Dark Song
Page 46
The following table provides a sense of some of the similarities in the language family.
Note: The Finnic/Carpathian “k” shows up often as Hungarian “h.” Similarly, the Finnic/Carpathian “p” often corresponds to the Hungarian “f.”
Carpathian
Finnish
Hungarian
(proto-Uralic)
(Suomi)
(Magyar)
elä—live
elä—live
él—live
elid—life
elinikä—life
élet—life
pesä—nest
pesä—nest
fészek—nest
kola—die
kuole—die
hal—die
pälä—half, side
pieltä—tilt, tip to the side
fél, fele—fellow human, friend (half; one side of two)
feleség—wife
and—give
anta, antaa—give
ad—give
koje—husband, man
koira—dog, the male (of animals)
here—drone, testicle
wäke—power
väki—folks, people, men; force
val/-vel—with (instrumental suffix)
väkevä—powerful, strong
vele—with him/her/it
wete—water
vesi—water
viz—water
2. CARPATHIAN GRAMMAR AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE
Idioms. As both an ancient language and a language of an earth people, Carpathian is more inclined toward use of idioms constructed from concrete, “earthy” terms rather than abstractions. For instance, our modern abstraction “to cherish” is expressed more concretely in Carpathian as “to hold in one’s heart”; the “netherworld” is, in Carpathian, “the land of night, fog and ghosts”; etc.
Word order. The order of words in a sentence is determined not by syntactic roles (like subject, verb and object) but rather by pragmatic, discourse-driven factors. Examples: “Tied vagyok.” (“Yours am I.”); “Sívamet andam.” (“My heart I give you.”)
Agglutination. The Carpathian language is agglutinative; that is, longer words are constructed from smaller components. An agglutinating language uses suffixes or prefixes whose meanings are generally unique, and which are concatenated one after another without overlap. In Carpathian, words typically consist of a stem that is followed by one or more suffixes. For example, “sívambam” derives from the stem “sív” (“heart”), followed by “am” (“my,” making it “my heart”), followed by “bam” (“in,” making it “in my heart”). As you might imagine, agglutination in Carpathian can sometimes produce very long words, or words that are very difficult to pronounce. Vowels often get inserted between suffixes to prevent too many consonants from appearing in a row (which can make a word unpronounceable).
Noun cases. Like all languages, Carpathian has many noun cases; the same noun will be “spelled” differently depending on its role in a sentence. The noun cases include: nominative (when the noun is the subject of the sentence), accusative (when the noun is a direct object of the verb), dative (indirect object), genitive (or possessive), instrumental, final, suppressive, inessive, elative, terminative and delative.
We will use the possessive (or genitive) case as an example to illustrate how all noun cases in Carpathian involve adding standard suffixes to the noun stems. Thus expressing possession in Carpathian—“my lifemate,” “your lifemate,” “his lifemate,” “her lifemate,” etc.—involves adding a particular suffix (such as “-am”) to the noun stem (“päläfertiil”) to produce the possessive (“päläfertiilam”—“my lifemate”). Which suffix to use depends upon which person (“my,” “your,” “his,” etc.) and whether the noun ends in a consonant or a vowel. The table below shows the suffixes for singular nouns only (not plural), and also shows the similarity to the suffixes used in contemporary Hungarian. (Hungarian is actually a little more complex, in that it also requires “vowel rhyming”: which suffix to use also depends on the last vowel in the noun; hence the multiple choices in the cells below, where Carpathian only has a single choice.)
Carpathian (proto-Uralic)
Contemporary Hungarian
person
noun ends in vowel
noun ends in consonant
noun ends in vowel
noun ends in consonant
1st singular (my)
-m
-am
-m
-om, -em, -öm
2nd singular (your)
-d
-ad
-d
-od, -ed, -öd
3rd singular (his, her, its)
-ja
-a
-ja/-je
-a, -e
1st plural (our)
-nk
-ank
-nk
-unk, -ünk
2nd plural (your)
-tak
-atak
-tok, -tek, -tök
-otok, -etek, -ötök
3rd plural (their)
-jak
-ak
-juk, -jük
-uk, -ük
Note: As mentioned earlier, vowels often get inserted between the word and its suffix so as to prevent too many consonants from appearing in a row (which would produce unpronounceable words). For example, in the table on the previous page, all nouns that end in a consonant are followed by suffixes beginning with “a.”
Verb conjugation. Like its modern descendents (such as Finnish and Hungarian), Carpathian has many verb tenses, far too many to describe here. We will just focus on the conjugation of the present tense. Again, we will place contemporary Hungarian side by side with Carpathian, because of the marked similarity between the two.
As with the possessive case for nouns, the conjugation of verbs is done by adding a suffix onto the verb st
em:
Person
Carpathian
(proto-Uralic)
Contemporary
Hungarian
1st singular (I give)
-am (andam), -ak
-ok, -ek, -ök
2nd singular (you give)
-sz (andsz)
-sz
3rd singular (he/she/it gives)
— (and)
—
1st plural (we give)
-ak (andak)
-unk, -ünk
2nd plural (you give)
-tak (andtak)
-tok, -tek, -tök
3rd plural (they give)
-nak (andnak)
-nak, -nek
As with all languages, there are many “irregular verbs” in Carpathian that don’t exactly fit this pattern. But the above table is still a useful guide for most verbs.
3. EXAMPLES OF THE CARPATHIAN LANGUAGE
Here are some brief examples of conversational Carpathian, used in the Dark books. We include the literal translation in square brackets. It is interestingly different from the most appropriate English translation.
Susu.
I am home.
[“home/birthplace.” “I am” is understood, as is often the case in Carpathian.]
Möért?
What for?
csitri
little one
[“little slip of a thing,” “little slip of a girl”]
ainaak enyém
forever mine
ainaak sívamet jutta
forever mine (another form)
[“forever to-my-heart connected/fixed”]
sívamet
my love
[“of-my-heart,” “to-my-heart”]
Tet vigyázam.
I love you.
[“you-love-I”]
Sarna Rituaali (The Ritual Words) is a longer example, and an example of chanted rather than conversational Carpathian. Note the recurring use of “andam” (“I give”), to give the chant musicality and force through repetition.
Sarna Rituaali (The Ritual Words)
Te avio päläfertiilam.
You are my lifemate.
Éntölam kuulua, avio päläfertiilam.
I claim you as my lifemate.
Ted kuuluak, kacad, kojed.
I belong to you.
Élidamet andam.
I offer my life for you.
Pesämet andam.
I give you my protection.
Uskolfertiilamet andam.
I give you my allegiance.
Sívamet andam.
I give you my heart.
Sielamet andam.
I give you my soul.
Ainamet andam.
I give you my body.
Sívamet kuuluak kaik että a ted.
I take into my keeping the same that is yours.
Ainaak olenszal sívambin.
Your life will be cherished by me for all my time.
Te élidet ainaak pide minan.
Your life will be placed above my own for all time.
Te avio päläfertiilam.
You are my lifemate.
Ainaak sívamet jutta oleny.
You are bound to me for all eternity.
Ainaak terád vigyázak.
You are always in my care.
To hear these words pronounced (and for more about Carpathian pronunciation altogether), please visit: http://www.christinefeehan.com/members/.
Sarna Kontakawk (The Warriors’ Chant) is another longer example of the Carpathian language. The warriors’ council takes place deep beneath the earth in a chamber of crystals with magma far below it, so the steam is natural and the wisdom of their ancestors is clear and focused. This is a sacred place where they bloodswear to their prince and people and affirm their code of honor as warriors and brothers. It is also where battle strategies are born and all dissension is discussed as well as any concerns the warriors have that they wish to bring to the council and open for discussion.
Sarna Kontakawk (The Warriors’ Chant)
Veri isäakank—veri ekäakank.
Blood of our fathers—blood of our brothers.
Veri olen elid.
Blood is life.
Andak veri-elidet Karpatiiakank, és wäke-sarna ku meke arwa-arvo, irgalom, hän ku agba, és wäke kutni, ku manaak verival.
We offer that life to our people with a bloodsworn vow of honor, mercy, integrity and endurance.
Verink sokta; verink kaŋa terád.
Our blood mingles and calls to you.
Akasz énak ku kaŋa és juttasz kuntatak it.
Heed our summons and join with us now.
To hear these words pronounced (and for more about Carpathian pronunciation altogether), please visit: http://www.christinefeehan.com/members/.
See Appendix 1 for Carpathian healing chants, including the Kepä Sarna Pus (The Lesser Healing Chant), the En Sarna Pus (The Great Healing Chant), the Odam-Sarna Kondak (Lullaby) and the Sarna Pusm O Maγet (Song to Heal the Earth).
4. A MUCH-ABRIDGED CARPATHIAN DICTIONARY
This very-much-abridged Carpathian dictionary contains most of the Carpathian words used in the Dark books. Of course, a full Carpathian dictionary would be as large as the usual dictionary for an entire language (typically more than a hundred thousand words).
Note: The Carpathian nouns and verbs below are word stems. They generally do not appear in their isolated “stem” form, as below. Instead, they usually appear with suffixes (e.g., andam—I give, rather than just the root, and).
a—verb negation (prefix); not (adverb).
aćke—pace, step.
aćke éntölem it—take another step toward me.
agba—to be seemly; to be proper (verb). True; seemly; proper (adj.).
ai—oh.
aina—body (noun).
ainaak—always; forever.
o ainaak jelä peje emnimet ŋamaŋ—sun scorch that woman forever (Carpathian swear words).
ainaakä—never.
ainaakfél—old friend.
ak—suffix added after a noun ending in a consonant to make it plural.
aka—to give heed; to hearken; to listen.
aka-arvo—respect (noun).
akarat—mind; will (noun).
ál—to bless; to attach to.
alatt—through.
aldyn—under; underneath.
alə—to lift; to raise.
alte—to bless; to curse.
amaŋ—this; this one here; that; that one there.
and—to give.
and sielet, arwa-arvomet, és jelämet, kuulua huvémet ku feaj és ködet ainaak—to trade soul, honor and salvation for momentary pleasure and endless damnation.
andasz éntölem irgalomet!—have mercy!
arvo—value; price (noun).
arwa—praise (noun).
arwa-arvod—honor (noun).
arwa-arvod mäne me ködak—may your honor hold back the dark (greeting).
arwa-arvo olen gæidnod, ekäm—honor guide you, my brother (greeting).
arwa-arvo olen isäntä, ekäm—honor
keep you, my brother (greeting).
arwa-arvo pile sívadet—may honor light your heart (greeting).
aš—no (exclamation).
ašša—no (before a noun); not (with a verb that is not in the imperative); not (with an adjective).
aššatotello—disobedient.
asti—until.
avaa—to open.
avio—wedded.
avio päläfertiil—lifemate.
avoi—uncover; show; reveal.
baszú—revenge; vengeance.
belső—within; inside.
bur—good; well.
bur tule ekämet kuntamak—well met brother-kin (greeting).
ćaδa—to flee; to run; to escape.
čač3—to be born; to grow.
ćoro—to flow; to run like rain.
csecsemõ—baby (noun).
csitri—little one (female).
csitrim—my little one (female).
diutal—triumph; victory.
džinõt—brief; short.
eći—to fall.
ej—not (adverb, suffix); nej when preceding syllable ends in a vowel.
ek—suffix added after a noun ending in a consonant to make it plural.
ekä—brother.
ekäm—my brother.
elä—to live.
eläsz arwa-arvoval—may you live with honor; live nobly (greeting).