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Archaen: A Bit of Magical Whimsy

From:Edward Heil <edheil@...>
Date:Thursday, March 4, 1999, 15:27
In the roleplaying game Talislanta, the language wizards use is Archaen.
It's ancient and nobody does anything but cast spells in it anymore.

What would a language like that look like? Well, I designed the nominal
system with some interesting cases.....

(hope this cut & paste works... otherwise check out the original at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/3714/archaen.html)

 CASE
                                USAGE/SEMANTICS
 Nominative
                                Subjects of sentences.
 Accusative
                                Direct objects of sentences.
 Dative
                                Indirect objects of sentences
                                (=Talislan "to" or "for")
 Genitive
                                Mundane possession and other kinds
                                of association (=Talislan "of"),
                                except note Possessive and
                                Apparitive, special versions of the
                                genitive.
 Possessive
                                Supernatural possession (=Talislan
                                "under the supernatural control of")
 Apparitive
                                Appearance (=Talislan "in the shape
                                of")
 Vocative
                                Calling people/things by name in
                                mundane circumstances. See also
                                Evocative, Invocative, and
                                Incantative, which are special
                                versions of the Vocative.  They are
                                all used in direct address, not in
                                ordinary sentences.
 Evocative
                                Speaking to one who is on another
                                plane of existence
 Invocative
                                Speaking to a Power which is or
                                which you wish to be manifest
                                within yourself.
 Incantative
                                Speaking to something which is or
                                which you wish to be under your
                                magical control.
 Instrumental
                                Something used to accomplish the
                                action of the main verb. (=Talislan
                                "by means of.")
 Occultative
                                Something which is influencing the
                                action of the main verb in a hidden
                                way. (=Talislan "under the secret
                                influence of")
 Locative
                                Place where something is located
                                (=Talislan "at")
 Ablative
                                Place from which something comes
                                (=Talislan "from")
 Adlative
                                Destination to which something goes
                                (=Talislan "towards")
 Abfiative
                                The original form of a
                                transformation (=Talislan "from" in
                                the sentence "he changed from a
                                prince into an exomorph")
 Adfiative
                                The final form of a transformation
                                (=Talislan "to" in the above
                                sentence)

(The endings used for the cases and some other notes are available at
the url http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/3714/archaen.html ... The
language is intended to look more or less like Greek or Latin, but not
precisely to be either one.  "Talislan" is the main language of
Talislanta and IMHO is identical to English.)

Any further ideas for "magical" cases or other grammatical constructions
welcomed!




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