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Good afternoon! Could we possibly offer a term for vorta that may fall outside of standard gender identities? Like, a term for 'third-gender'; and would you still use ha/han/hau pronouns for such an identity, or would they require their own set of pronouns?

(requisite preface that this project is based entirely on my conceptualization of the Vorta and their culture -- we're operating outside of canon here, so feel free to get inventive for your own fannish purposes if this answer doesn't work for your needs).

As the Vorta are a single-sex species and don't have a concept of gender, you would use ha for everyone (or da, if you want to get disrespectful). Universal translators are very good at translating intent and context (otherwise they just wouldn't work), so there's normally no need to use pronouns other than ha, da, and ai -- even when referring to members of species that do have a concept of gender.

That being said, Vorta are also very polite, so if they are referring to an individual they know to feel strongly about using a certain pronoun, they might use that pronoun in the individual's native language, transliterated into Dominionese.

Here's the tricky part - what form of the pronoun they use would depend entirely on how fluently that particular Vorta speaks that particular language. Dominionese pronouns take a possessive form (hau) and a dative form (han), and everything else is just ha, because more meaning is conveyed by syntax in Dominionese than in languages like English. So unless our Vorta speaker just wants to show off their linguistic skills, you would get something like:

(he) hi/hin/hiyu

(she) shi/shin/shiyu

You could also transliterate neopronouns in this way such as:

(ey) ei/ein/eiyu

(fae) fei/fein/feiyu

"Xe" is harder, because Dominionese doesn't have a "z" sound like that x makes. In this instance, I'd use "zh" since it's the closest sound available:

(xe) zhi/zhin/zhiyu

I wouldn't transliterate "they" simply because it's already such a close analog of ha -- If you tried to explain an agender person who uses they/them to a Vorta, they'd probably be like, "so....just the usual then?" Binary pronouns would be deeply weird to Vorta.

So now for a couple of example sentences!

Shin warathau hi.

"[He] bowed [to her]."

Qavulkan mena zhi.

Xe lives on Vulcan.

Eiyu feira da.

That's eir bag.

dominionese-resource

Small addition: this raises the question of whether a Vorta living in a different society might develop a gender identity. I think that's very possible -- and possibly a different one than the native inhabitants of that world had "assigned" to them by virtue of perceiving them within their own gender system -- that's fic fodder right there!

Good afternoon! Could we possibly offer a term for vorta that may fall outside of standard gender identities? Like, a term for 'third-gender'; and would you still use ha/han/hau pronouns for such an identity, or would they require their own set of pronouns?

(requisite preface that this project is based entirely on my conceptualization of the Vorta and their culture -- we're operating outside of canon here, so feel free to get inventive for your own fannish purposes if this answer doesn't work for your needs).

As the Vorta are a single-sex species and don't have a concept of gender, you would use ha for everyone (or da, if you want to get disrespectful). Universal translators are very good at translating intent and context (otherwise they just wouldn't work), so there's normally no need to use pronouns other than ha, da, and ai -- even when referring to members of species that do have a concept of gender.

That being said, Vorta are also very polite, so if they are referring to an individual they know to feel strongly about using a certain pronoun, they might use that pronoun in the individual's native language, transliterated into Dominionese.

Here's the tricky part - what form of the pronoun they use would depend entirely on how fluently that particular Vorta speaks that particular language. Dominionese pronouns take a possessive form (hau) and a dative form (han), and everything else is just ha, because more meaning is conveyed by syntax in Dominionese than in languages like English. So unless our Vorta speaker just wants to show off their linguistic skills, you would get something like:

(he) hi/hin/hiyu

(she) shi/shin/shiyu

You could also transliterate neopronouns in this way such as:

(ey) ei/ein/eiyu

(fae) fei/fein/feiyu

"Xe" is harder, because Dominionese doesn't have a "z" sound like that x makes. In this instance, I'd use "zh" since it's the closest sound available:

(xe) zhi/zhin/zhiyu

I wouldn't transliterate "they" simply because it's already such a close analog of ha -- If you tried to explain an agender person who uses they/them to a Vorta, they'd probably be like, "so....just the usual then?" Binary pronouns would be deeply weird to Vorta.

So now for a couple of example sentences!

Shin warathau hi.

"[He] bowed [to her]."

Qavulkan mena zhi.

Xe lives on Vulcan.

Eiyu feira da.

That's eir bag.

Hello hello, it’s been a while since I checked in here. But I wanted to ask, since I saw zhimata below listed as a sort of platonically affection term-is there a sort of equivalent that shares a more explicit form of address

TL:dr-what do Vorta say in bed lol? Would zhimata still be the appropriate term for a lover?

Depending on how serious the relationship is, it could be!

Waiyau might be more appropriate for a very long-term partner, Tenakshata (as noted in the previous post) would be specifically a sexual relationship without necessarily emotional attachment.

Since sex is de-emphasized in Vorta relationships, a relationship can be framed several different ways regardless of whether or not it includes sex. Even zhimata *could* denote a relationship where sex occurs (though it's definitely not assumed).

As for what a Vorta might call their partner in bed, I think there'd be a lot of options depending on the relationship and the the individual! I'll have to put together a list! Keep an eye out -- I'll post here when I have time to put something more extensive together for this.

dominionese-resource

Do vorta have any terms for family? (brother, mother, cousin, and the like?)

The Vorta have a somewhat different concept of family than sexually-reproducing species, but there are words for many types of relationships.

Other Species

The most direct equivalents of our familial terms are those used for species who reproduce sexually. Notice that they all contain the word ma, which is the root of mayon (sexual reproduction), and literally means, “chance”.

mayauta - parent, “person who reproduced sexually”

onama - child, “one born by chance [as opposed to by design]”

marota - relative, “person united [to the subject] by chance”

Because of the wide range of familial structures, anything more specific will generally use a loan-word from that species, or the closest equivalent lineal, familial, or personal relationship (see below).

Lineal Relationships

The relationships between clones of the same individual. As the Vorta reproduce via cloning, they don’t really have a concept of blood-relation, however they view their lineal relationships somewhat like we might view our own ancestry.

The Vorta concept of individuality is somewhat slippery. Lineal relatives are simultaneously viewed as distinct individuals and extensions or aspects of the self – Think less individual than the Trill, and more individual than the Founders.

senvaromai - line, ancestry; lit. “the first through the last”.

omata - clone; a general, all-purpose word for any iteration of an individual line.

omon - successor

taimon - predecessor

ometa - immediate successor

karon - immediate predecessor

zharon - progenitor; the first Vorta in a line.

Familial Relationships

Although the Vorta do not technically have families, the relationships formed through the process of a progenitor’s or, to a lesser extent, a clone’s birth have a similar significance.

onarota - birth-partner, lit. “person of the birth-union”; a Vorta who’s first iteration was activated at the same time as another, similar to a sibling. The first individuals in a line are always activated in groups of 2-5 to promote socialization. Onaro is a very special bond.

onauta - activator; a person who designs, activates, and cares for the first iteration of a new Vorta. As the first Vorta in a line will often spend several years with their onauta as they complete education and training, this relationship is similar to a parent.

onashuro - activator; a person who activates a new clone, similar in closeness to an aunt or uncle.

Personal Relationships

The Vorta do not distinguish between platonic and romantic relationships, and these terms are not considered exclusive. If you try to explain monogamy or the difference between friendship and romance to a Vorta, all you will get is a confused Vorta.

Additionally, whether or not a relationship has a sexual component is generally considered irrelevant to its closeness. Physical intimacy is not considered inherently sexual. In fact, if a Vorta refuses to touch you or allow you to touch them, it’s a fairly good sign that they strongly dislike you.

Personal relationships mostly exist between individuals living on Kurill Prime or in large scientific and diplomatic installations, where many individuals live and work together. Since Vorta in the field are usually the solitary member of their species in a company, they do not usually form these relationships, although some individuals have been known to form attachments to members of other species.

waiyau/waiyauta - close friend or partner; lit. “trusted”. The closest and most emotionally intimate relationship, even more significant than onaro (Although the two relationships may co-occur). In an entire line, a Vorta might have only a handful of those considered waiyautar. When speaking about other species, this would usually refer to a long-term relationship or marriage.

zhimata - friend or lover; lit. “bed-mate”. Not always literal, but communal sleeping is common among Vorta. This would be a good friend, someone you know well.

There are several words for physical and emotional intimacy.

shuwaro - nonsexual physical intimacy, lit. “union of touch”. Verb form is shuwaru.

tenaksha - sex, lit. “uniting touch”. Verb form is tenakshu.

zhimataro - emotional and/or physical intimacy, friendship. Lit. “bed-union”. Verb form is zhimataru.

shushaiya - close emotional or mental intimacy. Lit. “mental/psychic touch”. Verb form is shushaiyu.

waiyaro - complete intimacy; the emotional and/or physical intimacy between waiyautar.

dominionese-resource

Reblogging for more context on Vorta relationships re: the previous post.

Also adding that from this, we can extrapolate that tenakshata would indicate a sexual relationship without emotional intimacy, and thus would be a good Dominionese equivalent for "fuck buddy", just in case anyone needed a word for that.

Do you maybe have the equivalent of a Vorta calling another Vorta “little brother/sister” - not in a way that denotes genetic connection or even being raised together, just a term of similar endearment/closeness to that phrase.

I would use zhimata in this instance -- in a culture without family ties, there isn't really an exact equivalent, but zhimata has a similarly platonic-affectionate connotation. Zhimata, in most contexts, is more intimate than "friend", so I think it fits as an equivalent. Context matters a lot in this case, since zhimata can be used pretty disingenuously, as well.

(less a translation request, more a lore/worldbuilding discussion) do you think there are any vortatha that the vorta might use as steeds?

I'm not good at drawing animals, so I've created some megafauna nightmare fuel.

Hatchi - a large omnivore native to the region of Kourahamar. They are very good at navigating the heavily-forested mountainous terrain, so were domesticated as pack animals. With improvements in transporter technology, they became largely unnecessary, but are still ridden on occasion.

Bless you for this resource, but I have an important translation that I need for very important reasons: Is butter a carb?

Zhiya mazhe kin'selam me?

"Is butter a carb?"

Zhiya mazhe - butter, lit. "Old milk"

kin'selam - carbohydrate

me - question indicator

dominionese-resource

hi, could you please give me a translation for "little eater of garbage?" :) also, would the phrase "little one" just be "senshiy?" I'm uncertain if the *number* one carries exactly the same meaning in that case.

Omatchitalyabi - little garbage eater

From:

Omatchi - garbage, refuse, waste (from om- - after, tchaiyu - to use)

Talyu - to eat

-bi - diminutive suffix

As far as "little one", you probably wouldn't use "sen", but there are a few options:

Shiyda - lit. "little thing".

Shiysa - more affectionate/cutesy version.

Or we can use that diminutive suffix, ie. name+bi. This is...really syrupy and would be border on disrespectful/condescending depending on the relationship between the subject and speaker.

stay-neurotic

considering the subject is a roomba, i think it would be acceptable

dominionese-resource

Absolutely! Vorta aren't typically allowed close interpersonal relationships, so they tend to heavily anthropomorphize and imprint on objects. Using -bi with a person's name is a bit uncomfy, but an object? Perfectly acceptable.

I was wondering how you would express hope/wish. For example:

I wish to help

I wish to be of use to you

I wish you were coming too

I wish I could see what was in your mind

Or

I hope you're right

I hope that everything went alright

I hope they escaped

I was hoping you knew

This is a great example of when to use the ba-form! Apart from politely expressing imperatives, the ba-form is used to express hopes or wishes. The trick is to figure out what the subject of the sentence is once you remove the "I hope/wish".

So your examples might be constructed:

Basha yatama

"I wish to help."

Basha senne umetama.

"I wish to be of use to you." (I used "to serve" here)

Basen fa akama.

"I wish you were coming too." (Sen, "you" is the subject here)

Basha isar senne yada.

"I wish I could see what was in your mind."

Basen senkai.

"I hope you're right."

Ba'aida maiyau.

"I hope everything went alright."

Bahato teiyalau.

"I hope they escaped."

Basen irada.

"I was hoping you knew."

hi, could you please give me a translation for "little eater of garbage?" :) also, would the phrase "little one" just be "senshiy?" I'm uncertain if the *number* one carries exactly the same meaning in that case.

Omatchitalyabi - little garbage eater

From:

Omatchi - garbage, refuse, waste (from om- - after, tchaiyu - to use)

Talyu - to eat

-bi - diminutive suffix

As far as "little one", you probably wouldn't use "sen", but there are a few options:

Shiyda - lit. "little thing".

Shiysa - more affectionate/cutesy version.

Or we can use that diminutive suffix, ie. name+bi. This is...really syrupy and would be border on disrespectful/condescending depending on the relationship between the subject and speaker.

dominionese-resource

could I get an "I hate Ferengi"?

Since species and planet names are cognates based on whichever language they enter the lexicon from, the word we use for "Ferengi" could be any number of things. For simplicity's sake (and since I'm not sure what the Ferengi word for Ferengi is), let's assume Dominionese picked up FSE "Ferengi" or something reasonably close to it. Daimei vortawa doesn't use the "g" sound (in theory -- in practice it's more complicated, but that's a lesson for another day), so we'd get something like feirenkita.

Feirenkita kaiyta.

Or, if you want to be emphatic about it, we can morph that ka into a qa:

Feirenkita qaiyta.

dominionese-resource

Oops -- this is why I shouldn't answer asks while I'm at work and distracted. That's feirenkitar. Or feirenkitai if you want to make it clear that you hate all Ferengi, without exception.

Hello!! As a linguist I'm curious (and apologies if you've covered this before but my search came up empty) do you have a phonology worked out? And if so could you show us some interesting things? I saw you mention there's no <g> (but there were exceptions) and I'm wondering if this meant that there are allophones that surface as g? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just very enthusiastic about languages hahaha, keep up the good work!!

I'm not going to have a very satisfying answer to this -- I'm not a linguist by any stretch of the imagination. My only exposure to the IPA was as a voice major in college, which uses a simplified version. Other than that, I've had classes in several languages for varying amounts of time -- basically I have just enough exposure to languages other than English to have a feel for sounds.

So the result is that Dominionese definitely has a specific set of sounds that it uses, but I'll be damned if I could transcribe them in any technically accurate way.

As for <g>, it depends on the speaker! Daimei Vortawa has a very clearly unvoiced <k> sound. That same letter in hadawa sometimes comes out closer to <g>. Same with "tch" being closer to a "j" sound in hadawa (which is why tchem'hadar is rendered "Jem'Hadar").

Could we get some more emotion words - like jealous, sad, confused, furious, elated, etc?

Senauna - lonely

Thana - sad/melancholy

Aina - delighted/ecstatic

Baqam - devastated

Einam - tired

Heizhai - pleased

Ikam - furious

Kanam - depressed

Kizhan - excited

Selan - satisfied

Wazhuran - sad/mourning

Qanazho - confused

Aimalan - jealous

could I get an "I hate Ferengi"?

Since species and planet names are cognates based on whichever language they enter the lexicon from, the word we use for "Ferengi" could be any number of things. For simplicity's sake (and since I'm not sure what the Ferengi word for Ferengi is), let's assume Dominionese picked up FSE "Ferengi" or something reasonably close to it. Daimei vortawa doesn't use the "g" sound (in theory -- in practice it's more complicated, but that's a lesson for another day), so we'd get something like feirenkita.

Feirenkita kaiyta.

Or, if you want to be emphatic about it, we can morph that ka into a qa:

Feirenkita qaiyta.

Is there a word for gods/deities separate from the word for “Founders”, such that a Vorta might use if speaking about some other society’s religion? In the scene where Damar compares Weyoun’s worship of the Founders to the Bajoran worship of the Prophets/wormhole aliens and Weyoun objects “that’s different because the Founders /are/ gods”, how does that sentence break down in Dominionese?

Kourai, kourair

Derived from koura "high" and rai, an archaic pre-Dominion word referring to spirits that governed the seasons (modern rai just means "season").

As for the sentence, iirc it was split up, so we would have:

Kizhen da.

"That's different."

Kourair-hizhai weiyaitar tenor.

"Because the Founders are (real) gods."

I think hizhai (real, true) is necessary for the meaning to come across, given the lack of a copula in vortawa. If "gods" had been stressed instead of "are", hizhai could be omitted without losing the meaning.

A tangential fun fact -- weiyaita means "person of the source of everything". The "source of everything" is weiyai, which is the word for "space". The original meaning of the word for "Founders" essentially means "space people". I imagine that it was a fairly neutral, scientific word that got tied up with a whole lot of woo at some point. Because weiyaita got much more specific some time before the founding of the Dominion, modern vortawa uses kalanta, "stranger/foreigner" for alien species.

Since we've been getting a little more hadawa going on on here, some pronoun equivalents:

Eng.: I

Vor.: Sha (informal), Li (very formal/deferent)

Ha.: Da

Eng.: You

Vor.: Sen

Ha.: De (familiar/intimate), Ta (formal/deferent)

Eng.: He/She/it

Vor.: Ha/Ha/Da (no gender distinction in pronouns, sometimes "da" is used for inferiors or other species)

Ha.: Da (context dependent -- names or ranks are used more frequently, or da- can be attached to a descriptor, ie. dakravsh'ro "he, the Commander".)

Eng.: We

Vor.: Li (exlusive), Shato (inclusive)

Ha.: Dar

Eng.: You (plural)

Vor.: Sento

Ha.: Dat

Eng.: Divine pronoun (referring to Founders)

Vor.: Ai

Ha.: Ai

(note: since I'm on mobile, I can't easily double check these against my lexicon and notes, so I may adjust later if I find a mistake.)

dominionese-resource

How about "you are mine/you belong to me"?

Two options:

Sen shan.

Closer to "you're mine", but doesn't carry a particularly dark or possessive context.

Sen kaiyra.

"I possess/own you". This is a pretty intense phrase by contrast.

dominionese-resource

Oh, and hadawa equivalents:

De dan.

De kaiyr.

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