An'daran Atish'an ga'lin!
It's quite clear that Elvhen, as it is used in the games, is a cipher. Patrick has said it is essentially a "half language," and David has confirmed it is a cipher (see here). While this makes perfect sense from a game design standpoint (as it allows quick and easy translation. Writers don't have to sit down and learn Elvhen grammar rules before constructing sentences) it does result in a bit of lost depth for anybody who knows language. More important to the fan community at large, however, it is leaves no resource for the fans to invest themselves into the language.
Look at how many fans got into the languages of Game of Thrones for example, or how many people into the Na'vi language. Hell, look at the massive fanbase surrounding the languages from Lord of the Rings.
With that in mind, I started a project back in December which I have since started to call Project Elvhen. My goal is to turn the snippets of dialogue that Bioware has created into an actual language, or at least a simulated. I am calling my work on Elvhen a simulated conlang because I don't want to throw out any of Bioware's hard work. The ultimate goal of this project is to have a working language that fans can speak, use in fan-fiction, etc. Hell, I might even write some stereo instructions just for Patrick Weekes.
If you're interested, you can see the progress on the project in the Project Elvhen Tag on my tumblr. Alternatively, I have a compendium of major posts on AO3 (which I don't update as often as my tumblr, but is easier to maneuver around).
I am posting tonight, because I want to know if you guys would be interested in a thread compendium on here, where you can ask me questions and discuss the language. Such as if you disagree with some judgement I've made, or if you have word lists, something you want translated, etc.
Ma Serannas sul ithal, aranien.





Retour en haut






