Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lord Karsus 04-23-06, 01:57 AM	-As we all know, there isn't an official Elven Dictionary, approved by WotC/TSR...Anyone know why? -The Drow have their own dictionary, as the the Dwarves (I believe). Any reason in particular why there isn't an official Elven Dictionary? You'd think that, due to the amount of writers who use Elven (Cunningham, Greenwood, Baker, Salvatore, every so often), there would be some kind of official dictionary in Elves of Evermeet, or a similar sourcebook. -Just another reason why The Elves of Faerūn needs to be published as a 3e sourcebook in sometime in the near future...
Gnomosexual 04-23-06, 02:07 AM	start a sticky of elven here then? :confused: :)
Ivarrius 04-23-06, 02:13 AM	-As we all know, there isn't an official Elven Dictionary, approved by WotC/TSR...Anyone know why? -The Drow have their own dictionary, as the the Dwarves (I believe). Any reason in particular why there isn't an official Elven Dictionary? You'd think that, due to the amount of writers who use Elven (Cunningham, Greenwood, Baker, Salvatore, every so often), there would be some kind of official dictionary in Elves of Evermeet, or a similar sourcebook. -Just another reason why The Elves of Faerūn needs to be published as a 3e sourcebook in sometime in the near future... I agree. Or perhaps a Collection sort of book. Published 3.x versions of as many racial Languages as there have been published writings. Elven being priority #1.
Lord Karsus 04-23-06, 02:14 AM	start a sticky of elven here then? :confused: :) -That's a great Boards Name, by the way. -You misunderstand. I've already compliled many words, for different sources. I am just wondering if anyone knew why there isn't an official dictionary, like the Drow have.
Zanan 04-23-06, 04:25 AM	Well, you'd have the ask the designers of days gone by. My version is that at the time Drow of the Underdark was written, they were on a high (mostly because the fact that they made/make a good monster race as well as having that scimitar-wielding hero harassing them in the books). The Wizards or TSR did start a series of racial books, remember that Dwarves Deep followed that line, Elves of Evermeet as well as Cormanthyr and The Fall of Myth Drannor followed suit. As in, there is enough Elven stuff around, sourcebook-wise. But, much like the deity-stats of nowadays, language entries are quite unneccessary in the fair game of D&D. There will always be folk wanting to use fantasy speech, but generally, I would assume that the input and work behind such glossaries does not make ends meet with a) the money raked from such books nor will it b ) hit a chord with most readers. Thus, they most likely chopped it in the Elven books for the sake of more background info. Maybe the Wizards will welcome a glossary of all Elven (Gnomish, Drakonian ...) words done by the readership (remember the quotes) and may put them on their website ...
Gray Richardson 04-23-06, 10:57 AM	There was a series of articles done in Dragon Magazine a few years back. They did an elven language article with a glossary. They also did one on draconic which was eventually incorporated into the Draconomicon. The Elven Dictionary that they did for Dragon Magazine, though, we should probably assume is Grey Elven for the core game. I do think that realms authors have used some of the words from that glossary in their Realms writing. The problem with doing an elvish dictionary is: which elvish are you going to use? The elvish of Greyhawk? Eberron? The Forgotten Realms? If the Forgotten Realms, then which dialect? Evermeet? Evereska? Cormanthyr? And from which period? While elven changes slowly, it appears to have changed over the historical period from when the elves began to arrive in the distant past to the present. I see two main factors against publishing an elven dictionary: 1) Rich Baker has said their designers don't posess the linguistic skill set necessary to create an elven language and do it justice. 2) It wouldn't sell well. Sure, lots of linguistics fans would buy it, but it would not be popular enough among the general gamer fan base to turn a profit. However, this is something that the fans could certainly put together and the idea keeps popping up. I know some threads about it were discussed several months back. If you wan't to spearhead the effort, I would help you. Designing conlangs is one of my favorite things to do.
Zanan 04-24-06, 04:16 AM	Well put Gray. There may be a few people digging into this, much like with Klingon or the like. But the effort is far too intensive for someone wanting to break even to make it successful. Best thing you could try and do for starters is collecting any bit of FR Elven (i.e. non-Drow) while checking whether you actually collect Moon, Sun and whatever Elven. On the basis of this "official" stuff the linguistics amongst us may try a Tolkien then ...