Amisal

The primary language of the Eliyoh of Iesha (Dagudashaag 1712).

Description

Amisal, known also as 'trade song', is indeed a song-like language, where the same words mean different things according to the duration and tone in which they are expressed.

Humans have transcribed the 42 characters of Amisal (five of which dictate the tone of the complete word: high, moderate, low, rising, or falling; three show the gender, while a further three show the duration, short, long, or medium). Humans generally transcribe Amisal as a tune, or place a letter (a to e) after a word to show the proper tonal inclination, and a specific number of dots to show the duration. Most Humans and other sophont races can learn the language, though to express it properly requires it to be sung by a trained singer with perfect pitch.

On the other hand, the grammatical structure is familiar, and straightforward, being just like Anglic.

Example

Sechænn(c..) ciurmhèile(b.) gloics(a...) mar(c.) sælbh(c..): "Never confuse wisdom with luck..."

Compare with:

Sechænn(c..) ciurmhèile(a...) gloics(d.) mar(c.) sælbh(d...): "Never compare knowledge with profit..."

Lexicon

• Ciurmhèile(a...): To compare

• Ciurmhèile(b.): To confuse

• Gloics(a...): “Wisdom”

• Gloics(d.): “Knowledge”

• Ibhe(a) Tmhdéan(c): Literally, "Sacred Soil". Native name for Iesha, the Eliyoh homeworld. The common name “Iesha” is a Human attempt at non-musical Ibhe(a), mistaking the tone marker for a component letter.

• Mar(c.): “With”

• Sælbh(c..): “Luck”

• Sælbh(d...): “Profit”

• Sechænn(c..): “Never”, imperative

Proper Nouns:

• Aloaei’oh: A city-nest

• Naohma(a.): A city-nest

• Thaeloi’aei: A religion

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Jae Campbell. Encyclopaedia Dagudashaag (Signal-GK, 2017), .