One of the things I want to revisit on this blog is the phonetics of Drowic, and before I rehashed my old ideas, I wanted to look at the actual alphabet that would actually turn those phonemes into language. I was typing up my thoughts to try to put together some kind of coherent justification for the Drowic alphabet I’ve come up with, and it started to get very… very long. At the risk of front-loading all of my rambling and bogging the whole post down, I have decided to skip to the fun part and put all the hows and why’s under a cut for your optional perusal.
And so, I give you… the Drowic alphabet!
Now, about that rambling...
Most followers of this blog will be familiar with the fan script “Drow Rounded” and its variants. It’s definitely become a popular alphabet, since it comes with a downloadable font and is distinct from other forms of elvish. I myself have used this alphabet in the past (you can even see it in the blog header). I don’t mean to dissuade anyone from using it, and I doubt this post will have any impact on its prevalence, but I do want to talk about it and it’s origins, and why I want to rehash the Drowic alphabet, rather than using the widely accepted fan alphabet.
The origins of the alphabet itself are a bit more murky than I would like, but I’ve done a fair amount of digging. The original “Drow Rounded” font was created in 2002 by Daniel U. Thibault for use with a Elven Kingdom of Arèthane roleplaying group.
If you are unfamiliar, as I was, Arèthane and its various related realms are a homebrew world derived from the Palladium Fantasy RPG System, borrowing various lore from sources, including AD&D, which is how we get drow in the mix.
Not that I am personally a lore purist, but from my initial research, I fail to find any discernible link between the alphabet created for the EKA and any canonical language published as part of any D&D lore, regardless of setting. So while I will humbly acknowledge the “Drow Rounded” alphabet for its prominence (if not provenance) and won’t discourage anyone from using it, I won’t be using it as one of my references with regards to developing a Drowic alphabet for the purposes of this project.
So where does that put us?
Dungeons and Dragons, as far as I am able to discern, has never created an official Drowic alphabet distinct from other Elvish alphabets. Drow are, much to their own chagrin, still elves, and are descended from cultures which shared language and writing systems with surface elves. I want to start there and see if I can’t work my way towards something which feels distinct enough from the various Elvish alphabets while still sharing a common root. To do that… we need to talk about Espruar…
The various creators who have worked on Dungeons and Dragons over the years have not always reached a consensus on lore prior to publishing (understatement of the year?). There are, from what I can tell, three distinct “Elvish” alphabets. Two of them are explicitly referred to as Espruar, which is recognized as the name of the Elvish alphabet in the Forgotten Realms setting. The third is one which was published in the 2014 5E PHB which is labeled “Elvish Script: Sample Alphabet.” There are other Elvish scripts employed throughout various art and other materials, but these are the three I want to look at the most.
As it has seniority, let’s first look at the example we have from the AD&D (1E) Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Box Set (page 8), which I will refer to as “Runic Espruar.” I find this alphabet to be… busy. It doesn’t come across to me as an efficient alphabet (perhaps if it was a more logographic writing system?) and it seems like it would take anyone an annoyingly long time to write letters like A, Q, and S. It also lacks that… je ne sais quoi – that elegance we expect from an Elvish script (thanks largely to a certain John Ronald Reuel). I think this might be an alphabet that was developed in very early elven history – the Cuneiform of Elvish. I don’t tend to think that this is the alphabet used by any modern elvish society, but could still possibly be something found in ancient lost ruins forgotten by time.
Next, we’ll look at the example we have from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting manual from 3.5E (page 86), which I will refer to as “Angular Espruar.” Take anything I have to say about this variant with a grain of salt because I’ll admit… I don’t like it. I find it to be very sharp with long, hard lines which gives it a similar feel to languages like Dovah and Daedric from The Elder Scrolls, or Draconic and Dwarven (see also 1E Dethek) from other D&D sources. It does function much better as a written alphabet than Runic Espruar, and comes a little closer to the elegance we would expect, but misses the mark in my opinion. It also does not seem to resemble Runic Espruar in any discernible way… it really does look like it takes greater influence from 1E Dethek. This could reasonably be a writing system developed in the early days of elven contact with other racial groups. The need to communicate quickly and concisely would be emphasized when dealing with shorter-lived races, so a more efficient writing system may have been developed to facilitate such communication. It could also have been influenced by alphabets used by other races (though I’m already far afield enough as it is, I won’t go spelunking quite that deep).
(Click here for a more in-depth fan guide on 3.5E Espruar)
Finally that leads us to the 2014 5E Players Handbook (page 123) “Elvish Script: Sample Alphabet” (ESSA) which is decidedly not Espruar, as the SRD & PHB for 5E are largely campaign setting agnostic. It does, however, contain many of the aspects of an Elvish script I’ve personally come to expect and appreciate, the elegance, shapeliness, and flow of the letters. I want my Drowic alphabet to be something somewhat akin to this in feel.
So where does that bring us? I think the best place to start with a Drowic script is likely something with common characters or shapes to Angular Espruar, but with an even more concise, efficient script which has diverged from old Espruar (possibly a common ancestral alphabet we don’t have examples from) after the drow descended into the Underdark. There were a few goals I wanted to accomplish while working on this alphabet. First, I wanted the characters to seem unique enough from one another that they’re not frustrating to try and distinguish (a personal problem I have with “Drow Rounded”). Second, I wanted to try and recapture the elegance of a more Tolkienesque Elvish script without actually taking more than vibes-based inspiration from Tengwar. Third, I wanted to make a script that was a script, as in words could be written in a single stroke without lifting one’s pen (something none of my extant references do, which provided a unique challenge for me). Lastly, I wanted to make a usable font which could be shared and downloaded for anyone to use (this last piece, I’m still working on, but keep your eyes open for that in the future). There may still be some tweaks to the script in the future as I work on getting a font made, but I hope you find it interesting in the meantime.
As a proof of concept, but also for fun, I wrote the name of one of my drow characters in the Drowic script.
Also, because this sort of thing didn't even exist when I started this blog a decade ago... I do not use any AI in any part of my creative process. Please do not use any part of this blog for AI training purposes.
As one may surmise from very dusty time-stamps from my previous posts, I have not been active on this blog for some time. In recent years my passions have meandered elsewhere, and I had gotten some nasty messages about it. I was discouraged and my interest in sharing my work dried up before my interest in drow culture and language did. Then the passion laid dormant for nigh on five years!
It is not beyond my notice that in recent months, the blog has been slowly gaining traction, through no input on my part. I'm delighted by all the recent activity, and that people hare still interested in following this blog even knowing it hasn't been properly updated since 2017. That being said, a lot has happened since then! I occasionally look back at the posts being reblogged and cringe, not out of distaste for the work itself, but because I know now that I could give you so much better!
And I plan to!
I'm currently very close to my exam date for professional licensing in my field, and there is a lot of pent up creativity sloshing around in my head. As is the nature of passion, my interest in drow has returned sharply in the past months, simmering underneath a pile of academia. I have so much I want to work on, especially where this blog is concerned!
I'll preface this with the caveat that while I plan on making changes to some of the material I had produced previously, I do not intend to delete any old content off this blog. I may mark older posts as "archival" and edit in links to updated versions, but I won't be purging the blog. I'll list out changes and additions I'd like to make in the near future, and if any of those things sound more interesting than the others, let me know and I can prioritize based on community interest!
Future Changes/Updates:
Drowic phonetics/pronunciation guide
Drow alphabet/script (possibly a TTF file?)
Expansions to the dictionary, focusing on various categories of interest
Expansions on optional lore/setting/culture (I'd like to add more "encyclopedia" to the "Encyclopedia Drowica" and I have a stockpile of what one might call "homebrew" drow culture and lore that might interest some people)
It will be a couple weeks still before I can add any updates in earnest, but good things come to those who wait. This is also a good time to send your feedback if there's anything you'd like to see moving forward or would like to see clarified or changed.
This is all I have for now, but keep your eyes open for updates in the near future!
The list is mostly derived from the Forgotten Realms Wiki, though I have closely read through several of the LoD books, this is an undertaking I have only started several months ago and I haven’t had time to comb through all available source material. If, while reading this list, you find any missing items and are able to provide a citation I’ll gladly accept additional words but for the time being the list is considered to be complete.
A few words are marked with an asterisk to indicate that, while they are considered to be “Drow” words by several sources, these words are either translations or words direct from Common which reasonably should have a Drowic equivalent. These words I intend to look closely at when I provide an expansion on this list in the near future.
All canonical Drow words and phrases listed below the cut.
I’m looking at this and a couple things jump out at me immediately.
“ss”, “gg”, “bb”, “nn”, and likely “mm” are all separate phonemes from “s”, “g”, “b”, “n”, and likely “m”. “sz” and “lh”, “zh”, possibly “dh” and certainly “th” may well be digraphs representing separate phonemes as well. one wonders if the apostrophes everywhere aren’t ejectives or clicks, but marks that indicate the two letters or sounds do not “mix”, “l” doesn’t palatize, “z'h” is a sequence of two sounds instead of the likely fricative “zh”, etc.
“l” is treated as a vowel/syllabic resonant in certain cases(consider the plural of “gol” -> “goln” and possibly “alurlssrin”, but since “ss” is likely a single sound, this is prefectly explainable if Drow allows for CVCC and CCVC syllables to abut, then it’s just two clusters of two consonants in a perfectly permissible order, but consider the next point:)
with “rivvil” pluralizing to “rivvin”, it really seems like “l” is more of a /ʎ/ (palatal lateral approximate) (at least, when folowing “i”) that readily turns to /j/ or even /i/ or /ɪ/ in certain environments, and I think “-iln” -> “-in” while “-oln” -> “-oln” because /o/ is different enough to not cause assimilation–or the assimilation is to a velar or “dark” “l”, where as /i/ is—the only thing to explain here is why there’s no lenthening of the vowel. Perhapse it’s levelling, or perhaps it was originally lengthened, but has since been shortened, either by analogy with words with similar l-n alternation, or through a regular sound change
The data is too sparse to be certain, but it looks like there’s several different types of verbal nouns that get mapped onto the English infinitive. We have verbal nouns that end in a vowel or diphthong, like “blautha” and “belbau”—and “bautha” could well be a derived verb, since “blauth” is an adverb (or perhaps the adverb is derived? which would be more “normal”, I guess?), “belbau” also shows an interesting alternation with “belbol” a noun meaning gift—possibly derived from a verbal noun in the Perfect(ive)?
But we also have so many more verbal nouns that end in bare consonants, like they’re root verbs, which then have further nouns and adjectives derived from them–and some quite complicated!
we have “elgg” (death, but also “to kill, to destroy”) -> “elginn” (“death”, possibly an oblique case if Drow does cases, but it might also be plural? But idk if other digraph stems get a digraph plural), and “kyorl” (“to watch”) -> “kyorlin” (“watching, guarding”); there’s also “zhaun” (“to learn, to know”) -> “zhaunil” (“learning, knowledge, wisdom”)
But we also have the sequence “xun” (“to accomplish”, “to work”) -> “xund” (“effort”, “striving”, “work”) -> “xundus” (“an achievement”, “a completed work”), which is partially replicated in “z'hin” (“to walk”) -> “z'hind” (“an expedition”, “a journey”)
this indicates a pretty complicated verbal, or at least derivational, system!
we see at least three, possibly four or more, types of plurals:
1. brorn -> brorna, rath -> ratha
2. gol -> goln, ilharess -> ilharessen, rivvil -> rivvin, kulg -> kulggen, haszak -> haszakkin
3. orb -> orbb
4. lhorb -> lhorbbyth
if you look, you can see one of those plurals is actually a singular noun! “kulg” is a blockage or snare, while “kulggen” is a rampart or shield—it’s pretty obviously that the plural got treated as a collective noun and then acquired singulative meaning. We see the plural suffix is “-n”, “in”, or “en” depending on the preceding syllable, except in some places, like “kulg” -> “kulggen”, where the “u” makes me expect “kulggin”.
We can see that certain consonants become digraphs in the plural, as in “haszak” -> haszakkin" and “kulg” -> “kulggen”, and “orb” -> “orbb”, but ether a different plural suffix was used and subsequently eroded by regular sound change, or the normal plural was added then filed off by an extremely specific sound change, bc b -> bb is an extremely unexpected plural, especially since it’s derived term “lhorb” exhibits what appears to be another plural ending (or maybe it’s a suffix meaning something else!) in “-yth”
I can pick out an augmentative suffix “-ess” changing “ilhar” to “ilharess”, and more interestingly, the “-ar” that changed “elend” (“usual”, “traditional”) to “elendar” (“continued/continuing”, “enduring”) which, wow, what even is that.
The list is mostly derived from the Forgotten Realms Wiki, though I have closely read through several of the LoD books, this is an undertaking I have only started several months ago and I haven’t had time to comb through all available source material. If, while reading this list, you find any missing items and are able to provide a citation I’ll gladly accept additional words but for the time being the list is considered to be complete.
A few words are marked with an asterisk to indicate that, while they are considered to be “Drow” words by several sources, these words are either translations or words direct from Common which reasonably should have a Drowic equivalent. These words I intend to look closely at when I provide an expansion on this list in the near future.
All canonical Drow words and phrases listed below the cut.
Abban – ally, not-enemy
Abbil – comrade, "trusted" friend
Akh – band, group
Alur – better, superior
Alurl – best, foremost
Alust – forward-facing, in front of, in the forefront
Aluve – i/we leave you
Asanque – likewise, of course, as you wish
Avinsin – doomed
Bae'qeshel – a rare type of drow bardic magic
Bauth – around, about
Bautha – dodge, to dodge
Belaern – wealth, coinage, treasure, profit
Belbau – to give
Belbol – gift
Bol – unknown, unidentified, mysterious or important
Brorn – surprise
Brorna – surprises
C'rintri – noble drow
Cahallin – produce or harvest, including raid-spoils, but not hunted game or cooking
Colbauth – path, known way
Colnbluth – outsider, non-drow
Crinti – high ones
Dal – from (sometimes shortened to da')
Darthiir – surface elf/elves
Del – of (sometimes shortened to d' or de')
Dobluth – outcast
Doeb – out
Dos – you
Dosst – yours
Dosstan – yourself
Draa – two
Draada – second
Dragazhar – underdark bat
*Drider – half–spider/half-drow abomination
Dro – life, alive
Duk–tak – unholy executioner
*Duergar – deep dwarf/dwarves
Duvall – secret adviser
Elamshin – destiny, the will of Lolth
Elend – usual or traditional
Elendar – continue, continued, continuing or enduring
Elgg – death, destroy, kill or slay
Elgg–hor – the destroyer
Elgghinn – death
Faer – magic
Faerbol – magical item
*Faerie – translation of a term used to refer to a surface elf
Faerl – magical
Faern – magic worker or wizard
Gee'antu – Underdark tarantula
Gol – goblin
Golhyrr – ruse, trap or trick
Golhyrrl' fhaazht – The Dream Trap, strange nightmare dreams given out by the giant fungus Araumycos involving the comfort of the mass and the hopeless chaos of individuality
Harl – down, under or below
Harl'il'cik – kneel
Haszak – illithid
Honglath – bravery, calm, clear thinking or good behavior
Iblith – offal, excrement, often used when referring to humans as well as other non-drow races. Can be used as an insult
Ilhar – mother, also to mother as in to give birth but not to raise young
Ilharess – matron mother
Ilharn – patron
Ilindith – aim, goal or hoped for event
Illiyitrii – a formal dance sometimes involving costumes
Ilythiiri – drow
Inth – plan, scheme or stratagem
Inthigg – agreement or treaty
Izil – as
Jabbuk – master, a man who holds an office of power
Jal – all
Jivvin – to play; to play a game, or have other amusement or fun
Jivvin quui'elghinn – torture until death, apparently a cynical distortion of the term for fun
Khal'abbil – my trusted comrade
Khaless - meaning trust or a drow game called Khaless. Because trust is so lacking in drow society, it is often used in an ironic sense to mean misplaced trust
Khazid'hea – to cut
Kolsen'shea orbb – to pull the legs off a spider, an arcane phrase and idiom
Tonight and possibly tomorrow I will be working on composing the list of canonical words and phrases. Following that I will likely be posting a minor expansion on that list including mostly derivative words and some analysis of root words.
This weekend I'll have a real treat in store. I'll start working on a basic approach to drow hand code, beginning with signs for basic D&D races and classes.
At this point in time I'd like to invite my followers to send asks or submissions for specific D&D specific words you would like to see (perhaps an obscure playable race, a spell, or monster). I will also be able to provide names for individual characters in drow hand code.
If you would like to have your character given a name in hand code please use either the ask box, submission box, or private messaging to send me your character's name and a brief description of their physical and personality attributes (feel free to also link a picture of your character as it may get included in the video).
Submissions will be open through Saturday morning, but once I make the video I won't be taking new name submissions until the next time I revisit drow hand code.
Now with the formalities out of the way, let’s call people bad names! I have a big list, and I’ve subdivided it into two categories: general insults, and sexual insults. As with previous lists anything taken from canon material is indicated in italics. Credit to @vampyrrhicvictory for phrases indicated with an *.
Content warning! This list contains words and phrases for vulgar sexual acts as well as rape. These acts themselves are not described, but there are translations provided. Each section is clearly marked, and sexual content is in the bottom portion. Please be careful if you are sensitive to these subjects, because while it is not my intent to harm anyone, these translations are an honest attempt at capturing the violent and misandrist nature of Drow society.
Proceed with due caution.
General Insults:
Aobren – Ugly
Bluth – Shit (n)
Bluth eluur – Shit stain
Bluth railok! – Bullshit! lit. “Petrified shit!”
Bluth yan! – Piece of shit! Lit. "Shit shard!"
Bluthe – To shit (v)
Cavvekan – A bat-faced dog
Enauzul – A snitch or informant
Gelir – Dirty
Harkkan – Dog-mother, lit. "mother cur"
Harkkanir – Dog-mothered, lit. "mothered-cur"
Harussin – Inbred lit. "Same mother"
Iblith – Excrement, ofal, carrion (insulting but in a formal and pretentious way, there is an aspect of finality or certainty to it, to call someone iblith is to say that they are actually excrement)
Kkan – Mutt or cur
Kkanharnir – Dog-fathered, lit. "Cur fathered"
Ponan xund – Loin cloth work, specifically men's work, this includes menial tasks considered too tedious for women to bother with, such as housekeeping, food preparation, and childcare
Prii – Ass
Priiolen – Asshole lit. “ass cavern”
Priiwael – Dumbass lit. “Ass fool”
Ruura gol – Very ugly lit. “goblin faced”
Talingol – Idiot lit. “goblin brain”
Ulwael – Supreme fool (a “polite” way to call someone a dumbass)
Inbau/belbau eeol – (slang) Cunnilingus, lit. to receive/give tongue
Lasuk – Penis (casual)
Laxiisuk – Penis (formal/medical)
Myven – To rape or the act of rape
Ponanaal – To rudely lift a man's loin cloth to see what's underneath, to upskirt
Ssinuk – Prostitute, lit. “pretty boy”
Ssrigg – Sex (more common/casual), or to have sex
Tet – Whore (derogatory term for a man who has a lot of sex, specifically a man who does the work of a prostitute but does not get paid)
Tetil – Lady-whore (a less derogatory term for a woman who has a lot of sex)
Valissrigg – Sexual intercourse (formal and/or medical-sounding), or to have sexual intercourse esp. for procreative purposes
*Velvuk – "Little dagger" in reference to the small daggers poor boys are known to carry under their loin cloths (this being the only clothing or weapon they can afford). It is taken to mean "little prick" and can be used to insult the size of the target's penis, or to call him a an uppity little annoyance.
Sexual Phrases and Idioms:
“Belbau il dosa dakk” – (slang) to have sex for procreation, lit. “To give her your purse”
“Enau dakk” – (slang) a man who is impotent or coming from common or low stock, not worth breeding, lit. “empty purse”
“Enau dosa dakk” – (slang) to ejaculate, lit. “to empty your purse”
*“Hal pholor ninta velvuk” – lit. “To sit on one's own dagger” a euphemism for sitting on one's own penis, is a slang idiom meaning to get get worked up or upset over something that is either not a big deal or one's own fault to begin with.
“Laliian wund usstana hassin!” – (vulgar) Shut up! lit. “[you] speak into my pussy!”
“Plynn uka dakk” – “To take his purse” (slang) 1) to receive sperm during sex for procreative purposes, 2) to grab a man by his genitals (usually this is intended as punishment or to show superiority), 3) to rape a man
*“Talinthe xie inbau uka harvlos, jhal xie gran na velvuk wun uka dakk!” – “He thinks he has got his period but he's got a dagger in his purse” – He thinks he's a hotshot but he's just an uppity little prick.
“Velve zid'heagra” – Adamantine dagger, (slang) good/satisfying/attractive dick
*“Xie gran na velvuk wun uka dakk!” – He’s upset over nothing, or something that is his own fault, lit. “He’s got a dagger in his purse” meaning “He’s sat on his own dick.”
I’ve compiled a list of insults and vulgarity. I hope everyone is pleased. But before I get into that I’ll be dropping a list of words (some from canon, some not) that helped me build the list of insults and may be important for understanding some of the idioms I’ve included.
See below the cut for some general use words that are soon to be helpful.
Belbau – to give
Cassharl – To dig or mine
D'haruk – Son (informal)
Dalharuk – Son (formal) lit. male from mother
Eeol – Tongue (in your mouth)
Eluur – To stain either intentionally as in to dye fabric, or unintentionally
Eluurir – Stained
Enau – (verb) to empty, clean out, or dump out, or (adjective) empty
Eolla – To taste
Erz'an – to slip and fall
Fen – With
Gran – to get or to have
Hal – to sit
Harl – Under, below, beneath
Iizul – Information
‡ Inbau – to get or receive
Kyn – To see
Kyna – Eye
Lalii – to speak
Luafa – Nose
Luf – To smell
Na – a (a more common form of natha, which is formal and somewhat archaic)
Naal – to lift
Olen – A narrow side passageway through a cavern
Oloth – Darkness
Olotharl – Underdark
Orbb – Spider
Orbbcress – Spider web
Ponan – A man's loin cloth, a common garment among mid-to-lower class and especially poor men.
Qu'eloryn – spider silk
Railok – Petrified or fossilized
Rathrae – Behind (adjective)
Ruura – Face (noun)
Talinan – Brain
Talinth – Think
Ussin – same or identical
Veldrin – Shadows, concealment afforded by varying light
Velkyn – Unseen, hidden, or invisible
Velzul – Secrets
Warn – To hear
Warna – Ear
Wun – In
Wund – Into
Xun – to do or complete
Xund – work or effort (noun)
Yan – piece, fragment, or shard
Zid'heagra – Adamantine
[Note items taken from canonical source material are indicated in italics while items re-used from the Grey Company are indicated with italics and a “‡” symbol]
I've been working on a few different sets of stuff for this blog and wanted to know what everyone is more interested in as far as what they want to see next (I'll be posting it all eventually, this is just me getting a feel for what to prioritize). I'll list off my current endeavors, and you can reply or reblog to let me know what you're most interested in.
1) Some more supplementary grammar, reflexive verbs, cases, pluralization, and possession
2) Compiling a list of canonical words and phrases organized alphabetically and by part of speech
3) Expanding on some more cultural concepts, specifically food and holidays
4) Vulgar slang and curse words (specifically since I recall @shaydh had talked about wanting some)
“Tlu” is the verb “to be” and is one of the few wildly irregular verbs in Drowic. The best option for the proper use of “tlu” is to memorize its many forms.
Passive voice is used to show that an action is done to someone by an unspecified source. In order to conjugate the passive voice, much like with the future tense, we leave the predicate verb in the infinitive form and conjugate the verb “tlu” (to be). Verbs can be used like adjectives in this case when they are describing an ongoing effect or action whether present past or future by adding the verb suffix “ir” such that the passive voice can be completed as follows:
These structures continue to hold true in the past and future passive tense.
And so on.
Complex verb conjugation continues below the cut.
The auxiliary verb “xi” (to have [done something]) is related to the verb “xun” (to do or complete) and is not to be confused with “*gran” (to have or possess). To conjugate verbs in the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect, use the verb “xi”as follows.
Finally, progressive tense functions very much the same way that the passive voice is completed using the verb suffix “ir”. In order to make a verb progressive or ongoing, the verb should be preceded by the appropriate conjugation of “tlu” (to be) followed by the verb in the infinitive with the verb suffix “in”.
This follows similarly for past and future progressive tenses.
Verb conjugation is an important part of any conlang, and while I think the Grey Company did a decent job establishing some verb conjugation, I don't think it's organized or structured in a concise manner that would otherwise make verb conjugation easier. There are also plenty of places in which canonical Drowic disobeys its own rules or seems not to have rules regarding verb conjugation. This is a symptom of the ailment I'm trying to cure which is that Drowic is currently not a proper conlang but a hack-job of a re-lexicalization.
Starting with the basics the way we say verbs changes depending on the conditions or the aspects of the actions they describe, but in their most basic form (i.e. “to _”) verbs are considered to be in the infinitive. For the purposes of establishing proper conjugation we will be working mostly with a regular verb “luth” meaning “cast” or “throw”.
First we will establish person, how the verb changes as the subject that is performing it changes. While in Common (i.e. English) we only change the verb conjugation for she/he/it/they (singular), in many other languages (most notably Latin root languages) the verb conjugation changes with every different case of person. This has the added bonus of simplifying the spoken verb such that one could say a verb without the subject simply because the subject is implied within the verb itself.
Also unlike English or even Latin root languages, some languages (such as Hawaiian, Lakota, Mandarin, and Tagalog) have a concept called clusivity, or the aspect of including or excluding the addressed party when using “we” as in “we _ together” versus “we _ but not you”. I chose to establish verb conjugation like this in order to make Drowic more functionally efficient to speak.
Simple verb conjugation continues under the cut.
Some verbs are irregular, specifically ones that end in any of the personal suffixes “a” or “e” such as “bautha” (to dodge), and “thalra” (to meet). In these special cases, the vowel is re-enunciated, and this is shown visually with an apostrophe, as follows.
Our next step is to address simple verb tenses other than present tense, namely past and future tense. These both cause the verb suffix to change in different ways, but for regular verbs, like “luth” the formula remains very similar for past tense verbs.
Things get a bit more complex in the future tense. Similar to English, in Drowic the predicate verb is not conjugated as the subject changes, however unlike English, the word “will” is treated as a verb and thus conjugated in the present tense. The verb “orn” (will) is taken to mean more literally “to be in the future” and exists exclusively for the purposes of making the verbs after it to be considered in a future perspective. Thus continuing with our example using “luth” follows:
Much as with previous conjugations, when using “orn” the subject pronoun can be omitted given enough context without losing meaning.
Before I really dive into the meat of Drowic grammar, I want to establish a precedent for pronunciation that I don’t think anyone has ever established, and that is how to pronounce different vowel and consonant sounds in Drowic. Drowic especially contains a lot of double-vowel and double-consonant sounds that we would not expect to see in English, and some of these warrant a bit of an explanation. If unlike English, the number of consonants between vowels doesn’t influence the pronunciation of those vowels, then there needs to be a reason for the double consonant to exist that somehow inherently changes the pronunciation. In some cases we can understand that a double consonant is merely there to strengthen the sound of a week consonant and make it more defined, but in some cases we need to prop up the existing lexicon with a bit of deeper explanation. So I’ll begin by providing a pronunciation chart for a few common double-letter sounds before I start looking deeper into grammar.
Now that we have these principles of pronunciation established I’ll bee looking more closely at verb conjugation!
To recap in a more encyclopedic manner the information from this post, I’ll give entries for all of the titles covered and some of the aspects of the construction of these words. I’m also going to reevaluate some of the words added by the Grey Company and suggest additional replacement entries, which will be indicated with a * symbol.
Quarval-sharess: Goddess (Lolth) - From the root words “quar” meaning “order” i.e. “command” or “the aspect of being in a position of command or control over one or multiple domains”, “val” meaning “having incredible or unearthly power”, “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”, and “ess” meaning “of divinity” or “having divine approval”.
Quar’Valsharess: Goddess (Not Lolth), a woman who rules over a plane, people, aspect, etc. with incredible divine power - (See Also: Quarval-sharess).
*I would suggest that Quarval-sharess and Quar’valsharess be condensed further as there is no significant need for their deviation with the punctuation they have. I suggest the following entries be made in stead:
*Ulvalharess: Lolth, supreme or only goddess - From the root words “ultrin” meaning “supreme, highest, or conqueror”, “val” meaning “having incredible or unearthly power”, “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”, and “ess” meaning “of divinity” or “having divine approval”.
*Quarvalharess: Goddess (Not Lolth) - From the root words “quar” meaning “order” i.e. “command” or “the aspect of being in a position of command or control over one or multiple domains”, “val” meaning “having incredible or unearthly power”, “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”, and “ess” meaning “of divinity” or “having divine approval”.
Ilharess: Matron Mother, a woman who rules in a feudal manner over an area of land within the greater confines of a city or city-state and shares power within the city or city-state among other Matron Mothers on a ruling council - From the root words “il” from “Ilythiiri” meaning “the people from Ilythiir”, the major established domain of the dark elves on the surface prior to the First Sundering, “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”, and “ess” meaning “of divinity” or “having divine approval”.
Ilharn: Patron, a man who sires the children of a Matron Mother and enjoys the protection of her domain - From the root words “il” from “Ilythiiri” meaning “the people from Ilythiir”, the major established domain of the dark elves on the surface prior to the First Sundering, and “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”.
Ilhar: Mother, a woman who has given birth - From the root words “il” from “Ilythiiri” meaning “the people from Ilythiir”, the major established domain of the dark elves on the surface prior to the First Sundering, and “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”.
Valsharess: Queen, a woman who holds an incredible amount of power and owns a vast portion of land including multiple cities or city-states and holds absolute power over her domain through divinity or divine approval, also a demigoddess - From the root words “val” meaning “having incredible or unearthly power”, “har” meaning “the aspect of a mother” or “a woman in a position of power”, and “ess” meaning “of divinity” or “having divine approval”.
Valuk: King, a man who holds an incredible amount of power and owns a vast portion of land including multiple cities or city-states and holds absolute power over his domain and does not derive his power from divinity or from female rule - From the root words “val” meaning “having incredible or unearthly power”, and “uk” meaning “male” or “the aspect of maleness”.
Drowic Titles and their Implications in Drow Society
The first thing I want to examine before I get into the real nitty gritty of Drowic lexicon and grammar, is to make an observation of how Drow approach gender and formal title. This analysis turned into a real dash-stretcher, so it’s all below the cut.
While we don't have many examples of the Drowic words for formal titles (we commonly see things like Matron or Weapons Master but rarely see these words in proper Drowic), so for this particular analysis I will be pulling some open-source words from the Grey Company and expanding some on what exists including analysis and etymology of the word. Words sourced from the Grey Company will be indicated with a ‡ symbol.
First up to examine are the words for Goddess both Lolth and distinctly Not-Lolth.
It's unclear how these words would be pronounced differently excepting for their obvious differences in pauses, and it seems differentiating between the two would be difficult if someone were to be speaking quickly. Let's note, however, that “valsharess” is present in both and move on to examine the next words in order of Drowic hierarchy.
Ilharess – Matron [Mother]
Ilharn – Patron
These both begin with the same prefix “il” which we also see in the word “Ilythiiri” meaning “the people from Ilythiir” which was the major established domain of the dark elves on the surface prior to the First Sundering and the subsequent Crown Wars which ended in the dark elves becoming the Drow and being banished to the Underdark. It's reasonable to make the conclusion then that the prefix “il” is in some cases in reference to a Drow, but more importantly an aspect of Drowness that is greater than average or more pure than average. A quality of nobility perhaps, or perhaps simply of elevated status. We also see significant tie in to the the next word on the heirarchy.
Ilhar – Mother
The existence of a unique word for “mother” gives us two-fold insight into the etymology at play here, because there does not exist a unique word for “father” besides “ilharn” indicating that “father” is about the lowest title worth giving to a male in a family situation. This also allows us to single out the suffix “ess” and evaluate it. Remember we also see the “ess” suffix in both words for Goddess, thus leading me to conclude that the suffix “ess” is indicative of not just nobility, but some divine aspect. In a Goddess (Lolth or not) the “ess” is indicative of her godhood, but in a Matron Mother the “ess” is perhaps indicative of her divine approval because Matron Mothers who fall out of favor with Lolth, as we know, do not live long. This evaluation brings interesting implications to other words referring to other titles less familiar within Drow society proper.
Valsharess – Queen
‡Valuk – King
It is worth noting in both of these cases that the concept of queen and king do not exist in the traditional sense in Drow culture due to their oligarchal city-state political structure. A queen could, of course, be in reference to Lolth as the Queen of Spiders, but considering that she is a Goddess this causes the meaning of “queen” to take on a different aspect. This is, further supported by “Valsharess” being a segment of the words “ Quarval-sharess” and “ Quar'valsharess”, indicating that the word for queen in Drowic may be better equated to the word “demigoddess”. This follows then, because based on Drow political structure a queen in the traditional sense (a woman who rules over a large domain including a significant portion of land, many cities, hundreds of thousands of subjects, and a vast military force) would be a step existing somewhere between a Matron Mother and Lolth herself. It makes sense as well that “queen” and “demigoddess” may be conflated when one considers how counter to Lolth's manipulative intent an actual unified country under a single ruler would be as it fuels neither her desire for constant strategical warfare between her subjects, nor her desire for absolute control over the Drow. By pitting the Drow against each other Lolth is able to remain in the position of total power she is, an a unified monarchy would break that absolute control. Thus the word for “queen” and the word for “demigoddess” and the concept of both are one and the same in Drowic.
This brings us to Valuk. Valuk ends in a common suffix “uk” which is a male indicator also seen in words like “jabbuk” (master) and “‡dalharuk” (son). This allows us to single out the common portion of the word “Val” to indicate something to do with power but not with divinity. It is well established in Drow society that men do not have the favor of Lolth nor any of her divine blessings, they cannot be clerics or priests and cannot hold any kind of divine office. A king still has power over the same domain as a queen though, the same land, the same subjects, the same military. It's reasonable to assume then that the meaning of “Val” is in having an incredible amount of power.
It is interesting to note then that “Ilharn” is not “Ilharuk”, which can get grammatically confusing when considering the pluralization of nouns in Drowic involves appending “en” or “n” to the end of the noun, meaning the word for “mothers” would be “ilharen”. This may be to indicate that Patrons only hold power in a somewhat artificial figurehead-like way, much like any other male (such as allies or consorts) in favor of the Matron Mother holds power. The Patron holds power in much the same way that a mirror is a person, it only really appears so when there is a person in front of it.
This actually gives a lot of good insight with regards to Drow societal hierarchy between nobility and common Drow as well as between men and women (which does inherently support canon), and also an idea how Drow society views the political structures of non-Drow societies.
This blog is primarily intended to fix some underlying issues with the Drow language from Dungeons and Dragons heretofore referred to as Drowic. Rather than starting from scratch, I’ll be working from the bare bones of what we’ve been provided by WotC through canonical sources and alter and build upon these elements. I’ll also be attempting to provide a more encyclopedic approach to Drow lexicon including word etymology and cultural significance. I may be using some words from existing open-source materials (such as the Grey Company and Chosen of Eilistraee) but I won’t be keeping all of the additions from these and will be making a concerted effort to correct existing issues with the open-source lexicon and expand on aspects of Drowic from the way the language is written, to sentence structure and grammar, and even take a look at Drow Hand Code (DHC). Through this exploration of Drowic as a conlang I intend to also expand on some aspects of Drow culture not described by canon and hope to really flesh out the dark world of the Drow a bit more.
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