I am attempting to create a fully speakable version of the goblin language for a home game. I have the first draft in a reasonable state so I'm sharing here for your feedback/recommendations, and in case any of you could make use of it.
How it was built
First I took the list of known DND goblin words and phrases and applied Toki Pona (the simplest conlang I'm aware of) grammar and sentence structure rules to them to try and determine what each element most likely meant. Some word orders ended up being a bit wobbly, but because there are always exceptions in any living language I'm not too concerned about that.
Next I used these words to build an initial vocabulary. This vocabulary was pretty small and had a number of gaps so I filled these gaps with Toki Pona words that I tweaked to sound more goblin-y (mostly by adding Gs, Hs, and Ks).
Finally I applied existing Toki Pona sentence structure and grammar rules to this new goblin language.
The Goblin Language (Ghukliak) should now be in a state that is fully readable, speakable and translatable.
TLDR. I reskinned Toki Pona to make Ghukliak speakable.
Goblin Language (Ghukliak)
The goblin language, also known as Ghukliak, is the language spoken by goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears. It is a guttural language which includes grunting and other noises.
Grammar
Ghukliak's word order is subject–verb–object. The word “li” introduces verbs/adjectives, and the word “e” introduces direct objects.
A noun is followed by its adjectives. Likewise, a verb is followed by its modifiers.
The position of a word in a sentence determines its role. This allows ghukliak's limited number of words to serve many purposes. The word “gever” when in the verb position means "to eat". But in the noun position, it means "food". As an adjective, it might mean "edible".
Prepositional phrases follow the objects, and “la” ends a phrase or clause that comes before the subject to add additional context.
Sentence Structure
A sentence may be an interjection, statement, wish/command, or question.
Interjections such as “a”, “bizel”, “hash”, “ikreh”, “liak”, “mu”, “tnak”, “vek”, etc. can stand alone as a sentence.
Statements follow a subject-verb-object structure, with an optional “la” (if/when) phrase at the beginning. The word “li” precedes the verb unless the subject is “unk” (I/me) or “sink” (you). The marker “e” comes before direct objects. More “li” and “e” markers can present more verbs and objects respectively.
Vocative phrases come before the main sentence and are marked with “bree” at the end of the phrase, after the addressee.
In commands, the word “bree” comes before a verb to express a second person command. It can also replace “li”, or come after the subjects “unk” or “sink”, to express wishes.
There are two ways to form yes–no questions in ghukliak. The first method is to use the "verb-bizel-verb" construction in which “bizel” comes in between a duplicated verb. Another way to form a yes–no question is to put “anu seme?” (or what) after the phrase being inquired about. The English equivalent is taking a statement like "It's snowing." and adding a tag, like "It's snowing, isn't it?" or "It's snowing, right?”. Questions cannot be made by just putting a question mark at the end of a sentence. A positive answer to a yes–no question is given by repeating the word asked about.
Non-polar questions are formed by replacing the unknown information with the interrogative word “seme”.
Punctuation
Capital letters are not routinely used in ghukliak, including at the beginning of a sentence. Most text is therefore completely lowercase. Capitalisation is only used for names.
Two punctuation marks are used in ghukliak. First is the colon which is used as a sentence separator. Colons are used to separate sentences rather than end them, and so are not typically used at the end of a block of text. Next is the middle dot ( · ) which is often used to make long sentences easier to read, similarly to how commas are used in English. It may be placed before or after the particle “la”, or not at all.
Pronouns
Ghukliak has four basic pronouns: “unk” (first person), “sink” (second person), onk (third person), and “nis” (demonstrative). Number and gender are not specified by default, but they can be specified with additional modifiers.
Nouns
With such a small root-word vocabulary, ghukliak relies heavily on noun phrases, where a noun is modified by a following root, to make more complex meanings. A typical example is combining “ghuk” (goblin) with “nor” (fight) to make “ghuk nor” (goblin fighter/soldier/warrior).
Nouns do not specify number. “ghuk” can mean goblin, goblins, goblin-kind, or goblinoid depending on context.
Ghukliak does not use isolated proper nouns; instead, they must modify a preceding noun. For example, names of people and places are used as modifiers of the common roots for "goblin" (ghuk), “non-goblin” (hak) and "place” (mag).
Modifiers
Phrases in Ghukliak are head-initial; modifiers always come after the word that they modify. Therefore, “ghuk nor” (goblin of fighting), can be a fighting goblin, whereas “nor ghuk” (fighting of goblin), can mean goblin war.
When a second modifier is added to a phrase it modifies all that comes before it, so “ghuk vek mutrek” might mean many good goblins, with both “vek” (good) and “mutrek” (many) modifying “ghuk” (goblin). The particle “pi” is placed before two or more modifiers to group them into another phrase that functions as a unit to modify the head: In “ghuk pi vek mutrek”, “vek mutrek” as a unit means much goodness, so together means very good goblin. “mutrek” modifies “vek”, and “vek mutrek” as a whole modifies “ghuk”.
Demonstratives, numerals, and possessive pronouns come after the head like other modifiers.
Verbs
Ghukliak has no inflection whatsoever. Tense is indicated by context; time is indicated through context or by a temporal adverb in the sentence.
Prepositions are used in the predicate in place of a regular verb.
Colours
Ghukliak has five words for colours: vaza (black), walg (white), loyk (red), jelk (yellow), and lask (blue and green). These words can be combined to make more specific colours. For instance, "purple" may be represented by combining lask and loyk.
Numbers
Ghukliak has words for zero (bizel), one (gut), two (tu), five (lukgrak), 20/many (mutrek), and 100/all (alik). More complex numbers are created by adding together these base numbers, each separated by a middle dot ( · ). The largest number is always listed first:
1 (gut)
2 (tu)
2·1 (tu · gut)
2·2 (tu · tu)
5 (lukgrak)
5·1 (lukgrak · gut)
5·2 (lukgrak · tu)
5·2·1 (lukgrak · tu · gut)
5·2·2 (lukgrak · tu · tu)
5·5 (lukgrak · lukgrak)
More complex numbers become unwieldy and are rarely used as broader, less prescriptive, descriptions are preferred. For example “73” would be expressed as 20·20·20·5·5·2·1 (mutrek · mutrek · mutrek · lukgrak · lukgrak · tu · gut). However “mutrek” would more likely be used on its own to indicate “many”.
Example Sentences
Basic noun + modifier
ghuk nor - "goblin fighter" (literally "goblin of fighting").
nor ghuk - "goblin war" (literally "fighting of goblin").
The first example describes a goblin who fights, while the second describes a war involving goblins.
ghuk vek mutrek - "many good goblins" (goblin + good + many)
Without “pi”, both "vek" (good) and "mutrek" (many) modify "ghuk" (goblin), leading to "many good goblins."
Grouping modifiers with “pi” for different meanings
ghuk pi vek mutrek - "very good goblin" (goblin + of [good + many])
Here, “pi” groups “vek” & “mutrek” together, treating "good many" as a single idea (similar to "very good").
More complex phrases
lukgrak pi ghuk nor - "warrior’s fist" (fist of goblin fighter)
jaskram pi ghuk vek - "wise goblin mirror" (a mirror that belongs to a wise goblin OR a mirror that makes goblins wise)
Sentence with an Object
unk li gever e gever - "I eat the food"
Here “li” separates the subject “unk” (I) and the verb “gever” (in this context - to eat). “e” then marks the object “gever” (in this context - food).
Command
bree gever e gever - “eat the food”
Here “bree” indicates a command.
Yes/No Question
unk li gever bizel gever - “do I eat?”
Here “bizel” comes in between the a duplicated verb “gever”, (Literally: I eat / not eat?).
Vocative Phrase
ghuk bree · sink li gever e gever - "goblin, you eat the food."
Here “ghuk” (goblin) is directly addressed “bree” (vocative marker). The remainder of the command follows the standard subject-verb-object order separated by “li” and “e”.
Dictionary
Goblin
Common
1
a
particle: (emotional interjection, emphasis or confirmation)
2
alik
noun: everything, universe
adjective: every, all, abundant
number: all, 100
3
anpak
noun: lower part, pariah (fourth caste in goblin society)
brae unk · vhos trolkh - A hobgoblin phrase used as a farewell, meaning "If you die while I'm gone, do it quietly". Originally “brae unk · bree vhos trolkh bizel” (Literally: “in my absence die without sound”) but “bree” and “bizel” have been dropped over time. An unspoken second part was “tan nis · unk wilgarg bizel brae tan musg”. "Because I wouldn't want to miss the fun."
bree yark - "Hey Rube!", (Literally: the command “help”, but rumored to mean "we surrender!").
dar grath - "Great slayer" (Literally: slayer of greatness).
gared guur - Manticore, (Literally: "slayer from the skies").
gever vaza - "There's meat tonight". (Literally: “food at nighttime”).
Hello!! I am currently working on a book series that includes goblins. I'm in the early stages and still trying to flesh things out. I mainly just really want to get back into writing, lol.
I am looking at different goblin languages and trying to choose one. I don't want to use one without the creator's permission, so I was wondering if I could consider using your homebrew language. I could give contact information, and we could keep in touch about the possible success of these books if they ever reach publication, but I do want to turn the story into a possible one-shot/campaign.
I really don't know lol, I am still fleshing out details in the beginning stages, and figured reaching out sooner rather than later is best.
Hello!! I am currently working on a book series that includes goblins. I'm in the early stages and still trying to flesh things out. I mainly just really want to get back into writing, lol.
I am looking at different goblin languages and trying to choose one. I don't want to use one without the creator's permission, so I was wondering if I could consider using your homebrew language. I could give contact information, and we could keep in touch about the possible success of these books if they ever reach publication, but I do want to turn the story into a possible one-shot/campaign.
I really don't know lol, I am still fleshing out details in the beginning stages, and figured reaching out sooner rather than later is best.
Hi,
Thanks for taking an interest in this language and for reaching out.
I just want to say upfront that I don't own the goblin words in this language that have been borrowed from published D&D material. Nor do I own Toki Pona. So unfortunately I'm not in a position to give you permission to use them in published works.
That said, if what you're writing is not going to infringe on anybody’s intellectual property, then I'd be happy for you to use this mash-up. That's why I shared it after all, so others could make use of it.
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Good afternoon all,
I am attempting to create a fully speakable version of the goblin language for a home game. I have the first draft in a reasonable state so I'm sharing here for your feedback/recommendations, and in case any of you could make use of it.
How it was built
First I took the list of known DND goblin words and phrases and applied Toki Pona (the simplest conlang I'm aware of) grammar and sentence structure rules to them to try and determine what each element most likely meant. Some word orders ended up being a bit wobbly, but because there are always exceptions in any living language I'm not too concerned about that.
Next I used these words to build an initial vocabulary. This vocabulary was pretty small and had a number of gaps so I filled these gaps with Toki Pona words that I tweaked to sound more goblin-y (mostly by adding Gs, Hs, and Ks).
Finally I applied existing Toki Pona sentence structure and grammar rules to this new goblin language.
The Goblin Language (Ghukliak) should now be in a state that is fully readable, speakable and translatable.
TLDR. I reskinned Toki Pona to make Ghukliak speakable.
Goblin Language (Ghukliak)
The goblin language, also known as Ghukliak, is the language spoken by goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears. It is a guttural language which includes grunting and other noises.
Grammar
Ghukliak's word order is subject–verb–object. The word “li” introduces verbs/adjectives, and the word “e” introduces direct objects.
A noun is followed by its adjectives. Likewise, a verb is followed by its modifiers.
The position of a word in a sentence determines its role. This allows ghukliak's limited number of words to serve many purposes. The word “gever” when in the verb position means "to eat". But in the noun position, it means "food". As an adjective, it might mean "edible".
Prepositional phrases follow the objects, and “la” ends a phrase or clause that comes before the subject to add additional context.
Sentence Structure
A sentence may be an interjection, statement, wish/command, or question.
Interjections such as “a”, “bizel”, “hash”, “ikreh”, “liak”, “mu”, “tnak”, “vek”, etc. can stand alone as a sentence.
Statements follow a subject-verb-object structure, with an optional “la” (if/when) phrase at the beginning. The word “li” precedes the verb unless the subject is “unk” (I/me) or “sink” (you). The marker “e” comes before direct objects. More “li” and “e” markers can present more verbs and objects respectively.
Vocative phrases come before the main sentence and are marked with “bree” at the end of the phrase, after the addressee.
In commands, the word “bree” comes before a verb to express a second person command. It can also replace “li”, or come after the subjects “unk” or “sink”, to express wishes.
There are two ways to form yes–no questions in ghukliak. The first method is to use the "verb-bizel-verb" construction in which “bizel” comes in between a duplicated verb. Another way to form a yes–no question is to put “anu seme?” (or what) after the phrase being inquired about. The English equivalent is taking a statement like "It's snowing." and adding a tag, like "It's snowing, isn't it?" or "It's snowing, right?”. Questions cannot be made by just putting a question mark at the end of a sentence. A positive answer to a yes–no question is given by repeating the word asked about.
Non-polar questions are formed by replacing the unknown information with the interrogative word “seme”.
Punctuation
Capital letters are not routinely used in ghukliak, including at the beginning of a sentence. Most text is therefore completely lowercase. Capitalisation is only used for names.
Two punctuation marks are used in ghukliak. First is the colon which is used as a sentence separator. Colons are used to separate sentences rather than end them, and so are not typically used at the end of a block of text. Next is the middle dot ( · ) which is often used to make long sentences easier to read, similarly to how commas are used in English. It may be placed before or after the particle “la”, or not at all.
Pronouns
Ghukliak has four basic pronouns: “unk” (first person), “sink” (second person), onk (third person), and “nis” (demonstrative). Number and gender are not specified by default, but they can be specified with additional modifiers.
Nouns
With such a small root-word vocabulary, ghukliak relies heavily on noun phrases, where a noun is modified by a following root, to make more complex meanings. A typical example is combining “ghuk” (goblin) with “nor” (fight) to make “ghuk nor” (goblin fighter/soldier/warrior).
Nouns do not specify number. “ghuk” can mean goblin, goblins, goblin-kind, or goblinoid depending on context.
Ghukliak does not use isolated proper nouns; instead, they must modify a preceding noun. For example, names of people and places are used as modifiers of the common roots for "goblin" (ghuk), “non-goblin” (hak) and "place” (mag).
Modifiers
Phrases in Ghukliak are head-initial; modifiers always come after the word that they modify. Therefore, “ghuk nor” (goblin of fighting), can be a fighting goblin, whereas “nor ghuk” (fighting of goblin), can mean goblin war.
When a second modifier is added to a phrase it modifies all that comes before it, so “ghuk vek mutrek” might mean many good goblins, with both “vek” (good) and “mutrek” (many) modifying “ghuk” (goblin). The particle “pi” is placed before two or more modifiers to group them into another phrase that functions as a unit to modify the head: In “ghuk pi vek mutrek”, “vek mutrek” as a unit means much goodness, so together means very good goblin. “mutrek” modifies “vek”, and “vek mutrek” as a whole modifies “ghuk”.
Demonstratives, numerals, and possessive pronouns come after the head like other modifiers.
Verbs
Ghukliak has no inflection whatsoever. Tense is indicated by context; time is indicated through context or by a temporal adverb in the sentence.
Prepositions are used in the predicate in place of a regular verb.
Colours
Ghukliak has five words for colours: vaza (black), walg (white), loyk (red), jelk (yellow), and lask (blue and green). These words can be combined to make more specific colours. For instance, "purple" may be represented by combining lask and loyk.
Numbers
Ghukliak has words for zero (bizel), one (gut), two (tu), five (lukgrak), 20/many (mutrek), and 100/all (alik). More complex numbers are created by adding together these base numbers, each separated by a middle dot ( · ). The largest number is always listed first:
More complex numbers become unwieldy and are rarely used as broader, less prescriptive, descriptions are preferred. For example “73” would be expressed as 20·20·20·5·5·2·1 (mutrek · mutrek · mutrek · lukgrak · lukgrak · tu · gut). However “mutrek” would more likely be used on its own to indicate “many”.
Example Sentences
Basic noun + modifier
The first example describes a goblin who fights, while the second describes a war involving goblins.
Expanding with additional modifiers
Without “pi”, both "vek" (good) and "mutrek" (many) modify "ghuk" (goblin), leading to "many good goblins."
Grouping modifiers with “pi” for different meanings
Here, “pi” groups “vek” & “mutrek” together, treating "good many" as a single idea (similar to "very good").
More complex phrases
Sentence with an Object
Here “li” separates the subject “unk” (I) and the verb “gever” (in this context - to eat). “e” then marks the object “gever” (in this context - food).
Command
Here “bree” indicates a command.
Yes/No Question
Here “bizel” comes in between the a duplicated verb “gever”, (Literally: I eat / not eat?).
Vocative Phrase
Here “ghuk” (goblin) is directly addressed “bree” (vocative marker). The remainder of the command follows the standard subject-verb-object order separated by “li” and “e”.
Dictionary
Goblin
Common
1
a
2
alik
3
anpak
4
antrek
5
anu
6
awreng
7
bizel
8
booyahg
9
brae
10
bree
11
dar
12
durbuluk
13
e
14
en
15
epikruk
16
esruk
17
fak
18
gared / grath
19
gaukul
20
gever
21
ghuk
22
ghukliak
23
gut
24
guur
25
hak
26
hash
27
ijok
28
ikreh
29
insk
30
jaskram
31
jelk
32
jer
33
jorg
34
kalg
35
kamruk
36
keng
37
kherek
38
kikrek
39
kilgh
40
kin
41
kipish
42
kiwreng
43
kork
44
krongh
45
kulgrak
46
kutreg
47
la
48
lanprak
49
lapreg
50
lask
51
lekrog
52
leng
53
letruk
54
li
55
liak
56
lilk
57
linkrag
58
liprukk
59
log
60
lorach
61
loyk
62
lukgrak
63
lukrek
64
lupx
65
mag
66
mamrag
67
mank
68
melkrag
69
mesruk
70
mijrek
71
miskregh
72
monsk
73
mu
74
munk
75
musg
76
mutrek
77
n
78
nag
79
namakrok
80
nasrag
81
nasrink
82
neng
83
nimrah
84
nis
85
nokrah
86
nor
87
nying
88
okrog
89
olgark
90
olohk
91
onk
92
oprek
93
palk
94
palx
95
panh
96
pi
97
pilgark
98
pingh
99
pokol
100
pokrak
101
rhaal
102
samrag
103
selg
104
selkrak
105
seme
106
sijelg
107
sikrek
108
sin
109
sink
110
sinpis
111
sitelgrek
112
sonrak
113
sowegark
114
spug
115
sugra
116
suno
117
supaf
118
tag
119
tan
120
taso
121
telgarg
122
tenpok
123
tnak
124
tomruk
125
trolkh
126
tu
127
tuuch
128
ub
129
unk
130
unx
131
urdesk
132
utarg
133
vaza
134
vek
135
vaws / vhos
136
walg
137
wasrah
138
wilgarg
139
yark
Key Phrases
Hello!! I am currently working on a book series that includes goblins. I'm in the early stages and still trying to flesh things out. I mainly just really want to get back into writing, lol.
I am looking at different goblin languages and trying to choose one. I don't want to use one without the creator's permission, so I was wondering if I could consider using your homebrew language. I could give contact information, and we could keep in touch about the possible success of these books if they ever reach publication, but I do want to turn the story into a possible one-shot/campaign.
I really don't know lol, I am still fleshing out details in the beginning stages, and figured reaching out sooner rather than later is best.
Hi,
Thanks for taking an interest in this language and for reaching out.
I just want to say upfront that I don't own the goblin words in this language that have been borrowed from published D&D material. Nor do I own Toki Pona. So unfortunately I'm not in a position to give you permission to use them in published works.
That said, if what you're writing is not going to infringe on anybody’s intellectual property, then I'd be happy for you to use this mash-up. That's why I shared it after all, so others could make use of it.