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I could find no thread where an effort has been made to translate the in game dragon language texts, so I made one. I know that there is a screenshot of the tablet in the wiki, but there are obviously more texts.

Today, I spent time trying to decode and translate a text located up on a mountain, guarded by a dragon. The shout word learnt from it was "Zun", Weapon. Thus, I used Zun as a reference for judging wether the letter said S, I or Z, and correspondingly with F and U.

This is what I've got.

NONVUL BuuON RahMaaN Raauu
uuOT RO FIN FORiiZ BORMah
PuuUZaaN ZUN KO KeiZaaL LOS
HahRuuIM RO RWiiN SIL KENROV

I've translated "Zun ko keizaan los" to "weapon in skyrim ice", presumably "the weapon hidden in skyrims ices" or something.
Ro means "balance" and Fin means "the". The rest of the words are not on the wiki language word list, and thus I obviously have issues translating them.

I could not create a screenshot of the wall, as I'm playing on xbox, but here's a photo taken with my phone (unfortunately, blurry and hard to read).

imgur: /4Ihl7.jpg

Could someone please doublecheck my translation into roman letters? I had problems with the following; V/ei, uu/R, O/Q/A, Z/I/S, F/U. However, I think my translation is mostly correct.

Also, posting more texts would probably be great, because if we can gather all texts in one place, translate them to roman letters, then we might be able to figure out some missing words which we do not know the meaning of.

There's a translation in the official guide.

I can post it when I get back home.

Wait, the official guide have actual translations of every text wall in the game?!

Suddenly, my little research became very pointless.

Anyway, I would be very pleased if you could post it.

I'm not sure about entire translations, but they have a word list. I have time to post it tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for the wait.

It's mdnight now, by the way.

Midnight here too, for that matter. However, if you're talking about the wordlist already posted on the wiki, don't bother. There's very many words missing from that list. And it's those words that I intend to figure out.

Hello! finally can post in this thread.
I've been doing some translating too since i saw this, and i have dustman's cairn and skyborn altar partially translated so far

dustman's cairn
QETHSEGOL VahRUKIV KiiR JUN JOFNHOR
WO LOS AG NahLaaS NaaL YOL RO
LOT ROVah LORUNOST

stone celebration children king Jofnhor
who is burn alive by fire balance
great (ROVah* LORUNOST**)

*ROVah can be split into RO-Vah, balance-spring
**can be split into LO-RU-NOST, deceive-run-.. but i cant find a translation for NOST

----------------------------

Skyborn Altar
Pah VERID SONaaN LUNERIQ
WEN YUVON LOVaaS MeyS(MeyZ?)
FO HET KO VULON

all (VERID SONaaN* LUNERIQ**)
whose golden (LOVaaS) becomes
frost here in the night

*NaaN is any, but i couldnt find a translation for SO
**only thing i can pull out of this is lun=leech

----------------------------

i used the wordlist on the official wiki to translate what i could, theres a chance that i mistransliterated some of the letters in the untranslated words, the walls were a little hard to see when on ps3 at the times i was there.

Ah, yes. We do this in linguistics. You should know it is entirely possible (and easy) to translate if you have a few benchmarks, which it seems that the official guide seems to have. I haven't actually spent any serious time considering the dragon language, but when I have a moment I'll examine the word list we have so far and these posts here and help you, if you'd like. It is a noble cause!

Oh that would be lovely! when i saw that Dragon Language was supposed to be a fully formed languages i was very excited, i've dabbled in and out of linguistics since jr. high.

i dont have the official guide (yet) but if its really that helpful in translating the word walls, i might just have to.

I'm so, so, sorry for just promising stuff and leaving. I'll have some time in the weekend, so if someone'll send me a PM on late friday, I'll post what I've gathered from the guide.

Common words in the Dragon Language:


These should be able to translate most or all Word Walls.

brilliant! time to write down this glossary into my notebook~! =)

Irothur wrote:Hello! finally can post in this thread.
I've been doing some translating too since i saw this, and i have dustman's cairn and skyborn altar partially translated so far

dustman's cairn
QETHSEGOL VahRUKIV KiiR JUN JOFNHOR
WO LOS AG NahLaaS NaaL YOL RO
LOT ROVah LORUNOST

stone celebration children king Jofnhor
who is burn alive by fire balance
great (ROVah* LORUNOST**)

*ROVah can be split into RO-Vah, balance-spring
**can be split into LO-RU-NOST, deceive-run-.. but i cant find a translation for NOST

----------------------------

Skyborn Altar
Pah VERID SONaaN LUNERIQ
WEN YUVON LOVaaS MeyS(MeyZ?)
FO HET KO VULON

all (VERID SONaaN* LUNERIQ**)
whose golden (LOVaaS) becomes
frost here in the night

*NaaN is any, but i couldnt find a translation for SO
**only thing i can pull out of this is lun=leech

----------------------------

i used the wordlist on the official wiki to translate what i could, theres a chance that i mistransliterated some of the letters in the untranslated words, the walls were a little hard to see when on ps3 at the times i was there.

Dustman's Cairn Translation:

Qethsegol vahrukiv kiir jun Jafnhar, wo los ag nahlaas naal Yol do lot dova Lodunost

This stone commemorates King Jafnhar, who was burned alive by the fire of the great dragon Lodunost.

Skyborn Altar Translation:

Pah werid sonaan Lunerio, wen yuvan lovaas meyz Fo, het ko vulon

All praise the bard Lunerio, who golden voice became Frost, here in the night.

NONVUL BuuON RahMaaN Raauu
uuOT RO FIN FORiiZ BORMah
PuuUZaaN ZUN KO KeiZaaL LOS
HahRuuIM RO RWiiN SIL KENROV

Nonvul Bron, dahmaan daor rok do fin Fodiiz Bromah, Purzaan Zun keo Keizaal los hahdrim do dwiin-sil kendov

Noble Nord, remember these words of the Hoar Father - The best Weapon in Skyrim is the mind of a steel souled warrior.

Got beaten to it, it seems. I can only back Night Father's translations. You listen to him.

JVElEven wrote:Got beaten to it, it seems. I can only back Night Father's translations. You listen to him.

There's always someone willing to do the work

Man, that's a long list, i've made it to the M's so far.

That is a long list. I just took the list and copy and pasted it. I'm not sure if this is a fully constructed language or just a list of lexical (word) units, so I'll do a few minimal pair tests and see what's what...

Edit: Just did a quick list of some minimal pairs for reference. Are there any additional resources on this grammar? I think it's just a list of arbitrarily assigned words, but that's without looking into it. I haven't actually much experience with it in game and all I have of vague interest is this wiki page.

I think i read somewhere that they said its supposed to be a fully formed language, whether they've released everything they have though is another question. I've read on some analyses that its missing tense, number, and really similar to english (minus a few things here and there). but i've noticed in word lists that there is some semblance of tense and number involved, though there's not enough examples to find any regularity to it, and i've even seen nounal number for a word or two.

the few specimens of tense i've found are
los/lost: is, (have)/was.. which its interesting to see 'have' and 'was' denoted by the same word..
dreh/drey: do, did
kren/krent: break, broken
naak/naako: eat, eaten

though there also seems to be some examples of words meaning past or present: fundein (unfurl/ed), komeyt (issue/d), mah (fall/fell), motaad (shudder/ed).

theres also the fact that a lot of translations include words formed by compounding smaller words together. one of the easiest to recognize is qethsegol, which is stone, but literally is 'bone-of-the-earth' (which leads me to assume 'se' is roughly 'of the')
another one is junnesejer, 'King of the East'.

its definitely an interesting study, though i feel like theres not enough examples to be able to fully weigh in one way or the other. personally though, i think its probably intended to be fully constructed, but quite skeletal at the moment.

Hate to double post, but i just got to the word wall in shrouded hearth barrow and i wanted to get the translation written down real quick.

HET NOK KOPRaaN DO HELG
FahDON Wah Pah SIVaaS
aaR DO KaaN aaL REK SiiV UNahZaaL
PRaaN KO FeyKRO DO HahNU

Here lies the body of Helg,
friend to all beasts,
servant of Kyne, may she find eternal
rest in the forest of dreams.

...
That word list mad a huge difference in transliterating and translating this wall!

Avron the S'wit wrote:That is a long list. I just took the list and copy and pasted it. I'm not sure if this is a fully constructed language or just a list of lexical (word) units, so I'll do a few minimal pair tests and see what's what...

Edit: Just did a quick list of some minimal pairs for reference. Are there any additional resources on this grammar? I think it's just a list of arbitrarily assigned words, but that's without looking into it. I haven't actually much experience with it in game and all I have of vague interest is this wiki page.

The only thing I've found is that possessive seems to be indicated with "ii" on the back.

Nonvul Bron, dahmaan daor rok do fin Fodiiz Bromah, Purzaan Zun keo Keizaal los hahdrim do dwiin-sil kendov

Noble Nord, remember these words of the Hoar Father - The best Weapon in Skyrim is the mind of a steel souled warrior.

This is from Eldersblood Peak, in case anyone was wondering. I just translated it and was about to post it when I saw Nightfather beat me to it . All good though

Also is it possible to get the Dragon Language page changed so it can be edited? I dunno how it would be done, but then the big word list could be added. Also I'm interested in adding the translations of the world walls to the pages of all the dungeons etc where they're located. Sound like a good idea?

MattheKiwi wrote:Also is it possible to get the is Dragon Language page changed so it can be edited? I dunno how it would be done, but then the big word list could be added. Also I'm interested in adding the translations of the world walls to the pages of all the dungeons etc where they're located. Sound like a good idea?

It looks to me that that wiki page is editable. You can always sign up as an editor to help contribute. Actually, why don't we all use this thread to make a little gathering of knowledge about it for the wiki? After all, we have one thing they might not, which is an actual linguist and lots of linguistically minded people!

In fact, when I get home, I could edit the first post to include some of the following things:
word list (or link to word list)
wiki links
morphemes (which you guys are suggesting - that's great!)
etc., etc.

We could actually do a nice study of the dragon language and help out the wiki as a little group, and every time we come up with data we can add it to the first post as a way to review and gather all of our information. Could be fun!

Hell yes I'd be keen for that. Unfortunately I'd have no actual linguistics skills except for enthusiasm, and being able to speak mostly fluent Norwegian, which is more help with the Nords than the dragons

However I'd be up for that, it'l really help deepen the wiki, and it'l be fun

On another note I just finished another translation, this one for Autumn Watch Tower near Ivanstead. Someone might wanna double check this sometime cuz its a bit rough but:

NONVUL BRON DahMaaN DaaR ROT DO
FIN FODiiS BORMah Wah KRii KO
ROKei KeiN LOS Wah ZIN GeiNMaaR Wah DIR
MOROKei KeiN LOS Wah ZIN Pah DO KeiZaaL

Noble Nord remember this from The Hoar Father,
To kill in glorious war is to honour oneself.
To die in glorious war is to honour all of Skyrim


Got another one already : ), this time for Rannveig's Fast, south of Morthal, where the word Peace, for the Kynes Peace shout is found

NONVUL BRON DahR ROT
DO FIN FODiiZ BORMah DRaaL
NI Fah DREM Fah GRIK LOS
HIND DO SahLO ahRK NIVahRiiN

Noble Nord, (listen to) the Hoar Father
Pray not for peace, for such is the wish of the weak and cowardly


I've put those two words in brackets because I couldn't actually find the words in the word list- I could find the word 'Dah', meaning push, unless the 'R' is a morpheme that changes it, a lot, it doesn't make much sense, so I put listen instead. Also this is the second time I've come across the word ROT, this and my last translation. Maybe you cold have a look Nightfather and try work it out?

i downloaded and installed the dragon font that was pulled out of the game files, and i found 2 letters that dont have a translation yet, theyre mapped to 6 and 0. also, (according to the discussion page on the alphabet) the letter mapped to 7 is 'ir'. i'd also like to note that the letter mapped to C and 9 are the same, 'ey'.

MattheKiwi wrote:

Nonvul Bron, dahmaan daor rok do fin Fodiiz Bromah, Purzaan Zun keo Keizaal los hahdrim do dwiin-sil kendov

Noble Nord, remember these words of the Hoar Father - The best Weapon in Skyrim is the mind of a steel souled warrior.

theres something funny about that translation, ROK should translate to 'he' ....

i've started setting up a tiddlywiki to help keep my notes organized, though i'm having trouble putting in the dragon alphabet in it (which would be infinitely more helpful than just a romanized word list).