Talk:Tehir Lexicon
Please add words here you believe should be included in the lexicon. Provide a link to the relevant document or enough information about where it is in game that we can find it to review. Thanks! ~Xynwen
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Life and Being in the Sea of Fire & its primer document, which are inexplicably separated on the wiki, were published on 04/07/2008. A majority of the document's work was completed by the end of 2005. Mechanical culture languages were off the table at that time, so a cipher was devised to help staff and players communicate in a common framework, outside existing mechanical limitations about language. It also had the benefit of superseding the Out of Genre/Real World Clothes Nouns problem. When the document was again brought up for release in 2007-2008, cultural mechanical languages were suddenly an option - but the cipher was already IN the document, so it stayed. Many Tehir words in the Life and Being document are based on a cipher, though not all as players have come to realize.
The cipher is generally a substitution format, but includes situational letter shifts and grammar rules for tense. For the sake of simplification, one could call it a gendered language, even though it's an imprecise term in this context. Not all letters possess the gender shift. Things usually use a feminine shift, and concepts use a masculine shift, but there are some exceptions as noted below. Past tense words may be preceded by a "to-" as in "ru-teumi" or "to-gone" instead of went or "to-escape" instead of "escaped". The reason for past tense inflection is because the letter D is omitted in the cipher when preceded by a vowel. Additionally, verbs may be the noun plus -ing, such as blooding instead of bleeding.
- Layafi translates to "my luve" or incorrectly translates to "my love" when decoded from the cipher. This word has shift errors and should have been "Layufi".
- Zhi translates to "the" when decided from the cipher.
- Zhizio translates to "the sea" when decoded from the cipher.
- Zlo translates to "small" when decoded from the cipher.
- Tzou Lekem "shadow moon" when decoded from the cipher.
- Ufura translates to "ivody" or incorrectly translates "ivory" when incorrectly decoded from the cipher. This word has shift errors and should have been "Ufuda"
- Zdurtzi is problematic. Translates to "Stolshe" or "stong she" or "sting she". This word falls outside common cipher logic. It's missing "st" = "v" (we also see "zd" instead of "v" in kiete bukazd below). and the -ur looks more like ?ng. If Sting she were accurate, the translation honors ng=r, but does not honor ing=ir as seen elsewhere.
- Livebiz translates to "mestress" or incorrectly translates to "mistress" when decoded from the cipher. This word has shift errors.
- Murkilom translates to "noble man" when decoded from the cipher.
- Tzimurqi translates to "she not wed" when decoded from the cipher. This word debatably has a error on T in Not and could have been Tzimudqi, but as a conglomerated title either is passable.
- Lovib translates to "master" when decoded from the cipher.
- Zhifiier translates to "the veil" when decoded from the cipher.
- Latduame translates to "my ground" when decoded from the cipher.
- Kiete bukazd translates to "big robust" when decoded from the cipher. Note that Qut and Kiete both mean big.
- Zhi’vieba translates to "The Fires" when decoded from the cipher. It is an example of the "res = ba" shift.
- Zirtziez translates to directly to "selshis" when decoded from the cipher.
- Ayr translates to "oud". [Oud is a lute-type instrument] after which the ayr was modeled.
The Research:Tehir Language page contains a mostly complete cipher key and includes a variety of translations. I am more than happy to keep adding to the list if desired, or help anyone translate specific words. NAAMIT (talk) 11:06, 20 September 2022 (CDT)
- zhiqietz was added on the main Tehir Lexicon page as coming from heavens or "zhi zya" but it has a typo. Zya via the cipher would be "sly" or "slu" (z=s, y=l, a=u/y ... sly/slu). "Zhi zja" is the term for heavens (which is in the primary document) and is composed of "the sky" via the cipher (th=zh, e=i, zj=sk, a=y ... the sky). NAAMIT (talk) 09:24, 21 September 2022 (CDT)
I haven't seen any replies to the content provided above. Curious if there is even a desire for more suggestions or if this effort has been abandoned. If it's a matter of not understanding how the cipher works, I am once again more than happy to help teach it. NAAMIT (talk) 09:19, 14 April 2023 (CDT)