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[Verone]

Holy  shit 

[Vieve]

Holy  shit 

I had a similar reaction.

Followed by "holy hell, I should go look at my stuff and fixy, 'cause I like this".

[Tacitrain]

RP noob here.

Is this something you made up, or is there an actual reference to this language somewhere in the chrons/sci articles?

[Silver Night]

RP noob here.

Is this something you made up, or is there an actual reference to this language somewhere in the chrons/sci articles?

It's a big cluster, CCP PF covers very little of it. Some of this stuff is grounded in PF, most of it is player created. The bit about Caldari being a mixture of Japanese and Finnish is pretty well established.

A lot of player created stuff like this makes it into broad RP use, and sometimes into official, CCP sanctioned fiction.

[Kaldor Mintat]

Same applies for the Intaki language as well, and i assume other languages have been developed also although i have only seen the above scale of development in Caldari and Intaki myself.

[Ken]

Thanks to everyone for the words of praise and encouragement.  I've continued to add to this project as time and support from others permit.  Went to make another addition tonight and found that the original post was busting the 50k character limit.  Thus, I now present this project in a rough .pdf format uploaded to EVE Files.  Over time it'll hopefully morph into a more official-looking document.

[Arvo Katsuya]

I've been meaning to want to mention this. I discovered this on the OOC forums, in the discussion about the Caldari language there:

http://www.eve-chatsubo.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=861&hilit=Caldari+Language

“No," he shook his head, serious. "Kigurosaka-Dai… old Napanii expression. Kigurosaka, "flowing smooth with the stream", is your… state of awareness with your surroundings, being able to inherently follow procedures, and know what needs to be done without being told to. The '-Dai' particle negates the previous.”

(as a spoiler, I will let you know this: 'Lai' means 'to forget'  )

The very meaning to 'Lai Dai' is to 'never forget'. Of what, goes without saying.

This tempts me to perchase that issue of E-ON.

[Ken]

Thanks!  Good eye.  I used a lot of stuff from that thread, but seems I forgot the verb for "forget".  Lai "to forget" should give us a new root la- "forget".  This -dai particle is also useful.  I'll have to work it in.

[Ember Vykos]

Dude. This is...this is just FREAKING AWESOME. I usually just use the grettings, but Im gonna have to put some brain cells to memorizing some of this stuff so I can use it.

[Mithfindel]

I did read the PDF thru. Might have some commentary while I am home (proposed in-character etymology for a few words as well as explaining the "original" meaning of those words that have obvious Finnish roots).

[Ken]

That would be awesome, Mithfindel.    Please comment away!

[Nascent]

So is hnolku as traitor slang or is it an actual word in the language?  If the former why would it be so prevalent after only 5 years and what was its original meaning?  If the latter then why was it ever used as a name?  Just figured this should be tackled while there's a revision of sorts going on.

[Ken]

Hnolku is definitely a slang term, being the name of a very recent traitor to the Caldari State.  Compare it to quisling.  Without an accompanying etymological explanation, future generations of English speakers (indeed, current ones) will use that term as a synonym for traitor in ignorance of it actually being someone's name.  I think whoever first put forward hnolku as Caldari for "traitor" was going for the exact same thing, but it's only been a few years since the Insorum scandal involving the traitorous Hnolkus (YC107). 

Your average Caldari citizen then would use the word knowing full well its origin, and I think it would be reserved for someone particularly vile (or as I wrote in the current version of the primer, specifically for a contemporary traitor to the modern State).  So, it's not a proper synonym quite yet, but it will become one someday.  To give us an "original" term:

gaaira n. traitor
agatiri v. to betray (root: agatir "betray")
agatirone n. betrayal (root: agatir "betray")

I'll put these in the next time I update the primer.

[Mithfindel]

I've finished doing a bit more through read of the word lists and noted comparisons to some words. This is actually quite difficult due to the fact that several words are likely mix-and-match from Finnish and Japanese, with changed vowels. In addition, sometimes the root isn't what I'd first connect with the meaning of the word, but rather a related word. (Either close-to-same meaning or a word whose English word is a homonyme with the English word for the correct translation.)

To give some food for thought, Finnish phonology from the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language#Phonology*
Also, Japanese phonology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology

*) This together with the fact that when reading Finnish all letters match roughly to their IPA equivalents directly (with a few exceptions) makes it at times pretty damn hard to figure out what systems English-speaking FCs mean, specially in Caldari space since the system names are "almost Finnish" and it's harder to figure how to "read them in English".

[Ken]

several words are likely mix-and-match from Finnish and Japanese, with changed vowels

In fact, the vast majority of them are. 

My intent wasn't to recreate something discernibly Finnish, Japanese, or anything else, but rather give more body to the fictional Caldari language while providing a basic grammar.  I'm sorry I don't know the full context of your post, Mithfindel, but I suspect you are a native (or at least capable) speaker of Finnish and/or Japanese.  Napanii isn't meant to sound particularly Finnish or Japanese.  Also, none of the roots or words in this primer are meant to naturally connect to any particular concept or meaning for anyone but a native speaker of Napanii.  That they did not connect in that way for you (at least some of the time) tells me this is sufficiently differentiated from both of the source/inspirational languages that it fulfills my original intent.