Introduction

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Introduction

Introduction

“Gargoyle” is an English corruption of gargl, the Gargoyles’ name for themselves and their language. An informal word for gargl as the name of the Gargoyle language is “Gargish”.Spoken Gargish is grammatically rather flexible. Distinctions between nouns, adjectives, and verbs are indicated by gestures and intonations. This flexibility is also apparent in the names of magic spells derived from Gargish phrases. “Vas Sanct Lor”, for instance, is derived from the Gargish vas saengkt lor, but it is equally correct to say saengkt vas lor or even lor saengkt vas. Gargoyles tend to omit words they consider to be unnecessary complications, like pronouns, and they often speak in infinitives. While a Human attempting to speak Gargish might come up with something like í est ker í le vid ú prae, “I’m certain that I’ve seen you before”, a Gargoyle would simply say ker le vid prae (or more idiomatically, ker prae vid le), “to be certain having seen before”. With practice, it’s possible to deduce the implied pronouns in a Gargoyle sentence, but it’s not always easy.
Unlike spoken Gargish, the written language has no way to mark the intonations and gestures that make the speech intelligible, so there are suffixes that mark words as being verbs, nouns, or adjectives, and also indicate the tense and aspect of verbs. In many cases, these are words which are meaningful by themselves, such as the adjectival suffix -de, which means “of” in isolation. Here is a list of the most common suffixes:

-char “part” (names a tool used for doing a certain action, such as agrachar “weapon”)
-de “of” (marks adjectives or adverbs formed from nouns, verbs, and other words)
-ku “with” (forms adjectives, such as mirku “watery”)
-le “end” (marks past tense or perfective aspect of verbs)
-lem “one” (similar to English -er in baker, writer, miner, etc.)
-re “begin” (marks future tense of verbs)
-sa “able” (similar to English -able, ible)
-tas “quality” (marks abstract nouns, such as ámotas “love”, vs. ámo “to love”)
-te “in” (marks present tense or imperfective aspect of verbs)
-ve “like” (forms adjectives, such as misve “similar”)

Names:

Most gargoyles have names that describe their profession. Lensmaker (Lorrelinlem) is an example of that type of name. Other names are meaningful, like Behlem, the Just One. But many gargoyles, particularly the elite, have names which are meaningless in themselves, like Draxínusom. A number of these names are listed in the vocabulary.

Writing

Gargl AlphabetGargoyles have an alphabet of 30 characters, arranged in a 5×6 pattern. Similar sounds are grouped together by rows and columns. For instance, the first row, transcribed as p b m f v u, represents sounds that are produced with the lips, and the s ounds in the first column, p t ch kl k, are all voiceless stops. (The remaining rows are: t d n s z e, ch j ny sh zh i, kl gl nl hl l o, and k g ng h r a.) The letter u also serves to represent w at the beginning of a syllable when followed by a vowel. The sequence k–u is sometimes pronounced ku, as in kuante, but more frequently kw (traditionally transcribed as qu), as in quas. Three of the letters (ny, nl, and hl) serve only to complete the chart, and are not found in contemporary spoken Gargish.The Gargish language has long and short vowels. They are not normally distinguished in spelling, except where this would cause confusion. For example, uus means “up,” but us means “diligence.” In this document, long vowels are marked with an accent: us vs. úus, súm vs. summ.

Samples

Here are a few samples of Gargish sentences translated literally, then into more idiomatic English.Teresta sit lem antende nóm.
place-that lie ones not-have-of name
Here lie those that had no names.
Estatim i perle lorrel re inwíslor kódex ad quad.
that-time I used light-change begin make-know-light codex upon cube
Then I used the lens to form an image of the Codex upon the cube.
Ánte esta terreg máníte múr anísh zen.
in that place-home living number strange creature
In that land live many strange creatures.
A qua lemmúr wíste, an zen anku vol verde wís.
but what ones-number knowing, not creature not-with wing true-of knowledge.
But as everyone knows, no creature without wings is truly intelligent.
Ánte kódex skríle prí ben esh ver res quí quae.
in codex written one well and true answer any problem
Within the Codex is written the one right and true answer to any problem.
Anvolde lem ansa lók, esh anten skítas de volde lem.
not-wing-of ones not-can speak, and not-have know-ness of wing-of ones
The wingless ones cannot speak, and lack the intelligence of the winged ones.
Tú rete ku klí axi: ún, or, esh us.
all beginning with three principle: control, passion, and diligence
All begins with the three principles: Control, Passion and Diligence.
Ita anai de axi vidúkte trak semde bentas, ord.
thus not-there-is of principle see-guiding toward seven-of well-quality, order
Thus the absence of the principles points toward the seventh virtue, Order.
The above introduction is found at http://www.uo.com/archive/gargoyle/index.htmlalong with a download-able runic font
Gargish Introduction
The following is the promotional Gargish Language Introduction used for the Stygian Abyss Expansion. Taken from: www.uoherald.com
Gargoyles don’t usually use pronouns to refer to themselves directly, if you ask them their name they will say, “To be called Bob.” Gargoyles speak as if they were writing Hai Ku, almost always starting their comment with the infinitive form of a verb.
“To be helped by you? To have my keys returned? To regrettably have locked them in the car!” This is how a Gargoyle might say, “Will you help me? I have locked my keys in the car.”
“To be a human known as Mark. To work at Mythic. To secretly be a Russian spy.” This is how a Gargoyle might say, “There is a human named Mark who works at Mythic who is secretly a Russian spy.”
To make a gargoyle mean the opposite of what they say, simply put “not” after the infinitive form of the verb.
“To know not where he works. To be seeming not to be a Russian spy.”
If you find your sentence with some awkward nested prepositions, try changing the second infinitive to a progressive verb as above and see if you like it better. “To seem to not be a Russian spy.” becomes, “To be seeming not to be a Russian spy.”
If you aren’t feeling especially clever at any time, you can cheat and just put “To be” in front of whatever you are trying to say.
“To speak with Quan. To find the answer you seek!” “To buy a throwing weapon. To not know what to do. To speak with me. To learn using throwing weapon.”
Gargoyles do not use any pronouns except “you” and this is only used when “you”is the object of the preposition. They either use the proper noun or if generalizing they kind of jam some words together to make it work.
“To have had to give up many much when we moved.” “Mine own Orb of the Moons exploded recently!” “To ask you to come back when I have the time to heal you.”
Editor’s Commentary: In the sentences provided above “you” isn’t being used as an object of the preposition; it’s being used as the object of the infinitive phrase. Perhaps that’s what the person who wrote this guide meant, but just used the wrong words. Oh, and for those of you who don’t know what an infinitive is, it’s adding a “to” before a verb: “to go,” “to run,” “to hate,” etc.
Don’t forget you can clear things up by adding dialogue tags.
“To like it here,” he adds, smiling.
The above intro was taken from uoherald.com

Editor’s Commentary:
Gargl is a pretty simple language. Complex words are formed from smaller “base” words, conjoined with a hyphen. e.g.: Sea Serpent is “Mir-sarp” which literally translates as water serpent. This also allows for making up your own words if you wanted to say “boulder” for which there is no Gargish equivalent in the provided dictionary, you would just combine the words “great” – “Vas” and “rock” – “Lap” to form “Vas-lap” which means “big rock”, which is exactly what a boulder is.

The “base” words seem to be a combination of a lot of latin abbreviations, a little Greek, and other stuff they seem to have made up (or it’s a language I can’t recognize.)
Magic Words of Power are taken from Gargl.
Edited by Stupid Miner. June 2009.

Last modified: October 17, 2011

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