User blog:Ralvz'jeshka Shakaraph/Speaking Khajiit - a guide to a khajiit dialect

Reader's note: ''This page will be under consistant construction. '''Important update! 'Anything listed with possible change will be marked with a * next to it.

Part 1. The Sounds
Like most languages, you use your mouth (assuming you have one) to speak. It starts with one sound, then a few more, and then we get a word. Likewise, you aren't likely to get far, not knowing the sounds of any different language. After all, it isn't just the words that are different... Take a look at this guide to learn the sounds of this Ta'agra dialect.



A a - ah as in father

Ā ā - a as in hat

B b - as in boy

D d - as in doughnut

E e - as in exit

Ē ē - as in day

Ph ph - as in phone

G g - as in good

H h - as in happy

Hh hh - as in bach

I i - as in icky

Ī ī - as in sea

J j - as in jump

Jj jj - as in pleasure

<p style="text-align:center;">K k - as in kite

<p style="text-align:center;">L l - as in long

<p style="text-align:center;">M m - as in mom

<p style="text-align:center;">N n - as in nerd

<p style="text-align:center;">O o - as in oh

<p style="text-align:center;">Ō ō - as in row

<p style="text-align:center;">P p - as in pocket

<p style="text-align:center;">R r - as in Russian (roll the r)

<p style="text-align:center;">S s - as in sad

<p style="text-align:center;">Š š - as in she

<p style="text-align:center;">Č č - as in chicken

<p style="text-align:center;">T t - as in tap

<p style="text-align:center;">Th th - as in this

<p style="text-align:center;">U u - as in oops

<p style="text-align:center;">Ū ū - as in up

<p style="text-align:center;">V v - as in van

<p style="text-align:center;">Vh vh - this is a new sound. Start making a "V" sound, then make a "w" sound after it.

<p style="text-align:center;">Y y - as in you

<p style="text-align:center;">Z z - as in zoo

<p style="text-align:center;">Congrats. You made it.

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<p style="text-align:center;"> <h2 style="text-align:center;">Part 2. Nouns <p style="text-align:center;">As we have all learned, things in life really are just nouns. People, places, and things make up what you see around you. They tell us the main topic of what's being talked about, and keep us from saying things like "Long, yellow, pointy, writing stick" to say something as simple as "pencil".

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<p style="text-align:center;">Now that we fully have achieved grammatical Nirvana of what a noun is, we can continue to the more importants things. In this part, you will learn how nouns are different in sex, and in roles of the sentence. As nouns in Kuraphi, ( I did mention it was the name of the dialect? No? Well there you go. ) go far beyond just plural and possessive.

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Noun Genders
<p style="text-align:center;">When I mentioned nouns having sex, I did not mean, nouns reproduce. I was referring to grammatical gender. Neither does this mean Kuraphi objects and places have reproductive organs, if they do, you're in the wrong part of Elsweyr. Grammatical gender simply separates certain nouns based on their endings or how they change in a sentence. For example; Maka, meaning tail, is feminine and would become makīnn in the plural. But, indar meaning friend, which is masculine, would become indarā meaning friends.

<p style="text-align:center;">You can always tell the gender by its ending (lie, but I like to make you feel confident.) Note. There are only 2 genders in Kuraphi.

<p style="text-align:center;">The endings for most feminine words are~

<p style="text-align:center;">< -a >

<p style="text-align:center;">< -t >

<p style="text-align:center;">See, not so hard right?

<p style="text-align:center;">The rest are most likely to be masculine, however, just to be sure I will leave an f. for feminine and ''m. ''for masculine in any future dictionaries. Now that you have learned that nouns have sex and why, we're ready to move on to declen~ Why are you laughing?

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Grammatical Declensions
<p style="text-align:center;">Now that we have learned what noun gender is. It's time for us to learn what declension is. What is declension? Well, keep your pants on and your tail (if you have one) between your legs. Declension is a set of endings a word takes to indicate its role in a sentence. Different endings happen for each of the two genders. There are 5 declensions in El-Saharian. But today, we are going to learn the first.

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Nominative case
The nominative case (part of declension) is the dictionary form of your average word. The nominative case of a word is taking nothing and is always the subject of the sentence. Take a look at the following nouns;

Sukod m. - hand

Mārzat f. - scroll, book

Likewise, you are probably going to have more than one sukod or some mārzat[s] in your inventory. So, we have plural. Which is quite easy. Take note, there are a few irregularities like English (As in sheep/sheep.) But no need to worry, the nominative version of plural happens... I'd give it 60% of the time. All of which are regular. Anyway, note the following.

For masculine nouns, you add -ā

Sukod ( hand ) becomes -> Sukodā ( hands ), sounds pretty right? Wrong, it sounds manly, because this is a masculine noun.

For feminine nouns you add either -in or ''-īnn. ''Take a gander at the following for explanation.

Maka ( tail ) ends in an "a" as you can see. For this plural, you're going to chop off the "a" like...

Mak-

And put -īnn in its place...

Makīnn ( Tails ).

Now, let's go back to our other word, mārzat, ( scroll, book ) This simply adds on the -in ending for plural. Like...

Mārzat + -in = Mārzatin ( scrolls, books ). *Note, since khajiit are lazy at speaking, they tend to drop the vowel before the -t, therefore, you're more likely to use/hear māraztin

Now that you are aware on how plurals are formed for nominative cases. I'm going to give you a few vocabulary words of varying gender. Put each in their plural for practice.

Shīr m. - tribe

Iphekā f. - family

Ešīdd m. - farmer

Vel m. - day

Šiekā f. - huntress

Denn m. - night

Sētka f. - tree

Learner's note!* Those of you whom may be familiar with the Ta'agra project should know that this is an entirely separate dialect. One should also note that Ta'agra is a creole of separate different tribal languages, sprinkled with some Elven and Human cognates. Kuraphi is a more purified dialect than Ta'agra, but one should also know, it's only spoken in very rural villages of Southeastern Elswyer. Therefore a khajiit, including myself, would be surprised if foreigner began speaking this dialect.

Moving on...

The Accusative case
The accusative case is the second case of Kuraphi declension in nouns. But, what does accusative mean? Are we accusing noun of something? Indeed we are! The accusative case simply marks the direct object of a sentence. For example, in the sentence "I see the apple." apple would be the accusative of this sentence, because it is taking on the verb see.

Like the plural in nominative the nominative case, the ending changes for both genders.

For feminine nouns taking on a verb, the endings are...

<p style="text-align:center;"> < -m >

<p style="text-align:center;">< -ām >

<p style="text-align:center;">Simple, isn't it? Exactly, now for masculine nouns, things are a bit different.

<p style="text-align:center;">< -no change >

<p style="text-align:center;">< -u >

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<p style="text-align:center;">The -u for masculine accusatives is if the noun is something animate E.I alive. In this sense, you would see your indaru, that is, if it's a living person or animal. Similarly, -a ending feminine nouns will take on the -m and the -t, the -ām. But that's not all... What if you see multiple of something? No need to worry. Only one noun form changes in plural accusative. The rest are the same as nominative.

<p style="text-align:center;">"I see my indarā." - This is correct.

<p style="text-align:center;">"I read ''mārztin." - ''Looks like we're still safe here.

<p style="text-align:center;">"I climb ''sējkamī." - ''Ah-ha! There we have it.

<p style="text-align:center;">For -a ending plural accustive feminine (geesh, this is quite a bit...) nouns, you simply add -ī to the -m.

<p style="text-align:center;">Now to carry on to the next case...

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The Genitive case
Also known as possessive, this case simply expresses "of" or "-'s" of two nouns, one of which, is in possession of the other. Probably one of the easiest cases yet. As the ending is the same for all genders.

<p style="text-align:center;">Genitive ending for feminine nouns...

<p style="text-align:center;">< -ph >

<p style="text-align:center;">< -ph > (drop the -t and add the -ph for -t nouns.)

<p style="text-align:center;">And for masculine.

<p style="text-align:center;">< -aph >

<p style="text-align:center;">Super easy, right? Well, hold your britches there, you'll need to know the order of the possession. Look at this example provided. -> Sel makaph. ''lit. "tip tail's". ''The general meaning is still noted, that the tip is of the tail. To put it this way, imagine an invisible "of" between the words. Another example I can give is my own name actually. I come from the lovely town of Shakar, and generally, my family has used Shakar as their surname for quite awhile now. Therefore, we are "of Shakar" In a sense, Ralvz'jeshka Shakaraph literally means "Ralvz'jeshka of Shakar".

<p style="text-align:center;">For more than one thing being possessed, you add something else, but the sound is still close.

<p style="text-align:center;">For plural feminine possessive...

<p style="text-align:center;">< -vinn >

<p style="text-align:center;">For plural masculine possessive...

<p style="text-align:center;">< -avō >

<p style="text-align:center;">So, we can get sel šetkavinn - "The tip of the trees" for feminine nouns, and šieka dennavō - "Huntress of the nights" (Which is actually a book, quite a good moral story for young kittens.)

<p style="text-align:center;">Congrats! You have learned your 3rd case!

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The Dative Case
The dative case, is personally, the most annoying case, in my case of experience... If you get what I mean.

But no need to worry. It was simply the word order. But back to the topic, the dative case simply marks the indirect object of the sentence. That is, the accusative effecting a seperate noun. For example; "I gave the ball, to you." to you is the dative part of this sentence. It goes for anything else as well. "I throw the ball to/at the wall." Thankfully, you are only going to use this case for certain verbs. Diddly dee!

<p style="text-align:center;">The ending for feminine in the dative are...

<p style="text-align:center;">-ei

<p style="text-align:center;">-ē

<p style="text-align:center;">The ending for masculine nouns is...

<p style="text-align:center;">-ak

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