Yuuzhan Vong Language Translation Project

There are very simple computer programs which can produce plausible-sounding, plausible-looking and superficially consistent chunks of a sci-fi language without any real meaning - Rihannsu (old-fashioned geek-Trek Romulan) is the best example of this.

Huttese is... awkward... what's spoken by Jabba in RotJ seems totally different from what Anakin and Watto use in TPM...

But Vong, I dunno - surely there are some novellist people around to ask?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

If you think about it, having a language that only true SW fans know would be kinda cool. Or, since the YV language is based on angry curse words, you could use it in school: "Hey man, you suck!" you reply: "remega corlat, kane a bar!" the ysay "wha...?" finally, u say :"Fas!" Guvvuk!"

 

No it won't, it would be geeky.

I rather learn a real Language then learn a fake one. Like Germen of Spanish. You can still course people out with out them knowing, most people don't have a second Language.

What I like about the NJO they have one translater, Tarhi. Like world war 2.

 

I can just see it: 20 years from now, Yuuzhan Vong language courses will be offered in universities across the country, just like Klingon is right now.

 

Hell yeah!

*goes to OPPM hate thread*

 

Does anyone else have any more Vong language to add?

Once TUF is released, I might go through every single NJO book, and list all of the Vong language.

 

Ok, since TUF has long been released, anyone interested in helping out with this project?!

 

sounds like an excellent idea to me.

 

Do you want to help?

 

i'll do what i can, sure.

 

If my NJO books were here, I'd sure be in.

Geeky this project may be... But let's face it, geeks rock!

I am quite proud to be one.

-Paul

 

I'd love to help out! I'm not too good at language structure, though. I struggle with French and Japanese as it is. I could help out finding phrases though or helping to catalogue. By the way, does anyone know what Rrush'hok ichnar vinim'hok means?

 

Wow. Heh does my heart good to see that some are interested in the Yuuzhan Vong language as I have been. Now that the NJO is over I thought we Yuuzhan Vongs fans ( or ?Believers of the Gods? as I like to call them, see below*) might fade away gradually. Lets keep the Yuuzhan Vong alive!!

A good master list of word translations would be excellent, but lets try too translate them too, make some more assumptions, and try to devise new words. I believe Del Rey has more details on the language than they showed us. It seems that we might be able to find or at least hint at a certain type of sentence structure or ?syntax.?

Below is from an old thread of mine I posted back during the height of my Yuuzhan Vong loving days, where I tried to start up some interest as you guys have. Hope it helps some.

-------------------------

Deciphering the Yuuzhan Vong Language.

Being the Uber Yuuzhan Vong fan I am, I am always interested in anything Yuuzhan Vong. Including their language. The sad thing is the Yuuzhan Vong rarely say words in their native tongue these days. So I always hope for more words in their native language to appear in any new NJO book. Thankfully the marvelous book that is Traitor has done this. (You know Del Rey should give us a handbook or something with a good dose of Yuuzhan Vong language. Hell Trek fans have Klingon?Why can't we have Yuuzhan Vong?)

Anyway I encountered a few choice words in Traitor that I used to try and further decipher other Yuuzhan Vong Phrases. Here is what I came up with. Enjoy.

OK on page 81 there is an allusion to the term: "tizo 'pil Yun'tchilat".

Which they provide means "The Day of Comprehending the Will of the Gods."This is what I intend to break down and translate. But first I would like to talk about another word first, one that might help us.

"Yuuzhan'tar" with the given meaning of "Creche of God."If we do a little reasoning. We have that "Yuuzhan" means "of God"!!!! The "suffix" 'tar can be taken as "Crèche" or "Crèche of" when given in that particular format/syntax. Thus we have roughly...

Yuuzhan = "of God", or "God" (Depending on the grammar structure they use)
tar = "Crèche", or "Crèche of"

Now look at the word "Yuuzhan Vong". First remember it is pointed out that saying "Vong" by itself is a grave insult. I believe it is referred to as meaning "One who is without God/the Gods". I believe this is stated in Conquest though it could be another book. Now what if we reason under the right circumstances that it means "one who is without belief" or "non believer of". Then taken under the right grammar structure it could also mean "believer of"!!! So therefore perhaps?

Yuuzhan Vong = "Believers of God", or "Believers of the Gods" !!!!!

Now back to tizo 'pil Yun'tchilat. "Day of Comprehending the Will of the Gods." By breaking it up I guessed that words would mean this given best estimates:

tizo = "Comprehending", or "Comprehend."


I figured this because as we know a tizoworm is a creature that translated language so perhaps?

tizoworm = "comprehending worm" !!

Next we have 'pil Which I took to mean "day of ". I assumed this as a best guest, but even though we do not know a single thing about Yuuzhan Vong grammar structure, I felt it more closer than 'tchilat. As for 'tchilat I believe that would turn to mean "Will of the" as it is in that form of the sentence, especially being attached to the word Yun. Perhaps some form of possessive or conjunctive sentence structure?! Next given the knowledge that Yun Yuuzhan is the Yuuzhan Vong's main God. I assumed:


Yun = "God" or perhaps even "Creator" (under the right circumstances) So then possibly??.

Yun Yuuzhan = "Creator of the Believers of God" or "God of the believers" (roughly).

Perhaps even "God of the true believers" So?.


From the phrase tizo 'pil Yun'tchil

 

Wow! That's really awesome! Do you think you could do any more analyses? Near the end, it says 'Attila instead of 'tchilat, by the way.

 

An impressive analysis. What's going to be interesting is to apply something like that to a full sentence and to start figuring out how Vong sentences are formed.

I only fault your analysis in one small area. You may be correct, but I believe that Vong is simply the name of the species and that Yuuzhan denotes that they are blessed by the gods. Thus calling the plain Vong is insulting only by omission.

Does the Yuuzhan Vong language have a name that we know of?

-Paul

 

I'm pretty sure that zhaelor means "truth."

Impressive analysis of the language, creche-brother.

Oh, and not only Klingon, but Elvish is offered as a foreign language.

We need to work out a few crucial phrases before moving on to anything else.

Phrases such as:

"Where's the bathroom?"
"You suck."
"Hey, sexy."
"Want to come over to my creche-hold?"
"Dad, I'm hungry!" (hey, even a Yuuzhan Vong has to be taught to be a bad-ass warrior)
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" (though other things would suffice for this, it'd just be cool)
"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with infidels."

Scheme ahead: Now that the YV are supposedly farmers on Zonama Sekot, the jungle paradise planet, they have to somehow support a viable economy. They can open up tourist scams and screw interstellar visitors out of a crapload of money by selling Yun-Yuuzhan idol keychains and Zonama Sekot bananas, which they can then use to fund construction (or shaping, or whatever) of a new fleet and take over the infidels!!!

What's the word for build, anyway? Would it be the same as "to shape" or "to construct?"

 

The Conjugation of Posession
Note: This is the explanation of the conclusion. At the bottom is the final meaning of the individual words, plus two ways that we could synthesize.

---

By the analysis of [b]Tizo'pil Yun'tchilat[/b], it seems that maybe an apostrophe is like a conjugation of possession.

It also works for [b]Do-ro'ik vong pratte[/b], which means "Woe to our enemies". So you get possession apostrophes for "our enemies", "day of comprehending", and "will of the Gods".

It even works for [b]Yuuzhan'tar[/b] with the translation of [b]'tar[/b] as crèche. "Crèche of Yuuzhan"

So we know a few basic words now and how to conjugate a noun with "of" and things like "our" (possessive things).


Going back to [b]Do-ro'ik vong pratte[/b], I think it?s literally translated as ?and woe to our enemies?.

For the translation of [b]Do-ro?ik vong pratte[/b], I?m going to need to re-break down [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b]. I don?t think that [b]Vong[/b] means ?one without belief?, so much as it means a ?being? or simply ?a living sentient?. [b]Yun-Yuuzhan[/b] created the other gods, who in turn created the [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b]. Indirectly, he created them. So [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b] would be ?God beings?. Eventually the word [b]Vong[/b] would evolve to become an insult, meaning that they were a being without the creation of the Gods (thus without the kinship of family as well, since their family would still be assumed to be of the Gods).

Now, obviously the [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b] are opposed to beings ([b]Vong[/b]) who have no connection to the Gods. It?s possible that the word [b]Vong[/b] could also have the literal meaning of enemy, but I think it?s simply implied that a [b]Vong[/b] would be an automatic enemy of a [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b]. So while [b]Vong[/b] could be used in the same way the word enemy is used, and the same meaning is generally implied, it?s still not something you could use interchangeably all the time. Basically, your enemy might be a [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b] (in species), but he?s not a [b]Vong[/b]. Your friend could be a [b]Vong[/b], and (if your morals are screwed up as a [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b]) not an enemy (though still ungodly). But the [b]Vong[/b]s are enemies. Get it?

From the mark ?[b]-[/b]? after [b]Do[/b], I?m guessing it?s expressed as a sound break. If there?s a break, then maybe [b]Do[/b] isn?t necessary to the sentence. [b]Do[/b] would be easy to drop off, like ?and?.

[b]Pratte[/b], because of its length in the phrase and its appearing unalteration, is probably a noun. Most likely, it?s ?woe?. Let?s leave it at that :)

Anything with an apostrophe in front of it is being owned, as we?ve seen. Anything in front of the apostrophe owns. Our only options left are ?our? and ?to? (in this case, ?to? means to convey, give to, bestowing, etc. We can think of it almost as a verbal vehicle. The woe is being transferred to the [b]Vong[/b].). The necessary question is who is doing the owning, us or the vehicle? Obviously, [b]Ro[/b] would be ?us?. Us + possessive= our. [b]Ro[/b] + possessive= [b]Ro?[/b]. Now we know that [b]ik[/b] would be ?to, convey, give to, transfer, etc.?.

[b]Ro?ik[/b] would imply that we control how much is being transferred, since by grammar we own it. A flaw comes up when the sentence is translated to ?and woe to our enemies?. In the English sentence, the enemies are technically being owned. You?re specifying that they aren?t Sally?s enemies; they?re ours. But from [b]Vong[/b] we know that we don?t have to specify whose enemies it is, since [b]Vong[/b] would be anybody?s enemies if you?re a [b]Yuuzhan Vong[/b]. So why is ?to? being owned? As a war cry, it makes sense. You?re going into battle, so you own the amount of woe being brought. It?s a long winded way of saying that grammatically, you own the conveying of woe to enemies. In the overall meaning of [b]ro?ik vong pratte[/b], they?re ?our enemies? after being ?conjugated? with the meaning ?to?. So it still means the same thing, but in language sometimes the technical grammar g

 

Awesome!

 

elements5: if by a 'conjugation of posession', you mean something like a genitive, I'm not sure I agree with you entirely...

I don't really have the time in my spare time to justify this, and I'm being somewhat speculative here, but...

IMHO, the name of Yuuzhan'tar, the "creche of the Yun'o" suggests that "Yuuzhan" is a genitive plural in itself, "of the Yun'o"... nominitive singular evidently being Yun and nominitive plural, I think, Yun'o... a g.pl. Yuuzhan would also make sense of Yun-Yuuzhan and Yuuzhan Vong...

However, that said, we also have Yun'tchilat, which means "the will of the Yun'o" in Traitor (though I think "the will of the Force" is closer to the real meaning! ), and what WJW writes as Ai'tanna Shimrra khotte Yun'o! but Jim Luceno has as Al'tanna Shimrra knotte Yun'o - "Long life to Shimrra, beloved of the Yun'o...

It loks to me that different novellists have used Yun', Yuuzhan and Yun'o as a genitive plural...

Then we also have Jacen's title in Traitor, Khattazz al'Yun, "avatar of the Yun"... in which al'Yun is singular, not plural... which may suggest that Yun'tchilat is actually "the will of the Yun", and that Yun (singular) can be used more loosely, independant of the concept of the Yun'o...

That still leaves us needing to explain the apparent nominative plural in Ai'tanna Shimrra khotte Yun'o! / Al'tanna Shimrra knotte Yun'o...

Anyone?

Also, in Do-ro'ik vong pratte... what's to say that the simple noun vong didn't come first, and the proper name Yuuzhan Vong later...?

And since the first spacefaring species the YV ran into, the first thing they encountered outside the harmony of Yuuzhan'tar, the first thing they had to fight, were more machine than organic, I wonder if vong might also cover "machine"...

General scribblings...

yammosk = "war coordinator"
[Yun-]Yammka = "the Slayer"
therefore a root *yamm- seems to be implied, meaning both 'war' and 'death'...

tsaisi = "baton of command"
Tsavong = perhaps "vong of command", ie one born/created to lead?!

tizowyrm= translator device
tizo'pil Yun'tchilat = "day of comprehending Yun'tchilat"
therefore *tizo = "understanding" (noun? verb? adjective? why an apostrophe in tizo'pil, but not tizowyrm? Why does tizowyrm look as if its second element is derived from a recognizable Indo-European root?!)

We also have Threepio's Bruk tukken Vong pratte, al'tanna brenzlit tchurokk, "Weakness to the Yuuzhan Vong, long live the timid"... which throws together things from VP, DW and Traitor...

Since Bruk tukken elsewhere appears in Bruk tukken nom canbin-tu, "weaken the hinges of the enemy's fort", maybe we should think of pratte as a verb, very approximately "may there be"... so that Bruk tukken Vong pratte would literally mean "may there be a weakening [?!of the hinges?!] of the Vong" (with obvious implications for Do-ro'ik vong pratte)...

At any rate, doesn't this also imply an audible difference between vong pratte and Vong pratte...?



A brenzlit is a type of proverbially cowardly creature from Yuuzhan'tar, but tchurokk is elsewhere seen as an imperative, "behold!" or "look!"... I don't think Threepio is supposed to be talking complete nonsense here, but we literally have "long life brenzlit look", with both al'tanna and tchurrokk elsewhere being attested as imperatives... is that "Long life to those that look like brenzlit"?! Or "long life to brenzlit, behold!", with tchurrokk being used as a vague intensifier on the end of the sentence, perhaps with regard to both Bruk tukken Vong pratte and al'tanna brenzl

 

What about Yun? There seem to be roots implied in the names that mean different things, but do Yun and Yuuzhan both mean God? Doesn't look like they're interchangeable. Yun Yun sounds like something from Hamtaro.

We see tizo'pil Yunt'chilat. Judging by the context, I'd say it means "day of remembrance of the gods" like a special holiday i.e. Christmas, or maybe just Sunday is here. Or should be, anyway. There's a lot of that contextual stuff we need to take into account. There's also the question of how many dialects of Yuuzhan Vong have developed over the centuries.

I'm going to print this out and present it to my Spanish class as a joke. Wonder how many of them will try to kill themselves with plastic knives.

 

alpha_red: I'm no good with grammar in other languages...

You're assuming that YV has a coherent grammar that can be made sense of, rather than just being a roadkill of noise with some bits lifted crudely from one novel or phrase to another which the fanboys will kludge in ways that were never intended...



I guess I didn't make myself clear... Yuuzhan seems to me to be the genitive plural of Yun... YV seems to be a language like Latin where the grammar is expressed by changing the endings of the words... so Yun is the basic word, which I think would be best translated as "an aspect of the Force" or "a natural driving force in life"... but if you want to say that something belongs to, depends on, or is in any way "of" more than one such Yun, you say it is Yuuzhan...

And Yun'chilat, IMHO, looks an awful lot like "the will of the Force"... but you're right - it isn't Yuuzhan... then again, Jacen Solo is al'Yun, rather than Yuuzhan, with the concept of a single Yun appearing from somewhere... which suggests a way to explain Yun'chilat...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Of course, one possibly is that some of these different expressions are idiomatic, and that translating the idiom literally into English would make no sense, so we're presented with alternate versions.

Although I can explain the sentence with the brenzlit more easily than that. We know that tchurokk means "look." Following an historical example in English, we could guess that tchurokk acts in this sentence more like lo, which is an interjection derived from an imperative form of look (I won't get into the etymology here, but OED Online traces it nicely). That clears that up. As for brenzlit, we anglophones use many terms derived from animal names: foxy, catty, bitch. The brenzlit was famed for its cowardice, so its name was adopted as the word for coward (very close in meaning to timid). Alternatively, the cowardly creature derived its name from brenzlit, the existing Y. Vong word for coward. While it is possible that this sentence is idiomatic in nature, but I don't think that's necessary.

Thus, we get Bruk tukken Vong pratte, al'tanna brenzlit tchurokk: "May there be weakening of the enemy, lo! long live the cowards."

TME's point about the need for an audible difference between vong pratte and Vong pratte, it's an interesting point. My only suggestion is that perhaps Threepio was deliberately trying to insult them. We know that Yuuzhan Vong means something like "those the gods are with" and that the implication of just plain Vong is "those the gods are not with." So Threepio is basically saying, "May you get weak, because the gods aren't even with you, and hey, all those of us who aren't warriors like your bad selves should live long lives."

As I see it, the term Yuuzhan Vong is usually a reference to the species, but it can mean (possibly in its lowercase form) anyone with whom the gods are. Likewise, just plain Vong or vong refers to anyone with whom the gods aren't, solely by omission (which backs up what we already knew, that the gods are a big part of Y. vong life). The two are mutually exclusive in definition, but could be applied to the same being depending on the thoughts of the observer regarding that being. Maybe either term capitalized refers to the species, and it's supposed to be possible to derive the spoken meaning from context.

Edit: Just got your idea about yuuzhan as a genitive plural. Which would mean that Yun Yuuzhan is the "god of the gods." Interesting.

-Paul

 

Thrawn McEwok, I know nothing at all about grammar, so I didn't even know what a genitive is. I did it last night in a haze, so thanks for your input/corrections! Everyone has some great ideas. Hopefully we can keep this going!

 

Genitive plural?

Idiomatic?

THE PAIN!!!! OH GOD THE PAIN!!!!

 

After all, our Star Trek fandom brothers can speak Klingon!

Gath, honey? Vongese is Klingon. Get a Klingon dictionary to see for yourself.