Deftung
From ThornsWiki
Deftung is the native language of Hox. In recent centuries it has fallen out of popular use, while Estuan has grown to be the official language of Hox. Most speakers of Deftung are human, though some galdori still speak it as a curiosity; smaller towns and villages are more likely to have speakers of Deftung. In some obscure villages, Deftung and Estuan have merged to form a pidgin language.
Many Deftung words are still used in Hoxian culture, in the names of people or businesses, or to describe otherwise untranslatable cultural concepts. Greetings, terms of respect and various nouns are still in use. Hox's isolated culture seems to feel no pressure to purge these lingering remnants of the complex language.
Deftung's peculiar pronunciation requires an adept tongue, and most non-natives cannot distinguish the many x-sounds from each other. Deftung has over twenty-two different ways of pronouncing the x-sound, whereas Estuan has merely two (hard and soft).
| Word or Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| zie | hello |
| ziedek | a formal hello |
| duertek | goodbye |
| duertekesh | a formal goodbye |
| zjai | yes |
| dru | no |
| vumash | a respectful address, much like "sir"; the female form is vumein |
| dek | money (plural: deken); the suj (plural: sujen) is the basic unit of currency in Hox |
| zrant | good (solid, complete, reliable, of sound make) |
| rho | good (general positive) |
| tsutek | bad (unreliable, foolhardy or stupid) |
| tsu | bad (general negative) |
| bash | mountain |
| tuax | home |
| vorsvas | winter; this translates to the winter and fall of the rest of the world. |
| bjaras | autumn; this translates to the spring, rainy season and summer of the rest of the world. |
| vipoxz | ornamental tiara worn by women; unmarried women wear simple ones, and after marriage they wear a more ornate vipoxz. |
| tsvat | temple |
| vratz | magic |
| mho | child (plural: mhoren). To specify my children, one would say "mhoroven". |
| vramen | family. to specify my family, one would say "vramoven". |
| kar | police force. The Karmine are the official police of the galdori; the humans in Hox refer to their homegrown militias as karen. |
| vikrie | war |
| rhote | country (plural: rhoten) |
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