Note: This first post is a dictionary of Volk terms; read on for posts about other aspects of the Volk's language, including their unique alphabet! This dictionary is a work in progress; I'll be adding new entries as they are created, and eventually I'll insert pronunciation.

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 Alphabet
 Grammar
 Punctuation
 Units of Measure

Volk Dictionary of Terms
This dictionary lists the Volk spelling, pronunciation, and definition of each invented word used in the book. Most of the words listed were created by the Volk, but a few were borrowed from other cultures and adopted into the Volk’s language. In general, if a word is sourced from German or has no source language, it is unique to the Volk; words sourced from other languages were borrowed from different cultures.

Though their ancestors spoke a Germanic tongue, the Volk’s language has evolved into standard English. Therefore, the standard pronunciation for most words is based off of American English phonetics. This includes words borrowed from other languages; the Volk pronounce these words phonetically based on their spelling in Roman characters. As such, if no pronunciation is given for a word, it is pronounced phonetically by spelling.

The primary exception lies with German-sourced words inherited from the Volk’s ancestors. These words are still pronounced the German way. A pronunciation has been listed for all qualifying words.

The marking “+pl.” indicates that the plural form is the same as the singular form of the noun. Unless otherwise noted, all other common nouns are made plural by the addition of “s.” For proper nouns, the official adjective form is given, unless the adjective form is the same as the noun.


bague n. +pl. – a matted bush producing navy berries, native to the central forests; the criet’s sole diet (from French: “bush”)

cordage n. – the silk of the criet, and objects woven or braided from that silk (from French: "rope")

criet n. +pl. – a seven-legged singing insect resembling a wingless cricket, native to the central forests

die lebenden n. +pl. – the official name for semi-sentient, mobile “living trees” (from German: “the living”)

Erde n.; Erde’s adj. – the Volk name for the physical earth, as well as the world at large (from German: “earth”)

fourth n. – the standard unit of time in Volk cultures; twelve fourths make a day and eight fourths make a night

klippe n. – the standard unit of weight in the Federated, used in place of a monetary system; abbreviated ^ (from German: “rock”)

kupfer n., adj. +pl. – an extremely soft metal mined in the southwest region, with a dark copper color and matte finish (from German: “copper”)

path n. – the standard unit of length and distance in the Federated; abbreviated =

Rot-haarig n., adj. +pl. – the Volk name for a clan of giants from the west-central plains, averaging 12’ tall with pale skin and characteristic cherry-red hair (from German: “red-haired”)

raubvogel n. +pl. – any species of large sentient bird, sizing a yard tall or bigger (from German: “bird of prey”)

Volk n., adj. – a general name for the ethnic group inhabiting the south, primarily composed of humans descended from Germanic immigrants (from German: “people, nation”)

Wald, the n. – a hostile forest of living trees in the southwest region (from German: “woods, forest”)

Volk Alphabet
see attachment for character chart; digitalization by B.S. Meyers

History
The ancestors of the Volk were a mixed group of immigrants that came from a string of neighboring spheres and converged in Erde’s south plains. One boatload of these immigrants came from a sphere with a culture that was ahead for its era; advanced civilization allowed leisure time which promoted the development of arts, including writing. This culture had developed a gorgeous script to represent their native tongue, and they brought their writings with them to Erde. Most of the other immigrants were not so advanced, and this unique group was the only family to keep written records of Erde’s early years.

Unfortunately, life on untamed Erde did not allow for further pursuit of the arts. In the rigors of forging a new life, the settlers let their writing fall to the wayside. To make matters worse, they found that Erde’s vegetation was unsuitable for their form of papermaking; a replacement method was not discovered for a few centuries, preventing easy access to writing materials. The crisis of the Great Darkness was the death blow to the written art; the fight for survival and the struggle to cope with the onset of fading caused the luxury of writing to be all but forgotten. Literacy plummeted and almost vanished for the first 100-200 our-world years after the Great Darkness.

Even though they weren’t writing, they were talking, and the Volk spoken language continued to evolve. The immigrants’ melded their native tongue with that of the other settlers, most of whom spoke Germanic dialects, to produce German. Further social mixing gave birth to the blended Volk race and their complex English language.

As civilization began to gain a firm grip in the second half of the Middle Years, political interactions increased, and so did the need to capture words on paper. By this time, their ancestors’ writing had been rendered useless; the language had been left behind, and no modern Volk could translate the ancient script. Therefore, the Volk designed a new alphabet to accompany their modern language, declaring the artifacts of their ancestors’ tongue forever illegible.

As with most of the Volk’s culture, early character sets took on different forms in each region, as leaders and landlords designed their own system. Sometimes only one person in an estate could read the alphabet; the scribe copied down his lord’s message in a unique code and then carried the paper to its recipient, where the scribe would read it aloud. However, the desire for mutual understanding prompted collaboration; scribes exchanged alphabets and promoted literacy. The number of alphabets decreased to a handful of easily-translated dialects, and the common man began to toy with the ideas of reading and writing. When the Federated formed, they agreed upon the character set shown here, making this dialect the official representative of the Volk alphabet.

Style
The Volk alphabet was designed with simplicity in mind. Inspired by their tally-mark number system, the Volk developed an alphabet that could be quickly scribbled out. The resulting character set is plain but effective; because the combination of cross-strokes and dots is unique for each letter, the alphabet is legible no matter how sloppily it is written.

The formal way to write Volk characters is with straight, perpendicular lines. This format is used for official documents, particularly those going outside of the Federated, to make it easy to translate into other dialects. In everyday handwriting, however, the characters are often slanted. It is considered acceptable to slant the letters either to the right or to the left; it is also common to leave the down-strokes vertical while slanting the cross-strokes, or vice versa. The differences are considered personal style and vary from person to person, though the trend within the Federated is to write the characters with vertical down-strokes and right-slanting cross-strokes. It is not acceptable, however, to mix different styles within one document.

Use
While the written word is used extensively for political interactions and business transactions, the Volk view writing as disposable and temporal. Because trees are scarce in the southwest, paper is precious; most everyday writing is done in the dirt or on a surface that can be washed or erased and reused. Most messages are read and then discarded; few long-term records are kept. Extensive recording or tracking of days, though not strictly forbidden, is harshly discouraged, being viewed as demented at best and heretical at worst.

As such, literacy remains optional throughout the Federated. Many serfs learn a simple vocabulary to make trading easier; some enjoy writing as a sort of art form, whether that be scratching in the dirt or painting with ink, but keeping these experiments is discouraged. Storytelling – which mostly consists of fragmented history, news, and legends (most of which are rumors from other cultures) – is reserved for word-of-mouth. Writing down extensive stories is frowned upon. The result is that most serfs use abbreviated grammar and poor spelling when writing; in some estates, to use more formal speech is considered ostentatious for anyone but the powerful scribes and landlords.

However, some Volk make an effort to learn the language in full. Landlords view it as a sign of power, and serfs use their knowledge to bid for jobs. Messengers and scribes, both of which need to read and write in proper grammar, are the most stable and coveted jobs in the average estate. As such, few scribes are willing to share the full extent of their knowledge, lest their student take their job. Those aspiring to become versed in the language must either befriend a benevolent teacher or take it upon themselves to glean the knowledge.

Volk Grammar
In writing, there are three levels of Volk grammar based on the formality of the situation. The highest level of formality is reserved for official documents that are intended to be preserved for any length of time. Because the Volk discard most of their everyday correspondence, only very special occasions call for this treatment, referred to by scribes as “official writing.” The full rules of English grammar are followed, and abbreviations (including contractions and possessives) are avoided. Great care is taken to write everything out in the most respectful detail possible.

The next level of grammar is called “formal writing” – or more arrogantly, “proper writing.” Proper grammar is followed, but abbreviations and some casual expressions (such as ending a sentence with a preposition or broken infinitives) are allowed in moderation. Formal writing is the style scribes and messengers use for most of their work, and landlords and learned serfs use it in their everyday correspondence. Common serfs make an effort to use formal writing on important occasions, or when attempting to show respect to a higher power.

While most serfs speak on a level similar to formal writing, most of their correspondence falls to the standard of “common writing,” which the scribes condescendingly call “improper writing.” Common writing is extremely abbreviated and reflects the Volk’s casual approach to writing. Proper grammar is not expected; it is not unusual to use the singular present tense of all verbs regardless of context. Articles are omitted, spelling is lax, and nouns are often made plural by the simple addition of “s” regardless of spelling. Common writing employs a lot of shorthand, which varies between regions, making pieces of common writing difficult to translate out of context. Users of common writing get their thoughts out in as few words as possible without any consideration for preserving the writing past its immediate use.

Volk Punctuation
To accompany their alphabet, the Volk have a few simple marks of punctuation. These marks are easily scribbled out and often liberally used, to reflect the casual nature of the Volk’s writing.

A right-slanting slash [/] is a full stop, used as a period. Full stops are also placed at the ends of lists, equations, and long strings of counting marks. Two right-slanting slashes [//] indicate emphasis like an exclamation point; three or more slashes may be used to show extreme urgency or excitement in informal writing. A left-slanting slash [\] denotes a question.

A simple short dash [-] is used to break up thoughts in long sentences, filling the roll of comma, semicolon, and colon. The Volk use the dash only when it is necessary for clarity; most American-English uses of commas are ignored. In informal writing, several short thoughts may be strung together with dashes instead of dividing them with full stops. The dash can also link multiple words to mean either/or like the slash is used in American-English. Quotations are often set off with dashes, but when quotes are needed for clarity or formality, short vertical tick marks [‘] are used. These tick marks are also used in the place of brackets or parentheses when necessary. The Volk alphabet does not use apostrophes; contractions and possessives are spelled in the same way, but the apostrophe is omitted.

The Volk alphabet does not call for capitals, but underlining a proper noun is considered a sign of respect. It is customary to underline proper nouns in formal writing, and names are often underlined in informal writing to show respect or endearment. Underlining is also used in casual writing to show emphasis.

Volk Units of Measure

Time & Numerals
The people on Erde do not keep close track of time, and the Volk are no exception. Because of their work-based mentality, the serfs and their masters care about only one thing – how long a job will take. Therefore, most activities are measured by their duration with phrases such as “three in a day” and “two days’ job,” where day refers to the time from daybreak to complete darkness. Since little work is conducted after dark, night (the time from complete darkness to daybreak) is only occasionally used as a measurement.

However, the Volk have studied the relevance of time long enough to realize that day and night are proportionate to one another. The day takes three units while the night uses only two. This unnamed unit is divided into quarters to produce a time measurement known as a fourth, which is very similar to our world’s hour. Twelve fourths make up a day and eight fourths compose a night. In everyday speech, fourth is used loosely to refer to the approximate time length; when precision is needed, the Volk use a standardized hourglass filled with powdered brown stone from the north end of their land.

This use of fourths spills over into the Volk’s counting. While they use a base-ten number system, the Volk prefer to count things by fours with an emphasis on twelve and eight. The Volk do not have numerical characters in their alphabet; instead, they use tally or tick marks in groups of four. Dots may be substituted for groups of four for speedy counting. The mark “x” is shorthand for twelve or dayspan; a “y” is short for eight or nightspan. The Volk compute by addition almost exclusively; items to be added are usually placed in a vertical list, but occasionally a scratch mark similar to an ampersand will be used. Subtraction is uncommon, and division is only used in the form of fractions. They do not know how to multiply.

Length & Distance
When traveling, the Volk only refer to how long a journey will take in terms of days; they have no interest in tracking actual distance. To measure distances closer to home, the Volk use a unit known as a path. Folk lore says an average man can walk approximately twelve paths in a fourth, giving rise to the phrase “so many paths to darkness,” an estimate on the distance a man could travel before nightfall. As with other measurements, path is often used loosely. When governments need precise measurements, they use a rope cut to the exact length of a path as determined by the ruling authority. As such, the actual measurement of a path varies from region to region. When the Federated formed, the king set the official length for the path used within the union.

Paths are often divided into fourths, eighths, and twelfths, which can be subdivided into fourths, eighths, or twelfths again. A twelfth-path and its parts are common units for small measurements around the home. The symbol for a whole path is “=”, written after the tally marks indicating the number. A dot is written above the path sign to indicate a fourth-path; an “x” and “y” represent twelfth-path and eighth-path, respectively. When a part-path is further divided, the appropriate symbol is added above the existing symbols to create the desired fraction.

Weight & Currency
Barter for goods and services is the primary form of exchange within the Federated. Landlords value their wealth on their land and people base, and they pay their serfs primarily in room and board. However, the serfs’ plea to have a small commission in goods to trade for things their landlord did not provide prompted the development of a standardized weight system.

At first, each landlord used a designated piece of precious metal in a balance to weigh his transactions. However, precious metal was inaccessible to the serfs for trading amongst themselves, and the system was inconsistent between the landlords. Therefore, a few landlords agreed to cut squares of brown stone to a specified size and use them as the standardized balance. The resulting unit was named klippe, literally “rock.” Klippe weights are made in a variety of materials, but plain brown stone continues to be the most popular. The klippe was widely accepted across the southwest and was adopted as the official weight measurement by the Federated.

The klippe is used with a balancing scale to price goods in the absence of a standard monetary system. A given good is weighed out against a klippe weight until the scale balances; the resulting amount is designated as a “klippe of” that good and is considered the standard unit. All transactions are conducted in terms of klippes, with the exception of cloth and rope, which may be measured in twelfth-paths. I.E., “two klippes of wheat for one klippe of berries,” or “I’ll pay you four klippes of grain for that service.” The standard unit ensures consistent measurements, though the practical value of goods is still based on their perceived worth.

A klippe can be divided into fourths, eighths, and twelfths. The symbol for a klippe is “^,” which is superscripted after the applicable tally marks. Part-klippes are designated with the corresponding symbol written under the tent of the klippe-sign – dot for fourth, “y” for eighth, and “x” for twelfth.

I'm wondering if perhaps the dictionary should get its own thread. It will be fun to watch the list of terms grow.

This is just the Volk dictionary, so it won't actually be that long of a list. They speak English, so we're not inventing a lot of words beyond creature names and proper nouns. So I want to leave it with the other Volk language articles for now, but I can post on the thread every time I add a new word, if that would help.

Oh, okay. Just updating it occasionally will work.

Very nicely thought out! You put a lot of thought in it, and I can see that.

Thank you, Elly! I really appreciate that.

Awesome, Philli

I love how German the Volk are - *loves German*

eru

Thanks, Andrew! Glad to find another German lover. I'm fascinated by all things German, so I chose Germanic roots for my main race. One of these days I'll actually learn German...

Alas, I speak no German, but I really love the language and culture

eru

Added to the dictionary: