Intro to Palmalatin

In the Beyond Algo universe, Palmalatin was an ancient language spoken on Palma before the emergence of the modern Palman language. Palmalatin is completely dead now, but records of it remain, and traces of the are sometimes found in the most unlikely of places.

Although it will take some time for Palmalatin to develop into a working language (if it ever does), below are some of the rules and quirks of Palmalatin, so that you, the reader, can have a better understanding of it as you read. The list will be added to as Palmalatin grows, and will hopefully become an actual Palmalatin Grammar Book someday!

But, before we begin our lesson, allow me to plug The Dezorian Language, by my good friend Michael Ripplinger. It has inspired the evolution of Palmalatin in many ways and definitely warrants extensive examination.

Grammar Rules

• Oftentimes, pronouns and helping or state of being verbs are left unspoken in Palmalatin, although they do exist and are sometimes used. Usually, when an individual is being addressed, it is unnecessary to say "who is," " that is," and so on. Simply describing a person and thereby giving them some sort of title is equivalent to addressing them by their proper name. An example is Sa-Lews. The literal translation is "Strength of All," but one who knows Palmalatin would understand it to mean "The One Who Has The Strength Of All."
• All words in a phrase which represents a single noun are connected by hyphens. An example is the phrase Le-Gy-Legeon, which means "The Great Light." Since The Great Light is a singular being, all words in its name are connected. There is an exception for phrases only two words long when the first word is simply le, which means "the." An example of this exception is the phrase Le Roof, which has no hyphen.
• The prefixes gi, na, and sa, if used to modify a name phrase beginning with le, are separated from the first word of the phrase by a hyphen. These phrases are always hyphenated, even if they were part of the exception mentioned above before the prefix was added. An example is Gi-Le-Farg.
• The prefix sa, when added to the front of a word, makes the word affect all of whatever is the subject of the sentence. For example, the word shu means "shield," but sashu means "shield of all," or "shield that protects everyone."
• There are times when adding gi, na, or sa to a word results in a totally new word as opposed to a word whose existing meaning has been enhanced. An example is the word polis, which means "village." Gipolis means "town," napolis means "city," and sapolis means "country." If one wishes merely to say that a village is very something without implying that the settlement is actually a town or city, then the suffix must be conjoined to the word with a hyphen. So, if a gipolis is a town, then a gi-polis is a village which is very something. To enhance the meaning of the word gipolis, the prefix na must be used. In other words, you cannot have a gigipolis, but you can have a nagipolis. A word which had already been modified by na cannot be modified further. To modify the word gi-polis, simply add the second prefix to the word as you normally would. The result should be the word nagi-polis.
• The word de, which means "of," loses its e and becomes d if the word immediately following begins with an e and is connected by a hyphen. The same is true of the word le, which means "the."
• If a word begins with ts and has a prefix added, the ts becomes a th. An example of this is the word tsu, which becomes thu if a suffix, such as gi, is added to it, resulting in the word githu.

List of Prefixes

gi-

much, very

na-

most, especially

re-

being done again

sa-

applies to all (shu = shield, sashu = shield that protects everyone)

w-

makes verb future tense (followed by a vowel, including y)

xa-

indicates regress (rel = existence, xarel = infinity)

wi-

makes verb future tense (followed by a consonant)

Prefix Rules

• The prefixes gi and na can be used at the same time as the prefix sa. The sa always goes first. An example of this is the word sanashu, the translation of which is "a very powerful shield that protects everyone."

List of Suffixes

-d

makes past tense (follows a vowel, including y)

-ed

makes past tense (follows a consonant)

-es

makes noun plural (follows s)

-i

makes verb a noun (deban = defend, debani = defense)

-i

makes noun plural (follows z and x)

-non

not, un-

-s

makes noun plural (follows any letter but s, x, or z)

-s

makes subject possesive (acts like an 's or s')

Suffix Rules

• Both -s suffixes can be used at the same time. An example of this is the word syrss, which is a possesive meaning "swords'."

Translations of Character Names in Palmalatin:

D-Elm-Lars

(one who is) Of The Black Ways

Xe-A-Thoul

Those In Darkness

Le-Faw-Gan

The Frightening Magic User

Gi-Le-Farg

The (one who is) Very Evil

Le Roof

The Guardian

De-Vars

(one who is) Of Strength

Sa-Lews

(one who has the) Courage of All

Re-Faze

(one who is) Angry Again

Palmalatin Translations of Common Names and Phrases:

Phanai-Aer

Phantasy Star (fanai = fantasy)

Le-Dei-De-Algol

The God of Algo

Na-Mai-Paere

Was Nearly Perfect But Not Perfect (the Devil)

Le-Gy-Legeon

The Great Light

Le-Gy-Thoul

The Profound Darkness

Pal-Ma

Mother Land (Palma)

Motab-Aer

Brown Star (Motavia)

Dezol-Aer

Gray Star (Dezoris)

Le-Syr-De-Legeon

The Sword of Light (Elsydeon)

Le-Gelun-Mel

The Old Man

L-Elm-Vigos-Unduli

The Black Energy Wave

Pal-Ma-Lantak

Mother Land's Language (Palmalatin)

Access the revised Complete Palmalatin Dictionary.