V'kah (The Tongue of the Ancients)

The Tongue of the Ancients (or V'kah, as it is known colloquially) is the language of the Elder Gods. It was largely spoken by the denizens of Somara until the end of the First Era.

Basic History
V'kah is the language spoken by the Elder Gods, and was bestowed on every race by their creator. By the time the Second Era began, most species began developing their own languages to communicate with, most of which either take influence from or were created to be opposite to (such as Elvish) V'kah. By the end of the Second Era, all mortal beings who possessed the ability to speak V'kah had perished, which resulted in the many peoples being ignorant of the inner workings of the language. Over time, common knowledge of the language deteriorated until most beings regarded it as complicated and unintelligible. Indeed, throughout the Fifth Era, the language was banned as it was deemed infernal and vulgar. In the Sixth Era, a newfound curiosity for arts and history spread across the world, resulting in a renewed focus on the language. Linguists, led by the esteemed Reginald T. Burke, were able to decode parts of the language by comparing copies of the Faket Vamoupah in common (and other languages) with the original V'kah script. As time went on, V'kah continued to become seen as mystical and ancient, yet still remained partly unintelligible, as many parts of it seem to be lost to history.

Basic Structure
V'kah takes its name from the sounds made by the fist three letters of its alphabet. The structure of sentences is still largely a mystery, but most contemporary linguists believe that sentences are commonly arranged in an Object-Verb-Subject format. For example, the phrase "I went home" would be arranged like "home went I" in V'kah, but this does not seem like a hard rule, and there are many exceptions. Furthermore, adjectives and determiners are commonly found after the noun.

V'kah letters are commonly made up solely of straight lines and occasional dots. Linguists have theorized that this is because the language predates paper. All original texts were carved in stone, and it is significantly easier to carve straight lines than curved ones.

Alphabet/Sounds
V'kah has a phonetic alphabet, meaning that each character signifies a specific sound. Because of this, it is hard for a direct translation into any language, as the characters used in V'kah are not found in any other language.

The V'kah alphabet has 19 characters:

Vah - an upside-down V with a dot in the middle. It makes the sound "vh", like the "v" in "love".

Ech - an upside-down V with an additional diagonal line the the left of the right side of the character that it also parallel to it. It makes the hard sound "ch", like the "ch" in "loch".

Ah - three vertical lines with a diagonal line from the bottom of the first line to the top of the last one. It makes a short "ah" sound, like the "o" in "block".

Tok - a T with an additional horizontal line through the middle of the character. It makes a "t" sound, like the "t" in "tap".

Zul - an upside-down V, except that the right line is perfectly vertical. It makes a "zs" sound, like the "z" in "zip".

Eehm - a V with a horizontal line through the middle. It makes a long "e" sound, like the "ee" in "week".

Yeh - an upside-down y. It makes a short "eh" sound, like the "e" in "peck".

Voh - a vertical line, with a right triangle jutting out from midway down the left side, and the base extending through the other side of the character. It makes a long "oh" sound, like the "oa" in "boat".

Uhl - a reversed L that forms an acute angle with a flat base, rather than a right one. It makes the "l" sound, such as the double "l" in "full".

Amah - a Y with an additional vertical part to the fork on top. It makes the "mm" sound, such as the "m" in "hum"

Setah - a Z that has been shifted 90 degrees to the left. It makes the "s" sound, like the "s" in "sip".

Yekah - a triangle with a vertical line splitting it. It makes the "yi" sound, like the "y" and "e" combined in "yellow".

Unoh - an n with sharpened, rather than rounded, edges. It makes the "nn" sound, like the "n" in "no".

Fekah - an upside-down question mark with sharp edges and no dot. It makes the "f" sound, like the "f" in "fine".

Huh - an X with horizontal lines sealing off the top and bottom. It makes the "huh" sound, like the "hu" in "huff".

Ouh - a diamond with the bottom right side missing and a dot in the middle, it makes the long "ouh" sound like the "u" in "blue".

Gul - a backwards L. It makes the "guh" sound, like the "g" in "go".

Vurr - a Z wherein the middle line has been straightened, and the top and bottom lines moved outwards accordingly. It makes the "rr" sound, such as the "urr" in "purr".

Puch - a t with an additional vertical line pointing downwards from the right side of the crossbar. It makes the "puh" sound similar to the "pu" in "puppy".

Intricacies
V’Kah contains several differences with most languages (especially common) stemming from several key concepts included when the language was founded.

Numbers
Counting in V’kah is centered on a base 8 system (as opposed to common’s base 10). So, for example, in common, one might count 7-8-9-10-11-12, in V’kah, the equivalent numbers would be 7-10-11-12-13-14. There are many inconclusive theories as to why this is the case, but some believe it to be symbolic of the 8 largest primeval gods (the 6 Elder Gods as well as Vikyn and Nox).

Compund Words
V’kah contains many words (especially names) that are really compound words or take inspiration from other words. Examples include the words “Vuhs” and “Alah“ (which mean ”white” and “black” respectively), which, combined, make “alahvuhs”, the V’kah word for “gray”. Other examples include Valazar’s original name in V’kah, (“valahuzoar”), which is a compound of “valoh” (“life”), “zokah“ (to make”), and “-ar” (“one who does/is), which, when combined, makes “One Who Makes Life”, a rather literal description of Valazar’s place as the God of Creation.

The concepts of “full” and “empty” also provide examples of this style of word generation. ”Full” is expressed as “kehtah”, a slight variation on “keht”, which means “seven” (the highest digit of the V’kah counting system). Similarly, “empty” is expressed as “faheekah”, which hearkens back to “faheek“, the V’kah word for “zero”. ”Half” and “Quarter” also follow similar naming conventions, which “half” (“nahtah“) being similar to “naht” (“three“, but also the fourth of eight V’kah digits), and “kosah“ (“quarter“ or “one-fourth”) is very much like “kos” (“one” but also the second V’kah digit”).

Dictionary
The following is a list of all known V’kah words translated into common:

Numbers
Zero - Faheek (fekah-ah-eehm-ech)

One - Kos (ech-voh-setah)

Two - Veem (vah-eehm-amah)

Three - Naht (unoh-ah-tok)

Four - Yeek (yekah-ech)

Five - Foch (fekah-ah-ech)

Six - Eek (eehm-ech)

Seven - Keht (ech-yeh-tok)

(as a portion (like fifth, fourth, etc)) - -ah (add ah on the end)

(Tens (like fifty, fourty, etc)) - -yi (add yekah to the end)

(Hundreds) - guhyi (gul-yeka)

(Thousands) - tokuhl (tok-voh-ech-ouh-uhl)

Counting
Full - Ketah

Half- Natah

Quarter - Kosah

Empty - Faheekah

Colors
White - Vuhs

Black - Alah

Red - Gorak

Brown - Pelor

Orange - Nuket

Yellow - Vayek

Green - Sutah

Blue - Elah

Purple - Voreh

Gold - Mapeh

Silver - Seevah

Gray - Alahvuhs

Pink - Voravuhs

Tan - Pelorvuhs

Adjectives
Fast - Kahket

Slow - Velim

Clear - Hee

Muddy - Velfah

New - Vieh

Old - Keteh

Ancient - Fahket

More - Uten

Less - Vetah

High - Eeht

Low - Zutel

Central - Ehzetel

Upper - Etuten

Lower - Zututen

Near - Utenez

Far - Vetez

King - Tarn

Queen - Tern

Knight (M) - Tarnel

Knight (F) - Ternel