A Lesson in Dragonspeak

[Risvertasashi]

Any chance we could get the full language doc sometime? O：)

(Post is appreciated, just the linguist nerd in me... I also envy that you get to use these skills in your job!)

[Ashkendor]

It all just makes me wonder how many takes you have to go through with voice actors to get the pronunciations right. :3

Thanks for posting this! It was a great read.

[Kayokane]

I'm wondering what sor[n](?) would be then since we have the dra[n] sor[n] ga[h]r and ne[h]d(?) sor[n] ga[h]r in The Aery.

(I am assuming that ne[h]d is meant to be taken from e[h]d or highest, with the "n" for the negative for aka not the highest.)

[Canadane]

This is great stuff. I always feel like understanding the language is the best way to get a picture of the lives and culture of others.
One thing did puzzle me, however...

While to us, death represents the absence of life, the dragons look at it as a part of life—something that would not exist without life—and therefore add that [n].

Wouldn't this be an outlook of more mortal beings? Taking humans for example, as I don't know the expected lifespans of Eorzean habitants, almost everyone will go through lengths to extend their lives, through medicine, doctors, healthy lifestyles, etc. but everyone, as much as they may not want to admit, understands they will die one day. It's sad, and everyone copes with it slightly differently, but it's part of life.

But here we have these timeless beings the Dragons. Who live near endlessly, won't falter from physical wounds so easy, and have survived multiple era ending calamities. If anything is to be called immortal, it's these dragons. While death is certain to happen to some, it seems it's rare enough to almost dismiss as a possibility. Especially since there's so few of the first born. Things simply aren't happening that leads to their ultimate permanent end. So why do they consider death a necessary part of life? It seems to counter their very existence.

Or is this just my mortal brain being unable to fully comprehend their longevity?

[BunnyChain]

Awesome lore post, thanks!

[Orchidias]

This is a beautiful insight on dragonspeak, which has quickly become the language in-game that I am most interested in. Mostly for my own personal writing! I can't wait to see the phrases and all, and amusingly enough, I think I've gotten most of these pronunciations right after listening to the dialogue in-game as well! Maybe one day I'll actually be able to speak it Thank you for all the lore details- they just make it so much more easier to create that feeling of immersion in the game!

[Brickshouse]

Ferne, has going through learning a complicated language like Japanese helped enable you to disect language in general and make it a little easier to come up with componants of a new language, or is it blank page new thinking? I am always impressed by the detail that Final fantasy franchise games go in the lore and story and its things like this which shows the dedication and detail we all love and crave. Now please go and nudge yoshi-P to hurry up and let us know the release of 3.1 I need to book that week off work!

[Dalvy]

So if the first brood, and dragons in general, speak slowly and cut their speech down... Does this mean Midgardsormr is the exception? He is the only dragon (besides Vidopnir and her brother Verd in Churning Mists) who bothers to speak to us as a human would, but so far none of his descendants bother to address us in this way.

[Davy_M_Jones]

My demands haven't changed since I asked you this at Fanfest in Vegas.

Release a Lore Compendium. Put this language in it.

I need it.

[Yshnal]

Snip

I think that it's precisely because of their long lives that they get to see plenty of death around them, of those that aren't dragons and of lesser dragons too. Remember that the lesser ones don't live as long as the elder ones, and that the later are the ones that decide how their language is. So it makes sense that in their long and almost unending lives they've learned to accept and understand that death is part of the cicle of life, something that for them happens almost constantly, so to speak (the reason for this is the same as the one given for them seeing what happened 1000 years ago as something of the present).

It's a bit convoluted, but I hope that it makes some sense.