Elven Language

Is a mix between latin, finnish, japanese.

Honorifics

Usage

Although honorifics are not part of the basic Grammar of the Elven language, they are a fundamental part of the Sociolinguistics of Elvish, and proper use is essential to proficient and appropriate speech. Significantly, referring to oneself using an honorific, or dropping a honorific when it is required is a serious Faux Pas, in either case coming across as clumsy or arrogant.

An honorific is generally used when referring to the person one is talking to (one's Interlocutor), or when referring to an unrelated third party in speech. It is dropped however by some superiors, when referring to one's in-group, and in formal writing, and is never used to refer to oneself, except for dramatic effect, or some exceptional cases.

Dropping the honorific suffix when referring to one's interlocutor, which is known to as yobisute, implies a high degree of intimacy and is generally reserved for one's spouse, younger family members, social inferiors (as in a teacher addressing students in traditional arts), and very close friends. Within sports teams or among classmates, where the interlocutors approximately have the same age or seniority, it can also be acceptable to use family names without honorifics. Some people in the younger generation prefer to be referred to without an honorific, however, and drop honorifics as a sign of informality even with casual acquaintances.

When referring to a third person, honorifics are used except when referring to one's family members while talking to a non-family-member, or when referring to a member of one's companywhile talking to a customeror someone from another company – this is the uchi-soto (in-out) distinction. Honorifics are not used to refer to oneself, except to be arrogant (ore-sama), to be cute (-chan), or sometimes when talking to small children, to teach them how to address the speaker.

Common Honorifics:

San

derived from sama (see below), is the most commonplace honorific, and is a title of respect typically used between equals of any age. Although the closest analog in English are the honorifics "Mr.", "Miss", "Mrs.", or "Ms.", san is almost universally added to a person's name, in both formal and informal contexts. However, in addition to being used with people's names, it is also employed in a variety of other ways.

San is used in combination with workplace nouns, so a bookseller might be addressed or referred to as honya-san ("bookstore" + san), and a butcher as nikuya-san ("butcher shop" + san).

San can also be attached to the names of animals or even inanimate objects. For example, a pet rabbit might be called usagi-san, and fish used for cooking can be referred to as sakana-san. Both uses would be considered childish (akin to "Mr. Rabbit" in English) and would be avoided in formal speech. Even married people often refer to their spouse with san.

"San" can also be used in conjunction with nii or onii. Nii or nii-san is a shorter way of saying onii-san. It means older brother. It is more respectful to say onii-san or nii-san when speaking to your elder brother, than by calling them by their name.

Chan

is a diminutive suffix; it expresses that the speaker finds a person endearing. Thus, using chan with a superior's name would be condescending and rude. In general, chan is used for babies, young children, grandparents and teenage girls. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, or any youthful woman. It can be used for males in some circumstances, but in general this use is rather condescending or intimate.

Although traditionally honorifics are not applied to oneself, some young women adopt the childish affectation of referring to themselves in the third person using chan (childish because it suggests that one has not learned to distinguish between names used for self and names used by others). For example, a young woman named Kanako might call herself Kanako-chan rather than using a first person pronoun. Also, the very common female name suffix -ko may be dropped, as in Kana-chan.

List of Words:

Elven Dictionary

Nesu-life/death

Oso-and