The yazirian language

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 17, 2011 - 4:50pm
Alpha Dawn wrote:
Yazirians have no trouble speaking human languages or Pan-Gal. Their own language is a combination of human-style speech and snarls and growls.

This is the auothoritative statement on their language.

Knight Hawks wrote:
The fleet has been equipped with....three battleships: Admiral Clinton, Admiral Morgaine and Admiral Harsevoort.


I interpret the name, Harsevoort, to be yazirian. Clinton and Morgaine are obviously human and it seems that Harsevoort was included to be an alien name. It has none of the feel of the vrusk names in canon material and neither does it seem to be a dralasite name. Thus I arrived at the assumption that it must be yazirian.

the astrographic catalog wrote:

yazirian Star names: Araks, Athor, Gruna Garu, Scree Fron

Yazirian Planet names: Hentz, Yast, Hargut, Hakosar, Histran

 Observation: Garu might be a semi common place name component and "Har" would seem to be a common syllable in yazirian names or words. "H" at the beginning of a word is certainly a common sound in the yazirian language.

Zebs Guide wrote:
Streel's CEO: Hilo Headrow
Merco's CEO: Ebser Henshaw
Star Play's CEO: Zsa-nin
GODCo's CEO: Rev. Yeppir

observation: agian we see lots of "H's"

Module SF5; Bugs in the System wrote:

Yazirian, Castuss Wallorr, the sape handler



SF6 Dark Side of the Moon wrote:

yazirian male name: Sikriee


SFKH0 Warriors of White Light wrote:

Lieutenant Urugg Meebe, Male yazirian
Jr Lieutenant Bluto Goorhud, yazirian male
Maggar Broubb, yazirian male


SFKH3 Face of the Enemy wrote:

Yazirian names:
Beebe Rhed
Lieutenant Gratchu Hakes
Lieutenant Pradi Innesti



SFKH4 War Machine wrote:

Yazirian names:
Lettes Hradem


So the above is a survey of the primary canon material for clues about the yazirian language.
None of the magazines were looked at.






I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 17, 2011 - 5:04pm
Just to make the names list more assessible

Male names:
Broubb, Maggar
Goorhud, Bluto
Hakes, Gratchu
Harsevoort
Headrow, Hilo
Henshaw, Ebser
Meebe, Urugg
Sikriee
Wallorr, Castuss
Yeppir

Note I've assigned the following names to be female they were not so designated in the modules

Female names:
Rhed, Beebe
Innesti, Pradi
Hradem, Lettes
Zsa-nin

Star Names:
Araks
Athor
Gruna Garu
Scree Fron

Planet Names:
Hakosar
Hargut
Hentz
Histran
Yast
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 17, 2011 - 5:22pm
Common Vocalizations use by yazirians that are not Words

A "ooot" commonly mispronouned by humans as "hoot" but properly done its a "ooot" made at the back of the throat and is the yazirian equivalent of applause.

A blowing of air through the lips that makes them vibrate together. Among humans its been called a "raspberry" but yazirian lips are more mobile and have large area to vibrate making the sound slightly different from the human version and its made without a tongue being used like humans are prone to do. This vocalization is the yazirian version of booing and its believed that it originally is inspired by the sound of the pataqium skin flaps vibrating in the wind during an uncontrolled dive. By making this sound at someone you are telling them they've lost the wind under their wing. It's also used in social situations to tell someone to "buzz off" though the connotation is not as vulgar as a human method of telling someone to "go screw" but it is about as insulting as that to a yazirian. When used to boo entertainment or a speech its not as bad as human booing as yazirians respect the ability to pull out of an uncontrolled dive.

A vocalization that includes the yazirian "boo" but followed with a gutteral "kaakkk" sound is the ultimate form of booing as the flapping ligs are the flapping wing flaps of an out of control dive and the "kaakkk" sound is the body hitting the ground. One human linguist equated it to the phrase, "Crash and burn."

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 17, 2011 - 5:48pm
My own humble fan-cannon for the yazirian language

SFman15 Opiate of the Osakar wrote:

An interesting side effect of the revival of Baillorism is the study of Angladoc, the ancient clan dialect of Clan Anglan. It is also the language of the Family of One's religious rites and the langauge of the oldest surviving piece of yazirian literature. Prior to this, Angladoc had been termed a dead langauge or "Yaz Latin." Now its experiencing a bit of a revival as yazirians Frontier wide are becoming interested in their roots and scholarship in Angladoc has gather momentum.


In another places I created:

Warhon: carries the idea of general, overlord and latter Emperor

Voor & voort: clan chief [since I made Admiral Harsevoort both a military leader and a clan chief in my timeline project I latched onto this part of his name to have the meaning of chief]

Shing: avian/bird

Karuf: Ruff or ruffled colar; particularly on some birds, came to mean a denomination of currency

Heck: claw

Heck'nor: from Heck Shing (literally: Clawed Avian)

Voort Na Voor: literally: Chief of Chiefs; used for the largest avian predator - Voort Na Noor Heck'nor, also used for the highest denomination of currency
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
April 18, 2011 - 9:13pm

Internal Perspective...
   My standing observation of the use of the H graphme has been based on the frequencey of the H when transliterated from Arabic into Romaji scripts.
   There are about 14-or-so individually recognized pronunciations that are transliterated from the Arabic into the Romaji H.
   The same could be true of most Yazirian languages, many individually recognized phonmens could be finding representation in romaji transliteration, with a few number of graphemes.

On the track of the (external sources of the) phonetics themselves....
The phonetic clusters are varied, and I can find them most easily in; Arabic, Armenian, Balinese, Chinese, Hindu, Indonesian, Javanese, Russian, Sanskrit, Turkish.... geographic pattern seems to be...

East Europenean, Northern Middle-east, Western Asia, South Pacific...... rugged mountainous, arid steppes, canyons, jungles and the archipelago.

I don't think any of that looks coincidental.

In the way of atempts at translations....
I have tracked the name Grana Garu before, and found it in meanning Green River (from external perspective)... with the Garu for a refrence to the Garu Get, also known as the Akhurian River. I would (internally) translate that from Yazi to suggest a meaning roughly of, Green River or of a meaning similar to the meaning in Eden or Paradise, and steming from the high hopes the Yazi have had toward terraforming the planet there.

   In the name Yazirian itself , the -ian is a commonly used latinization for ethnic grouping, and would have been added by Pan-Gal traders in the same tradition of using that suffix on earth. The root includes <Yaz> and <ir> and is likely condensed forms of the Yazi words for their main cultural identity.

   The Yangtze River in China seems to be a very appropriate (external) influence here.. squishing Yangtze to Yazi and ir from river... and it becomes Ya'(ng.t)ze (riv.)er People or in a more litteral Yellow River People. I would point out that this region has some very appropreate legends of flying monkey people also. Where they were not unlike the Yazierian in form or society, and lived in the large forests and high deep caves along the river.

  As a reasonable (internal) translation from the Yazi languages of Yahng Tzeir, might carry a meaning of something like Genisis of Elevations, Young Horizons, or New Beginings..... People of the New Era World.

[edits included for clarity] I hope I didn't confuse too many people by switching back and forth, between retrofitting internal continuity in the Yazirian con-langing, with my show of the external artistic sources used. My appologies for that inconvienance if that was unclear. I feel that both views are equally valid in any attempt to include a meaning to the somewhat mashed phonetic clusters, that have been acumulated by multiple authors using divergent methods.
I am offering another piece of the language for consideration. I recognize that it is largely a matter of speculation in any attempt to ret-con Yazri linguistics, and like those ret-con-langers of Tolkeen or Lovecraft, the attempt is likely full of controversial opinions, and unsuportable facts.

I really like jedion's offered phonetics, the voiced bilabial trill or linguolabial trill, and the very unusual open-aspirated-voiced-labio-velar-stop, that appear to have been taken directly from the animal sound forms. The first could be easily transliterated as <b>, <b'>, <b'b>, <bb>, <p>, <bp>, <pb>, <pbt>.
The woop is possibly a cause of further confusion with the abundance of the <H> found in the transliterated examples, and the uses of <W> in unusual locations, and even as <ll>, or simply transliterated as <woo>, <vof>, <woof>, and <woef> in some cases.
Additional phonemes could be common in the Yazi languages, taken from the chatter, gibber, and whoop, catagories.


I also like the phoneme drawn from the use of a flapping patagium, the number of possible transliterations of this are incredibly diverse, and no doubt leads to even more problems in learning the language. I would however limit such non-vocal phonems from common use as phonemical building blocks, in the Yazirian languages.

Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
April 20, 2011 - 10:28pm
got a few, to add for consideration
 some putting the oot to use as a phonem with it's insinuated meaning:

Ahk'ootanii - Generic Celebration or High-Class Party
Dh'ootai - Social Club (building)
Ghoo'ootto - Social Club (fraternity/sorority group)
Bruk'h'ootan - Violence Clubs/Fight Gangs
Gnyaknyo-dh'ootai - High-class Coteriee
Yakioo'za - Clown, literally 'a person making baby-faces'
Dh'oo'wa'ditii -  a slang contraction of 'making celebrations with fun parts', a popular word among spacers working with humans.
Dh'king'gyo - skilled craftsman
Dhuiahdh - building, structure, organization
Gnyabt'adhpbt'adhoo - An epic theatrical parody, a classic form of entertainment, where the heroics of legend and values of moral tradition are given a social outlet, and allowed to be parodied without a loss of houner. Some humans describe this style of theater, as a form of 'thespian battle rage' where-in nothing is held sacred, but the atrocity exhibition is valued for the courage displayed by the particapants. Frequently associated with Yakioo'za but rarely including them in the spectacle. Others, less appreciative of the work, describe it as a lander-wreak.
OO'hiioo'h'Ahkahk - difficult to translate precisly, in some contexts it means 'Lets glide/swing high.', or even used like the colloquial 'roll out the carpet.' or 'paint the town.' in others it seems to mean 'I'll love you [love me/we'll love each other] forever.' best not used by a non Yazi.

Other phonems not common to the other races:
 [ahk] a more open, often higher pitch, [oot], that carries a subdued meaning of pleasure or neutrality.
 [iii]  when used alone holds a common expression of a disquieted mood, but used as a regular neutral vowal in many words.
 [hrr] - a low pitch trill, phonemic antonym of [ahk], may be given a nasal phonation to add emphasis.
 [gnrr] - a voiced low pitch trill, phonemic antonym of [oot], may be given a creaky phonation to add emhasis.
 [h] - voiced, voiceless, breathy, creaky, slack, moadal, stiff, glottal, raised, fallen, stressed, unstressed, elongated and shortened, pharyngealized, velarized, labialized, palatalized, and rhotacized, or just placed as a break... the use of the basic [h] is varied, and can change the meanings of other phonmes, or entire lexemes, dramatically. Making an attempt at detailing all the uses and modes of this phoneme could take a lifetime, and be a work all to itself. In general, consider this a 'wild card' phoneme, when seen in writ form.
 [gny] - an unusual radical or glottal rising nasal, that is ascribed to impute either a chiding or sardonic
characterization to some words, but may be neutral or imply a certain imperious harmony.
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
May 20, 2011 - 7:19pm
Let's make 100 yazirian names and I'll turn this into an article. (I'm sure we could pawn some names from Dragon/Ares and Shadow). 

Harkvot
Kolvorn
Reppir 
Hakvroot
Yavpir

From the online characters
"Rinny" Rin-Blanka
Alik Klar
Bender
Billow
Borkon of Dorkon
Eusyl
Gideon Pai-jon
Gok Hargut
Grelikk
Gret Korg
Grobber "Ice" Jaloub
Jareb Longfellow
Jeticia Nye
Kangee (Raven in Sioux)
Khan-gha
No'Go No'Go
Oolong new
Ri-kono "Riki" Shea-Dow
Roma Sahai
Sho-Pi Dala
Sketch
Terc Krenn
Vel Aath 
Xodia
Yezha
Zinthos

thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 21, 2011 - 4:57am
Ok A to Z...
Ahoot Iiignyagnyi
Ath'iii'ma
Brukh'boorne
Bp'ahkii
Bpootbp
Cogh'cogh
Dh'ami't'hal
Eugnyomii
Foot Foot
Gnyiii'ka'hyky
H'hrr'h'hack
Huarr'gnyoot
Hal'fbpah'iiignyt
I'kiii'stootfh
Jiiignykyiiis
Karf'hek
Kruf'gnyek
Lih'moort
Mahk'nkgny
Nhot'gnyet Uieoodoh'nt
Ookah'hootu
P'h'papa S'hum'oorft
Qu'Qufoortko'kopofts
Rikrrol
Seriiiootsliii Ah'gnyahm
Tu'Tuh'hufoorgnyooh
Um'Um Aiiidagnyowh
Vooh'Vooh
Woeforwoefoot
Xestnawi'ki
Zootsoot Rah'hiiiet
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
May 21, 2011 - 8:57am
Yav'nook
Brobo 
G'eff 
Athvoor
Parvarttie
Athvroot
Shivroot
Hackfaur




thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 21, 2011 - 7:08pm
100 Yazirian Names (Markov Chain Generated - from all the examples given so far.)
Absarlo
Adhootar
Ahkoot
Adhgnyehoa
Ahkootiii
Ahartno
Ahartook
Ahniin
Ahnin
Ahtie
Artvath
Ahha
Adhinne
Ansyez
Broraook
Broarie
Brobnyook
Brobnotie
Bokono
Brobie
Brobnook
Brobtie
Broin
Brosanin
Brobarook
Guthent
Gnyoaiho
Gnyanai
Gnrrahk
Gnyestkos
Hada
Henha
Hatai
Haothadh
Hentkotai
Henrhai
Heziha
Hainai
Hatrwall
Hentai
Henda
Hatrantai
Hentotha
Haadh
Haha
Henai
Hentpidtai
Hehooha
Hrrahkiii
Hentkoadh
Ihroav
Innai
Istor
Inthrah
Isin
Innehoai
Innnyha
Kovar
Llalny
Nesot
Ninny
Otah
Ooahar
Ohnooroot
Obniart
Obobook
Parnook
Paie
Paoot
Parbrob
Panook
Pavarnin
Parobook
Panoonin
Parroie
Piothhoo
Parvaie
Raninth
Roah
Rahrobya
Ronynook
Strasy
Sarrahhi
Thosest
Tihisint
Tranwada
Thoaiho
Tini
Varin
Vaart
Wallha
Walnestkos
Walzinadh
Walzitai
Waranai
Watai
Yanin
Yain
Yaartin
Yakoonook

Note: Hyphens, apostrophes, diacritics, and other common phonemic guides, are trimmed from this list. YMMV in determining proper pronunciations. As with Human names, there is likely more than one pronuciation, spelling, and short-hand identifier, for any given name. Root meanings however, also like Human names, likely vary little from culture to culture, pronuciation to pronuciation, era to era.
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?