User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/3-3

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Lesson 3| Idioms

Idioms are words and phrases that convey an idea separate from the literal meanings. In English, some examples of idioms include 'as dead as a doornail,' and 'it's raining cats and dogs.'

Collective Idioms

Reader beware: the collective number contains among the easiest to make grammatical errors in High Valyrian--using x third person plural verbal agreement instead of third person singular, which is correct. Shh; don't tell anyone that the actual Game of Thrones script made this error!

Valar Morghūlis

Among the most iconic lines of Game of Thrones is the High Valyrian saying valar morghūlis, meaning 'all men must die.' This is typically followed with the response valar dohaeris, 'all men must serve.' This generalizable construction uses a collective subject and a verb conjugated third person active indicative aorist. Remember, when working with collectives, they call for third person singular verbal agreement, not third person plural! Words in the paucal number do take the third person plural case.

valar botis: all men must endure

kelir morghūlis: all cats must die

valar dohaeris: all men must serve

valar morghūlis: all men must die

Materials

When nouns of materials, such as glass or silk, are placed in the collective number, they typically take the meaning of the substance itself, in general. This is also seen with other nouns such as the fishmonger, or klihoro liorio where klihoro is in the collective genitive and it takes a meaning with a sense of 'fish' as a general substance.

jenyr: glass (the substance)

kȳdrar: silk (the substance)

ñellyr: flesh (the substance)

Others

biarver aōt, literally meaning 'all of the happiness and fortune to you' translates to 'cheers.'

Indeclinable Adjectives

High Valyrian features some indeclinable adjectives, nouns in the comitative case that function as adjectives; this case marks accompaniment with animates and translates as 'with.' Indeclinable adjectives do not decline in case, gender, or number.

averilloma, the comitative case of averilla, meaning literally 'with wine,' and translates to drunk or tipsy.

ēngoso, from ēngos, means literally 'with tongue,' and translates to talkative or chatty.

tepilloma, from tepilla means 'merciful.'

udrimmi, from udrin, means 'with a phrase or saying,' and translates to witty, clever, or quick-witted

zaldrīzerme, 'with all of the dragons,' translates to all-powerful, indestructible, or invincible.

Not all indeclinable adjectives are nouns in the comitative case; lentot, the dative or locative of lenton, means either 'at home' or 'for home;' it translates to civil, as in civil war

The Comitative Case

The comitative case indicates animate accompaniment. It is similar to the instrumental case in that it translates as 'with;' however, the comitative conveys a different sense of 'with'--the accompanying 'with' as opposed to the instrumental's, well, instrumental 'with.' The sense of 'with' of the one that you go to the movies with, not the knife you cut the bread with. The comitative case may only be used with animates.

The first lunar, third lunar, and third terrestrial have forms that include an 'i' in their endings, like āeksio. The usual genitive forms take the endings -oma, -oso, and -oso; with 'i' in the ending, they become -ȳma, -ȳso, and -ȳso.

Declination Nominative Singular Plural
1lun. val-a val-oma val-ommi
1aq. qelb-ar qelb-roma qelb-rommi
2lun. egr-y egr-omy egr-ommi
2sol. azant-ys azant-omy azant-ommi
3lun. (io) āeks-io āeks-ȳso āeks-ȳssi
3sol. ri-os ri-oso ri-ossi
3sol. (contracting) jao-s jao-so jao-hossi
3ter. lent-on lent-oso lent-ossi
3aq. māl-or māl-roso māl-rossi
4lun. ann-e ann-ome ann-ommi
4sol. zaldrīz-es zaldrīz-ome zaldrīz-ommi
5lun. brōz-i brōz-ȳmi brōz-ȳmmi
5sol. bant-is bant-ȳmi bant-ȳmmi
5aq. qint-ir qint-ȳmi qint-ȳmmi
adj. I rōv-a (ys on or) rōv-om (om om rom) rōv-om (om om rom)
adj. II sȳz (sȳrior) sȳr-om (ȳm) sȳr-om (ȳm)
adj. III sylvie (ior) sylv-iom (ȳm) sylv-iom (ȳm)

Instrumental Adverbs

A number of nouns when placed in the instrumental case function as adverbs.

Kīvȳso literally means 'with oath' and conveys having had sworn an oath.

Rīglose, literally meaning 'with honor,' translates to 'it is an honor,' as in 'it is an honor to meet you.'

Vēdroso literally means 'with anger' and could translate to 'in anger,' 'with anger,' or even perhaps 'angrily.'

Vējose literally means 'with fate, doom' and translates to 'due to fate,' 'at the hands of fate.' The non-idiomatic way of saying this is vējo ondoso.

Drīvose literally means 'with truth, correctness, justness, justice' and translates to 'actually,' 'truly,' 'really.' drīvose daor then means 'actually not, actually no.'

Kirimvose literally means 'with joy' and means 'thank you'. 'No thank you' is kirimvose daor; 'thanks, I'm good,' is kirimvose, sȳz iksan.

Animals

Ablative Adjectives

Ablative adjectives end in -ōñe and convey separation from or movement away from a source; they translate as 'from somewhere.' From the below attested to types of otters, it is likely further ablative adjectives that could name other animals may be derived from this paradigm, such as *blenōñe hobres for 'mountain goat,' or *tegōñe turgon for 'earthworm.' To form an ablative adjective to name an animal, select a noun conveying something about the animal in natural, remove the declinable ending and add -ōñe to form a new class II adjective.

embōñe kēli: sea otter (lit. cat from the sea)

qelbōñe kēli: river otter (lit. cat from the river)

The Paucal

In general, the paucal number refers to 'some' or 'a few' of a noun compared to the collective number which refers to 'all' of a noun. Given that kelin is the paucal of 'cat' and means 'a herd of cats,' it is likely that phrases to refer to a group of animals like 'a parliament of owls' or 'a murder of crows' would be expressed in the paucal; *atroksȳn and *lārun respectively.

kelin: herd of cats

Genitive Phrases

The most basic genitive phrases consist of two nouns: the possessor in the genitive and the possessed that takes the appropriate case in context. Below is only a small sample of genitive phrases; many more may be formed in combination--your imagination is the only limitation! Genitive phrases are a great way to express concepts that may be lacking vocabulary. Be creative! Recall there are two ways of reading a genitive phrase such as muño ēngos, 'mother tongue:' the first is mother's tongue, giving the genitive word in High Valyrian an English apostrophe in translation; the second is [a, the] tongue of [a, the] mother, where the genitive word comes last in the translation, always after the word of. Below is a selection of examples.

kīviō dārilaros: the prince that was promised (lit. the prince of promise or the oath's prince)

mīsītsoro liorio: clothier, clothes seller (lit. seller of clothing)

klihoro liorio: fishmonger (lit. seller of fish) Note that klios is declined collective; this is because a fishmonger sells fish in general or as a general substance.

averilloti liorio: wine purveyor (lit. seller of wines). Note that averilla is not declined collective; this is because a wine purveyor sells different forms of wine and not wine as a general substance.

muño ēngos: mother tongue (lit. mother's tongue or tongue of mother)

hobrero ñellyr: goatskin (lit. goat's skin or skin of goat)

perzo bē ȳgha: fireproof (lit. safe with respect to fire)

Other

va mōriot, literally to the end, translates as 'always.' From this, one may infer that the Valyrians liked to see things through to the end from the development of this phrase into an idiom.

daoriot jemagon, literally meaning 'to lead nowhere,' is a stronger form of its translation 'to not matter.' It captures the futility and end result of taking action on the insignificant; hence, the thesis on va mōriot, the focus on the end result.

kesȳ tubī, literally meaning 'on this day,' may be a more formal way of saying 'today' than the adverb tubī.

biarvī manaeragon: to celebrate--literally, to raise happiness.

Express phrases like "use your head," with a possessive adjective and the noun of desired use in the comitative case. For example, aōhos bartoso means "use your head," literally, "with your head!"

Noun Phrases

A noun phrase uses a noun in combination with other words to form a phrase that has a distinct meaning. The simplest appear as an adjective and a noun or two nouns; these decline together as appropriate in context. When using such phrases, think of them as a unit--they both decline in concordance. Adpositions may also be used in noun phrases; these decline under the direction of the adposition while the remainder of the noun phrase declines with respect to the broader context of the sentence--this will be shown with an example below.

Mele Voktys is either a Red Priest or Priestess. The word voktys is of the solar gender that corresponds with general animacy; there is no way to tell if the priest is male or female from grammatical markings alone. If one needs to convey the biological sex of Mele Voktys, use context or perhaps a relative clause like ābra issa lȳs Voktys Mele. Recall that adjectives on the head noun of a relative clause must be postpositive.

Zīrtys perzys, literally 'frozen fire,' translates as 'dragonglass or obsidian.' When used, it would behave identically to Mele Voktys for both words form a unit that conveys a multi-word idea.

*Āeksio Jentys hen Bantio Urnēbiot is 'The Lord Commander of The Night's Watch.' This noun phrase contains a prepositional phrase, so how would one say 'I see The Lord Commander of The Night's Watch?' The answer lies in remembering that the preposition hen directs the case for its object(s) and that when genitive phrases occur in a prepositional phrase, the genitive marking is retained. Thusly, it is said Āeksio Jenti hen Bantio Urnēbiot urnen; Āeksio Jentys declines as a unit to Āeksio Jenti in the accusative. The rest of this title is unaffected from the presence of the verb urnegon for other aspects of the sentence direct its declination.

quptentkys ēngos: the common tongue

Exercise

Basic Conversation

When asking how someone is in High Valyrian, one uses the verb glaesagon, 'to live.'

skorkydoso glaesā: how are you

syrī glaesan: I'm good

When conveying someone's age, use the expression jēdari urnegon, literally 'seeing years.' To convey the concept of age, one may likely use something like the following prepositional phrase containing a participle *hen harrenkot jēdarta ūndot that would mean 'of the appropriate number of years having been seen,' or 'of the appropriate age.'




ānogrosa nehugon: to bleed



rhaenagon: to begin, to start (an event, season, or time period)


rijes aōt: congratulations

rijondi: congratulations

issa, kessa: yes

skorio syt: why

hae skorot: how <equative> is the subject

Holidays

biare arlie jēdari: happy new year

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