Glossary & Dictionary for Elsewhere, Otherwhen, Somehow (WIP)

Numbers first, as that may help people understand some things in the story a bit better:

Ais = one, ta = two, tor = three, kras = four, par = five, kif = six, nal = seven, gri = eight, nef = nine

Tark = ten, ais'tark = eleven, ta'tark = twelve, etc.

Bett = twenty, ais'bett = 21, etc.

Frin = thirty, mip = forty, ler = fifty, ves = sixty, zil = seventy, goj = eighty, wid = ninety

Lond = hundred, senv = thousand, so ais'lond would be one hundred, kif'senv would be six thousand, etc.

Numbering in the Low Tongue is somewhat similar to German, where one to ten is added to numbers like twenty, thirty, etc.

mik = one/tenth, in the story this is given as parts of a measurement, such as mik*k'nek, one tenth of a k'nek, the base distance measure.
------> k'nek is itself the bastardized or slang usage of karnek, k'nek is used so often the actual term has fallen into disuse.

Other numbers will be added as I work them out.

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Okay, a quick guide to some common distance measurements:

K'nek is the base measurement, equivalent to fourteen inches, so a mik*k'nek would be about 1.4 inches.

The double stride is equivalent to par'k'nek, five k'neks or 70 inches.

The next major distance measurement is the par'senv'k'nek, five thousand k'neks, 70000 inches or 5,833 ft, 4 inches. This is their "mile".
----->N'vit is the next measurement, being their mile; n'vit is the bastardized or slang form of nurvit.

One n'vit = 1.10479798 standard miles. Equatorial circumference of their world is 36,400 n'vit.

K'nek is also used for height. People here are very tall, average height is 7 k'neks or 8'2" for males and about 6.5 k'neks or 7'7" for females.
Elfin people are a bit shorter, males averaging around 6.3 k'neks or 7'4" and females about 5.8 k'neks or 6'9".

In this new world, our heroine at 5'11", or 5.07 k'neks high, is very, very short, which will make her a curiosity wherever she goes.

I'll add other measurements if I discover any that don't use this base form.

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I'm working out names for their time measurements at the moment, their minute (zekan) is about 75 seconds long, 90 minutes to an "hour" (filek), 20 hours to a day, ten days to their week (referred to in common as a ten-day), four ten-days per month.

I'm thinking ten months in a year, that would make their year equivalent to roughly 1.71 Earth years.

At the time the story begins, they are about twenty days away from a major festival, "High Summer" in the Common. So it seems that there is some kind of temporal relationship in common with Earth, as Theo vanished about three weeks before the Summer Solstice.

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"Low Tongue" versus "High Tongue" spoken across the Four Great Lands and the Five Isles, plus Common (Trade Tongue):

I've already given some of the numbers in usage in the Low Tongue, k'nek and its prefixes are also from the Low Tongue.

The specific "Great Land" (think continent) they are on is called Ferk'nish, or "Great Roams". It is the second largest of the four continents, with over 85% of the land there being wide open plains, with towns and cities scattered all over the place. There are a few mountain ranges on that continent, but for the most part, they are very old mountains, more like very large, often rounded hills.

They have named their world Fe`li'sa, in the Low Tongue, which translates roughly to "All Home" or "Home of All".

Theona's first major destination in this new world will be the capital of the land she is in, the city named Nur`li'sa or "Small Home".

Ai:el'si is used when a person of this world is telling someone where they come from, so they would say ai:el'si "town/city/country name". Ai:el'si translates to "a person of", so someone from the realm's capital would say they were "ai:el'si Nur`li'sa".

Mak'Ris means Long Claws in the Low Tongue, technically this would be the cat's surname. Shar'Nel translates to "Walks Far", thus his name as we know it so far would be Walks Far Long Claws. He may have one or more other personal names, two or three are common.

Farl'ris: Sharp Claws, a specific type of fairly large cat distantly related to Mak'Ris' people, that serve as mounts for some of the Warl'kel.

Krant: A six-legged creature similar to a horse but about 20 to 25% larger than a Clydesdale, with two long straight horns above their eyes.

Kur'ras: Smaller version of a krant, about the same size as a Clydesdale; like the krant, they have two horns located over their eyes.

Vis'nif: potato-like vegetable, skin is yellow, flesh of the vis'nif is a pale pink in colour. It can be cooked in a variety of ways like potatoes.

Ri'gezna: A type of mushroom commonly found growing next to trees all over the major plains of the world.

Kraf'nelg: A type of fish, green and gold in colour, commonly found in medium to large lakes, averaging 3.5 feet in length (three k'neks).

Warl'kel: A large town in the northwest part of the realm, also a small duchy based around that town. They're known for their warriors. The name of the town and duchy comes from two words, Warl which means thorn and Kel which means war, so "Thorns of War".

In'gis: One of two large plains areas, separated from each other by a roughly five n'vit wide strip of forest known as the Sai`In'gis, or as we might say it, the In'gis Wild. In'gis is the name for a grass similar to our rye that grows all over the world. The northern plain is the Ferk`In'gis, or Great In'gis, as it is at least half again the size of Nur`In'gis or Small In'gis which lies to the south of the Sai. A large part of the realm that Theona finds herself in lies within the Ferk`In'gis, so riders from the villages of the plains may not be common, but are not unusual.

Shal'Ris: "Sky Claws", the name given to the mountain range where Theona is found by Tanris.

Kal'Ti: "Son of Ti", this is the red star that is tied in orbit with two other stars, one close, one rather distant.

Kal'Zin: "Son of Zin", this is the yellow star, which is in a fairly close orbit with Kal'Ti.

Sul'Kar: "Daughter of Kar", the blue star that is barely held in its place by the red and the yellow.

Ti, Zin, Kar: The first two are olden gods that have been worshiped for many millennia, Kar is a goddess from the same time period. The three and several others have been worshipped since the days of pre-history here, altars to them are scattered across the lands.

Var, Mez, Nig, Shen, Bev: Minor goddesses from the same time period whose daughters wandered off from their home and became lost. One story speculates that the young girls wandered into a spell field that changed them into moons and set them orbiting around the world.

De'mitra: Fairly modern Goddess known as the Lady of the fields and forests, perhaps Demeter from ancient Earth or a goddess like her. When she bestows her grace on people, their fields and their animals will be abundant for a while, as long as her grace holds. Tanris states that Lady De'mitra's wish for someone to be well brings nearly perfect health for the rest of that person's life, which may be very long.

As I add to the story, I'll add words I use in the story, from either of these languages to this page.

For purposes of simplicity, Common in the story can be interchanged with English. Any differences in Common within the story will be similar to English being spoken by people from different parts of the world (like the UK, Australia, etc.)



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This story is 1297 words long.