Elven language



The Elven language, or "Elvish", was largely lost when Elvhenan fell to the Tevinter Imperium and its people were enslaved around two millennia before the Dragon Age. When the elves settled their second homeland, the Dales, they aimed to restore their lost language and lore, but the Dales fell after an Exalted March declared by the Chantry in the early Glory Age. The Elvish of the Dragon Age is thus a fragmented remnant, a few words that are thrown into conversation rather than a working language used to conduct everyday life. The Dalish Elves, self-appointed custodians of the elven language and lore, use more Elvish than their City Elf brethren. Living among humans, the City Elves now retain only a few old Elvish words whose origin is almost forgotten, such as "shem" - derived from "shemlen", meaning "quickling", or "quick children" the old Elvish term for humans - and "hahren" - the leader of an Alienage, meaning "elder" in Elvish.

With the release of Dragon Age II, and Merrill's speech patterns, it has been determined that pronouns most likely carry an implied possessive. What this means for translation is that words like "ma" and "ar" can carry a "have" with them - "you have", "I have" - without actually needing to add in the "have" as a separate word.

According to David Gaider, a differentiating factor between Elvish and other languages in Thedas--particularly as regards aspects like names--is the avoidance of hard consonants.

Written Elvish
The clan Keepers are the only ones who know the secret of writing Elven Language. The spelling system for Elvish contains an apostrophe to mark register tone, not to mark stress or to decorate text as per the usual usage of the apostrophe. Also indicates contraction points between two full words that cannot be reduced by adjoining letters.

Many of the words in the following list are extrapolations and deconstructions of words found in the game, done by parsing the order of meanings versus given words and comparisons of fragments to the meanings given.

Canon: Elvish Phrases



 * Ir abelas, ma vhenan:(eer-ah-be-las ma ve-nan): "I am filled with sorrow for your loss, my heart."
 * Ir abelas, ma vhenan:(eer-ah-be-las ma ve-nan): "I am filled with sorrow for your loss, my heart."
 * Ir abelas, ma vhenan:(eer-ah-be-las ma ve-nan): "I am filled with sorrow for your loss, my heart."
 * Ir abelas, ma vhenan:(eer-ah-be-las ma ve-nan): "I am filled with sorrow for your loss, my heart."
 * Ir abelas, ma vhenan:(eer-ah-be-las ma ve-nan): "I am filled with sorrow for your loss, my heart."

The Elvish Eulogy
(It's interesting to note, too, that these are the lyrics to the song Leliana sings for you in camp during Origins gameplay, also, its beginning is played in the end of the Dalish Elf Origin. From in-game explanation, plus the fact that elves can no longer undergo the Uthenera, since they are no longer immortal, it seems this is a song used to mourn the dead now.)

Suledin (Endure) an Elven Song
The elven song Suledin is played during the dungeon escape portion of the Leliana's Song DLC. The song is about enduring and emerging from sorrow, tied to the elves' loss of their ancient lands. It is adapted to personal struggles, as well.

''Translator's Note: This has got to be a loose translation, at best. For instance, we know "lath" means "love", and yet "lath aravel ena" is translated as "and the path will emerge".''

I Am the One
Played at the end credits of Dragon Age: Origins and included in the soundtrack, 'I Am the One' features elvish lyrics written by Inon Zur. A translation for the song has been provided on the Dragon Age: Inquisition soundtrack.

Deconstructing Elvish
Many words of Elvish are made up of contractions of smaller words. For instance, "Arlathan" means, "this place that I love". Deconstructing it, we arrive at Ar: I or me; Lath: love; and An: place. We know that this is correct, because: "lath" is used later in the eulogy poem to mean "love"; "an" is seen as a suffix in the word "Elvhenan", meaning "the place of our people", which is a direct extension of "Elvhen", meaning "our people". By elimination, "Ar" becomes the personal pronoun. In the same way, many of the other words we see can be deconstructed into their individual components.

Trivia

 * A very gifted linguist, Katiebour, has taken a stab at translating Elvish, and her dictionary has insights and alternatives to what's been written here. It can be found here.