Kienda Isarohai - The High Tongue of the Watchers

  The following is a partial guide to the language used in my book, originally used by the Watchers, an ancient island-dwelling race; it became the predominant language used on the continent of Niriu. The 'romanization' I use in the books and my notes with the English alphabet is an approximate representations of approximate sounds, and the language uses glyph constructs similar to the Asiatic languages “in universe". The dialect of the commoners is the Dovfarohai - doruvf, is workboot, rohai is 'words'. Doruvfa is used as a colloquialism and means 'commoner'. ifayr is work, action, and doruvfa is the compound. Does not have anything to do with a certain fantasy race of subterranean beings known for mining...and axes. There are certain Raiiya words in the series, and are usually pointed out by character dialogue/narration. There is no full dictionary or even a small glossary for this language except in my personal notes.

  A – as in “arm”, Never like the English word 'Ate'

  Ai – like eye

  Aur – as in the English word 'ore'. Aur can be written as Ar, and it means 'gilded', and 'shining'.

  Aer/Aiy – archaic, but is pronounced the same and has the same usage as Au/Aur, which are still represented by 'Aiy'/Aiyr on maps, in the names of locations, and best translated as 'sunlight'

  Ba – as in the word 'bar', never 'base'

  C is always read as 'k' as the c in 'can', or 'call', not cell

  Ch is always pronounced as in 'loch'

  Da is pronounced "Dah" on its own, written as "Da", [Dayae is often shortened to this and is also used by habit to refer to one's father, though it means 'predecessor'.]

  Dh is the same as 'H'

  Dii, as in the term Di-Mai (really Idiennai, idie+rannai) or 'Servant House', is pronounced as in the word 'Dim', not die.

  E is always “eh”.

  Ei - as in the English 'eight'

  Et – as in 'get'

  Eda - Eh-dah

  è - e grave is only seen in the word Silurè, pronounced she-lore-ah, “oracle's cloak”, though 'urè' would mean something more close to aura than an article of clothing.

  Fa is always as in English 'father', not 'fame'

  G is always pronounced as j, so, recall the English word "Jewel", not "gift"... unless at the beginning of words. When it begins a word, it still sounds as it does in the English word 'gold'.

  Ha is pronounced as in 'hall', not 'hate'

  I is always the same as it is in 'machine', never the English pronoun 'I'.

  iy/jiy is the equivalent of, and is always pronounced, like the 'u' in English 'Luke', Example: Silnajiyre, “Wandering Spirit”, is pronounced “She-yule-now-reh”. Unless a name possesses the word 'iiyavar/iyaavar', which would be the equivalent to the English 'our'/'my', respectively, and is still an i and a y; mostly used when writing proper nouns.

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  K and Kh - Note: Khail or Kaill {hkah-eehl} are the same word, meaning dominion or 'a land' (certain lands, a specific area, not land generally; a country or nation's border lands would be kaill, and the cardinal directions, Eirra Kaill, or the westlands – note the article 'the' in the 'translation' to English)

  Lu

  L'iiy – The combination L'iiy gets its own entry here, because it is never used in the language generally – it is shortened but is fully written out with two characters, Ilure (silver) and iiyavar ('our') to form Iluiiya. This honorific means sacred/holy+“possession/property”, something considered a blessing of divine origin; it is not used anywhere else in the language, heard only in the word L'iiyrohai (Iluiiya+rohai or Sacred Words) (pronounced Looh-roh-hai), which is an ancient Codex that will be described more in the books.

  M at the beginning of a word is the same as the English M, but is on occasion used to represent a doubled 'n'. There aren't any examples of this in the book, but is used in writing location names or a people group.

  N

  O is as in English 'oak' – there is no equivalent to the double 'o' in the word 'book'.

  Q is read as K

  Rs are always trilled

  Ra – similar to the Egyptian deity, not the English word 'race'

  Re always rhymes with 'ray'

  Ro is as in the English 'row'

  Ru – as in the word 'rue'

  RR – is the same as R; there are two separate segments to the word, it is not a 'letter'; again, these are phonetic representations of a glyph based language.

  S/Sa is always as in 'sing', never 'is'.

  Shi, Sil – Shi would really be 'spelled' like 'Si' – both are pronounced like the English words she, and shill, respectively

  Te is as in 'test', not 'teach'

  U is always as in the word 'ruse', never 'ugly', or 'useless'

  V has the same value as U does, with the same pronunciation, unless at the beginning where it is as the English V

  Ya - as in 'yard'

  Names of Characters

  The italicized syllables are emphasized when speaking the name.

  Hiro Faryn [Heeh-roh fah-ruhn]

  Asarien Aurien [Ah-Sah-ree-ehn Or-ree-ahn]

  Shiden Muiras [Shee-dehn Moor-ahs]

  Cinar Raiya* [Keen-nar Rah-yah]

  Brelann Daros [Breh-lahn Dah-rohs]

  Kallan Daros [khall-ahn]

  Aliin Karan [Ah-leen Kah-rahn]

  Aliin Megia [Meh-jya]

  Aliin Rieth [Reeh-eth]

  Captain Aurien [Or-reeh-ehn]**

  Rivelas [Ree-vehl-ahs]

  Lucan Ardehn [Loo-khan Ar-dayne]

  Luran Raiya [Loor-ahn Rah-yah]

  Aren Kedan, Saga [Ah-ren Keh-dahn]**

  Kaya Irynien/Iren – [Eeh-rehn-eeh-yehn]

  Shien-Khail [Shee-ehn Kha-yuhl]

  Ceras [Keh-rahsh]

  Araiga Mako [Ah-ra-ee-gah Mah-koh]**

  Hahnir [Hah-neehr]

  Rennan [Reh-nahn]

  *Within this series, when the Raiiya peoples are referred to, the word has two of the letter I. The surname of Cinar, Luran, and the twin brothers Kalin and Karien, is Raiya with a single I; this was not a typography error, but the characters 'in-universe' are using their own written language, with glyphs that have a specific stroke order and appearance. The word Raiiya should 'really' be spelled as Raeya, short for Raeyakan, the word referring to the Rakan creature, which is bred, and hunted, for the scale plates used to make their armor. The single I represents the surname, which doesn't have the word for 'people group', or iriinan within it. 'Ra-iriinan-iiyavar', scale+people+'our', but translates best to 'guardians'. Raeyakan is scaled beast, and Raeya is written in the modern era as Raiiya, 'our protectors', the first character is scale, shield.

  **Certain names are arranged with the surname first. In addition, the nickname Saga is only the English word, it is not a word in the language spoken by the Etirii.

  The 'real' title of my series is Legacy of the Silurè, though I made it Legacy of the Shroud. It is composed of two words: Sil [/?i?l/], meaning oracle, and urè, [/???.??/], roughly meaning cloak, though it would be more accurately translated as [and close in pronunciation to] 'aura'.

  Together, said as /?i?l???.??/