Kobold language

The Kobold language is one of the languages the player will come across. This language is used in-game for the names, groups, and civilizations of kobolds.

Kobold is governed by different rules than the four main languages. Kobolds have the UTTERANCES creature token, which means their language having no pre-defined vocabulary. Instead, the language consists entirely of proper names built by hard-coded rules, which are detailed below.

Kobold-language words do not actually have a proper English translations; however, Kobold-language objects and individual kobolds will maintain the same name over time.

Alphabet and Graphemics

The letters of the Kobold alphabet are:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

Y

Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

k

m

n

o

p

r

s

t

u

y

Of these 21 letters, six (A, E, I, O, U, and Y) represent vowels, while the other fifteen represent consonants.

Peculiarities:

• The letter h only appears in the digraphs ch and sh.
• The letter n only appears in the digraphs ng, nk, and sn.
• The letter y only appears in the digraph ay.

The letters Q, V, W, X, and Z of the ISO basic Latin alphabet do not occur in the Kobold alphabet.

Letter Frequency

Based on a sample of 120 kobold names, the approximate letter frequencies can be established:

Letter	Frequency
a	7.8%
b	4.7%
c	0.9%
d	3.6%
e	4.2%
f	2.4%
g	4.3%
h	3.6%
i	8.6%
j	1.5%
k	2.9%
l	10.8%
m	1.9%
n	2.7%
o	4.9%
p	1.3%
r	8.1%
s	11.4%
t	3.6%
u	9%
y	1.9%

Phonotactics

The Kobold language has 16 distinguishable consonant phonemes, forming the phonological inventory:

	Unvoiced	Voiced	Other
Labial Plosive	p [p]	b [b]
Alveo-dental Plosive	t [t]	d [d]
Postalveolar Affricate	ch [t͡ʃ]	j [d͡ʒ]
Velar Plosive	k [k]	g [g]
Labial Fricative	f [f]
Dental Fricative	s [s], th [θ]
Postalveolar Fricative	sh [ʃ]
Approximant			r [r], l [l]
Nasal			n [n*], m [m]

*The phoneme represented by n likely has the allophone [ŋ] before g and k.

Syllables

Kobold has three kinds of syllables, valence, medial, and final. Every word is composed of one or two valence syllables, zero to four(?) medial syllables, and one final syllable. Words must begin with a valence syllable and end with a final syllable, and the penultimate syllable must be a valence syllable. Therefore, the following structures are allowed:

No. of syllables	Structure
2 syllables	V-F
3 syllables	V-V-F
4 syllables	V-M-V-F
5 syllables	V-M-M-V-F
6 syllables	V-M-M-M-V-F

Valence Syllables

Every valence syllable is of the syllable structure C₁(C₂)V. C₁ is mandatory, and can be one of many consonants; C₂ is an optional approximant, which can be either r or l; and V is a vowel.

• The allowed consonants for C₁ are: b, ch, d, f, g, j, k, l, p, s, sh, st, t, and th.
• The allowed consonants for C₂ are: r, l, or nothing.
  • Exception: The consonant cluster ll is forbidden.
• The allowed vowels for V are: a, ay, ee, i, o, and u.
  • Exception: The digraph vowels ay and ee can only be present in the penultimate syllable of a word (if this is also the initial syllable, it is still allowed).

Medial Syllables

Every valence syllable is of the simple form CV. C is one of a handful of consonants, and V is a vowel.

• The allowed consonants for C₁ are: b, d, f, g, k, and l.
• The allowed consonants for C₂ are: r, l, or nothing.
  • Exception: The consonant cluster ll is forbidden.
• The allowed vowels for V are: a, i, o, and u.

Final Syllables

Every final syllable is of the structure (C₁)C₂R. C₁ is optional, and can be r, l, n, or mm, though their allowed usage is limited; C₂ is mandatory, and can be one of several consonants; R is a rime that is limited to one of the four endings -er, -in, -is, or -us.

• The allowed consonants for C₁ are: r, l, m, and n.
  • r is only allowed before b and sn.
  • l is only allowed before b, d, g, and m.
  • n is only allowed before g and k.
  • m is only allowed before b.
• The allowed consonants for C₂ are: b, d, g, k, m, l, r, and sn.
• The allowed rimes for R are: er, in, is, and us.

The allowed consonants for C₁, being exclusively sonorants, are likely not meant to actually begin the final syllable, but rather to be appended to the penultimate syllable. For example, the kobold name Krudulugrilgus would be enunciated as Kru-du-lu-gril-gus, not Kru-du-lu-gri-lgus.

Vocabulary

As mentioned above, Kobold has no set vocabulary, being formed entirely of procedurally generated proper names. The shortest possible words would be 5 letters and 2 syllables, like jomus. While nothing known about the rules of the language limits the length of a word, the longest observed word so far is the personal name Brabalalaleeldis at 16 letters and 6 syllables.

V · T · E Languages
Races	Divine · Dwarven · Elvish · Goblin · Human · Kobold
Modding	language_words.txt · language_SYM.txt · Language token
Text Sets	text_book_instruction.txt · Text dwarf.txt · text_curse.txt · text_general.txt