PLEAS KEEP IN MIND ALL INFORMATION REFERECED COMES FROM MY MEMORY OF THE MOVIES(WHICH COULD BE WRONG) OR FROM THE EASILY AVAILABLE INFORMATION ONLINE.
Now, the twi'leks could be amazing. Here is the blurb given on the most popular fan wiki:
"Twi'leks, sometimes referred to xenophobically as Tail-Heads or Twi's, occasionally referred to as Rylothians, were a tall near-human species whose most striking feature was a pair of long appendages protruding from their skulls, called lekku. They hailed from the planet of Ryloth, in the Outer Rim Territories, and female Twi'leks were often exported offworld as slaves. Twi'leks were considered one of the most common species in the galaxy, with its members easily able to blend into a crowd without drawing attention, as opposed to rarer, more prominent species, like Togrutas. Some armies used this to their advantage, employing Twi'leks as undercover agents." *
I have some issues here. First of all, the name for the species is Twi'lek. Talk about an obvious piece of naming that came from humans/near-humans. "TWO LEK"? Crazy. "Rylothians" is better, but at this point, I think people from Ryloth proper are more rare than the species that lives across the galaxy.
(Let's not even think about addressing the easy inclusion of racist names in the fandom wiki)
As someone who takes great pride in the development of worlds, including languages and cultures, the way this species is presented rubs me the wrong way.
So I have decided to fix it. My grubby little conlanger hands are getting all over it (with input from @adragonsfriend (who I tried to type as KRAYTTAHREI AGAIN), @yellow-faerie (the Partner in Crime for this conlang), and @anabenalia (the long suffering linquist who puts up with my endless questions).
Enjoy the basic world building and conlanging I have begun to do.
Step one: What does Ryloth mean?
I decided that Ryloth was going to mean "Our Place", thus when asked by people who made contact what their planet was called, they said something like "Ry loth" and the people took it to mean the name. It is forgotten (right now) if there WAS another name, but for current scholars on Ryloth and of Ryloth-based histories and texts, the planet where the species originated from is called "Ryloth".
Step Two: Who are the people of Ryloth?
The people of Ryloth. In the case of this, I did not want to call them by "Rylothians" because that's the boring way of naming them, (lol). I chose, instead to incorporate the first bit of culture:
The species native to Ryloth is very insular- in the language itself, they have clusivity markers/clauses to denote people who are part of the community vs outside of the community. (According to Mark Rosenfelder, this can be called the inclusive we vs exclusive we)**
So, the species that originates from Ryloth is called different things!
Ryhasi - One of the People, and this refers to someone specifically from Ryloth
Ryha- People/Us, a "twi'lek". This is non-specific. (Any time I refer to "Twi'leks" in this post, they will be called Ryha/Ryhasi, depending on the context.
Personally, I believe some of the people who learn to speak Ryl (more on the etymology of this word later) definitely mistranslated Ryha as "Person", but that's incorrect! Ryl has different words for a sentient vs a person.
Hybrids of Ryha are called Ryk'e which translates as "person-no"
Any other sentient being is called K'ery , AKA Not Person, or Non-Ryha.
Step 3: Ryl, and the meaning
Ryl is the word for the langauge the Ryha. In my tiny current dictionary, this is the definition: "
"Ours", used to declare that the words cannot be claimed by anyone but twi'leks. This is a very old possessive pronoun, no longer used for everyday things."
So, some Ryha, usually Ryhasi don't like other people to speak the language of Ryl. (This is pulled from real life experience.)
Most Ryha do not mind others speaking the language, but prefer for Ryha to teach the course.
Step 4: Ryl, and beginning to build the language
Okay. This is the meat and bones here. Building the language allows me to build the culture, because culture speaks (HA, a pun!) through the language it uses. Think like southern american english. It sounds very different, and has a different stereotype to northern or midwestern american english. This is partially environment, SAE tends to have longer drawn out sounds- this is from heat (I think. I don't remember exactly where I learned this, feel free to call me out if I'm wrong).
So, Environment, biology, and culture. Lets start with Environment:
The environment on Ryloth is mostly desert/mesas/vocalnos with a band of green forests/rainforests(?) around the equator***. That means its going to be hot, and personally, I am going vowel heavy, because thats how my brain works.
Deserts mean many flying particles, so that leads to biology. I decided to fiddle with the biology of Ryha. The nose has a specific filter used for breathing. The channel is actually entirely separate from the main esophagus, with an organ forming the meeting point for both. That organ has fibrous walls that allow air but not liquids or solids, to pass the walls into the channels that lead to the lungs, which have a greater capacity for holding air, with small sacs that allow easy adaption to higher altitudes. Long story short, the air breathed in a Ryha's nose cannot be used for speaking, meaning there is no nasals or nasalization of other sounds.
(Sorry, canon Numa. Your name is Lurerra now, if I remember Numa meaning sister to be correct.)
I also kinda disliked the french-ification of them in Clone Wars? I thought it was a little fetishizing to choose The Romance Language/"Language of Love" to represent a people who are actively enslaved for being beautiful, and compatible sexually with most species.
So that was my basic premise. I didn't have a lot to build from when I began, and there isn't a ton now, but I do have some things in my dictionary. The link is public, and should update automatically with new additions. I hope you enjoy!
-Looseleafteaves
-------------Sources--------------
*- https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Twi%27lek#
**- https://www.zompist.com/kit.html (This is a great conlanging resource, my next book I want by him is the Religion Construction Kit) The grammer link ( https://www.zompist.com/kitgram.html ) is the specific location of where I found it. )
in today's society and culture we say "i love ____" in a very nonchalant kind of way. lately i've been thinking about love. what it means to love, what it means to be loved, and what love means. in the english language we really only have one word for love, with different levels of meaning. but other lanuages, especially the biblical languages of greek and hebrew have several "different levels".
phillia [greek]- friendship or brotherly love. having a loyalty to family or friends. this is the way we love our friends. our companions. when we enjoy having a friendship and we love our friends.
ryha [hebrew]- friendship. some people say this is like the love of a best friend or a soulmate. someone who you feel comfortable disclosing to. in order to love someone with this kind of love, a trust must be developed in this friendship.both ryha and phillia love are strongly connected with emotions.
storge [greek]- affection, as in parental or familial. when a parent feels love toward their offspring. when someone says something like "it is out of love." this is the kind of love they are speaking of.
ahava [hebrew]- love of commitment, dedicating oneself to someone. this is a life commitment kind of love, found at a wedding and through marriage.
dod/eros [both]- sexual love. it's not called making love for no reason.
agape [greek]- unconditional love. selfless love to serve one another. this is the kind of love described in the "love chapter" in first corinthians. this is the way God loves us. no strings attatched. "for God so loved (agape) the world, that He gave his only begotten son." this is the way i want to love. as God loves.
but we need to have all these kind of loves. we have the capacity to love in all these ways and be loved in all these ways. learn to love. we have been convicted to love.
how do you love? who do you love? and why do you love?
