Sodor Cats Lore #4: Language.
The written language of the Sodor Cats: structure and examples:
Word order: SVO (subject — verb — object).
This uses the classic English SVO pattern — it’s intuitive, fits well with human speech, but still feels distinctively “theirs” for the cats, who, although they understand humans, construct phrases according to their own rules.
Structure:
[Who] + [what they do] + [what or whom the action is directed at].
Example sentences in the Sodor Cats’ language:
To make it clearer, there are three levels here: “how it sounds to the cats”, “transliteration” (so you can read it), and “translation”.
“Mrow-vix tash-kloon mur-zil.”
Mrow-vix = a male cat (subject)
tash-kloon = catches (verb)
mur-zil = a mouse (object)
→ “The cat catches a mouse.”
“Flin-zar tash-glor mur-nar.”
lin-zar = a female cat (subject)
tash-glor = carries (verb)
mur-nar = a branch (object)
→ “The female cat carries a branch.”
“Zor-mux tash-plin mur-dor.”
Zor-mux = an elder (subject)
mur-dor = a legend (object)
→ “The elder tells a legend.”
How this works within the world’s logic:
SVO makes the language easy to learn. Since not all cats can write, the basic structure needs to be as predictable as possible: first who, then what they do, then what the action is directed at. This lowers the barrier to entry: even if a cat knows only a few words, they can still construct understandable phrases.
Connection to human speech. The cats understand English, so SVO looks “almost like humans do” to them, but the words are their own — this emphasises their distinctiveness and culture.
The spoken form can be a bit more flexible. In conversation, cats may sometimes change the intonation or put the object at the beginning for emphasis (“A mouse… the tomcat catches”), but the written form is always strictly SVO, so that any literate cat can read and understand it.
Phrase templates (SVO structure)
Mrow-vix tash-zor glar-mok. — The tomcat guards the stream.
Flin-zar tash-nar kor-til. — The female cat seeks the root.
Zor-mux tash-plin mur-dor. — The elder recounts the legend.
Pik-nar tash-glor nar-zok. — The apprentice carries the branch.
Dor-klin tash-vix vix-dor. — The boundary guard hides in the clearing.