This page contains a small but useful number of words from the Rihannsu
language. Most are from Diane Duane's The Romulan Way, some are
from other semi-official sources, and some were made up for the MUSE. To
reference the words starting with a particular letter ot topic, scroll down
to that letter or topic or just select it from the meny below. For
convenience, the Rihannsu curses are collected under one topic, "curses."
v'rhaen-ao'au - "I'll kill you"
As with any language, an alphabet is required so everyone can use that
language and record events in a written form. Thanks to the Rihannsu
TrueType font floating around, I put together the below graphic as a proposed
Rihannsu alphabet.
In a rather bored chunk of free time, I came up with the following ideas
for grammatical rules of the proposed expanded Rihannsu language.
Notes to Bear in Mind
Since Rihannsu society is rather structured in terms of position and class
in society, different modes are often used when a superior addresses an
inferior and when an inferior adresses a superior. (inf-sup) and (sup-inf)
signify inferior to superior and superior to inferior modes respectively.
Forming Plurals
To pluralize a singular, usual rule is that if the word ends in a consonant,
add -a, if it ends in an a, add the letter r, if it ends in an i, add in.
For example to make erein a plural, you will get erein-a; hnoiyika to
hnoiyikar, and fvai to fvaiin.
Sentence Structure
The typical Rihannsu sentence is somewhat like your typical English sentence
with one primary exception. Adjectives and adverbs are tacked onto the
beginning and end of nouns and verbs, respectively, and questions are
structured similarly as is done in Spanish. The below structure demonstrates
this in a manner readers should be able to understand:
adjective adjective-adjective'subject verb-adverb'adverb adverb
adjective adjective-adjective'object
Example:
D'laire is a cheating fool.
This translates to "D'laire she is cheating'fool:"
D'laire hwiiya vagram'veruul.
Example:
Maec killed three short, white fvais twelve days ago.
This translates to "Maec he killed three small-white'fvais twelve days ago:"
Maec lh'yy'ala sie lacendt-aye'fvaiin dev'til tel-a lhai.
Example:
Jaeih slowly targetted the Ferengi cargo hold.
This translates to "Jaeih she slowly'targetted cargo hold of the Ferengi."
Since the verb target already needs the lh' prefix for being past tense, it
will read "Jaeih she lh'targetted-slowly the cargo hold of the Ferengi:"
Jaeih lh'rjudhela-rawn haerht nnea Feh'rengi.
Conjugating Verbs
The below tables determine how Rihannsu verbs are conjugated. The letters
before the slash "/" show the sup-inf mode and the letters after the slash
show the inf-sup mode. To determine whether to use sup-inf (SI) or inf-sup
(IS) mode, ask yourself whether the subject of the sentence is considered the
superior of the object or if the enactor of the verb is considered superior
to the receiver of the action. In matters of rank, it is simple, as the one
with the higher rank is superior. Rihannsu are always considered superior to
other races or to plants, animals, and objects. Plants, animals, and objects
are considered superior to other races. This could also provide some subtle
ways of insulting someone or something, if you use SI mode where IS is
normally required.
For verbs ending in a or e add the following to the end of the verb:
singular plural
I lo/llo loi/lloi we
you l/ll l-a/ll-a you (plural)
he/she/it la/lla lar/llar they
For verbs ending in i or o add the following to the end of the verb:
singular plural
I yo/yyo yoi/yyoi we
you y/yy y-a/yy-a you (plural)
he/she/it ya/yya yar/yyar they
For verbs ending in u add the following to the end of the verb:
singular plural
I hy/hhy hy-a/hhy-a we
you hyai/hhyai hyaiin/hhyaiin you (plural)
he/she/it hya/hhya hyar/hhyar they
For verbs ending in a consonant add the following to the end of the verb:
singular plural
I -ao/-aao -aoi/-aaoi they
you -ay/-aay -ay-a/-aay-a you (plural)
he/she/it -aya/-aaya -ayar/-aayar they
For example, we will now conjugate the verb "to be," or hwii:
singular plural
I am - hwiiyo we are - hwiiyoi
you are - hwiiy you are - hwiyy-a
he/she/it is - hwiiya they are - hwiiyar
Verb Tenses
To express tense, the following prefixes are attached to the verb before
any adverbs. Note that the present tense requires no prefix to denote tense:
lh' - verb prefix denoting past tense
v' - verb prefix denoting future tense
Asking Questions in Rihannsu
Do ask a question, for example "do you love me?" just turn it into an
imperative sentence, which in this case would be "you love me" and add on a
question mark to the end.
Ordinal Numbers
For example, if you want to form the word "first" or "second" or "eighth,"
take the number one, two, or eight, and add "-hh" to the end:
first: tie-hh
second: til-hh
eighth: yil-hh
Adjectives
Certain nouns can also serve as adjectives, with modification (i.e. the
words secret or male). To convert these nouns to adjectives, add a "-hi" to
the end of nouns ending in a vowel and "-ahi" to the end of nouns ending
in a consonant.
Graphical Rihannsu Page
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