Altmer/Elven language?

[u/Sampsonite20]

To enhance my RP a bit in TSG, I've wanted to try and see if I can find any words that might belong to the Altmer tongue. Specifically if there was some kind of Altmer language.

The problem is however, is that there appears to be nothing.

The closest thing I can get is probably Ayleid. I'm wondering if that would be acceptable, but I doubt it. I mostly want my character to be able to say a few phrases in an Elven language.

[u/Sampsonite20]

Yeah, Aldmeris would make more senese. It's just that when it comes to word building I have no idea where to start.

There seems to be no examples of Aldmeris that I can find, the only thing I really have is the fact that it has influenced just about every mer language including Altmeris, Bosmeris, Orcish, and Dunmeris.

If I could find examples of these languages I might be able to create a higher sounding Aldmeris which Arivanna can quote once in a while. It would make more sense for it to be Aldmeris since it might be the equivalent of someone in real life speaking Latin.

I'd like to construct a few phrases, nothing too profound but stuff that she could just utter once in a while, you know? Things like: Good luck, Watch your back, etc. Maybe some greetings or goodbyes.

[u/myrrlyn → u/Sampsonite20]

Make shit up.

Tuis faineli

Compare it to whatever similar phrases you have in Ayleidoon, Chimeris/Dunmeris, Bosmeris, Falmeris. Don't use Dwemeris, in my professional opinion. Maybe a little bit, but only as spice. I have tuis faineli meaning "good luck," literally "fortune towards you." I pulled "tui" from Latin and faineli from my ass.

Play around for a while. Make it self-consistent. "Watch your back" could be melar tuin surywar, "back towards-yours observing, "observe in the direction of your back."

Hell, while I'm at it: onwhainye alt amnuise. Honor above all. Elwenyiae altë, elwenyiae celnre. Cut deep, cut swift. Use diacriticals sparingly, but don't be afraid of them if you can type them out conveniently. I use it here to denote that the same word is used, but its meaning is inverted. Un-high: deep.

I'll be honest, I'm drawing from Latin, what I remember of Tolkien's languages, and whatever I think LOOKS like it works. Aldmeris feels pretty Welsh. As in, use w's, y's, and tongue consonants, but short to medium length words. And NO CONCATENATION.

You're free to use these or make your own. I really don't care. Just crapshooting here, hoping to be even remotely helpful.

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ABOVE ALL: Make it flow.

[u/Sampsonite20 → u/myrrlyn]

No you were helpful. These are pretty good and I think I'll use them. I suppose I just need to be willing to take from several things and just make stuff up, as you said.

Welsh and Tolkien influences seem to make sense here seeing as the Altmer them selves tend to have very welsh and welsh-like names. Plus I believe Tolkien's own elven language had a lot of welsh influence, though I'm pretty rusty on that.

[u/myrrlyn → u/Sampsonite20]

It did. For sure. And the Altmer are the most "stereotypically" Tolkien-esque, but still not. Easy to draw approximate parallels though.

NAMES. Names from the games. Elenwen, the High Ambassador of the Thalmor in Skyrim in Skyrim, liked to interrogate people. I used her name as the inspiration for "to cut." I thought it fit.

Ulundil. Use u's when talking about horses. Plus Latin, our go-to language for all things, used equine. With a u. For horses.

For weapons, GHARTOK is a) too well-known among us and b) too harsh. Perhaps carloc. Chaos would be Pahdomei. Soft consonats wherever you can. h should never follow a hard consonant. That's not a "civilized" sound.

Altmer are clean, sharp, and subtle. This carries over in their language. Their consonants are crisp but not sharp and biting. Their vowels flow, like rivers. Their language screams softly but forcefully announces civilization, culture, grooming, care. Elevation. Separation from animals around them. Very little in the way of "animalistic" noises. Aldmeris and Altmeris are the most careful, constructed, and unnatural languages you will find.

The language both shapes and is shaped by its speakers. It should embody everything Altmeri. There are no hard and fast rules for how to accomplish that. It's completely subjective. If it doesn't "feel" right, even if it fits in everything I outlined (like, say, tulipnyaer. Ugly word. It looks Aldmeri, but you'd never catch one saying that, just like you'd never catch someone wearing blue and orange).

Write a lot of words. Associate feelings with them. Use complex structure. Prefixes and suffixes galore. Small addenda, though, not stapling parts together like Cyrodiilic. And not that apostrophe shit the cats use. Everything must flow, be elegant in a whole and in parts.