GRAMMATICAL RULES, HIGH SAURIAN

Submitted by TzaTza

Adjectives: There are two ways of creating adjectives in Saurian. Almost all nouns can be used as comparative words, and those ending in -a will have that changed to -i, such as in chochi, or "Like the Jaguar." Exceptions for this are adjectives that already end in -a, such as itza, or "first." Thus, the construction -chi as an adjective might have had its origins in a construction -cha, a noun meaning "jaguar" or "ghost." Otherwise, nouns ending in vowel sounds have -q appended, whereas nouns ending in consonantal sounds have -oq appended.

Adjectives as Plural Nouns: By adding the appropriate plural construction to an adjective like Kai or Loq, one can create plural nouns like loqli, or "Fierce Ones" and kaitl, or "Forgotten Ones."

Adverbs: Most High Saurian adverbs are created by adding an -oq to the end of a noun or adjective, much in the same manner as many warm-blood languages. Again, it raises a philosophical and historical question of which group was the originator of this concept.

Adverb-Adjective Endings: It is entirely possible for a word to end in -oqoq. In these cases, the word is assumed to be both adverb and adjective.

Creating Things: The act of creation is, understandably, very important to the Lizards. Thus, any construct dealing with the creation of something new is always said to be "in the process of" doing whatever it is doing. This is even done if it would create a stack of "of" words in the translation to warmblood tongues. To denote the peculiarity, the usual -a- construct signifying "in the process of" is changed to read -da-.

Denoting the Dead: As -tec is a way of denoting the living, -tex would be a way of denoting the dead. This incorporates the use of -x as an indicator of the past tense and departed things or lives. Thus, loqtexli'ihuan, the Dead of the Jungle. "Loqtec" is very, very rare in everyday High Saurian, as a creature cannot truly be alive and dead at the same time. This word mostly applies to the leaders of the Undead hordes. Their minions are loqtexli, the dead.

Gender Cases: There are no "genders" in Saurian as warm-bloods recognize them. As Lizards have no genders themselves, the entire concept of gender-based words is an oddity sprung up amongst warm-bloods. In fact, the very name "Lizardmen" is misleading; though many warm-blood societies associate their males with power and strength, Lizards harbor no such biases, not least because Lizards have no males nor females among them. The closest that Lizards get to gender-based communication is that some of the oldest Slann might remember occasional references to certain Old Ones by such names as the World-Mother, or Father of All Turtles. Very few of these are known in everyday Lizard society; when they are used at all, it is by the Slann in their telepathic communications with one another.

Glottal Stops: Fairly infrequent in Saurian, at least to this author, they are most commonly used in conjunction with words including "huan." As the H in Saurian is silent, a continuous vowel sound may be hazardously confusing on the battlefield, as Skinks or other Lizards who suffer injuries may be hard-pressed to pronounce the long vowel properly. Thus, the glottal stop is used. Examples of this include "Itza'an," the so-called First Jungle.

Noun Order: In Lizard society, the act itself is what holds the weight, and the conditions come second to it, even considering the committer of this act. Thus, nouns usually come first in a word or construct which contains them. It is possible to use words in Saurian which do not contain nouns, but not typical. The word directly following the noun is considered to be the primary modifier, though more than one adjective or verb might be stacked on it. Thus, a word such as Tenxololoqarazonaggaroth would be "Carrying the Word of Fiery Death to Naggaroth" whereas Tenxloqoloarazonaggaroth could be translated as "Carrying the Word of Death-Fire to Naggaroth." As the Old Ones are seen as the originators of all, the only exception to the noun order rule involves Their names, as nothing exists or occurs without Their presence and action.

Old One Names, Segments of: Some of the Old Ones' names are actually compounds consisting of multiple elements of Saurian; the three most obvious are Sotek, Chotec and Huanchi. Both Sotek and Chotec include the Singular grammatical construction in their name, so there must be words in Saurian akin to So and Cho. It is likely that the word So applies to righteousness, territoriality and protection, as it was Sotek who excised the cancer of Skaven from Lustria. Cho, however, is more likely to apply to solar light, speed, and activity as it is Chotec that drives Its solar chariot across the sky to light the world and it is Chotec who blesses Lizards with fiery, sun-heated blood. Huanchi presents the most problematic of the three names. It includes the word Huan, which means "jungle" among other things, as well as the unexplained second syllable -chi. As Huanchi bestows upon its blessed Lizards the ability to move like ghosts or jaguars through the forests of Lustria and the Southlands, it is probable that -chi is an adjective syllable meaning "ghostlike" or "like the jaguar." Thus, the name Huanchi might be translated as "Jungle Ghost" or as some other creature depending upon the different context or inflections used.

Old One Names, Whole: Most Old One names are used in their entirety, as some Lizards have been directly blessed by Their touches and it is believed that using the names of the Old Ones in Lizard society strengthens Their presence. For instance, a unit of Saurus Cavalry might well be known as Chotecitzauaxtecah, Chotec's First Death-Bringers; these Saurus Cavalry would be the first into a fight and they would win great victories. When this happens, it is attributed to the presence of Chotec, who watches over those that bear Its name. When an Old One's name is used in Lizard names and words, the Old One's name is placed first. This serves two functions: to make other Lizards aware of the function that this particular one fills, and to honor the Old Ones. It is literally unthinkable in Lizard society to place one's own name before the name of an Old One, as this would be akin to heresy. Of all of the Lizards, only the Slann and a few particularly old Skink Priests are aware that this can actually be done. The Slann speak nothing of it to lower castes of Lizards and even rarely amongst each other, whereas the Skink Priests secret this information in a few select temples in the surviving temple-cities. Should two (or more) Old Ones' names somehow be used in a word or name, Skink Priests conduct sacrifices of captured enemies at the temples of the Old Ones in question and it is believed that the Old Ones will send a sign to determine the proper ordering of the names.

Proper Names: The only names considered "proper" by Lizards are High Saurian or battlefield Saurian names. Thus, their names for the other races in the Warhammer world incorporate -i- or -a-, as those names are not truly proper. It is a very subtle, but very important distinction if the name by which an outsider is introduced does not incorporate the -i- or -a- constructions, except possibly to note geographical origin. This is used in the event of two outsiders with the same Lizard "diplomatic" name, which is a very uncommon occurence.

Singulars and Plurals: Singulars in Saurian, at least when applied to living things such as a Skink Priest, are usually denoted by adding the suffix -tec to a name. This is most frequently seen among the more formal members of Lizardmen society, such as priests, particularly old Saurus, and Slann. The most rough-and-ready elements of Lizard society, such as most Skink infantry, do not frequently use the singular or plural, as it is generally regarded as the province of the higher castes. In some cases, such as Chameleon Skinks and Skink Skirmishers, the singulars and plurals are discarded in favor of shorter names that are easier to use on a battlefield without giving away one's position to the enemy. The plural is formed in Saurian by adding the suffix -ah to the end of the -tec already appended to this name or word. As Saurian is an agglutinating language, these can contribute to forming incredibly long words difficult for warm-blooded tongues to pronounce. Also, a sidenote of Saurian names is that a Spawning of Saurus Warriors is sometimes named for a particularly powerful Scar-Veteran or Oldblood which leads them, as it is believed by Skink Priests and some Slann that this will bestow some of the power of the Oldblood or Scar-Veteran onto the Saurus Warriors which follow it. This also provides slight reinforcement for the hierarchical nature of Lizard society, though it is of little consequence to the single-minded Saurus Warriors. Plurals for nonliving things are formed in two ways: Words ending in vowel sounds have -tl appended, whereas words ending in consonantal sounds are ended with -li. Words that end with an L-sound simply have -i appended to them to form plurals. This balances each word, as each includes vowel and consonantal sounds. In High Saurian proper names, pluralistic constructs concerning elements of the name are added before the -tec or -tecah at the end.