In my latest book, Blanc LaBelle and the Troll’s Daughter, the trolls predominantly speak English. However, the trolls had a language all their own in the days before the Under. A few of these words stuck around into modern times and come up a few times in the book. Far from Tolkien, I don’t consider myself a language creator, but there is some logic behind how I went about building the troll language. For a little Behind the Scenes, I wanted to share a little of how Elder Troll works!
Elder Troll is verb driven, as trolls believe in the old adage “actions speak louder than words”. A bulk of their language comes from modifying verbs, especially nouns. Nouns come in four different categories for trolls: People, Places, Things, and Time. Verbs are modified by a vowel sound at the end to create the nouns. For this explanation, we’ll use the word tuckra, a position held by Mayza within the Copper Tooth Clan.
Verb: The word we’re starting with is tuck (like “tuck and roll”). In Elder Troll, tuck means “to tell the truth” or “to decide truth”. It is more than judgement, it is about knowing the precedent of history and deciding what is true based on that. Fairness and tradition play a big part of it, but it is also hearing both sides of an argument and coming to a final decision.
People: a or ah (ah, rah, haha) People generally refers to role in the clan. There are a few different instances that come up in the story. The ah at the end of a noun indicates “one who…” so tuckra becomes “one who decides the truth”. Roslah and kessra are also roles for “one who leads” and “one who fights”.
Places: o (oh, row, bow) Places are identified for their purpose. A tuckro would probably relate to a place of judgement or decision making. In Elder Troll, these would be more sacred places where clans would gather to hear the final judgement of the tuckra. In the context of trolls living in the Under, the tuckro might refer to the tuckra‘s living quarters.
Things: i (ee, seed, reed) Things are tools or items related to the practice of a verb. Tuckri isn’t a great example, but would likely refer to “memory” or “history”. Kessri is a better word for this exercise. Knowing that kessra is “one who fights”, a kessri becomes “a tool for fighting” or “a weapon”. The type of weapon is less relevant to an Elder Troll conversation. All a troll needs to know is that their enemy is armed.
Time: ai (ae, ray, day) Time is a little different for trolls than it is for humans. Dates, hours, even seasons don’t mean as much. Chronology is arranged by events: wars, rituals, celebrations, etc. Tuckrai in this context would probably refer to a trial or a ruling in the context. Specifics would be identified in more detail, but tuckrai would be used for asking “When did this happen?”
Now, let’s set a sentence into place. For the context, we’ll say:
“The One Who Leads met The One Who Decides Truth at The Place of Truth.”
A bit of a mouthful in English. There is no word for ‘the’ in Elder Troll, so all we need so far is the word for “met/meet” (nuer) and the word for “at” (en). In Elder Troll, we would say:
“Roslah nuer tuckra en tuckro.“
Final test! What would you say is the rough translation for the following sentence? Leave a translation in the comments below!
“Kessra kess roslah en roslo“
And that’s the basics of Elder Troll! When it comes to learning troll, you have to go out and explore the verbs and hear it spoken. The more you see trolls do and say, the more their language makes sense!
Thankfully, Blanc LaBelle and the Troll’s Daughter is available in English! If you can read this, you can read the book today!