Wyransith | Lesson 01 | Word Order

Preface

This is the first of several lessons I'll be giving on Wyransith, the fantasy language I've constructed for Bride of Shadows. While some of it can be applied to the original version of Bride of Shadows, in general it will only be useful for the current version. When I started BoS I had no idea that there would be a lot of readers like me who are really into fantasy languages. As such, I made it fairly basic and used it a lot less than I would have liked. I've now gone through and expanded the language considerably, as well as modified a great deal of the vocabulary. Part of my editing process involves checking the Wyransith for both accuracy and consistency to ensure readers who are interested will be able to decode it.

Background

In general, I love languages. My grandmother spoke Spanish and Nahuatl, while my father spoke Hebrew, Arabic, and a fair bit of Russian. When I was little, it sometimes felt like they were competing to program me with their preferred languages, which is probably why at eighteen I ended up speaking only English and top-tier Spanglish while having a passion for classic Russian literature. I also picked up a fair bit of Japanese, as do all of us anime girls. While initially feeling like a bit of a failure for being a jack of all foreign tongues but master of none, it's given me an interesting perspective on the structure of languages that I wouldn't have had if I'd only ever spoken English or even the other romance languages.

Wyransith, known as Shadespeak to Summer Islanders, is phonetically a mix of Welsh, Russian, and a dash of Gaelic. I chose Welsh because it's not a language that is broadly known beyond the UK, which gives Wyransith an exotic vibe. Russian is just my favorite language to listen to and the male Russian accent makes me feel a certain type of way. Gaelic I use for loan words, something I'll go into later as it relates to the history between Nazralt and Baniralt. Gaelic is also the primary base for the Baniralti language, Banirskai. The way that I've blended the languages, you won't necessarily be able to recognize any of them, except in occasion for nouns when I get a bit lazy and cram the words together.

Mini English Sidebar

A weird thing you learn when you teach English is that a lot of people don't know the parts of speech, and even when they do, they have certain blind spots. One I see often is the verb "to be." When asked to think of a verb, we might say run, dance, sing, or play, but we forget that to simply exist is a verb. I am, you are, they were, we will be, all of those are a subject and a verb.

Word Order

Wyransith generally follows the S-O-V structure, or Subject - Object - Verb. This means the subject is introduced first, followed by the object (what is being acted upon), and then the verb that describes the action or state.

By comparison, English is generally S-V-O, or Subject - Verb - Object.

In English, we'd say: She is wet.
She being the subject, is being the verb describing the state of the subject, and wet being the predicate adjective (not technically an object, but the thing the verb links to the subject).

In Wyransith, we'd say: She wet is. (Ywen mokren sairith.)
She is still the subject, but then we have wet as the object (state), followed by is, the verb which links them together.

Word Order in Questions
While English is generally S-V-O, there are plenty of times when we shift word orders, such as in the case of subject-auxiliary inversion to form questions.

In English, we'd say: Is this a joke?
Note the V-S-O structure, where we start with the verb is, then the subject this, and then the object, a joke.

In Wyransith, we'd say: This [a] joke is? (Sha makraeth sairith?)
Subject (this/sha), object (joke/makraeth), verb (is/sairith). A good example of this would be Japanese, which follows a similar structure. Kore (this) wa (topic marker) jōdan (joke) desu (is) ka (question particle)?

Now, what if we want to play with the rules to place emphasis on a particular word?

In English, we could say: A joke, is it?
In other words, "is that supposed to be funny?" By putting the object (joke) up front and demoting the subject (it, formerly this) we place emphasis on the object, subtly changing the meaning and tone of the sentence.

In Wyransith, we could say: [a] Joke this is? (Makraeth sha sairith?)
This could have a few different meanings depending on the context and tone, but in the context of our recent update it's a clipped way to say "Is this some sort of joke?"

In the new Fated Mates prelude, if your MC opens the outer door to the tent and gets covered in snow, Valdricht will (somewhat irritably) ask Serax, “Makraeth sha sairith? Ir veth ywen mokren sairith?” or "Is this a joke? And why is she wet?"

He hasn't yet heard the MC speak and is perplexed by her aristocratic Summer Isles accent. Assuming, Serax must have told her to speak like that, he opens with a demanding "Joke, this is?" thus making it clear he expects a serious response. You can imagine his brow creasing before he adds, “Ir veth ywen mokren sairith?”

This is meant to be a general guide on word order for Wyransith, there is still a lot to cover and we'll be unpacking other irregular orders as we learn about other parts of speech.

On Accents

I encourage you to headcanon the accents however you so choose. Personally, mine are a very courtly U-RP English accent for the MC (LINK), a true Shakespearean (LINK) accent for Serax, and Imperial Era/courtly Russian accent for Valdricht (LINK: courtly Russian) (LINK: modern English with posh Russian flare).

I hope this gives good context as to why Serax and Valdricht are both taken aback by the MC's accent. It's something I didn't overly emphasize in the original version, as I was already throwing a ton of info at players, but we'll toy around with it a bit in the new version. I won't be giving either of the men strong written accents, such as changing "name" to "nahm." This is a stylistic choice. The accents aren't so important that I want to distract from the flow of the story.

The differences in pronunciation will only be highlighted when relevant, such as Serax teasing your MC for how she says "glahss" instead of "glass" or any time she says "mustn’t" or "I daresay." Bear in mind, Serax is perfectly capable of understanding the MC 99% of the time, he just enjoys flustering her. Conversely, the MC will understand Serax around 95% of the time, with certain words being too egregiously "mispronounced" for her to decipher. If you play an erudite MC, you'll be more inclined to correct him.

Valdricht's accent when speaking her language in Fated Mates and Classic will actually be closer to the MC's, as one of his first languages was the root language of the current Summer tongue. However, he may occasionally slip in old words or pronunciations that won't make sense to her.

Cute stuff, I know.

On Deciphering

I recognize that making the word order dynamic can make it more difficult to translate, but I think it also makes it more rewarding for those who do like that sort of thing. Additionally, it makes the language feel livelier, especially in a route like Dark Maiden where the guys will only be speaking in Wyransith for the duration of the narrative. Granted, you'll be able to translate their text as your MC improves her Wyransith, but for a while it'll look like a puzzle that at times breaks its own rules--a lot like learning a regular language!

Now, just as you'll at times have typos in my English writing, there may be occasions where I mistype a word in Wyransith or mess up a grammar rule. While I was writing up this guide, I realized I'd misplaced a verb in the narrative and had to pause to patch in the corrected version. That's part of the reason I'll be doing weekly breakdowns for Darksinger/Duskweaver members, reviewing the Wyransith translations from the previous week's chapter/release. This will give readers a week to try to decipher the translations on their own and also allow me to ensure that all of the Wyransith is accurate and orderly. I suspect that as with all things we do often and repeatedly, writing the language will be second nature to me in a few months, so pardon any early mistakes.

Quick Reference for Word Order

• Wyransith follows a Subject - Object - Verb structure.

• Adjectives follow nouns: velushka (pet) thy (your) = your pet

• Demonstratives can go before or after a noun depending on context: Sha melis (this honey) sairith (is) eri’na (mine) versus Melis (honey) sha (this) sairith (is) eri’na (mine) >>> The first is a general statement, whereas the second places emphasis on honey for reasons that will vary depending on context.

Conclusion

Hopefully this was an insightful intro to Wyransith that wasn't too dry. Apart from a brief stint of virtual classes during the pandemic I'm not too accustomed to explaining these sorts of things in such a boring format. My language teaching style is less papers and more talking, because humans don't learn languages from textbooks and worksheets. I'll continue breaking down the language in the weekly lessons for Darksinger and Duskweaver members, however there will also be guides for all players in-game as the story progresses and the MC learns Wyransith.

And if none of this fantasy language stuff interests you, it's not a necessary component to the game, just a fun element for deeper insight into the conversations. Even in Dark Maiden, you can lean into the language barrier trope rather than obsessing over what the guys are saying, should you choose.

-Mortish