11- Hour of the Llama
12- Hour of the Wood
So four o’clock in the morning would be, Hour of the Morning Water. Four o’clock in the afternoon would be, Hour of the Water.
As you learned in the book, Thuleans hail from Ultima Thule, the northernmost continent, and they speak a unique language. The language is based on several of the languages I’ve studied, notably Japanese and Mongolian. The text style is actually Mongolian script that my wife has phoneticized. An example would be the famous Thulean poem displayed at the beginning of this book, which we examine in detail a few paragraphs down. As the text mentions, there is also some written on Ryuk’s marble gun.
I have worked on the Thulean language since 2014 and the language has real structure. To keep things simple, it follows a subject verb object pattern like English. Like Japanese, future and present tenses are the same. It should also be noted that the language is guttural rather than tonal, and its colloquial usage filled with fricatives, like Mongolian. About the only thing I haven’t finalized with the language aside from a boatload of nouns, verbs, and adjectives are perfect tenses and using conditional phrases.
Below, we will look at the famous Tritanian poem that Zaena recites followed by one of the insults she hurls at Hiccup. This poem is also available in the front of this book.
In English: “Continents, three, float over the Endless Sea, Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule.”
In Thulean: “Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae, Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.”
A direct translation: “Three (takha) continent (bae bitakh) float (novlaa) over (rakh) Endless Sea (Aya Bortaetae), Hyperborea (Huborakha), Polynya (Polonkhya), Ultima Thule (Hutame Dulekh).”
In the above translation, you’ll notice that articles aren’t used. Like Japanese and many other languages, Thulean doesn’t use articles (such as ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’). It doesn’t use conjunctions either. You’ll also notice that there isn’t pluralization of the word ‘continent’, something also related to the structure of the Japanese language. Another piece of the Japanese language structure that I use for Thulean is the elimination of pronouns.
Let’s break down quick trade of jabs between Hiccup and Zaena featured in Chapter 12.
Zaena hisses Chain duchitekcha at Hiccup.
In English, this would translate to “I am your future murderer.”
If you translate it directly, she says “Your (chain) death-giving person (duchitekcha).” The verb
‘to be’ implied.
The future assumption of this sentence is due to the fact that like Japanese, future and present tense are used simultaneously, and one would take from the context that the proposed death would come soon. Also, since we’re discussing the phrase, the verb “to die” in Thulean is duchaka and the word for ‘to give’ is tekronakh. The suffix for person is ‘cha’. So duch-i-tek-cha combines stems from both the verbs and adds cha to make it a person. It also adds the letter ‘i’ to separate the two stems, as the two verbs have combined to describe a noun.
Another version of the usage of the word death is evident in the prologue of the book. The mountain troll yells ‘Doka duchaka!’ which in English translates to ‘Prepare to die!’ This is another way verbs can work together in the Thulean language. When not describing a noun (as in the ‘cha’ example above), to use two verbs together, the stem of the first verb is added to the second verb.
So, dokava is the verb for ‘to prepare’ and duchaka is the verb for ‘to die’. Thus, doka duchaka, means ‘prepare to die’.
I hope that explanation didn’t bore you to tears.
If you’d like to know more about the Thulean language, please visit this link, where you will find an Excel spreadsheet of all the words I’ve created for the language as well as some grammar instructions. It is a work in progress, and it is something I will continue to enhance both in Fantasy Online and The Feedback Loop series. If you are into SQL and feel like making a data-base for the language, message me as this is something I’d ultimately like to do. (writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com)
I frequent two LitRPG Facebook groups. Please join them both, where you’ll be able to interact with LitRPG fans, authors, and narrators. These groups are so fun and their members are great.
Make sure to post something along the lines of “I’m here because of Harmon fickin’ Cooper!” when you join.
:-D
JOIN THEM BOTH! Click the two pics, or search “LitRPG Group” and “LitRPG Society” on Facebook.
Acknowledgements & More
To George C. Hopkins, my editor, thanks for making marble guns and all the other shit I come up with work. In the process of our working relationship, you’ve been attacked by a bull and had a septic tank overflow (not as a direct result of our association – GCH), yet you still have sent me back edits, whether it be Chrismahankuwanzivus or the night following another successful goose competition.
To my beta readers, Daniel Hernandez, Jay Taylor, and Kay Smilie, I couldn’t thank you more. Thanks for giving me your time, expertise, and mindspace. Kay has been beta-reading my books for two years now and I couldn’t thank her enough! Nor do I have a way to express my gratitude for all the great authors I’ve met over the last year and who have encouraged me and whose work has inspired the hell out of me. In no particular order, a XXL bucket of thank yous goes out to Blaise Corvin, Michael-Scott Earle (thanks for kicking my ass on this one – your suggestions truly shaped this story!), James Hunter, Aleric Elos, Sam Witt, Jeff Sproul, Alyssa Archer, Ramon Mejia, and Aleron Kong, all whom have shared their expertise and their time. To Richard M. Mulder and Dawn Chapman, thanks for featuring Fantasy Online in SciFan Magazine and a special thanks to Dawn for catching a glaring typo before The Feedback Loop print book went to press. A special big ATX thank you goes out to Travis Bagwell, who introduced me to most of the people listed above, and to Luke Chmilenko and Apollos Thorne, whom I speak to almost daily about writing, gaming, and promotion, thanks for all the encouragement. (To Luke … must … resist … PS4.)
Tom Shutt, a writer, an editor, and a gifted cover designer, went above and beyond to get the perfect cover for this book. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in May of 2017, which was a shocker for all in the community. I know you can’t read this, but thank you, Tom, for putting up with my constant badgering and cover-tweaking questions and thank you for never making me feel like I’ve asked a stupid question.
Others I’d like to thank include Jeff Hays, narrator extraordinaire who continues to bring my characters to life; Bobby Burjstrom, a damn funny guy who is desperately in need of professional help after an incident with a unicorn; Paul Campbell Jr., from ATQNE.com for working so hard for this genre; Pakisam, who provided early inspiration as I posted this book on RRL, encouraging me further and calling me out if my shit stank – this guy really made a difference in what you’ve just read; Liquid Frost, for always lotioning properly and being the first reader to review my books a few years back; my brother for reading my books on his smartphone and sending me screenshots of my mistakes a month after the book has been published (insert troll face here – haha); the readers (Blanche, Dale, Rebecca, Joel, Jay, others) who have stuck with me over the last couple of years. If you’ve emailed me, or spoken to me on Facebook, you know who you are and I thank you for it!