Dragon Language



In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a new language has been released; the language of the Dragons. Sometimes referred to as Dragonish or Draconian, this language has become rare in Tamriel since the dragon's apparent extinction. The main character of Skyrim, the Dragonborn (or Dovahkiin) will be able to learn parts of the language, using them to cast powerful spells known as Dragon shouts. Interestingly, speakers of dragon language can calm Dragonlings with it.

Gameinformer Preview/ Dragonborn Prophecy Translation:
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Phonetic Translation
DOVahKiiN DOVahKiiN NaaL OK ZIN LOS VahRiiN Wah DeiN VOKUL MahFAERaaK ahST VaaL ahRK FIN NOROK PaaL GRaaN FOD NUST HON ZINDRO ZaaN DOVahKiiN Fah HIN KOGaaN MU DRaaL

ahRK FIN KEL LOST PRODah DO VED ViiNG KO FIN KRah TOL FOD ZeyMah WIN KeiN MeyZ FUNDeiN ALDUIN FeyN DO JUN KRUZiiK VOKUN STaaDNAU VOTH aaN BahLOK Wah DiiVON FIN LeiN
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English Translation
Dragonborn Dragonborn By his honor is sworn To keep evil forever at bay And the fiercest foes rout When they hear triumph’s shout Dragonborn for your blessing we pray

And the scrolls have foretold Of black wings in the cold That when brothers wage war come unfurled Alduin, bane of kings Ancient shadow unbound With a hunger to swallow the world
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Alphabet
This alphabet was extracted from the game files by TheSuperNerd and cross referenced for comfirmation of character translation to the known characters given by GameInformer as well as in-game translations.

The alphabet consists of 34 symbols: there are 25 that map directly to letters in the English alphabet, and 9 that map to pairs of letters. The Dragon language does not have "C" as that sound is created by either "S" or "K".

The shape of the letters is constrained by their need to be written using three large talons and a vestigial fourth digit called the dewclaw. Thus, each letter consists of at most three scratches and a dot.

There are two fonts based on the dragon language available for download

Dovah is here. "aa", "ah", "ei", "ey", and "ii" are not included in the font based download.

Dragon Script is here. "aa", "ei", "ii', "ah", "uu", "ur", "ir", "oo" and "ey" map to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 respectively. While the "0"(zero) key also has a character mapped to it, it is one that is not used and was discarded from the final version of the the game and can be ignored. "ey" also maps to "C". You must have CAPSLOCK on to properly write with the other 25 letters. This was extracted from the game files by TheSuperNerd (thank you super nerd!) and is official.

Known words
Known words in the dragon language. Written using the nomenclature above, i.e. if one dragon letter corresponds to several English, lowercase is used.

Common Words
(First added September 10, 2011)

Some can also be found in the book Dragon Language: Myth no More.

{C Source: Skyrim Game Guide {C

Trivia

 * The Dragon language's script is similar in appearance to cuneiform, the written language of ancient Mesopotamia.
 * A possible hidden reference to Looking Glass Studio's "Thief" series exists in the form of the draconic word for thief -- "tafiir."
 * When speaking to you, both Alduin and Paarthurnax will speak in both common and Dragon language, often repeating a word in common after it is said in Dragon in order for the player to understand.
 * Hostile dragons that the player may encounter in the wild will sometimes taunt you in Dragon language.