Yesterday I became interested in the Thalassian language (the language of Blood Elves in World of Warcraft), as I had opened the page about it on WoWWiki.com while exploring the lore. I don't mean the language that is interpreted from the text written by the player in Thalassian to those who can't that language. But I mean the language that the NPCs use, the language from the lore.
Today I Googled a bit to see if anyone else have found something interesting, but in my 15 minute search, I didn't find anything new - no personal articles or thesis about the language. (Except for one user, who had posted some ideas here)
I started by writing down the phrases that already had translation, as well as the translated words, so I could easier remember them as well as mark my ideas about the possible translations and language structure.
Al diel shala - Safe travels
Anar'alah belore - By the light of the sun
Anaria shola - Speak your business
Anu belore dela'na - The sun guides us
Bal'a dash, malanore - Greetings, traveler
Bash'a no falor talah! - Taste the chill of true death!
Doral ana'diel? - How fare you?
Kim'jael - Little Rat
Medivh - Keeper of Secrets
Quel'dorei - high elves
Quel'Thalas - High Kingdom/High Home
Quel'Zaram - High Blade
Quel'Danil - High Peak
Ronae - Peaceful
Selama ashal'anore - Justice for our people
Shindu fallah na! - They're breaking through!
Shorel'aran - Farewell
Sin'dorei - Children of the blood
Sinu a'manore - Well met
Sunstrider - "he who walks the day"
I also wrote down the translated words to start with.
Anar/Anu - Sun, light
Belore - Sun
Dal - mage
aran - city
Danil - Peak
Diel - Travel
Dorei - Born, Children, or Elves
Malanore - Traveler
Quel - High
Lithian - Lodge
Serrar - Blade
Shala - Safe
Sin - Blood
Shindu - Failing
Thalas - Home or Kingdom
Zaram - Blade
Shan'dor - honored teacher
Note: my translations might not be correct, but as my research in Thalassian language continues, I'll add new entries to my blog with corrections and new translations.
One of the things I worked out was that the word '
Thalas' is included in the name of the language - 'Thalassian'. Not so hard to mention it, but anyway, I guess noone mentioned it. Why? Because...
If '
Thalas' in the word 'Thalassian' is translated as 'home', then 'Thalassian' means 'the home language'. With '
Thalas' as 'kingdom', I don't think the meaning would fit in that well.
Thalas - home or kingdom
Hmm... even writing down some expressions I thought I know the meaning of brings new ideas^^
One quite disturbing thing is that most of the people are used to the English words and gramatics, that they think it's same in Thalassian. But most likely it's not. Also I've found out that the word '
belore' could mean a couple of meanings, mostly used as a metaphor connected to their belief in sun. For example, I think '
belore' shouldn't be translated as 'sun', but as '
shine'. Also the word '
shine' can be used as a metaphore for the word 'go', as
Sin'dorei (blood elve) belief is based on the sun (as you can see from the many expressions connected to the sun).
Belore - sun shine
Ok, maybe it's a bit too hard to describe every thought I have gotten within the past 24 hours about Thalassian and the translation and meaning of the words, so here's the list of words I think they should be translated as*:
al - you, to you
alah - light
anu - sun
ana - shine
anar - sun
aran - city
belore - shine, 'shine' as metaphore for the word 'go'
dal - mage
danil - peak
diel - travel
dore - one
dorei - ones, born, children, elves
fallah - through
lithien - lodge
malanore - traveller
na - we, us
quel - high
serrar - blade
shala - safe
shan'dor - honored teacher
shindu - failing, breaking
sin - blood
thalas - home
Thalassian - the home language
zaram - blade
* note that I haven't checked the meaning of all the words, there are still a few words that I think might be translated wrong.
The nouns ending with '
ore' or '
orei' probably mean a humanoid creature, as in '
dorei', '
anore' etc. Not sure yet how it connects with the word '
belore'. Also it's possible the word '
manore' translates as 'friend'.
Singular and plural: the words ending with '
ore' are in singular '
dore' - one, '
anore' - people, folk (as a single group), '
malanore' - traveller; adding an '
i' to the end of these words makes them plural: '
dorei' - ones, '
malanorei' - travellers. (At least I think it is like this).
If you have any questions, suggestions or anything else, feel free to leave a comment. I'd be happy to know if there's someone interested in this.
I'll be adding my updates, as well as my thoughts about why it is so and why not etc.