Lore:Falmer Language

This article is about the Falmer language. For the race, see Snow Elf. For the creatures, see Falmer.

The Falmer language, also known simply as Falmer, is an elven language used by the ancient Snow Elves.

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M

N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

Known Examples

The Falmer Alphabet is, or rather was, the alphabet used by the Snow Elves. It is a very stylized script, quite the opposite of the minimalist script of their Dwemer captors. There are only two known examples of the language, both appearing in Skyrim. The very low number of examples is probably due to the fact that the many Snow Elves who sought asylum with the Dwemer were forced to lose their sight, at which point they ceased to require a written language.

Gallus's Encoded Journal, written by a former Guild Master of the Thieves Guild, is written in the Falmer alphabet, but it directly transliterates into English. The Skyrim add-on Dawnguard adds an additional four books, Unknown Book, Vols. I, II, III, and IV, but they too directly transliterate into English.

A stone which translates both Dwemeris and the Falmer language.

The largest and only example of the Falmer language is inscribed on a stone in Calcelmo's Tower. The half that is in the Falmer language transliterates into:

ye sa sou meldi calne tarn va nou molagnenseliye trumbi nou bala
ilpen av sou meldi nagaiale as guntumnia spantelepelaelia arani morae
ye sou liebali racuvane ye nu rautane sye ye nu hautalle nou buroi
gume sou gravuloi sa metane sye garlis frey as gandra dwemera tarcel
lane sou agea ye frey as emeratis avatheledia carelle sou anyamissi
bisia silya nu hecta sou arcten rias nu nemalauta ge nu hecta sou epe
gandra rias ne nemalauta ge nu frey sepa sye arcta varlor denai
cullei noue staneiaye ry sou alasil auta ry loria shanta abagaiavoy
malautavoy fey nou darre ye alata nou malae asma moraga sou anyamis
av sercen pado ye gethena sou wend narilia vey emeratu sou oia bisia

The text appears in the Falmer Alphabet as follows:

YE SA SOU MELDI CALNE TARN VA NOU MOLAGNENSELIYE TRUMBI NOU BALA
ILPEN AV SOU MELDI NAGAIALE AS GUNTUMNIA SPANTELEPELAELIA ARANI MORAE
YE SOU LIEBALI RACUVANE YE NU RAUTANE SYE YE NU HAUTALLE NOU BUROI
GUME SOU GRAVULOI SA METANE SYE GARLIS FREY AS GANDRA DWEMERA TARCEL
LANE SOU AGEA YE FREY AS EMERATIS AVATHELEDIA CARELLE SOU ANYAMISSI
BISIA SILYA NU HECTA SOU ARCTEN RIAS NU NEMALAUTA GE NU HECTA SOU EPE
GANDRA RIAS NE NEMALAUTA GE NU FREY SEPA SYE ARCTA VARLOR DENAI
CULLEI NOUE STANEIAYE RY SOU ALASIL AUTA RY LORIA SHANTA ABAGAIAVOY
MALAUTAVOY FEY NOU DARRE YE ALATA NOU MALAE ASMA MORAGA SOU ANYAMIS
AV SERCEN PADO YE GETHENA SOU WEND NARILIA VEY EMERATU SOU OIA BISIA

No translation to this is provided within the game, but parts of it can be translated, as detailed below.

Translation using other Elvish languages

Note: The partial translation below is just expert opinion.

The Falmer language appears to be heavily based on the Ayleid language. A large number of words are shared by both languages and it appears that the Falmer language also uses the same grammatical structure. Details on the Ayleid grammatical structure can be found here. One difference is the complete lack of punctuation and capitalization on the stone, making separating sentences and clauses very difficult. Punctuation has been inferred from the Dwemer version of the text.

Using Ayleid words to translate Calcelmo's Stone, it partially translates into:

And so your people given pass into our Halls of Fire-Water and TRUMBI our power.
Many of your people killed by GUNTUMNIA SPAN-tower-speak-throat kings of the wood,
and your wills were cast down, and we heard you, and we sent our slaves/servants
against your enemies so bring you caverns(possibly 'underground'). Only by gift of Dwemer TARCEL
time-never your wisdom and only by musics AVATHELEDIA CARELLE your lives
new SILYA. We exile your acknowledgement, RIAS we NEMALAUTA GE. We exile your spoken gift,
RIAS we NEMALAUTA GE. We FREY SEPA SYE acknowledge VARLOR treaties
foods our STANEIA. And as your vision fades, as darkness comes forbidding,
MALAUTAVOY FEY our DARRE, and light our high, by what MORAGA your life
from SERCEN, and GETHENA your final journey VEY music your new eternal.

Official translation

An official, albeit out of game, translation of the text has also been provided by the developper Kurt Kuhlman, which can be matched to the above texts like this:

And so it was that your people were given passage to our steam gardens, and the protections of our power.
Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora,
and your wills were broken, and we heard you, and sent our machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under.
Only by the grace of the Dwemer did your culture survive,
and only by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin.
We do not desire thanks, for we do not believe in it. We do not ask for gratitude, for we do not believe in it.
We only request you partake of the symbol of our bond, the fruit of the stones around us.
And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not.
Know only our mercy and the radiance of our affection, which unbinds your bones
to the earth before, and sets your final path to the music of your new eternity.

The text provided by Kurt Kuhlman is actually formatted slightly differently, with punctuation (including a comma not followed by a space, which matches an above mistake where "molagnenseli ye" was accidentally written as one word: "molagnenseliye") and line breaks for each sentence (including one which matches an above mistake where "staneia ye" was accidentally written as one word: "staneiaye"). For the sake of more accurate linguistical analysis (for example, the hyphenation of "spantelepelaelia" into "spantelepe-laelia" teaching us how to more accurately understand how to map out the meaning of snow-throated), here is a copy of the text as it was provided:

Ye sa sou meldi calne tarn va nou molagnenseli,ye trumbi nou bala.

And so it was that your people were given passage to our steam gardens, and the protections of our power. (literally "protection of our mathematics")

Ilpen av sou meldi nagaiale as guntumnia, spantelepe-laelia arani Morae, ye sou liebali racuvane, ye nu rautane sye, ye nu hautalle nou buroi gume sou gravuloi, sa metane sye garlis.

Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora, and your wills were broken, and we heard you, and sent our machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under.

Frey as gandra dwemera tarcellane sou agea, ye frey as emeratis Avatheledia carelle sou anyamissi bisia silya.

Only by the grace of the Dwemer did your culture survive, and only by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin.

Nu hecta sou arcten, rias nu nemalauta ge. Nu hecta sou epegandra, rias ne nemalauta ge.

We do not desire thanks, for we do not believe in it. We do not ask for gratitude, for we do not believe in it.

Nu frey sepa sye arcta varlor denai, cullei noue staneia.

We only request you partake of the symbol of our bond, the fruit of the stones around us. [lit. "we only ask you to accept"] (literally "the fruit of our stones")

Ye ry sou alasil auta, ry loria shanta, abagaiavoy.

And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not.

Malautavoy fey nou darre ye alata nou malae, asma moraga sou anyamis av sercen pado, ye gethena sou wend narilia vey emeratu sou oia bisia.

Know only our mercy and the radiance of our affection, which unbinds your bones to the earth before, and sets your final path to the music of your new eternity.

Notice the unusual capitalization of "Morae" and "Avatheledia", both words which are not supposed to be directly translated using Elvish:

• While Altmora/Atmora is known as the Elder Forest for the Elves, "Morae" here should be understood as of (the continent of) [At]Mora, and not simply as of the Forest.
• "Avatheledia" is taken straight from the Dwemer word "Avatheled" which can be broken into "Ava-th-eled", with "th" being the Dwemer word for and (hence: Falmer: "emeratis Avatheledia", Dwemer: "avatheled kagr", English: (the) Fifteen-and-one tones).

Falmer Dictionary

Below is a list of known Falmer words, gleaned from the official translation of Calcelmo's Stone. Definitions are provided when known. Because of the large number of compound words in the Falmer language, many words in the list will have similar parts.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

A Abagaia [to] not fear (compare with Ayleidoon "Abagaianye" meaning I do not fear) Abagaiavoy fear not (imperative) Agea Culture (probably also wisdom and lore as in Ayleidoon) Alasil Vision (as in Ayleidoon) Alata Radiance (probably also light as in Ayleidoon) -ane Added at the end of verbs possibly to indicate a past tense (taken from the verbs "racuvane", "rautane", "metane" and "tarcellane") Anyamis Bones, Life (as in Ayleidoon and taken from plural "Anyamissi") Anyamissi Lives (i.e. plural of life, most likely "Anyamis") Aran King (as in Ayleidoon and taken from plural "Arani") Arani Kings (plural form most likely of "Aran" as in Ayleidoon) Arcta [to] partake (compare with Ayleidoon, [to] acknowledge) Arcten Thanks (noun, probably related to the verb "Arcta", since a show gratitude is a form of acknowledgement) As by (as in Ayleidoon) Asma which Auta [to] cloud (i.e. [to] become unclear, foggy, etc.) Av of, from (as in Ayleidoon) Avatheledia (from context) "fifteen-and-one", "sixteen" (as an adjective denoting something sacred to the Dwemer), taken direction from Dwemeris "Avatheled" ("Ava-th-Eled", probably literally translating into Fifteen-and-One in their language) with the added adjectival Elvish (non-Dwemer) suffix "-ia". B Bala Power (as in Ayleidoon) Bisia new (compare with Ayleidoon prefix "Bis-" meaning the same thing) Buro Vassal, Servant, Machine (from "Buroi" which is plural) Buroi Vassals, Servants (plural of "Buro", as in Ayleidoon), "Machines" (in the context of being uttered by a Dwemer) C Calne given Carelle did Culle Fruit (taken from plural "Cullei", compare with Ayleidoon, food) Cullei Fruits D Darre Mercy Denai Bond (probably some sort of plural, related to Ayleidoon "Dena" meaning treaty) Dwemer Deep folk, the Dwarves (taken from "Dwemera") Dwemera of the Dwemer (possibly a plural possessive form) E Emeratis Tones (seems to be a plural form of "Emeratu") Emeratu Music (taken from "Emeratu", as in Ayleidoon) Epe "[to] speak", "talking", perhaps "Speech" (as in Ayleidoon and taken from "Epegandra" and "Spantelepe") Epegandra Gratitude (lit. speech-grace or spoken gift) F Fal Snow (from "Falmer", compare with Ayleidoon, cold, sometimes north depending on context) Falkreath Falmer Snow elf, Snow elves, perhaps "People of the cold" or "People of the north" Frey (or Fey) only G Gandra Grace (probably also "Gift" as in Ayleidoon: e.g. "Epegandra": gratitude, lit. speech-grace or spoken gift) Garlis [physically] under[ground], perhaps "Caves" or "Caverns" (compare with Ayleidoon "Garlas" meaning Cave) Ge it Gethena [to] set Gravulo Enemy (taken from plural "Gravuloi") Gravuloi Enemies Gume against Guntumnia roaring H Hautalle sent Hecta undesired (e.g. "nu hecta": we do not desire) I Ilpen many L Lael Throat (as in Ayleidoon and taken from "Laelia" without the adjectival suffix "-ia") Laelia throated Lane (from context) did (taken from "Tarcellane", possibly a suffix indicating the past for verbs, possibly a compound of "La" meaning time and "Ne" for negation, which could be used to indicate the past, a moment which no longer exists) Liebal Will (taken from plural "Liebali"), but could probably be understood as "Willpower" (given "Bal" is similar to "Bala", Power, meaning "Lie" is perhaps the word that strictly means Will) Liebali Wills (plural of "Liebal") Loria Darkness (as in Ayleidoon) M Mala Affection (non-possessive form of "Malae") Malae Affection (probably the possessive form of the root-word "Mala", compare with Ayleidoon "Mala" meaning high but occasionally meaning loving, as in "Malaburo" meaning loving-vassalage) Malauta [to] know Malautavoy know (imperative) Meldi People Metane [to] take Molag Fire (as in Ayleidoon and taken from "Molagnenseli") Molagnen Steam (taken from "Molagnenseli") Molagnensel Steam garden, Hall of steam (taken from plural "Molagnenseli") Molagnenseli Steam (lit. fire-water) gardens Mora Wood, Forest (as in Ayleidoon and taken from "Morae") Morae of the wood, of the forest (possessive form of "Mora"), of A[l]tmora, of the Elder Wood (in the context of the Nords) Moraga [to] unbind N Nagaiale [had] perished (compare with Ayleidoon "Nagaia" meaning death) Narilia final (compare to Ayleidoon "Naril" meaning the same thing, with the adjectival suffix "-ia") Nemalauta "[to] believe", or possibly "[to] not believe" (see Notes, either way literally "Ne-Malauta": [to] not-know) Ne not (used to indicate negation with a verb, probably can also mean never as in Ayleidoon, and negation in general) Nen Water (as in Ayleidoon and taken from "Molagnenseli") Nou our (as in Ayleidoon) Noue of our (possessive form of "Nou") Nu we O Oia Eternity (compare with Ayleidoon "Oio" meaning eternal) P Pado before (as in Ayleidoon) R Racuvane [were] broken (compare with Ayleidoon "Racuvar" meaning [to be] cast down) Rautane heard Rias for (i.e. because) Ry as (as in Ayleidoon) S Sa so [it was] Sel Garden, Hall (as in Ayleidoon, singular form of "Seli") Seli Gardens, Halls (as in Ayleidoon and taken from "Molagnenseli") Sepa [to] request Sercen Earth Shanta [to] set in (compare with Ayleidoon, [to] come) Silya [to] begin (compare with Ayleidoon "Sila" which usually means shining but can also mean dawn, i.e: to dawn is to begin) Sou your (as in Ayleidoon) Span Snow (taken from "Spantelepe", explanation below, compare with Ayleidoon "Spania") Spantelepe possibly "snow" (taken from "Spantelepe-laelia", Snow-throated), but should probably be understood in the context of being a reference to the Throat of the World, meaning a more literal translation should be "Snow Tower" (from Dark Elvish "Tel", tower, indicating that "Span[ia]" is the word that actually directly translates to snow) Spantelepe-laelia snow-throated (lit: snow-tower-speak and throat with adjectival suffix "-ia") Staneia Stones Sye you (compare with Ayleidoon "Tye" being the object form of you) T Tarcel [to] endure (taken from Tarcellane, compare with Ald Chimeris, [to] resist) Tarcellane "did endure" or "endured" (compare with Ayleidoon "Tarcellanen") [the word is cut in the in-game text and only appears in full thanks to Kurt Kuhlman's provided translation] Tarn Passage (probably also portal as in Ayleidoon) Tel Tower (as in Dark Elvish and taken from "Spantelepe") Telepe Prolix Tower (lit. Tower-Speak, the Talking Tower, taken from "Spantelepe", the Snow Tower), a concept related to the metaphysical reality-warping effects of Towers that radiate reality and dictate its laws around them Trumbi Protections V Va in[to] (as in Ayleidoon) Varlor Symbol (as in Ayleidoon) Vey to W Wend Path (compare with Ayleidoon "Wendir" meaning journey) Y Ye and (as in Ayleidoon) Notes There are probably a few mistakes in the original text: It is unclear whether the phrasing "ne nemalauta" or "nu nemalauta" correctly translates into we do not believe, because in Ayleidoon (an Elvish language virtually identical to the Falmer tongue so far) the former would translate into [do] not believe while the latter would translate into we believe. It is possible both phrases are wrong and that each is missing a small word (respectively the pronoun "nu" and the negation "ne"), because according to our current understanding of Ayleidoon (and assuming this would apply to the Falmer language), a correct Elvish phrase for we do not believe should be "nu ne nemalauta" which is a mix of both phrasings. It is also possible the pronoun "nu" is not necessary because it is already implied who the subject is at the beginning of the sentence: "Nu hecta sou epe gandra, rias ne nemalauta ge." — We reject your spoken-gift, because [we (not repeated)] [do] not believe it. In which case, "ne nemalauta" is the correct phrasing. Alternatively, it is also possible that "nemalauta" already means not believe, literally not-know (not trusting), which would indicate that knowing and believing are the same verb in Elvish. In that case, "nu nemalauta" is the correct phrasing. The single use of "Fey" instead of "Frey" (used three times to mean only) seems to be a typo. The official translation often uses simplified languages to convey the overall meaning without strict adherence to the original elvish sentence. For example, "spantelepe-laelia" is translated as snow-throated but more strictly means snow-tower-speaking-throated. Given that the Tower of Skyrim is the Snow Tower (or "Throat of the World" for the Nords), the association of ideas is still present when simplifying as snow-throated, but the word "telepe" (meaning prolix tower, the Tower that Speaks) becomes lost and this renders a strict word-for-word translation less accurate. Resources Falmer Font This font was created by GodRaine and is available for download. Note that all of the Falmer letters are written in entirely upper-case. FalmerFont.zip 8Kb For Windows: Unzip and copy the FalmerFont.ttf file into the WINDOWS\FONTS (95, 98/ME, XP, Vista and 7) or WINNT\FONTS (NT, 2000) directory. For Mac: Unzip (Stuffit Expander should work), and copy the FalmerFont.TTF file into your /Library/Fonts folder. For Linux: Open the TTF file and click on "Install Font". UESP Template The usage on the wiki is described in more detail on its template. References Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.