A Land Far Away

I've been trying to discover just what words dwarves of the Realms use to refer to their own kind. Does anyone here have the answer?

Kin?

The only word I know is Samman: shield-brother.
Both "Dwarves Deep" and "Races of Stone" have a lot of Dwarven words... 'cept one for Dwarf.

Curmudgeon wrote:I've been trying to discover just what words dwarves of the Realms use to refer to their own kind. Does anyone here have the answer?

dwar - dwarf

Taken from Dragon Magazine #278 "A Dwarven Lexicon" by Sean K. Reynolds

Dwarven - Common
abat - behind
aglot - yet
alf - air
ang - silver
angdor - mithral
argul - chest
aun - water
aur - gold
auraun - ale
aurdrukar - inn
azan - night
bak - you
bar - red
bel - above
braut - demon
darsam - celestial
deg - mustard/spice
dek - strong
der - evil
dews - on
dog - near
dogos - beside
dor - iron
dormark - anvil
dornar - king
drukafaren - city
drukar - home
dug - smart
dur - shield
durgarn - dragon
dwar - dwarf
dwarkar - clan
ews - hammer
far - big
farl - rope
farrenglos - year
flos - scroll
frul - leather
frulbraut - horse
frus - animal
ged - battle
gelm - peace
gend - danger
glos - day
glot - after
gnur - gnome
gos - go
gost - meat
gren - poison
grim - beard
grum - steel
grumdek - adamantine
gul - good
gullend - luck
gulm - heal
gund - caller/call
gurn - green
gurnvos - tree
gurnvosen - forest
heng - halfling
her - to
hergos - travel
hermot - through
horlem - take
horm - cleric
hren - rain
hrot - few
hrun - one
hrunnar - name
hurm - human
hurmfar - giant
jor - many
kagel - for
kaglem - give
kanazan - darkvision
kar - far
karakan - scout
karglos - tomorrow
kel - below
khun - glitter/bright
klar - bread
klos - food
kos - ugly
kurm - bag
kurn - enemy
kurnzarn - war
kurs - in
lar - we
lu - earth
mag - black
magmornder - undead
mal - true
mar - mountain
marn - stop
marnak - rune
marnarn - magic
marrur - clothing
mer - friend
mord - under
morn - die
mornludrukar - tomb
mos - no
mosk - but
mulg - stupid
murg - yes
nae - stone
naeborn - cave
nar - bravery
ney - white
nos - with
nur - gem
nus - sword
nyr - axe
og - armor
olv - elf
ork - orc
rem - speak
remarn - song
ros - weapon
rosh - spear
tang - bow
tanthanus - arrow
tel - fire
telormar - forge
than - small
thanamorn - rest
thannergos - dance
then - beautiful
thos - thief
thost - greed
toglot - before
tor - soul
torfarn - deity
valdar - cowardice
valergos - flee
valkag - bribe
var - loyal
vas - so
vel - and
velmos - nor
vol - blue
vos - wood
yar - yellow

Alphabet and Punctuation

Mr. Reynolds theorized that the Dwarven alphabet was influenced by the fact that the Dwarves had learned to work stone and metal early in their history. He supposed that meant that there were mainly straight lines and very few curved lines in the Dwarven alphabet, mainly representing sounds that were borrowed from other languges and hard for the Dwarves to pronounce.
Sentences are separated by a pair of diagonal slashes (//).
Pauses, represented in English by commas, are represented by a pair of horizontal lines (=).
Proper nouns are identified by a horizontal line below the first character of the word.
Questions are indicated by an X, which represents a "choice of paths".
A sentence with strong emphasis, represented in English by an exclamation point, is followed by a circle (°), expressing the importance of the sentence in the difficulty of carving a circle in stone.

Basic Grammar

Dwarven is a language of low vowels and hard consonants that usually sounds like a drone when spoken. Sean suggested that the Dwarves laid great importance on proper names, which translates to how they use nouns. Dwarven nouns are usually listed first, followed by a string of adjectives. Often smaller words are combined into larger ones, even if one of the words is a name. Sometimes, words that would be excessively long or confusing are broken into smaller, compound words.

For example:

"Foli, brave in war, loyal friend, with the adamantine greataxe Hurkuk"

folikurnzarnnarmervar = nos hurkukfarnyrgumdek

Around children, the hard of hearing, and non-dwarves, it would be customary to emphasize the statement with specific breaks like this:

foli kurnzarnnar mervar nos hurkuk farnyrgumdek

The subject of a sentence in formal speech and writing is followed by the word "a", which exists only to point out the subject and has no true translation. "A" is usually pronounced "ah" as in "father". Though, there are dialects where it is pronounced "a" as in "map". Informal speech and writing, particularly with non-Dwarves, often omit the "a". Also, when the subject is omitted, so is the "a". When written, the "a" is always separated from the words forming the subject. When secondary words are attached to a word, they are added after the word in any order that is significant to the writer or speaker.

Dwarves traditionally wrote on diamond-shaped tiles of flat stone or metal, with writing starting at a corner and spiraling inwards, often with a picture or "rune" at the center identifying the intended recipient.

An odd omission in the Dwarven language is a word for "or". Instead of using "or", they will repeat the similar elements in the two options. For a Dwarf to ask "Do you want to attack the goblins or the dragon?" he would say instead, "Do you want to attack the goblins, attack the dragon?"

Wow, that's a cool and informative post V, thanks for sharing that!!!!

Excellent reference! Thanks!!!

Nice to learn that my character's name is pretty close to the word for dragon.

Fantastic info, thanks!

Their name for their race is The Mordinsamman

Its supposed to mean "Clan of Moradin", "Family of Moradin" or "Children of Moradin". Samman loosely translates as relative/shield-brother as Vinnie mentioned.

I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that the Morndinsamman was the name for the pantheon, not the race.

Brother Humphrey wrote:I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that the Morndinsamman was the name for the pantheon, not the race.

Faiths & Pantheons wrote:Collectively, the dwarven pantheon is referred to as the Morndinsamman, which translates as either "shield brothers on high" or "high dwarves."

*bumped for current interest in the Stout Folk*

Does anyone know current ALFA timeline measurement units?

More specifically does anyone know current ALFA timeline Dwarven units of measurement? (but "common tongue" units will suffice if no one knows Dwarven)...


~Matt

Galadorn wrote:Does anyone know current ALFA timeline measurement units?

More specifically does anyone know current ALFA timeline Dwarven units of measurement? (but "common tongue" units will suffice if no one knows Dwarven)...


~Matt

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Hours_of_the_day
http://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/lore/life/time.shtml
http://www.munsondev.com/wp/?p=73

Example time keeping terms (as suggested by Ed Greenwood):

short-term waits: "breaths"
hours: in cities, temples and monasteries: "bells" or "candles"
span of time up to about three minutes: "but a little while" (dwarves), "a long song" (halflings)
a minute: "a tune" (halflings)
ten minutes: "three long songs" (halflings)

Awesome thank you, my bad for not being more seperative-specific, I was looknig for "units of distance measurement", as in "meters", "centimeters", "kilometers", etc. But those "times"-measurements are also very useful thanks you. I forgot to put in 'distance' as the cue, sorry!

~Matt

So... thumbs (about an inch), cubits (the length from elbow to wrist), and paces (about 1.5 meters)?

Those probably aren't on the dwarven to English "dictionaries," though -- those tend to only have a couple hundred words in them, and thus manage the expressive vocabulary of talking nonsense at a good little doggy *earscratch*