The Tharian Dictionary
by AshtagonIn-World explanation: This is the language spoken by the various humanoid tribes of the Broken Lands.
Real-World explanation: A lot of the place names and characterisations of various NPCs in GAZ10 use various tropes from real-world cultures. This conlang is part of a project to create alternate words for places and thing that avoid any unfortunate cultural implications (eg vaguely Chinese hobgoblins, vaguely American Indian red orcs). By removing keywords that signal to players that this is "real world culture, but with orcs", it helps make the descriptions the thing, rather than reinforcing cultural tropes. This project is done with the best of intentions, in order to make the campaign sub-setting more accessible to players from the real-world cultures that were referenced in the original work. Equally, it is my belief that the original work was done with the best of intentions; absent a modern internet and easy access to research materials, and with changed ideas about cultural sensitivity, some of the old material hasn't aged well. Use the new, use the old, as you will. But make sure your player-group is cool with whatever you use.
Note that this dictionary is organised by semantic domain, rather than any kind of alphabetical order. As most humanoids are illiterate, the concept of an alphabetical order is generally meaningless for them. Equally, there isn't (in-world) any formal writing system for this language. This does mean that some terms will appear in multiple semantic domains.
This is a work in progress. It is far from complete.
Notes on Pronunciation
igh: /ai/ sound, as in the English word "high".
b/p: These letters do not exist in Tharian; see f/v.
f/v: Technically, these are unvoiced and voiced labio-dental plosive consonants, or /p̪ b̪/ in IPA terms. The difference from this and an English "p/b" is that it is labio-dental rather than bilabial. That is, it is pronounced by touching the lower lip to the upper teeth, rather than using both lips. No one will care if you pronounce "f" as any of (p, p̪, or f); or if you you pronounce "v" as any of (b, b̪, or v). Humanoids would call them allophones, if they understood the word.
m: Technically, this is a voiced labio-dental nasal consonant, or /ɱ/ in IPA terms. The difference from this and an English "m" is that it is labio-dental. That is, it is pronounced by touching the lower lip to the upper teeth, rather than using both lips. But go ahead and use both lips. I won't tell on you.
q: A glottal stop. The "q" sound in the Maltese place-name "Luqa", or the "tt" sound in the (Cockney British) English word "butter".
r: This is always pronounced, unlike certain "non-Rhotic" versions of English.
sh: The "sh" sound in the English word "shine". Easy!
x: A voiceless pharyngeal fricative. The "ch" sound in the (Scots) English word "loch", or the "ħ" sound in the Maltese script.
1 Universe, creation
1.1 Sky
Meqens: moon (specifically Matera; Patera/Myoshima is invisible)
1.6 Animal
tawros: wild auroch
welkwos: wolf
xertekos: bear
morwi: ant
wofes: wasp
2 Person
mon - human
xentch - forehead
kafut - head
dengwesh - tongue
veqgus - arm
xoms - shoulder
mosgos - brain; bone-marrow
mems - flesh, meat
xesher - (vital) blood
kroosh - blood, gore
4 Social behaviour
feqter - father
swesor - sister
yemxos - twin sibling
suxnus - son
wiuros - man, warrior
tootexa - tribe, people
5 Daily life
xebol - apple
melit - honey
mems - meat
wengwen - fat, butter, grease
yush - soup
medu - mead, honey-wine
feqwer - fire
6 Work and occupation
segos - power, strength
xegzros - field, pasturage
kwo - dog
xekswos - horse
termen - boundary, edge, border
wiuros - hunter
7 Physical actions
nequs - boat
sneqti - to swim
8 States
degweytis - decay, destruction
meqens - month
woser - spring (season)
geyom - winter (season)
8.1 Quantity
oynos - 1
dwoq - 2
treyes - 3
kwetwores - 4
fenkwe - 5
sweks - 6
seftem - 7
oksto - 8
xenewen - 9
deksem - 10
kemtom - 100
tushont - 1000
geslom - 10,000
9 Grammar
kwe - and
we - or
wigh - oh! ah! woe! alas!
Verbs
Verbs in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) were... complicated. Similar to many Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, verbs conjugate according to person and number. But as well as having singular and plural forms, PIE also had dual number (for when the verb refers to exactly two subjects). The verbs also had separate present and past tense inflections (like Latin).
| Form | Present Tense Suffix | Past Tense Suffix |
| 1st sing. | -mi, -oq | -m |
| 2nd sing. | -si | -s |
| 3rd sing. | -ti | -t |
| 1st plur. | -mos | -me |
| 2nd plur. | -te | -te |
| 3rd plur. | -(e)nti | -nt |
| imperative | -∅ | -∅ |
| gerund ("xxxx-ing") | -ont | -ont |
Imperative verbs: Orcish uses the null suffix (ie nothing) for imperative commands. It does not distinguish between singular, dual, or plural for imperatives.