RuneScribe

Dwarvish — Grammar

Subject → Verb → Object order; questions keep same word order (no inversion).
When two words join, the second part belongs to the first (e.g. Tronjheim = Helm of Giants).
Prefix men-: negation · vol-: eternal/all · en-: superlative · car-: agent nouns · q-: past tense.
Suffix -n: plural · -z: possession · -egûr: verbal noun.

Dwarvish — Pronunciation

r: uvular trill (difficult for non-dwarves). h and g: always sounded.
No p, x, or ae (as in "date") sounds. Diphthongs: au = "awe", ei = "beet", ie = "eye".

The Old Tongue — Grammar

Noun precedes adjective. Titles follow the person named (Evandar Könungr = King Evandar).
Prefix u- / o-: negation. du = the (definite article).
Based on Old Norse vocabulary with invented grammar. Speaking it binds you to truth.

Elvish — Grammar

Based on Tolkien's Sindarin. Soft, flowing phonology; heavy use of liquid consonants.
Adjective follows noun. Mutation of initial consonants is common (lenition).
Prefix al- / ú-: negation. i = the · en = of the.
Plurals often formed by vowel change (e.g. adan → edain) rather than a suffix.

Draconic — Grammar

Language of dragons; oldest known mortal tongue. Harsh consonant clusters.
Possessive prefix: ar- (general), er- (friends/kin), veth- (objects owned).
No passive voice; verbs are highly precise about action and intent.
Plural suffix -i (common), -ra (abstract).

Infernal — Grammar

Language of devils and the Nine Hells; designed for absolute precision in contracts.
Every statement implies binding intent — careless speech can constitute a pact.
Suffix -veth: binding/sworn · -rak: command form · -zar: eternal/permanent.

Avian — Grammar

Language of avian beings; musical, trilling, with rapid pitch shifts.
Rich vocabulary for sky, wind, and elevation; few words for underground concepts.
Suffix -ith: noun marker · -eel: plural · -rith: action/verb.
Context and tone carry as much meaning as the words themselves.

Gnomish — Grammar

Rapid, clicky cadence — sentences are short and efficient; gnomes dislike wasted syllables.
Compound words are common: two concepts fused into one (e.g. mushwick = mushroom-thing, tinkwright = craft-maker).
Suffix -wick: noun marker · -wright: maker/expert · -ix: diminutive/particle.
Questions are formed by raising pitch on the final syllable — no word-order change.

Thieves' Cant — Grammar

Not a full language — a criminal argot layered over Common. Grammar stays the same; key nouns, verbs, and adjectives are swapped for cant terms.
Originated in 16th-century England; spread through adventurer guilds and criminal networks.
Meaning shifts by context: cheat = any object (not necessarily deception), rum = good/excellent, queer = bad/suspicious.
Outsiders hear ordinary-sounding speech — the code lies in the vocabulary, not the structure.

Undercommon — Grammar

Trade pidgin of the Underdark; blends Drow, Duergar, and Deep Gnome roots into a functional lingua franca.
No formal grammar rules — clarity over elegance. Status implied by word choice, not inflection.
Prefix ssin-: great/powerful · nau-: negative · xal-: victorious/dominant.
Surface-dwellers (rivvin) are referred to with contempt; the surface itself (faer) is a foreign and hostile concept.

Necron — Grammar

Ancient death-magic tongue used by necromancers, liches, and undead hierarchies. Latin-rooted.
Commands to undead are imperative and terse — ambiguity in an order can be exploited by clever undead.
Suffix -um / -us: noun declension · -tis: of/belonging to death · -ere: infinitive (action).
Spoken aloud near the recently dead, some words are said to stir the corpse involuntarily.

Celestial — Grammar

Language of angels and divine beings; Latin-rooted with flowing, melodic cadence.
Nouns decline by case; verbs conjugate by person — precision reflects divine order.
Suffix -us / -um: noun endings · -iel: agent/being · -are: infinitive verb.
Speaking Celestial is said to carry inherent weight — words of blessing or condemnation are taken literally by the divine.

Orc — Grammar

Blunt, aggressive language with few pleasantries — every sentence is a potential command.
Verbs typically precede subjects in commands: Mak grash = "I strike" → literally "Strike I."
Suffix -ak: noun/verb marker · -nak: possession · -grak: collective/warband.
No passive voice — orcs consider it cowardly to obscure who did the action.

Goblin — Grammar

Fast, clipped, pragmatic; goblins drop every syllable they consider unnecessary.
Adjectives come after nouns, usually with -sy suffix: gobbo sneaksy = "sneaky goblin."
Reduplication signals emphasis: yukyuk = "really good luck," stabba stabba = "stab repeatedly."
Questions formed by raising voice sharply at end. There is no polite register.

Halfling — Grammar

Warm, unhurried dialect of Common with heavy Scottish/Northern English influence.
Prefers understatement: catastrophe is dreadful, a perfect meal is merely grand.
Compound place-names common: -wick = farm, -shire = district, -hollow = sheltered settlement.
Second breakfast, elevenses, and supper are grammatically non-negotiable.

Abyssal — Grammar

Language of demons; chaotic and screaming where Infernal is precise and binding.
Grammar shifts mid-sentence — demons deliberately destabilise listener comprehension.
Prefix chaos-: amplifier of destruction · suffix -rak: verb of violence · -thar: possessed by.
Cannot be learned from books — the language itself resists being written down coherently.

Deep Speech — Grammar

Language of aberrations — mind flayers, beholders, aboleths. Barely translatable to humanoid concepts.
Much communication is psionic, not verbal; spoken Deep Speech is the "surface layer" only.
Meaning conveyed through combinations of clicks, resonant hums, and oscillating tones.
Humanoids who attempt to speak it fluently risk sanity damage — concepts have no equivalent in mortal thought.

Druidic — Grammar

Based on Old Irish (Gaeilge); a secret language passed down verbally within druidic circles.
Non-druids are forbidden to learn it — writing it down is considered a desecration.
Nature is both subject and grammar: seasons, trees, and animals each have their own grammatical "weight."
Prefix naomh-: sacred · suffix -acht: the practice/art of · geas: binding obligation (untranslatable exactly).

Primordial — Grammar & Dialects

Primal language of elemental planes; all four dialects (Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran) are mutually intelligible with Primordial.
Suffix -ael: of the element · -kar: elemental being · -rak: action/force.
Aquan — liquid consonants, flowing rhythm. Spoken by water elementals and marid genies.
Auran — breathy sibilants, high and light. Spoken by air elementals and djinn.
Ignan — harsh, crackling stops. Spoken by fire elementals and efreet. Very short words.
Terran — slow, grinding, heavy. Spoken by earth elementals and dao. Long compound words.

Sylvan — Grammar

Language of the Feywild — pixies, dryads, satyrs, and archfey. Musical and flowing.
Closely related to Elvish but more whimsical and contextually shifting — meaning can change with the season or the speaker's mood.
Suffix -wyn: fey nature marker · -ael: of light/wonder · -rin: movement/dance.
Promises made in Sylvan carry fey weight — words are semi-binding in the Feywild even without a formal pact.

Kraul — Grammar

Harsh insectoid language of the Kraul — beetle-kin tunnel fighters. Communication also includes pheromone bursts that written text cannot convey.
Sentences are terse and function-first: subject is usually omitted, implied by the speaker's role in the hive hierarchy.
Suffix -kk: repeating action · -xt: completed/dead · -zz: warning or threat.
There is no word for "alone" — a Kraul severed from the hive is grammatically non-existent.

Loxodon — Grammar

Slow, resonant language of the elephant-folk, spoken in low rumbles and carved in deep strokes.
Sentences often open with a memory-anchor — citing a deceased elder to lend ceremonial weight to the statement.
Suffix -al: of the herd/family · -ond: bonded oath · -thur: ancient/revered.
Speaking quickly is considered disrespectful or panicked. A Loxodon proverb: "The river that rushes breaks its banks."

Merfolk — Grammar

Fluid language spoken in both air and water — the underwater register uses harmonics that surface-folk cannot hear.
Words shift meaning based on depth context: spoken above the waterline, a word denotes the surface world; below, it gains resonance with the deep.
Suffix -iss: flowing/continuous · -ael: of the deep current · -orn: surfacing/revealed.
Merfolk have seventeen words for different types of water movement and no single word for "still."

Minotaur — Grammar

Guttural language of the minotaur clans. Every statement carries implicit weight — to speak is to make a claim that can be challenged.
The Labyrinth is the central metaphor of Minotaur speech: every journey, decision, and life is a maze to be solved with honor.
Suffix -rak: warrior title · -thum: debt of honor · -gor: of the clan.
To name someone's enemy in Minotaur speech is to implicitly declare willingness to fight that enemy yourself.

Sphinx — Grammar

Ancient language of the sphinxes — never declarative. All statements are framed as riddles, parables, or tests of the listener.
Sphinxes consider a direct answer philosophically dishonest. Knowledge given freely is considered lesser than knowledge earned through struggle.
Suffix -iss: the question within · -oth: the hidden truth · -nar: fate/inevitability.
There is no imperative mood. A sphinx cannot command — only pose a riddle that has a single logical path forward.

Vedalken — Grammar

Precise, clinical language of the blue-skinned Vedalken. Emotional vocabulary is borrowed from other tongues — there are no native words for love, fear, or beauty.
Three grammatical tenses: current-state, theoretical, and disproven. "I thought X was true" uses the disproven tense.
Suffix -eth: verified/proven · -kin: theoretical/hypothetical · -vesk: disproven/error.
Vedalken find imprecise language mildly offensive. Approximations must be grammatically marked as such or the speaker is considered dishonest.

Gith — Grammar

Harsh, martial language of the Gith — planar nomads split between the Githyanki (conquerors) and Githzerai (monks). Dialect shapes meaning sharply.
The same root word can carry opposite connotations: githzar means "bound by honor" to Githzerai but "enslaved" to Githyanki.
Suffix -zar: obligation/bond · -kith: of the plane/realm · -rak: weapon/tool.
The Gith have no word for "home." The Astral Plane is transit, not destination — every location is defined by what must be conquered there.

Translator Notes

All fantasy languages have limited vocabularies — unknown words are generated from authentic phoneme patterns (gold ✦ in breakdown).
Generated words are deterministic — the same input always produces the same result.
Fantasy → Fantasy translation goes through English as an intermediate step.
Purple = protected · Dim = already target language · Blue = different fantasy language detected · Gold = custom dictionary.

Add Custom Word

Protected Words

Dwarvish — Grammar

Dwarvish — Pronunciation

The Old Tongue — Grammar

Elvish — Grammar

Draconic — Grammar

Infernal — Grammar

Avian — Grammar

Gnomish — Grammar

Thieves' Cant — Grammar

Undercommon — Grammar

Necron — Grammar

Celestial — Grammar

Orc — Grammar

Goblin — Grammar

Halfling — Grammar

Abyssal — Grammar

Deep Speech — Grammar

Druidic — Grammar

Primordial — Grammar & Dialects

Sylvan — Grammar

Kraul — Grammar

Loxodon — Grammar

Merfolk — Grammar

Minotaur — Grammar

Sphinx — Grammar

Vedalken — Grammar

Gith — Grammar

Translator Notes

Languages My Character Knows