The Ta'agra Project

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KHAJIIT NAME HONORIFICS
In Khajiiti culture, individuals will often take an optional honorific on their name. These honorifics may be chosen by the individual or given to him or her by clan or family. Some Khajiit consider it foolish or poor form to take more than one honorific.

Honorifics be either prefixes or suffixes. When adding an honorific prefix, the honorific is separated from the name with an apostrophe and the name is capitalized. For example: Zakhar with the honorific prefix "ra" would be "Ra'Zakhar". When adding an honorific suffix, the honorific is separated from the name with a dash and the honorific is not capitalized. For example: Garesh with the honorific suffix "ri" would be "Garesh-ri".

Listed below are some of the most common khajiiti name honorifics. Honorifics marked with an asterisk * are non-canon and have been added by us or others in the community.

dar: Male specific. This honorific means "thief," but more like the Nordic "Clever Hudvar" or the Breton "Arnand the Fox." A Khajiit with "dar" in his name is clever, and maybe clever with his hands, but not always a thief by your odd Imperial property customs.
daro: Female specific. Female version of dar.
do: This honorific means "warrior" and is almost exclusively male, but is very occasionally accorded to outstanding females.
dra: Female specific. Grandmother or wise elder woman.
dro: Male specific. Grandfather or patriarch.
ja/ji/j/sa: Male specific. Bachelor.
jo: Male specific. Wizard, scholar, or healer.
ko: Female specific. Wizard, scholar, or healer.
la: Female specific. High-caste unmarried female or maiden.
ma/m: Gender neutral. Young, child, virgin.
*qa: A rare title of unknown meaning.
ra: Male specific. Boss, leader, male of high standing.
ri: Male specific. General, great leader, male of highest standing.
*ro: Female specific. Noblewoman, female of high standing.
s: Gender neutral. Adult or elder.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Ta'agra, like English, primarily uses a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order. Ta'agra has no markers for the subject or objects of a sentence, so word order is important to conveying meaning. (e.g. "Man bites dog" is very different from "dog bites man".)

Comments on word order: Existing lore samples of Ta'agra are inconsistent in their use of word order. Some are clearly Subject-Verb-Object and some are clearly Subject-Object-Verb. After extensive discussion on this topic, we have decided to stick with a Subject-Verb-Object order for Ta'agra. This will increase simplicity and ease of use, because this is the same word order used by native English speakers. We attribute the discrepancy to cultural and linguistic variations between Anaquina and Pa'alatiin with the north historically using SOV and the south using SVO. Both structures work, so long as the Subject comes at the beginning of the sentence. We are saying the official structure, however, is SVO.

Intonation
Declarative sentences in Ta'agra have no special intonation. Interrogative sentences (questions) end with an upwards inflection at the end, just like English.

PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation in Ta'agra is fairly straightforward. Some consonant pairs can be challenging, but consonants and vowels are consistent in the sounds they make, with the exception of J (though even many native speakers don't enunciate the distinction between the initial J and the medial/terminal J).

Though not technically proper, most Ta'agra speakers will not double-enunciate consonants when one word ends with a consonant and the next word begins with that same consonant. For example "someone pulled his tail" translates to "egahz zanka jan zeva". It is common for "egahz" and "zanka" to simply be blanded together as "egahzanka" rather than enunciating the Z twice.

NOUNS
Case
Nominative (Subject): No change.

Accusative (Object): No change.

Dative (Indirect Object): No change.

Genetive (Possessive): No change, indicated by word order. When two nouns are paired together in a sentence, the first noun is the possessor and the second noun is the possessed. e.g. "Ra'Zakhar's bread" = "Ra'Zakhar barij". Alternatively, if more clarity is needed, possession can be established by using the word "di" (of): "Barij di Ra'Zakhar" = "Bread of Ra'Zakhar".

Lative (Movement to something.): +ali. "Ra'Zakhar walks to the market" = "Ra'Zakhar iit shothali".

- Note: English indicates infinitives with "to". This use of "to" does not translate to +ali in Ta'agra, it is simply omitted. For example, "I like to walk to the market" translates to "Ahziss kefa iit shothali" (I like walk market-to).

Ablative (Movement from something. Also used to indicate origin.): +iitay. "Ra'Zakhar is from Torval" = "Ra'Zakhar vaba Torvaliitay".

Plural
Plural: +a (ends w/ cons), +'a (end w/ a, ay, ai), drop ending vowel & +a (ends with e, i, o u).
- Naraj = animal. Naraja = animals.
- Kafa = horse. Kafa'a = horses.
- Raszai = drug. Razsai'a = drugs.
- Srato = hat. Srata = hats.
- Alku = bottle. Alka = bottles.

Agentive
Verb/noun to agentive noun: +iit. If the word ends in a vowel, drop the vowel before adding the suffix.
- Budi = shirt. Budiit = tailor (one who shirts, shirter)
- Khaj = desert/sand. Khajiit = (one who deserts, deserter)
- Dela = learn. Deliit = student (one who learns, learner)
- Laa = law. Aliit = (one who laws, lawyer). Special irregular: Single syllable words consisting of a consonant and a vowel would become too short. Instead of dropping the trailing vowel entirely, the vowel is moved to the front of the word.

Nominalization (Converting verbs/adjectives/adverbs to nouns)
Word +na. (If root word ends with Noun + H, drop the H before adding +na. e.g. valah = far. valana = distance)
- Takarr = [to] attack(v). Takarrna = [an] attack(n).
- Dar = steal(v). Darna = theft.
If nominalizing an adjective formed by adding +i/+'i to a noun root word, keep the adjective suffix and add +na to the end of it.
- Zal = health(n). Zali = healthy(adj). Zalina = healthiness(n).
If nominalizing an adjective that is a root word, just add +na.
- Itrola = ugly. Itrolana = ugliness.
If pluralizaing a nominalized word, follow the same pluralization rules for words ending with the letter A (+'a).
- Taza = annoy(v). Tazana = annoyance(n). Tazana'a = annoyances(n).

VERBS

Tense Change English Ta'agra

Present Simple No change I play Ahziss ketra

Present Prog. +"to be" (pres.) I am playing Ahziss va ketra

Past Simple Verb +ka (+a if word ends w/ k or q) I played Ahziss ketraka

Past Prog. + "to be" (past) I was playing Ahziss vaber ketra

Future Simple Verb +se (+e if word ends w/ s or z) I will play Ahziss ketrase

Future Prog. + "to be" (pres.), Verb +se/+e I will be playing Ahziss va ketrase

Ta'agra does not use the Perfect (I have/had played) or Perfect Continuous (I have/had been playing) verb tenses.

Simple common verbs are often truncated for brevity. For example, "vara" may be said simply as "ra" and vaba may be said simply as "ba". The Khajiit often look for language shortcuts.

Negation
Ta'agra uses a negation suffix on verbs instead of using an independent word to establish negation (e.g. "not" in English).

Present tense: +oh. Past tense: +ohka. Future tense: +ohse. If the word ends in a vowel, drop the vowel before adding the suffix.
- "I worry" = "Ahziss muk". "I don't worry" = "Ahziss mukoh".
- "I mentioned that" = "Ahziss bekka jaji". "I didn't mention that" = "Ahziss bekohka jaji".
- "I will fight" = "Ahziss rakse". "I will not fight" = "Ahziss rakohse".

Voice
Ta'agra can use both passive and active voice. The active voice, which is short and direct, is usually preferred.

Active:
- "The hunter killed the animal."
- "Hirsiniit var darka naraj."

Passive:
- "The animal was killed by the hunter."
- "Naraj vaber var darka iho hirsiniit."

Mood
Ta'agra, like English, establishes Grammatical moods (condition, command, hope, etc.) with helper words rather than through verb inflection.

Converting Nouns to Verbs
Noun to Verb: +ith If the word ends in a vowel, drop the vowel before adding the suffix.
- da'khe = water. da'khith = to water/watering
- zrasha = a circle. zrashith = to circle/circling

ADJECTIVES
Adjectives/nouns modifying nouns: Combine the two (or more) words with the adjective(s) before the noun being modified. If the last letter of the adjective and the first letter of the noun are both vowels, separate with a glottal stop (').
- Zwinthodurrarr = yellow pen (zwintho + durrarr)
- Ajo'iiliten = wonderful girl (ajo + ' + iiliten)
- Fithsutapal = hot, long day (fith + suta + pal)

While traditional Ta'agra will combine adjectives with the nouns they modify to form compound words, modern speakers influenced by other Tamrielic languages will often separate adjectives from the nouns they modify with a space.

Noun Adjunct: Using Nouns as Adjectives
Nouns can be used as adjectives without modification
- dog = rian. food = taj. dog food = riantaj.

Converting Nouns to Adjectives
Noun to Adjective: +i (ends w/ cons), drop ending vowel & +i (ends w/ a, ay, ai, e, o, u), +'i (ends w/ i)
- dog = rian. doglike/canine(adj) = riani

It is not necessary to convert a noun to its adjective form when using that noun as an adjective. These two forms can be used to create subtle differences in words.
- dogfood = riantaj. doglike food = rianitaj

ADVERBS
Ta'agra does not have a consistent rule for forming adverbs from other words. Adverbs will occasionally be formed with the +i suffix like adjectives, but not always.

PRONOUNS
It is a common misconception that the Khajiit do not use pronouns. Ta'agra has pronouns, though the use, origin, and meaning of these words reflects the Khajiiti culture. Pronouns are sometimes omitted, especially when using certain irregular verbs where the conjugation implies the pronoun that was excluded. For a list of Ta'agra pronouns please refer to the Pronouns page or the Dictionary.

TTP Staff Opinion: The most common misconception is that Ta'agra has no word for "I". This is not correct. The Ta'agra word for "I" is "ahziss". The reason for this misconception is likely due to the structure of the word. "Ahziss" is comprised of "ahz" (person) and "iss" (people). A rough translation could be "one of the people" or "a person of the people". This may be why most khajiit prefer to speak of themselves in the third person when not speaking Ta'agra, as it more closely reflects the meaning of the word in Ta'agra.

PREPOSITIONS
Ta'agra's usage of prepositions is the same as in English. Prepositions are used to relate a noun or pronoun to another word or element in a clause.

CONJUNCTIONS
Ta'agra uses most of the standard English conjunctions (and, but, or, because, etc.). Like English, conjunctions are used to join sentences, clauses, and words.

ARTICLES
Ta'agra does not use direct or indirect articles (a, an, the).

CONTRACTIONS
The khajiit are always looking for ways to simplify their language, this has lead to numerous common contractions. Some examples include:
- daba (dat vaba): It is (it's)
- jaba (jan vaba): He is (he's)
- roba (roj vaba): She is (she's)

SUFFIXES
Ta'agra has various suffixes which can change the meaning of words.

+ozay (without, +less): fus (regret), fusozay (regretless/without-regret)

DECONSTRUCTION
Google Doc: Ta'agra Deconstruction

PHONEMIC INVENTORY
Google Doc: Phonemic Inventory