D'ni language help

Jahara · **Posted:** Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:28 pm

Hello! Forgive me if this isn’t the correct place to put this. I’ve been a very, very, very long-time lurker, finally peeking out from under my rock to ask for help. Haven't ventured in cavern in a long time, but I've seen that things seem to be kicking back up and hoping to hop back in a KI soon! I know this isn't directly MOUL related, but this seems to be the most active set of forums for MYST/D'ni lovers still, and I'm hoping to trip over some of those language experts here.

I’m trying to translate the phrase, “Hope survives,” into D’ni. I’ve not been able to find the verb “to survive” anywhere in the dictionaries available, so I’ve tried to find words that would convey the meaning while still being a short sentence.

devokantahv tsahv tsahn – hope lives forever
devokantahv tsahnril mahnshoo – hope never dies
devokantahv beerah – hope remains

On the off chance that I’m missing the word for survive somewhere, I’d love to learn it. Otherwise, do these look correct or make sense? I wasn’t sure if this was the right way to turn “hope” (verb) into a noun, but took a stab at it. My guess is that it would look like DevoKåntav in D’ni?

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance!

KathAveara · **Posted:** Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:42 pm

Hi!

We don't have a word for "survive" yet, so any of those phrases would probably be fine. Just a grammar point - the verbs should have an -en on the end, to make it 3rd person. And devokan is already a noun, so you don't need to add a suffix to make it one.

There's a Guild especially for D'ni language questions - see the link in my signature.

You're welcome!

Jahara · **Posted:** Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:26 pm

Thank you (again!) for a crazy super fast reply! Glad to see there's a GoL in action - it's motivation to get off my duff and back in gear and hopefully connect. This is exactly why I wanted to check.

So hope remains would be devokan beerahen, DevoKån bEraen, yes? It's been a LONG time since I tinkered with the language....considering going back over Domahreh's lessons as a refresher.

korovev · **Posted:** Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:27 pm

I’d go with .DevoKån xan xaven, sounds the nicest to me

Jahara · **Posted:** Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:00 pm

korovev wrote:

I’d go with .DevoKån xan xaven, sounds the nicest to me

Fair enough!

D'ni language help

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