Imperial Language Phrases & Expressions

The following is an ongoing list of common or important phrases, expressions, abbreviations and so forth in the Imperial Language or derived fairly directly from it. The list is presented in Alphabetical Order.

List
Asrada-Avelonan! - Common Imperial Language phrase or expression that translates roughly into English as "All Hail the Empire!". This is used as a formal greeting, especially in military or governmental and other official contexts, a military chant as well as a rallying cry, among other things. It also properly should be said by both the military and civilians when giving the Imperial Salute (except in cases where something else takes precedence, such as the singing of the National Anthem).

Aç siror-verturr - roughly, "Let's be about it". Common expression or command.

Avelonan / Avelonet / Avelonor - The name of the Empire in the Imperial Language, shown with masculine, feminine and neuter Nominative case endings, respectively. The uninflected (i.e. without grammatical ending) form of the word is Avelonn. Unlike most other Imperial words, where the gender of the case ending corrisponds to the known gender of the noun in question except in special idiomatic situations, the gender for Avelonn changes vernacularly depending on situation and context.

Du? - equivalent to "huh?" or "what did you say?". Du is the Interrogative Particle and is added to the beginning of a sentence to make it a question; when used by itself, the expression "Du?" is a response to indicate lack of understanding.

Du-hä?! - "What the fuck?!" approximately. Formed by appending the Particle of Emphasis, -hä, to the Interrogative Particle, du.

'Du set erston? '- "Will you marry me?" or, more precisely, "you marry?" (present tense with an understood / implied 'me'). Simply saying "erstt" (the verb "to marry" as an imperative) is also acceptable.

Hâlsjörirscadre - lit. "High Seas Fleet", the administrative formation containing most of the Imperial Navy's surface warship power and capital ships. This is in contrast to the other, geographically-named fleets and overseas stations, which are responsible for protecting specific geographic areas from raids and piracy.

'Harâtt! Versinnrathe-sir!' - "Give up! Get out of my land!", roughly. Common expression used by the Imperials in reference to the Helvetans, particularly as a war cry. Found on large bronze plaques adorning the gates of the forts lining the Empire's eastern border (the Helvetan-Imperial border) and on the huge fortified complex protecting the main pass through the Sol mountains, which separate the Imperial heartland from the eastern-most provinces and the Marches (border territories administered by the Imperial military, carved out of former Helvetan land).

Jath's - Colloquial shortening of Jath-sir, meaning "my thanks". "Jath-sir" is normally only said in formal contexts, i.e. to someone of higher social status.

Kulitt-nimm - literally, "to eat [the] leather": slang for being sent to a field hospital for surgery or amputation due to a wound. Refers to the leather mouth-pieces given to patients in order to prevent them from damaging their teeth or biting off their tongue from pain.

Kümiran - literally, "Mustaches". Slang for Grenadiers, because of their near universal practice of having prominent waxed mustaches or beards.

Kümm-hastiran - Slang for heavy cavalry, derived from the word Kümm ("mustache") as above. The word Hastt, meaning horse, is appended to "mustache" with the pluralization suffix, -ir-, and masculine nominative ending, -an, moved to Hastt. Thus, "Mustached horses".

Mârretöjonn - literally, "to sell [the] eyes": soldiers' slang meaning "to die in battle". A reference to the Imperial religious practice of placing coins over the eyes of family members or fallen soldiers to keep them closed and to show respect for the fallen.

'Lysnae! San kungilä saearen-sät! Aeorr nan! Seth slagan nerr-slatët!' - "Listen! You Excuse for a king! Trust me! This fight you won't win!"

Olomor - Howitzer, as in an artillery piece with a short barrel designed to fire high-explosive shells across a high-arching trajectory.

Sëks-ataeasie - literally, "sixty-thousand", the number of combat troops in a full-strength Imperial Legion. Often used colloquially as a general hyperbole / exaggeration for a large number, similar to the use of "millions", "bajillions", etc in English.

Senappkiväror - Rifled-musket, as in the muzzle-loaded caplock rifles carried by most Imperial infantry as well as the Light Horse arm of the cavalry. The term is derived from Senapp, meaning "musket" or "firearm" in general and Kivärr, an adjective meaning "rifled" (as in with a grooved barrel). The two words are smashed together and fitted with the neuter nominative ending, -or, by customary usage, although any gender of nominative ending will do.

Kivärenor - the Imperial word for a rifle, as distinguished from a rifle-musket. To qualify as a true "rifle" in Imperial terminology, the weapon must be breech-loading (as in the hammer-action marksmen rifles carried by Skirmishers or the carbines used by Imperial Cavalry). The word is formed by appending the particle -en- to the adjective Kivärr, meaning "rifled", in order to create the noun "Rifle" with a neuter nominative ending. Although, again, any gender of nominative ending will do.

sin-Mirr Solisë ras-san - "Sovereign's Peace be with you". Used as a greeting like "good day" and also as an expression of support for another's actions or a parting affirmation, similar to the English expression "Good luck". Note that when addressing a woman, the pronoun san becomes set. The proper response to this expression is var sin-Mir Solisë ras-san lath!, or "Sovereign's Peace be with you as well!" with the particle of exclamation, var, added to the beginning.

Soliset ras-san / Soliset ras-set - Shortened form of "Sovereign's Peace be with you" with the masculine and feminine "you" pronouns, respectively. Translates to "Sovereign with you". Proper response is '''var Soliset ras-san lath! / var Soliset ras-set lath!'''

sin-Sol Velikë - literally, "sound of music". Slang for the sound of Imperial artillery fire.

SMS - "Sovereign Majesty's Ship", the Imperial Navy's identifying prefix (e.g. the Imperial Battleship SMS Crown Prince Bartholf). It is an English rendition of the Imperial words "sin-Molok Solisë", or "Majesty of the Sovereign" (without any reference to possession of said ship). The actual Imperial language prefix is s-MS.

Tanskae [Tanskan / Tansket Tanskor] - Imperial language word for Cannabis / Marijuana, which is smoked by the Imperial populace much like tobacco was in our own world in previous centuries.

Tëknan - The Imperial word for "artillery", as in both guns and howitzers.

Tëkkkärenor - A gun, as in type of artillery piece in contrast to a howitzer that fires solid rounds or shells at high velocities along a shallow-arcing, low trajectory. The most common type of gun in Imperial Service is the Type 4833 24-Pound Rifled Field Gun, commonly abbreviated to the 24-Pounder or 24-Pounder Field Gun. This is the principle artillery piece of the Imperial Legions, second only to 15-Pounder Light Guns in number (which are deployed as integral parts of Cavalry and Infantry units, but not used by artillery units).

Poetry
Poetry is a very important part of Imperial culture. The rich, synthetic grammar of the language and its wide variety of phonemes (60 distinct characters when rendered in their own alphabet), coupled with a broad, highly-developed and extremely nuanced vocabulary, makes the Imperial Language well suited to composition of verse. The following is a list of a couple of poems or jingles (short songs).



sin-Slagenan hïvasä (Soldier's Farewell)
Nü hïvas, Kültaset, hävitt Sida-sar,

Jïder Senappkhal' 'er frök-hä gar,

du-vir jïder Desiran-sin haçer kal,

äsen Molok sir-Slagé'ir simëval?

Il-Obvertü iç Senappkhal'ir jä 'turr,

Hä iç Tëknankhal'ir jä 'turr Obvertü gar!

Jïder Khaletirä sin-Sider sin-Lï

Doç bïé Khalir' Väts' bïer versï'!

Translation:
Now goodbye my love, dry your face,

Not every bullet makes its mark,

If every one squarely hit its man,

Where would the Empress get her soldiers then?

The musketball makes a small hole,

The cannonball makes a good bit bigger hole!

Every bullet is made of iron and lead,

And many a round misses many a head!





Pronounciation Guide
Ä / ä / Ë / ë / Ï / ï / Ö / ö / Ü / ü - Indicates long vowels, as in the words "Able", "Emu", "I", "Over" and "Universe"

Â / â - indicates a "sharp" A sound similar to in English, as in "Apple", rather than the rounder sound of the normal A / a [which is similar to German and many other European languages].

Ç / ç - Indicates the voiceless palatal fricative, similar to the German "CH" sound [ich-laut]

E / e - is always silent unless followed by a consonent. Is often placed between two vowels to separate them so that, for example, "aea" would be pronounced "a'a" as two distinct A sounds. Also acts as a silent letter at the end of words to be a placeholder for word endings, and is dropped once the grammatical ending is added.

É / é - indicates an E which should be pronounced even though it is in a position where it would not normally be.

H / h - "H" is not pronounced when followed by a vowel, but instead appends a voiceless velar fricative [ach-laut] sound to the vowel. For this reason, H is usually followed by an A, producing a sound like the German exclamation "Ach!"

J / j - pronounced like an English Y in the same manner as most Germanic languages.

rr - Double Rs are rolled, whereas single Rs are not.