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A community for the dragon language of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Thuum.org

A community for the dragon language of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Question Board


Able98Able98
March 9, 2016

Direct and Indirect speech

Drem yol lok. I'm new to dovahzul and as a self-proclaimed language enthusiast, I would like to know how to say direct and indirect speech and how the punctuations (especially the quotation mark "" ) are used

example of direct and indirect speech

"I will be late," father said --> Direct
Father said that he will be late. --> Indirect

Thank you :)

 

Category: Grammar


2


paarthurnax
Administrator
March 9, 2016

Thanks for your question! The only form of punctuation in the dragon language is equivalent to a dash or hyphen, which could be used to indicate dialogue.

Direct speech would require the "dialogue tag" ("he said", "she said", etc.) to come first so the reader knows what follows is dialogue. Here's an example from the game:

NONVUL BRON, D4M1N D1R ROT DO FIN
FOD3Z BORM4 - ORIN PRUZ1N DW3N
1L KREH 4RK KREN NUZ SLEN DO
V4Z4 MUZ LOS SINDUG4VON

Noble Nord, remember these words of the
Hoar Father - even the best steel
may bend and break but the flesh of
true men is unyielding.

Unfortunately this punctuation is not available in the current font, but resembles a diamond shape.

For indirect speech, the prepositions do 'of' is used (or no preposition at all). Here's another in-game example:

4RK FIN KEL LOST PROD4 DO VED V3NG KO FIN KR4
TOL FOD Z9M4 WIN K2N M9Z FUND2N

And the Scrolls have foretold of black wings in the cold
that when brothers wage war come unfurled.

When it comes to human speech, you would use fun 'to tell'; Bormahi fun do lot kein lingrah vod "My father told of a great war long ago."


1


Frinmulaar
March 9, 2016

Quotation marks are not used or known. In word wall-esque writing, a line break can indicate a quote. Otherwise indirect speech is analogous to that of West Germanic languages:

Bormah tinvaak

zu'u los kras

"father spoke: 'I am sick'",

bormah fun/tinvaak tol (rok) los kras

"father told/spoke that (he) is sick"