The language of Dorne (aka the language of the Fellan)
I have noticed a trend with words on Dorne. A lot of them end in -en, -an or -in. And we know for a fact that “Keelin”, the name given to Rye by the half-Fellan nursemaid Petronelle, means “young dragon”. There might be a language here... What do you guys think? Because of the word “Keelin”, we do know that there is a language in the world of Deltora we may not know about, or it’s taken from another language, such as the Two Moons turtle people’s tongue, or the Illican tongue, but I doubt that, as it is very different from any words of those languages. It is possible that this language was spoken by the Fellan before human settlers came to Dorne, and that the people of Dorne have since adopted some of the words. Note that Petronelle, who is half-Fellan, is the only person in the entire trilogy to reveal the meaning of any words that aren’t English. This could serve as evidence that it is only used by Fellan or mostly by them.
Known words of this possible Dorneish language that we do know the meaning of:
Possible other words which we do not have any meaning of:
Oltan - No known meaning. A city, formerly called Nerra, renamed in honour of the part-Fellan sorcerer Annoltis/Olt, who was also once the chieftain of Dorne. He is the brother of
Eldannen - No known meaning. The name of a part-Fellan sorcerer, the founder of the city of Weld, and the middle brother of Annoltis and Malverlain. His name is sometimes shortened to “Dann”.
Alenan - No known meaning. The name of a Fellan woman.
Fellan - No known specific meaning in whatever language “keelin” is from. The Fellan are the magic-wielding people of the forests of Dorne. Fellan, in Old English, actually means “to fell”, and of course “fell” means “to fell” in modern English. It makes sense when you consider that the settlers on the coasts of Dorne who came later on to the island begun to fell the trees of the forests at the centre, where the Fellan dwells.
Kirwan - No known meaning. The name of a Fellan man.
Malverlain - Not sure if this is of the potential Dorne language, but it does have a -in ending. He is the part-Fellan youngest brother of Annoltis and Eldannen. His name is sometimes shortened to Verlain. He later became the Shadow Lord, or the Lord of Shadows, and went on to conquer Deltora, until he lost it due to the actions of Lief, Jasmine and Barda.
Also, notice that Eldannen and Weld have something in common - “eld”. It makes sense to me that Eldannen might name his new city in honour of himself, or that the Fellan and half-Fellan who moved into it with him did it in his honour. After all, that is what Annoltis/Olt did when he renamed the coastal city of Nerra “Oltan”. Which strangely enough have a -(a)n ending.
If Olt gave the city a name that is a word of a language, and if that word means something, then Nerra, and other non-English words used in the trilogy, might mean something too, possibly in the same language.
There are some seemingly English place names too. Like Riverside, Nanny’s Pride Farm, Fell End, Fell Zone etc.
Anyway, I think this is interesting to look into, and we might possibly be able to reverse-engineer the foreign-sounding words in The Three Doors trilogy and see if the other words might mean something too.
Note: My own speculation is that -n, without any vowels, might be a nounal particle in an actual Fellan or Dorneish language.
