Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 yanile Aug 07, 2010 19:11:40	As a private study i am looking into the linguastic basis of the forgotton realms scrift 'Espruar' also known as Hamafae. I have made good progress using Sean Reynolds' article on Tar'Ael Veluuthra ( www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/200... )  in which I have made out words phrases and the basics of word order and struction collating around 4-5 nouns and other lexical devices. what is already apparent is that it is a language steeped in metaphor and pragamatics. Having exhausted the whole two lines of text useful to me I am looking for any direct referance to espruar or hamafae texts with both espruar (in runes or standard font) with english translations. Any assistance in this study is greatly appriciated and I welcome the prospect of comparing notes to any others this is a personal venture more out of curiosity than anything else, but needless to say a fully working espruaen lexicon would be a fantastic tool for any DM to add flavour to thier games
#2 gray_richardson Aug 08, 2010 0:41:31	Hamarfae and Espruar are two different scripts.  Hammarfae is an ancient alphabet that was used to write Seldruin, the language of the elves/eladrin that was spoken in Faerie (the Feywild) before Tintageer was destroyed.  Seldruin is the language of elven high magic (epic magic) and serves as sort of a liturgical language similar to Latin in the Catholic church. Not sure if Seldruin was even current at the time that the sun elves and moon elves emigrated to Toril.  It might have been a dead language even at that time, but possibly well known, in the way that Latin was well-known in the Middle Ages and used for scholarly purposes. Anyway, modern elven has diverged quite a bit from Seldruin.  Probably in a way similar to the manner in which modern French differs from Latin. It is important to distinguish the alphabets (Hamarfae and Espruar) from the languages (Seldruin and Elven).  Although some sources confuse the matter by calling the elven language "Espruar." There is a dictionary of Forgotten Realms elvish words and phrases compiled by Steven Sypa at this link here: www.candlekeep.com/library/articles/dict... This list is pretty comprehensive, though it hasn't been updated in a while and may not have the very most current elven words from newer sources--but that is probably only a few stray words it's missing.  Otherwise, this glossary should have almost every known FR elven word from all the published sources. There was a 3rd edition Espruar script published in the 3e Forgotton Realms Campaign Guide.  It's very pretty.  It replaced Ed Greenwood's original Espruar script, which was a little clunky, but charming in it's own way.  I have advocated that people use Ed's original Espruar script as Hamarfae. Alternatively you could use the 4e elven script, Rellanic, as Hamarfae on the theory that it is the script of the eladrin of the Feywild, one that has been in use continuously over there since the sun & moon elves escaped to Toril. Myself, I prefer to use Ed's original Espruar script as Hamarfae, and consider the 3e Espruar script to be the Espruar script of the elves of Toril, while the Rellanic script is the alphabet used by the eladrin of the Feywild, Hamarfae having been long forgotten by both lineages of elves on either side of the planar curtain.
#3 yanile Aug 08, 2010 7:03:24	This is a most wonderful source and I thanks you ^^, I was mislead to believe that hamafae and espruar were one though i admit my suspicians as i hdent encounted hamafae beforehand I am using the 3e espruaraen runes to work most things out and it is a highly experimental process but my job has just been made a hell of a lot easier by your fair self so i thank you again ^^ as your referance to -as lating in the middle ages- consider that what i aim to achieve, that or a scholary interest in the dead languages of feauran. thanks again Xx.Yv