Elder Lur is the official language in most of Luric. It is known as being a very complex language, as well as one that is rather fluid sounding. It is spoken by perhaps over one million native speakers worldwide, as well as some five hundred thousand who took it up as a second or third language. Many different dialects of Elder Lur are spoken throughout the world.
Writing system[]
Elder Lur is written with an alphabet, rather similar to the common alphabet used by other languages, but with some distinct differences. For example, many characters are accented with small diacritics. Here is the alphabet:
- Aa
- Áá
- Bb
- Cc
- Dd
- Ee
- Ëë
- Ff
- Gg
- Hh
- Ii
- Jj
- Ll
- Mm
- Nn
- Oo
- Pp
- Rr
- Ss
- Tt
- Uu
- Vv
Vocabulary[]
Elder Lur words are derived from many different sources. Much of its vocabulary is based on the tongues of the Luric natives.
Numerals[]
In the oldest forms of Elder Lur, the counting system is based on the number eight.
Cardinal numbers in Elder Lur from 1 to 24 are as follows:
- One: fe
- Two: tuë
- Three: li
- Four: rië
- Five: hu
- Six: ela
- Seven: voc
- Eight: fel
- Nine: fel-fe
- Ten: fel-tuë
- Eleven: fel-li
- Twelve: fel-rië
- Thirteen: fel-hu
- Fourteen: fel-ela
- Fifteen: fel-voc
- Sixteen: tuëfel
- Seventeen: tuëfel-fe
- Eighteen: tuëfel-tuë
- Nineteen: tuëfel-li
- Twenty: tuëfel-rië
- Twenty-one: tuëfel-hu
- Twenty-two: tuëfel-ela
- Twenty-three: tuëfel-voc
- Twenty-four: lifel
Grammar[]
The sentence structure of Elder Lur is Subject Object Verb. That is to say that the object and subject of the sentence appear before the verb. For example, in the sentence Ád vuri ec, ád (meaning 'I', or 'myself') is the subject, vuri (meaning 'man') is the object, and ec (the present tense inflection of the word meaning 'to be'; similar to the word 'is' or 'am') is the verb. The sentence closely translates to 'I am a man.'
Useful Phrases[]
Below are some useful Elder Lur phrases:
English | Elder Lur |
Hello | Efë cuil |
Yes | Het |
No | Lád |
Good morning | Efë cuil |
Good night | Nuos cuil |
Goodbye | Kei ádu ci |
What is your name? | Ru hanlë iun ec? |
My name is John | Hanl'ád Jona ec |