- 3rd per (pl.) | ?
As one can well see, drawing any conclusions from such sparse evidence is a difficult enterprise at best, and Old Tongue verbs will likely remain something of a mystery until such time as more may be observed.
One interesting point of mention, however, is the presence of a contraction, corresponding more or less to the English "isn't". In the phrase Tia mi aven Moridin isainde vadin - 'Death is no bar to my call' - the word isainde is formed from the third person singular form of 'to be' (seen above) and the word for 'no/not', inde. Thus, a more literal translation of this phrase might be 'to my call Death isn't (a) bar'.
It seems at least probable that other contractions exist, but again, the paucity of information prevents one from knowing for certain.
Syntax
Like much of the rest of Old Tongue grammar, the only syntactical 'rules' are fairly provisional, and amount more to a listing of observed phenomena than any truly prescriptive work.
Generally speaking, a roughly OVS syntax seems to be employed, though this is not without exception. The phrase above, for example - 'Death is no bar to my call' - seems to maintain an SVO syntax, with the indirect object and its corresponding construction appearing next to the subject.
Also, it seems that certain prepositions require or tend toward their own unique word order; the word far (an Old Tongue word for 'of') is one such, and always or nearly always places the 'main' noun after the one that limits it - Far Aldazar Din literally translates as 'of the eagle brothers', though in English one would actually say 'brothers of the eagle'.
In all probability (as with more or less any language), Old Tongue syntax is flexible to some greater or lesser degree, and changes regularly to convey different meanings (such as the indicative 'you are going' versus the interrogative 'are you going?'). But as with more or less all other aspects of its grammar, there is simply too little available evidence to draw very many conclusions.
Phrases and Translations
Below is a list of some of the Old Tongue words and phrases used in the Wheel of Time books.
- "Carai an Caldazar! Carai an Ellisande! Al Ellisande!" (For the honor of the Red Eagle! For the Honor of the Rose of the Sun! The Rose of the Sun!) - shouted by Mat in the first fight against Trollocs, just after they left the Caemlyn Road; the ancient battle cry of Manetheren.
- "Mia ayende, Aes Sedai! Caballein misain ye! Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye! Mia ayende!" (Release me, Aes Sedai! I am a free man, Aes Sedai! I am no Aes Sedai meat! Release me!) - shouted by Mat after his contact with the dagger of Shadar Logoth and subsequent release.
- "Muad'drin tia dar allende caba'drin rhiadem! Los Valdar Cuebiyari! Los! Carai an Caldazar! Al Caldazar!" (Footmen prepare to pass cavalry forward! Forward the Heart Guard! Forward! For the Honor of the Red Eagle! The Red Eagle!) - appeared in Mat's dreams after he was freed of the dagger, a phrase used in a battle of Manetheren against the Trollocs.
- "Sene sovya caba'donde ain dovienya." (Luck is a horse to ride like any other.)
- "Tia mi aven Moridin isande vadin." (The grave is no bar to my call.) - inscription on the Horn of Valere. (It should be noted that this sentence is from Book One, The Eye of the World, and Robert Jordan does not seem to have designed a consistence framework for the Old Tongue until Book Two. Consequently, this sentence falls outside standard Old Tongue sentence structure, as far as can be ascertained from later books. In more standard format, it should be "Tia mi aven vadin isainde Moridin.")
Bibliography
- Jordan, Robert. The Eye of the World. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1990
- Jordan, Robert and Patterson, Teresa. The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1997
- Chris. The Old Tongue Dictionary. [1] (http://www.angelfire.com/tx/jcs97b/otd.html)
External links
- The Compleate Old Tongue (http://drosi.tuts.nu/wot/wt_tongu.htm)
- Dictionary of the Old Tongue (http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Maze/1959/wot_oldtongue.html)