====================================================== A short introduction to the Goblin tongue - - - - - By Baron Healwiss Sitopsynholle-Oerkakkerlak ====================================================== An essential handbook on the language of the breed of goblins for the practical use of traders, slavers and agents of His Imperial Majesties. ^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^_^-^ This is little book is meant to be a practical introduction to the languages spoken by the goblins, so it will be of help to Imperial officers, traders and slavers in times of war or peace. To compile it my faithful elven slaves and myself have interviewed goblin slaves extracted from mines for this purpose, at great cost. Furthermore, we also interviewed traders and those who have survived under their captivity to confirm our findings, as, of course, you can never place your trust on a such ignoble race. === Part I On Huubliins ============================== --- The deficient tongue of an idle race ------------- Huubliini is the plural of the word Goblins use to refer to themselves, goblins being a corruption of their name, with a more, I believe, feminine connotation. The first thing you have to learn is this: Huubliin is a language that flows from a goblin putrid soul: if you understand the language you'll understand and, control, them. --- Orcs and goblins --------------------------------- I shall be clear ---against the common wisdom--- orcs and huubliins don't share the same language. Indeed, they are very different creatures: orcs are blood-thirsty beasts with brains focused on violence. They wish nothing but war and destruction, prefer such to honest work. Goblins are much more indolent. For them, trickery is better than sweat. However, they aretoo cowardly to resist the determined strength of a wise human Lord, so they make fine workers, as long as you keep under a stern hand and a quick wit. However, bear in mind that both goblins and orcs steal words from each other's language and any other, so you might use the most common human words with them and expect to be understood. If you encounter difficulty at such, try to distort human words to the goblin ways you are about to learn in this book. --- Goblins and their failings Huubliini, that is to say, goblins are the most diverse of all the races the Empire has ever had the misfortune to encounter. There's only a few characteristics they all share. Firstly their appearance. Almost all are of short stature, say of a twelve years old boy, of pale, unnatural, almost sickly complexion. Yet fear not, they are of a hardy stock, able to withstand cold and hard labor with little food and almost no care. However, you are advised not to employ them in tasks which require to be exposed to intense heat, as you will shorten their years. They never accept neither Lords or Law unless under duress. They value wealth but not so much for their practical value but for the prestige associated to it. Make a goblin feel proud before his own and you'll get three times as much for your money. --- One drop of goblin blood one goblin makes --------- The last thing that bounds all goblins together is their lack of restrain for unnatural mating with any other race, seeing nothing wrong in having children with, let's say a human, orc, halflings, even elves. They'd got butterflies if such thing were possible. So much as we civilized humans find it abhorrent ---I tremble with disgust as I force myself to write--- these huubliins do not hesitate to lay with any other race. Believe it or not there are families made with, let's say, proper huubliins and halflings, or humans. Do not assume their degenerate offspring are the pitiful result of forced marriage or worse. Indeed there are humans who, wisdom blurred by their lowly passions, willing offer their flesh and souls to these disgusting critters. The children of those couples might at first glance look less dreadful than, lets say, purebred goblins but make no mistake goblins consider them nothing but goblins and you should do the same. Trust them not! Enslave them! === Part 2 How to speak Huubliin --- Syllables ---------------------------------------- As Huubliin syllables deviate from proper Imperial rules, these are marked in this book with slashes, as in Huu/bliin being made of two syllables. --- Accent ------------------------------------------- There is so much variation in it, and the goblins treat it with such indifference that we will make no attempt to address it deeply. Suffice it to say that the stress of a word is carried usually by the last syllable. But don't expect goblins to conform to their own rules. --- Clicks ------------------------------------------- As you may know, Goblins make these exasperating clicks with their lips and tongues when they speak. These are unnecessary for the understanding of the tongue. Any clicking sound will do, even a snap of fingers. In these book these will be marked with an apostrophe like in aa'/oo/blin meaning female human --- Short and long vowels ---------------------------- Huubliins have ten vowels, five short and five long ones. The five short ones are easy, for you must only remember the rule of pat, pet, pit, pot, put. Every of these short vowels, are always and at all times pronounced like in those syllabels. For the long ones I propose to write them in doubles as in: paat, peet, piit, poot and, puut but pronouncing them not as you would with a proper human tounge. Instead, simply enlogate the corresponding short vowel, keeping its sound twice as much in your mouth, should I say. --- Consonants --------------------------------------- Huubliin have a smaller catalogue of consonants than any of the Imperial tongues. This is to be expected of such a dim and lazy race. Their consonant set , transcribed to the common alphabet includes but: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, and, t. These are read more or less as you'd expect, except that there's quite an allowance of variation. For example: a corresponding d or th sound in the Imperial tongue will be all the same for a Huubliin, due to their natural sloth. This is both a benefit and a curse, you'll be more easily understood by these critters but, equally, you will have to make allowances by some dumb goblin using a d where a b should go, or trading a long vowel for a short one. It's all sloth, certainly. This is also a further impediment for these sorry creatures to learn a proper language and a wise master shouldn't waste his time trying to perfect a goblin's pronunciation. If you deem necessary for them to learn our language, simply accept their shortcomings and don't push them beyond what would be essential for the simple tasks you impose on them. Your overseers will thank you and your servants will be more productive. === Grammar ========================================== --- Sentence Order ----------------------------------- There is little to say as of to Huubliin sentence order and structure. Suffice to say the core of it is made by the amalgamation of subject + verb root + tense + object. Everything else --- usually --- goes before that. This is such a mess that goblins often end their sentences with two quick clicks, as a kind of spoken period. A/nu/m'ii si/e pii/mi/li'gabee'' Which literally means: "Today happily I-eat-now sheep", though a better translation should be "I am gladly eating sheep today". --- Adverbs ------------------------------------------ Goblins lack a concept for true adverbs. Instead, any word can be turned into one by adding either a short or long /e/ to the root. Hence "de", strong, turns into "dee", strongly. --- Gender ------------------------------------------- Huubliins only add gender marker when it's necessary to avoid confusion. And they have but three simple rules. ... Everything is neuter by default .................. Huubliins, being careless like that, will call a child "ui", irrespective of being it a "aa'ui/blin" (boy) or "uu'ui/blin" (girl). In your dealings with them, you may certainly ignore the gender marks and save yourself the headaches of this dreadful language. ... Aa is male, Uu is female ......................... Their first rule is to prefix a word with a long /aa/ to mark the masculine gender or a long /uu/ to mark the feminine. Thus "El/bliin" meaning an Elf, irrespective of gender, turns into "Aa'el/bliin" to mean a female elf and "Uu'el/bliin" to mean a male elf. Please note that goblins may insert a click of the tongue after the gender marker as in breaking the first syllable, but this is neither normative nor universal. Remember! Aa-maan and a Uu-woman got married. This rule will be understood even if the second rule was meant to be used, so you can be excused to skip the second rule for casual trading with these beasts. --- Consonant transformation ------------------------- Their second rule, while can be of more interest to scholars, is certainly harder to remember and use correctly. It consists of changing of some initial consonants of a word to their male or female equivalent. --------------------------- male -- neutral -- female ........................... j -- h -- g k -- t -- d b -- m -- n p -- b -- d p -- r -- l --------------------------- So "Guu/bliin", whence goblin probably came from actually means female goblin. "Ga/bliin" having the precise meaning of "one enslaved by foreigners" has been proposed by other scholars, by I don't follow such opinion as it's unlikely that goblins would have introduced themselves in such way. Note that ga/bliin (literally thing-person) is not female in this case, and it can be applied to any foreign owned slave, not necessarily goblins. Your own merchandise will probably refer to themselves as ga/bliin. --- Plurals ------------------------------------------ Goblins mark plural in three simple ways. 1. Add any long vowel to a word. Hence Blii/naa, bliin/ee, Bli/nii Bly/noo and bliin/uu all mean the plural of person. (Note the the syllabic division) 2. Add a click to any word which ends with a long vowel in its singular form, or 3. Add a short /i/ to any word. --- Personal Pronouns -------------------------------- Note the neutral or genderless form is by far the most commonly used. Goblins, surely for being lazy, are laid back in this regard, but you might find the odd case when a goblin refers herself as "lii" instead of the neutral "pii" to stress her gender to you. --------------------------------------------------- -- male -- neutral -- female ................................................... "I" -- rii -- pii -- lii "You" -- ruu -- puu -- luu "He/she/it" -- raa -- paa -- laa ................................................... "We" -- ri -- pi -- li "We*" -- re -- pe -- le "You" -- ru -- pu -- lu "They" -- ras -- pas -- las --------------------------------------------------- * This is an "inclusive we" meaning the recipient is included, so pâ/si/ru meaning "we are going to a party, you included" while pi/si/ru means "we are going to a party, but not you". Be aware. --- Possessive pronouns ------------------------------ These follow much the pattern of personal pronouns and there's not much to say about them. --------------------------------------------------- -- male -- neutral -- female ................................................... "I" -- ree -- ree -- ree "You" -- kuu -- puu -- kuu "He/she/it" -- braa -- paap -- laal ................................................... "We" -- rir -- pir -- lir "We*" -- rer -- per -- ler "You" -- rur -- pur -- lur "They" -- rast -- past -- last --------------------------------------------------- * This is an "inclusive our". Again,huubliin shows inconsistency being unnecessary precise when there's no need for it. --- Verbs -------------------------------------------- Huubliin lacks true verb. However, any word can be made into a verb by prefixing a personal pronoun and adding a tense mark. Simple and lazy! Sometimes, this botchery results in verbs which are hard to translate. For example --- Pii/oor/kluu "(?) I'm turning into an enemy or I'm fed up"(?) Who may know?! --- Major Tenses ------------------------------------- Huubliin only uses three main tenses: present, past and future marked as i, di and u respectively. Note that "i" and "u" turn to long vowels if the word made into a verb ends in a short "i" or "u". To amelliorate the confusion of this dreadful system, huubliins and indeed any speaker can use the word diki and uku to denote past and future. --- The imperative ----------------------------------- Simple add a "he", or "heke" for added emphasis. The polite version is "he" while "heke" is commonly used to assert dominion on lesser beings. When dealing with your "gauii", your own property, you'll always want to use "heke", obviously. ------------------------------------------------------- -- Past -- Present -- Future -- Imperative ....................................................... Formal -- di -- i -- u -- he Same vowel -- di -- ii -- uu -- hee Alternative -- diki -- 'ii -- uku -- heke ------------------------------------------------------- --- Examples From the word "Mi" (food) --------------- meaning "Food", we can form: Pi/mii - "We are eating / We eat" (but not you) Pii/midi - "I was eating/ I ate / I have eaten" Pii/miu - "I will be eating / I will eat" Ui/'ga Ku/mi/he/ke - "You, child-thing eat!" Note that many tribes or individuals deviate from these norms seemingly at random. Good luck. --- The "ga" ----------------------------------------- To indicate the object of the action, ga, sometimes prefixed with a click of the tongue (marked as ') is added to the verb. So "Pii/mi/u'ga/pu" means I will eat all of you Raa/ejeu/ku'ga/puu means He's speaking about you "Easy!", but not the syllable distribution. The "'ga" can also be used in the imperative to mark the addressed as a slave. So ui child, turns into ui'ga if you mean a slave kid. --- A short catalogue of words -------------------------- ... Numbers ............................................. Goblins lack the number zero, using "niik" meaning "nothing" for this purpose. Their numbering system uses base 12, the following being their natural numbers. 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 9 -- 10 -- 11 -- 12 a -- e -- i -- o -- u -- da -- aa -- ee -- ii -- oo -- uu -- daa To go beyond twelve you add, subtract and multiply to your liking, using "pro" (plus), "ti/ti" (minus) and "mo" (multiply). For example, 13 is often daa/pro/a (12+1) but it can also be aa/mo/e/ti/ti/a, (7*2)-1. Obviously, the simpler forms are usually preferred by this lazy kin. ... Colors ........................................... * red - red * blue - bu * white - kuk * yellow - ku * yellow and blue - ku/ni/a (not green, but a greenish yellow) * green - eko * brown - too/pa/mi * gray - fen/pe (literally "ash") ... Other words ...................................... * able - ka * add - pro * accident - ak/sy/den * acceptence - oo/ji * adult - poo * against - kun * air - ees * attack - ky * ax - oo/ki * boring - oo * boy - aa'ui/bliin * belly - saa * child - ui/bliin * clear - spra * dwarf - Deb/liin (strong person) * enemy - oork * day - anum * dead - fen/bliin also fen/ui/blin or even fen/ui'ga * do - pronoun-ga-tense * elf - elbliin (also means "haughty person") * family - sisir * fat - sysaan * fool - sy * fear - rek * food - mi * good - O * ga - object, thing, slave --see also verbs * girl - uu'ui/bliin * goblin - hw/bliin, but use ui'ga with your slaves! * halfling - sy/bliin (happy, cheerful and/or fool person, so right!) * happy - sy * high - oo also tall * human - oo/bliin (Boring person, yes, sorry) * hungry - tijisaa * kick - tru * law - louu (they took this word from us, surely) * lazy - deje * lord - Oo/bliin * loot - du/kii (also captive, ui/du/ki is used to refer to kidnapped human kids which they consider valuable) * low, small - ja * mosquito - pik (alos any similar biting bug) * multiply - mo * new - pii * now - 'ii * orc - oork, sometimes O/bliin * party - siir * person - Huu/bliin, bliin * poor - jaa (also naked, barefoot, jaa/ui can mean captive) * proud - El * rebel - oo'/uu/bliin * slave - ga/bliin (also ga,ja/bliin, ja/ui, ui, ui/du/ki, duki, ti/jui, tij/ga) * sadness - tij * sickness - tat * smile - si * spear - hw (also ki) from that hwbliin may literally mean spear-people * speak - e/je * steal - ra/pus * strong - de * subtract - ti/ti * surrender - ru/ki/'ga * sword - ru/ki * today - a/num'ii * weapon - ki (also spear) * water - Huu (Huubliins consider themselves the children of water, and they trace their origins to their mythical "Wild Marshes", nonsense! * word - e/je * work - luti * young - juu/pii (also ui) .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Please don't take this seriously at all. Goblins are great persons that should always be respected and... .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-