Asuran

!!- All proper nouns used in this article, as well as species names (asura, charr, norn, etc.), the Asuran script, and all other references to the Guild Wars universe apart from the fictional author Sproakk are property of ArenaNet, LLC. and NCSOFT Corporation. Otherwise, this conceptualization of the Asuran language is not affiliated with these copyright holders and is entirely the product of a third party. -!!

This article is written and published for the purpose of explaining the recently neglected tongue of the subterranean asuran race to the uneducated layman and even, with the appropriate application, the more talented of bookahs including charr, humans, and sylvari. It is the opinion of the author that norn have little chance of embracing the logical complexities of Asuran, but should one come across this paper without the immediate urge to use it as kindling, there may be hope.

It -- that is, the current paper -- is organized into several sections for the convenience and understanding of the current reader: Phonology and Orthography (that is, the sounds one makes when speaking Asuran, and the glyphs one writes), Syntax (that is, the order in which words must be said or written if one is to be understood), Quantimorphology (that is, the oft-cited mathematical aspect of Asuran's logic), the Lexicon (that is, words), and Example Texts. It is recommended that the reader begin at the beginning, and end at the end, as things are meant to be, but if logical ordering proves difficult to comprehend I suppose there is nothing stopping you from taking a less sensible route in your learning.

Regardless, I, the Esteemed Philologist Sproakk, distinguished graduate of the College of Synergetics in Rata Sum and foremost scholar of the Asuran language and literary works, wish you luck. My expertise will doubtless prove of great assistance to all but the most helpless of students. Nevertheless, the luck of the reader is wished for, as is his, her, or its enjoyment.

=General Information=

=Phonology and Orthography= Unlike some languages, Asuran speech and its writing system are perfectly matched: each sound has one letter that makes it, and each letter has one sound. Observe:

The column with reference to numbers and mathematical symbols will make sense in the Quantimorphology section, so the diligent student need not fear. Onwards!

=Syntax= Asuran syntax is the epitome of a perfect head-initial language. That is, its word order is always subject-object-verb. For example, "I (subject) golems (object) build (verb)" would be the word order in a sentence meaning "I build golems."
 * Like Common, however, adjectives come before nouns, and adverbs before verbs, although determiners (such as "this", "that", "those") come after nouns.
 * Instead of prepositions as in Common, Asuran has postpositions, so instead of saying "in Divinity's Reach," you say the equivalent of "Divinity's reach in".
 * Finally, when showing possession in Asuran, one must modify the noun to be possessed via a quantimorpheme, and then follow that noun with the individual possessing it. For instance, "Sproakk's thesis" would be rendered "[his]thesis Sproakk".

Altogether, a sentence that would be uttered, "That stupid bookah went into Zojja's lab," would be ordered in Asuran, "Stupid bookah that into lab Zojja's went."

=Quantimorphology= This is the most complex aspect of Asuran, and is what sets it apart from inferior languages. Asuran mostly strays from true morphology -- that is, adding small word parts onto larger words, arbitrarily tailor-made for a single function, for instance "-ed" for the past tense (jumped). It also avoids similar separate words, such as "will" for the future tense. It even avoids the pitfall so many languages fall into of having altogether too many entirely random pronouns: He, she, him, her, it, they, you, me, we, and so on and so forth.

No. Instead, Asuran simply assigns well-ordered numbers to each of these, up to 16: 1-8 modify pronouns, while 9-18 modify verbs.

Nominal Quantimorphological Values
Quantimorphemes that modify nouns have two roles: when they modify "real" nouns, such as "city" or "laboratory" or "moa", it tells you who owns that thing. The second role is to form pronouns. In Asuran, there is only one pronoun -- extremely efficient -- and it is simply modified with quantimorphemes.


 * The 4th person requires some explaining: It refers to any 3rd person after the initial third person, which is the sentence's focus. This eliminates ambiguity in sentences such as "My father's brother thinks he is smart." In a sentence with this order, "father" is the 3rd person noun, while "brother" is the 4th. If "he" refers to the 3rd person, it is my father who is deemed to be intelligent by my uncle. If "he" instead refers to the 4th person, my uncle is in fact deeming himself to be intelligent. There is, however, no 4th person plural; there is only the 3rd person.


 * Inclusive and exclusive first person plural differ in that the inclusive includes the person you are talking to, while the exclusive does not. For instance, if you say "We are geniuses," if "we" is the inclusive first person plural, that means the person you are talking to is a genius as well as you, and possibly some other asura. If "we" is the exclusive first person plural, however, the person you are talking to is still a buffoon.

Numbers Into Sounds
Now, the astute student will have noticed that there are 18 different quantimorphemes, and 19 different consonants. A student of language may think, "A-ha! So each quantimorpheme is denoted by a consonant! How logical!" But students of language are more often than not idiots. That would still require each and every speaker to remember 18 different morphemes which are arbitrary. I insist instead that they must only remember numbers, which are by their very nature easier for the asuran mind to order, and need only use a select few consonants in their quantimorphology as suits their idiom.

Each consonant in Asuran refers to a number in alphabetical order (apart from W, which along with its fellow semi-vowel Y takes the value of 18), and each vowel refers to a basic operation. So the basic format for forming a quantimorpheme is choosing a consonant for a value, and a vowel for an operation. For instance, the syllable li means "add 2", as L=2, and I=[+].

You can, in theory, reach any quantimorphic value from any other quantimorphic value simply by adding and subtracting. This, however, makes you look like an imbecile. It is instead far better to try to use the smallest values you can -- sticking to the "early" consonants in the alphabet -- by also using multiplication and division. When you have multiplied or divided your way closer to your target value, you may add a consonant to the end of your quantimorpheme to add or subtract. So, zel means "multiply by 3, subtract 1". It should be noted that if you are multiplying, you cannot add afterwards, and if you are dividing you cannot subtract. It is assumed that multiplication will always be followed by subtraction, and division by addition (even if of 0).

A final method of forming a quantimorpheme is using the vowel A. This is the digit sum vowel: if your quantimorpheme is high, ie 12, you can use this vowel to immediately reduce it to 5.*


 * Note that I did not say 3 (1+2=3), because Asuran uses an octal (base-8) numeric system, rather than decimal (base-10). That means we can only count to 7 before getting into multiple digits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, etc. 12 is therefore treated as 14 in Asuran (1+4=5).

After using the digit sum vowel A, you may then add, subtract, multiply and divide as normal, so aler means "digit sum, multiply by 2, subtract 1", which is one relatively efficient way to get from 11 to 7!

Every sentence in Asuran is assumed to start with a quantimorphic value of 6. That is, it is assumed you will be talking about yourself. If you are not, and are instead going to use a different pronoun as your subject (that is, you are going to start your sentence with "you", "he", "it", "we", etc.) or an object/individual that belongs to someone other than yourself, you must create a quantimorpheme to alter your quantimorphic value, and attach it to the beginning of the subject pronoun in the sentence.

All quantimorphemes are prefixed -- that is, attached to the beginning -- of nouns or verbs, to change the quantimorphic value immediately before the pronoun, noun, or verb you wish to articulate appropriately.

This, at last, is all you need to know about quantimorphology.