WORD ELEMENTS, HIGH SAURIAN

Submitted by TzaTza

-a-: This is a letter added between nouns and verbs to note the present tense in some words. As nouns tend to come first in High Saurian and verbs second, this can be an important addition to clarify whether a particular Skink or Saurus is doing something, or has done it in the past. See "Cuaqatec" in the Dictionary section.

-an/-ax: -an/-ax is a construct most frequently appearing in other constructs that have connotations of place. This is not to say that tl- is the designator for a temple or a city, it simply states that -an is most frequently seen in constructs dealing with a particular place, or type of place. It can be used in conjunction with nouns and verbs, etc, to form more specific words denoting location. -ax is a fairly rare element in High Saurian, usually used to denote battlefields or certain parts of the landscape that are no longer present.

-Kai: -Kai may have originally been written as kaa or ka'a, with the glottal stop removed when the long vowel was changed. This may be interpreted as a word having to do with the passage of time, as things that are ancient, forgotten or lost (the three accepted words used to translate -kai) require some amount of time to have passed before they become ancient, forgotten or lost. Perhaps ka'a referred to the time it takes Lizard society to forget something commonly known or conceived. If this is so, further extrapolation may lead to ka'a originating in a construct "kahuan" or "ka'an." This hints at some bygone connection between the two words, as things that are lost or forgotten are commonly associated among warm-bloods and Lizards with the darkness or deep jungle, such as those that overtook many of the dead cities of Lizard society.

-i-: Sometimes used in connection with a noun, though typically written after the noun, to note the origin of that noun. In some cases, and these will be seen by the change in an adjective's ending vowel to -i from whatever it was previously. An attack coming from a Kroxigor (in this case "Kroxigor" is used as an adjective to modify the noun) might be written as Garikroxigor. In a literal translation, this means, "Attack of a Kroxigor." In instances where a plural noun ending in -li is used, a glottal stop is placed to prevent the long vowel. Thus, things killed in the jungle might be referred to under the collective word of Loqtexli'ihuan, the Dead of the Jungle. The use of -i- is one of the few things in Saurian that on its face appears to be irregular, which does not seem to fit with the plan of the Old Ones. In practice, however, it is very simple. Words which do not use -i- as an expression meaning "of" are proper Saurian names. Usually there will be hints that these are names, typically by the inclusion of -tec or -tzin at the end of the name. However, the battlefield version of Saurian does not usually use these suffixes, so the proper use can be confusing. Skinks with a poetic bent do not require the presence of an -i- to denote "of" when writing High Saurian, hence how tenxolo can be translated as Word of Fire without the -i-.

-Mundi: The -i construct notes that -mundi is an adjective.

-o-: Used in conjunction with -raz or other words noting the movement of an item or creature from one place to another, usually placed between the verb and the destination. Quipuarazochaqua would be a quipu being actively carried to Chaqua, for instance. Quipuraxochaqua would be a quipu carried to Chaqua, by the way.

-Otl/-Oatl: Primarily a noun in Saurian, it includes the construct -tl, which is one of the two ways of forming a plural in Saurian. As the three main words associated with -otl and -oatl are Construction, Stronghold and Founding, this lends itself strongly to the theory that the foundation of Lizard society is built on a collective ideal. The many will hold up the fewer and so forth, promoting a pyramidal society culminating originally in the Old Ones, but now focused primarily on the Slann.