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extrapenguinHello everyone! I am, in addition to a lover of worldbuilding, also a linguistics nerd. So when I discovered that Ben Grossblatt had created a working conlang for the Sith to speak that wasn't just a cipher of English (looking at you, Mando'a), I was immediately intrigued. Now, the Wookieepedia for Sith includes stuff from things that aren't Grossblatt's (and contradict his very nice conlang) and also I noticed there were a few phrases and compounds one could break down into known components and a words not listed in the article's table, so I decided to make a set of tables for my own purposes. I hope you find it useful.
For quick reference, the Ben Grossblatt Sith language refs are 1 5 13 21 25 28 31; other cites on Wookieepedia come from other sources. If you want extra sources, I suggest you read Ben Grossblatt's e-mails on Sith in general and the Sith code.
Obstruents: t d k q
Nasals: m n
Affricatives: ts dz t͡ʃ (ts dz ch)
Fricatives: s z ʃ h (s z sh h)
Approximants: w ɹ/l ʎ j (w r/l y j)
Of note to all Anglophones: j is /j/, pronounced like y in yacht. The letter y stands for /ʎ/, a more l-shaped sound. (You might potentially have it in the ll of million.)
Close: /i/ /u/
Middle: /o/
Near-open: /æ/ /ʌ/ (â û)
Open: /ɑ/ (a)
English vowels are a mess. Click on the links for pronunciation instructions.
Case endings
In addition, there is a collective plural -kut. The accusative for pronouns would be -n (nu "I" vs nun "me")
Personal reconstruction: potentially also -yak or -ak for genitive with plural possessed things (Grossblatt glosses nuyak as my+PL.) If -k is a plural ending, then the genitive would be -ya or -a.
Verbs
Other
Word order is VSO, with topicalized subjects, objects, and prepositional phrases, e.g. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. with midwanjontû the topicalized phrase. No copula in the present tense.
Ordinals are formed with -tok. E.g. wo, yun "one, two" -> wotok, yuntok "first, second".
Comparatives happen with -qû. E.g. nyâsh "big" -> nyâshqû "more". Superlatives possibly happen with -ti, e.g. kintik "blackest (plural)"
Negation uses the particle wai, appended to the end (nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai "no more, no less").
Other appended particles include -kun, "only" (shâsot "passion", shâsotkun "only passion").
-uska(k)
Hadzuska koshûjontû "Shadow-born"
Mwintuska hâskûjontû "Pain-coddled"
Qâzoi Kyantuska "Suppress Thought" (not literal meaning)
Sutta Chwituskak "Flung Spears"
-jontû means, roughly, "through", and hâsk means "anguish" so mwintuska hâskûjontû would mean "X through anguish(/pain)" – so mwintuska would mean "coddled". Based on the shape of this construction, koshûjontû would mean "through shadow", giving us kosh "shadow" (û seems to be the epenthetic vowel inserted if there'd otherwise be an illegal consonant combination, like skj. If you discover a shj combination somewhere, then "shadow" would be koshû.)
This leaves us with hadzuska, mwintuska, kyantuska, and chwituskak – born, coddled, something unknown, and flung/thrown (chwit "to throw"). -uska(k) would thus be some sort of past participle. We can guess that hadz is probably along the lines of "to be born" and mwin "to coddle". If qâzoi kyantuska were literally "suppress thought" then I might guess qâzoi to be "thought" and kyant to be "to suppress" but it's probably a bit less literal than that. (E.g. kyant might be "to extinguish" or "to eradicate".)
Less clear is the -k on chwituskak. Nouns don't really seem to decline for number, but it does seem to be present in verb conjugation.
dwom
We're told dwomutsiqsa means "summon demon". Siqsa means demon, -ut is a nominalizer, so therefore dwom means "to summon".
-k as a plural marker
Sutta Chwituskak "Flung Spears"
Kintik "Blackest" (plural form)
Nuyak "My" (plural possessed)
No plural markers visible on nouns, but the pronoun, adjective, and verb participle (functions sort of like an adjective) do seem to have them! I would thus place -k as the plural suffix, with maybe kintik being kin-ti-k with -ti the superlative form to go with comparative -qû. Likewise, nuyak might be nu-(y)a-k, with -(y)a the genetive.
-okka
Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut "Reanimated Dead" (not literal)
Dzworokka yun "Two there should be"
tsai-win-okka one can parse as an intransitivized verb (so tsai would be the root). dzworokka is dzwol-okka ("there exists" + okka) and means "there should be", so it is possible -okka is an imperative or jussive mood.
Hoyakut is probably hoyak-ut, and some manner of deverbal, though it might be ho-ak-ut or hoy-ak-ut or ho-yak-ut as well. I would suspect this is the bit relating to deadness while tsaiwinokka the one that does the (metaphorical) reanimating.
Other compounds
Woyunoks "little one"
While wo means "one", this has nothing to do with nwit "small, few". It's possible at least -oks is a diminutive.
Chirikyât "He Who Causes Them to Throb and Tremble in Fear"
This one would make sense if the agentive suffix were -yât rather than -ûsh. There's possibly a chir or chirik that means "to make others tremble in fear", but it might be that this is a nonliteral thing.
I've inserted things I've derived above as well, marked with an asterisk, e.g. kosh – shadow*
In addition, there are the castes Zuguruk (Engineer) and Grotthu (slave), which don't fit the scheme. Apparently there were names for them from the conlang, but they didn't make the book.
Dzworokka yun; nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai. Wotok tsawakmidwanottoi, yuntok hyarutmidwanottoi.
dzwol-okka yun; nyâsh-qû-wai, nwit-qû-wai. wo-tok tsawak-midwan-ottoi, yun-tok hyal-ut-midwan-ottoi
exist-IMPERAT(?) two; many-COMP-NEG, few-COMP-NEG. one-ORD embody-power-DAT, two-ORD crave-NOMIN-power-DAT
"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."
Qotsisajak
Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun.
Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk.
Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan.
Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha.
Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak.
Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.
"Code of the Sith
Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through passion I gain strength.
Through strength I gain power.
Through power I gain victory.
Through victory my chains are broken.
The Force will free me."
(For the detailed parsing into blocks, see Ben Grossblatt's email.)
But what of the other sources of Sith vocab? Well, Before the Storm introduces the names of letters called aleph, daleth, kaph, lamed, samekh, shin, and zayin. Given the lack of f or th sounds in Grossblatt's Sith, I'll pin them as being from a different source.
The next-largest source is an online supplement to a Star Wars Insider edition, that gives the following:
This is in places sufficiently close to Grossblatt's vision I would be happy to accept this as a related language/divergent dialect. It's highly plausible that a language with such a cramped distribution of open vowels (â a û /æ ɑ ʌ/) might have e.g. /æ/ -> /e/ to free up space, leading to jân -> jen. Though the author doesn't seem to have read the pronunciation notes; Sith j is actually /j/ instead of English /dʒ/, so the closest transcription of the word Jedi would actually be Chidai or Châdai.
On the same note is the word sedriss adopted by Qaga Lok as a Sith title – I have zero issue with sâdriss -> sedriss in a dialect, and sâdriss has an appropriate feel.
The rest are also all single words: The Lost Tribe of the Sith use tyro "unapprenticed Sith trainee" which apparently might be Keshiri in origin; I will go with that interpretation.
Tales of the Jedi introduces tuk'ata "Sith hound", which fits with Grossblatt's language above and which I am thus happy to include. (I was actually surprised it wasn't from a Grossblatt canon.)
SWTOR adds kaggath "an ancient Sith battle rite" which doesn't fit Grossblatt's Sith, but could theoretically be a dialectal variation – one in which k became g between vowels and s -> th at the end of words. (Perhaps even the same dialect which gave us sith "Sith" from tsis "Sith".)
Fate of the Jedi gives rhak-skuri "dream singer". This doesn't fit the grammar of Grossblatt's Sith.
Then we have the Jedi Academy Training Manual is a RPG sourcebook that gives us derriphan "devourer", and the Darth Who Contest for naming the next Sith had Darth Taral as one of the finalists; the original name came from tare, but it was stated to be Ancient Sith for "protector". I'm pretty sure both of these are, like, Z-tier canon, so I'll just ignore them.
For quick reference, the Ben Grossblatt Sith language refs are 1 5 13 21 25 28 31; other cites on Wookieepedia come from other sources. If you want extra sources, I suggest you read Ben Grossblatt's e-mails on Sith in general and the Sith code.
Phonology
Obstruents: t d k q
Nasals: m n
Affricatives: ts dz t͡ʃ (ts dz ch)
Fricatives: s z ʃ h (s z sh h)
Approximants: w ɹ/l ʎ j (w r/l y j)
Of note to all Anglophones: j is /j/, pronounced like y in yacht. The letter y stands for /ʎ/, a more l-shaped sound. (You might potentially have it in the ll of million.)
Close: /i/ /u/
Middle: /o/
Near-open: /æ/ /ʌ/ (â û)
Open: /ɑ/ (a)
English vowels are a mess. Click on the links for pronunciation instructions.
Grammar
Case endings
| -anjat | ablative case |
| -jontû | instrumental case |
| -ottoi | dative case |
In addition, there is a collective plural -kut. The accusative for pronouns would be -n (nu "I" vs nun "me")
Personal reconstruction: potentially also -yak or -ak for genitive with plural possessed things (Grossblatt glosses nuyak as my+PL.) If -k is a plural ending, then the genitive would be -ya or -a.
Verbs
| -atul | alethic mood (action logically necessary or obviously true) |
| -oksh | future tense |
| -win | "ergative"/passive tense/turns verbs into intransitive ones ("break" as in "I break my chains" -> "break" as in "my chains break") |
| -ûsh | agentive ("break" -> "breaker") |
| -ut | nominalizer ("break" -> "breaking") |
| -ot | something related to extent – The verb kotsot (kots + ot) could be translated as “completely break or shatter” an inanimate object. |
Other
Word order is VSO, with topicalized subjects, objects, and prepositional phrases, e.g. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. with midwanjontû the topicalized phrase. No copula in the present tense.
Ordinals are formed with -tok. E.g. wo, yun "one, two" -> wotok, yuntok "first, second".
Comparatives happen with -qû. E.g. nyâsh "big" -> nyâshqû "more". Superlatives possibly happen with -ti, e.g. kintik "blackest (plural)"
Negation uses the particle wai, appended to the end (nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai "no more, no less").
Other appended particles include -kun, "only" (shâsot "passion", shâsotkun "only passion").
Reconstructions
-uska(k)
Hadzuska koshûjontû "Shadow-born"
Mwintuska hâskûjontû "Pain-coddled"
Qâzoi Kyantuska "Suppress Thought" (not literal meaning)
Sutta Chwituskak "Flung Spears"
-jontû means, roughly, "through", and hâsk means "anguish" so mwintuska hâskûjontû would mean "X through anguish(/pain)" – so mwintuska would mean "coddled". Based on the shape of this construction, koshûjontû would mean "through shadow", giving us kosh "shadow" (û seems to be the epenthetic vowel inserted if there'd otherwise be an illegal consonant combination, like skj. If you discover a shj combination somewhere, then "shadow" would be koshû.)
This leaves us with hadzuska, mwintuska, kyantuska, and chwituskak – born, coddled, something unknown, and flung/thrown (chwit "to throw"). -uska(k) would thus be some sort of past participle. We can guess that hadz is probably along the lines of "to be born" and mwin "to coddle". If qâzoi kyantuska were literally "suppress thought" then I might guess qâzoi to be "thought" and kyant to be "to suppress" but it's probably a bit less literal than that. (E.g. kyant might be "to extinguish" or "to eradicate".)
Less clear is the -k on chwituskak. Nouns don't really seem to decline for number, but it does seem to be present in verb conjugation.
dwom
We're told dwomutsiqsa means "summon demon". Siqsa means demon, -ut is a nominalizer, so therefore dwom means "to summon".
-k as a plural marker
Sutta Chwituskak "Flung Spears"
Kintik "Blackest" (plural form)
Nuyak "My" (plural possessed)
No plural markers visible on nouns, but the pronoun, adjective, and verb participle (functions sort of like an adjective) do seem to have them! I would thus place -k as the plural suffix, with maybe kintik being kin-ti-k with -ti the superlative form to go with comparative -qû. Likewise, nuyak might be nu-(y)a-k, with -(y)a the genetive.
-okka
Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut "Reanimated Dead" (not literal)
Dzworokka yun "Two there should be"
tsai-win-okka one can parse as an intransitivized verb (so tsai would be the root). dzworokka is dzwol-okka ("there exists" + okka) and means "there should be", so it is possible -okka is an imperative or jussive mood.
Hoyakut is probably hoyak-ut, and some manner of deverbal, though it might be ho-ak-ut or hoy-ak-ut or ho-yak-ut as well. I would suspect this is the bit relating to deadness while tsaiwinokka the one that does the (metaphorical) reanimating.
Other compounds
Woyunoks "little one"
While wo means "one", this has nothing to do with nwit "small, few". It's possible at least -oks is a diminutive.
Chirikyât "He Who Causes Them to Throb and Tremble in Fear"
This one would make sense if the agentive suffix were -yât rather than -ûsh. There's possibly a chir or chirik that means "to make others tremble in fear", but it might be that this is a nonliteral thing.
Vocabulary
I've inserted things I've derived above as well, marked with an asterisk, e.g. kosh – shadow*
| 'Ari | Lord |
| Ajak | Doctrine |
| Asha | Victory |
| Châts | To gain |
| Chirikyât | He Who Causes Them to Throb and Tremble in Fear |
| Chwayat | Rule, law |
| Chwayatyun | The Rule of Two |
| Chwit | To throw |
| Chwûq | Ember |
| Dwom | To summon* |
| Dwomutsiqsa | Summon demon |
| Dzwol | To exist, abide |
| Dzu | Leaf, leaf-shaped object |
| Hadz | To be born* |
| Hadzuska koshûjontû | Shadow-born |
| Hâsk | Anguish |
| Hyal | To crave |
| Itsu | Chain |
| Kin | Black* |
| Kintik | Blackest (plural form) |
| Kissai | Priest caste |
| Kosh | Shadow* |
| Kots | To break |
| kun | Only (used as a suffix) |
| Kûsk | To dream |
| Massassi | Warrior caste |
| Midwan | Power |
| Mwint | To coddle* |
| Mwintuska hâskûjontû | Pain-coddled |
| Nin | Tie, knot |
| Ninûshwodzakut | Knotters of entrails |
| Nu | I |
| Nun | Me |
| Nuyak | My (plural) |
| Nwit | Small, few |
| Nwûl | Peace |
| Nyâsh | Big, much, many |
| Odojinya | Dark Side Web (not literal meaning) |
| Qabbrat | Meditation chamber |
| Qâzoi Kyantuska | Suppress Thought (not literal meaning) |
| Qo | Way, path, code |
| Qorit | End |
| Qotsisajak | Code of the Sith |
| qû | Comparative particle |
| Qyâsik | The Force |
| Shokkai | Translation unknown |
| Shâsot | Struggle, passion |
| Siqsa | Demon |
| Sutta | Spear |
| Sutta Chwituskak | Idiom denoting intense hatred or intent to harm, lit. Flung Spears |
| Tash | Lie |
| Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut | Reanimated Dead (not literal meaning) |
| Tsawak | Embodiment |
| Tsis | Sith |
| Tsisajak | Sith doctrine |
| Tsyok | To squeeze with the hand |
| Typhojem | The Left-Handed God (an ancient Sith deity) |
| Tyûk | Strength |
| wai | Negation particle |
| Wo | One |
| Wodza | Intestines |
| Won | To free |
| Woyunoks | Little one |
| Yun | Two |
In addition, there are the castes Zuguruk (Engineer) and Grotthu (slave), which don't fit the scheme. Apparently there were names for them from the conlang, but they didn't make the book.
Dzworokka yun; nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai. Wotok tsawakmidwanottoi, yuntok hyarutmidwanottoi.
dzwol-okka yun; nyâsh-qû-wai, nwit-qû-wai. wo-tok tsawak-midwan-ottoi, yun-tok hyal-ut-midwan-ottoi
exist-IMPERAT(?) two; many-COMP-NEG, few-COMP-NEG. one-ORD embody-power-DAT, two-ORD crave-NOMIN-power-DAT
"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."
Qotsisajak
Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun.
Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk.
Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan.
Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha.
Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak.
Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.
"Code of the Sith
Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through passion I gain strength.
Through strength I gain power.
Through power I gain victory.
Through victory my chains are broken.
The Force will free me."
(For the detailed parsing into blocks, see Ben Grossblatt's email.)
Other vocabulary
But what of the other sources of Sith vocab? Well, Before the Storm introduces the names of letters called aleph, daleth, kaph, lamed, samekh, shin, and zayin. Given the lack of f or th sounds in Grossblatt's Sith, I'll pin them as being from a different source.
The next-largest source is an online supplement to a Star Wars Insider edition, that gives the following:
| jen | dark, hidden, shadow |
| jidai | Jedi |
| jen'ari | Dark Lord of the Sith |
| jen'jidai | Dark Jedi |
| jensaarai | hidden followers of the truth |
| jiaasjen | integrating the shadow |
| saarai | truth |
| saarai-kaar | truth-keeper |
This is in places sufficiently close to Grossblatt's vision I would be happy to accept this as a related language/divergent dialect. It's highly plausible that a language with such a cramped distribution of open vowels (â a û /æ ɑ ʌ/) might have e.g. /æ/ -> /e/ to free up space, leading to jân -> jen. Though the author doesn't seem to have read the pronunciation notes; Sith j is actually /j/ instead of English /dʒ/, so the closest transcription of the word Jedi would actually be Chidai or Châdai.
On the same note is the word sedriss adopted by Qaga Lok as a Sith title – I have zero issue with sâdriss -> sedriss in a dialect, and sâdriss has an appropriate feel.
The rest are also all single words: The Lost Tribe of the Sith use tyro "unapprenticed Sith trainee" which apparently might be Keshiri in origin; I will go with that interpretation.
Tales of the Jedi introduces tuk'ata "Sith hound", which fits with Grossblatt's language above and which I am thus happy to include. (I was actually surprised it wasn't from a Grossblatt canon.)
SWTOR adds kaggath "an ancient Sith battle rite" which doesn't fit Grossblatt's Sith, but could theoretically be a dialectal variation – one in which k became g between vowels and s -> th at the end of words. (Perhaps even the same dialect which gave us sith "Sith" from tsis "Sith".)
Fate of the Jedi gives rhak-skuri "dream singer". This doesn't fit the grammar of Grossblatt's Sith.
Then we have the Jedi Academy Training Manual is a RPG sourcebook that gives us derriphan "devourer", and the Darth Who Contest for naming the next Sith had Darth Taral as one of the finalists; the original name came from tare, but it was stated to be Ancient Sith for "protector". I'm pretty sure both of these are, like, Z-tier canon, so I'll just ignore them.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-17 09:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-21 12:03 (UTC)The inconsistent vowels being dialectal is wholly my own fanwank to make stuff fit the framework. Given the existence of plosives like d and labials like m, I am also going to fanwank that there used to be a b (e.g. Korriban) but it became w intervocalically (so the High Sith speakers would call their homeworld Korriwan and be pissed the explorers got the name off a country bumpkin who spoke bad) and I guess assimilated to place of articulation in clusters. And any f might be a relic of bygone eras and f -> h an unconditional change à la Japanese, frex.