The penultimate article in our language celebration features the work of several special fans: Sophie Brouwer, Susannah Dijkstra, and Emma Konijn. Students at the University of Amsterdam, these women focused on the ancient language as part of an assignment in linguistics class. Their professor, Frederico Gobbo, oversaw the project as they expanded the basic principles that Christopher had outlined in the Inheritance Cycle to create a complete grammar of the ancient language.
Christopher was thrilled when they showed him their completed essay:
Wow. This is amazing and astounding. I love it. The amount of work is staggering. I wish I’d had access to this document when I was writing the series because, as they quite rightfully point out, I’m not a linguist, as much as I love language. If I have to choose whether to put my time into writing the story or inventing a language, I’ll always choose the story.
I’d love to make this available to the fans, and I’d love to see them take a stab at Dwarvish as well! 😀
Also, I have a feeling that this is going to be very helpful for me when it comes time for Book V.
You can download a copy of the grammar PDF here. Feel free to have fun with the material, so long as Emma, Sophie, Susannah, and Frederico receive credit for their work. We would love to see what you do with it! And don’t forget to check out the rest of our invented language articles!
