Trigedasleng/Vocabulary

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The Vocabulary of Trigedasleng language.

Proper Names

For more information on Names , check Trigedasleng Linguistics

Sky People names: Abby - Abi Clarke - Klark. Finn - Fin Bellamy - Belomi Octavia - Okteivia Raven - Reivon Blake - Bleik Jasper - Jaspa Monty - Monti Murphy - Mofi Ethan - Ithon

Grounder names: Lexa - Leksa Gustus - Gostos Anya - Onya Lincoln - Linkon Nyko - Naikou Niylah - Naila Tomac - Tomak Artigas - Adigas

Grounder clans: Coalition - Kongeda Woods Clan - Trikru / Trigedakru Boat People - Floukru / Floudonkru Ice Nation - Azgeda / Azgedakru Desert Clan - Sankru / Sangedakru Lake People - Podakru Delphi Clan - Delfikru Glowing Forest - Trishana / Trishanakru Plains Riders - Ingranrona /Ingranronakru Blue Cliff Clan - Ouskejon Kru Shallow Valley - Louwoda Kliron Kru Rock Line - Boudalankru Broadleaf - Yujleda

Other clans: Sky People - Skaikru Mountain Men - Maunon

Pronouns

• ai = "I/me" from English "I"
• yu = "you" from English "you"
• em = "he/she/it" from English "him" or "them"
• osir = "we/us" (excludes the listener) from English "us-here"
• oso = "we/us" (includes the listener) from English "us-all"
• yumi = "you-and-me/you-and-I" from English "you-me"
• yo = "you (plural)/you all/y'all" from English "you-all"
• emo = "they/them/the" from English "them-all" (note that this sounds like "em-oh", not the pseudo-Goth clothing style Emo, which would be spelled imo)

Etymology

NOTE: Since Trigedasleng is written phonetically, and has no canon writing system, the info below is based on that phonetic spoken language system. So ai is considered an exact pronunciation and translation of the English I. (See the first section of the Trigedasleng page for further clarification.)

Words and phrases that are exactly the same as they are now, or changed in pronunciation, or are abbreviations of English words and phrases with very close semantic meanings:

• Op: Slight change in pronunciation, phonetically the same, from the English up. frequently used in Trigedasleng in a similar, flexible meaning as it does in the Southern American dialect. As in, "put up" meaning to put away, or to start a process ("put up the soup", to boil, where it belongs if we're going to eat it).
• Raun: An adapted pronunciation of the English round and around. Same usage.
• Heda: Derives from header, with no change in pronunciation from American English dialects. Semantically, similar to the English queen or king or ..., but is gender neutral. As an inherited position, jus sanguini or rather jus natjus (nightblood right) narrowed down and filled through combat. It is variation of human hierarchy which are usually culturally specific, equivalents are hard to find exactly.
• Gona: Derives from the English word gunner, if directly translated. In Trigedasleng, this semantically translates to the English warrior.
• Gonplei: gunplay. In Trigedasleng, translates to the English word fight.
• Klin: clean. Exact, as in the English slang usage, "do him clean", "it was a clean death", "he is clean" (he is without an unwanted weapon or drug or spy device).
• Klir: clear. Exact, as in the English usage, "you're cleared", "a clear path".
• Praim: Derives from the English prime, translates to the English first.
• Dis, der, de, etc. Exact meaning. Pronunciation is the same as the English pronunciation in certain dialects of there, this, the, etc. This pronunciation in turn was spread from Bahamian creole to English.
• Fis: Derives from English fix, pronunciation is the same as English slang. Translates semantically to the English heal.
• Ga: English girl.
• Slenge: Derives from slang, translates to language.
• Satellites (au, we, daun, taim, etc.), Pronouns (ai, yumi, etc.), possessives (ain, yun, etc.), auxiliaries and modals (ste, na, ge, don, beda, suda, etc.), see above. Many, including all auxiliaries and modals listed above, are currently pronounced this way in English slang dialects and in English based creoles.
• Conjunctions! En (English 'n'), ba, fou, kos and bilike: All exact pronunciations and meanings, as they are currently used in American English dialects.
• Bilike: Directly translates to the English be like, and is pronounced the same. It is used in various northeastern American dialects, including but not limited to AAVE, widely used in NY. Semantically it is the same. Grammatically, its current uses in English are similar, but not exactly as Trigedasleng uses it. (Trigedasleng mostly uses it subjunctively, sometimes present, and English does as well, but English mostly uses it in the present tense for facts or opinions).
• Jos: Exact to English slang pronunciation of just. Used in Trigedasleng as an adjective of time, not as in right.
• Kom: Used for all English meanings of come, and combinations that use come, so English come from drops the from. Trigedaslang uses the same word come/kom for more uses, semantically very similat to the Romantic de. Also others, see below.
• Cof up: Exact, English slang cough up, as in cash or goods.
• See Vocabulary for more English derived words and their etymology.

Words and phrases formed by English words but are code or slang, and were not phrases in English:

• Stegeda: Derives from stay together. Function is adapted to use as a noun, rather than a verb. Directly translated stay together place. Semantically the same as the English village.
• Ge son op: Directly, get sun up. Semantically, dried

Words and phrases adapted or abbreviated from current creoles:

NOTE: Creoles are fully developed languages with many native speakers. They are frequently confused with pidgins, which they are not. They have complete structure, definitive grammar and usually include unique vocabulary in addition to combining and adapting their originator language/s. It is theorized modem English is a creole itself, that most languages were at some point.

• The pronunciation of the x sound as the English s is common to Louisiana French-based creole, which has spread to the general population, a phonetic shift currently employed in American English dialects.
• Dis, der, de, etc. Exact meaning. Pronunciation is the same as the English pronunciation in certain dialects of there, this, the, etc. This pronunciation in turn was spread from Bahamian and Jamaican creole usage with det/dei/das, etc., to American English dialects.
• Em: Exact usage from Jamaican creole. Gender neutral meaning for him and her.
• Gon: Exact. Derives from guna/gonna, possibly shortened so as not to confuse with gona and gonplei. Yet sufficiently confusing to a non-speaker, like the Mt. Men.
• Don: Exact in Bahamian. Derives from done, used for the past tense, "I done fixed him up".
• Vowel shifts are similar to Bahamianese, an English-based creole:
• Frequently, the adaptation from English of many words and phrases are derived in the same way that European (English, French, Portuguese) based creoles adapt those languages.
• All auxiliaries and modals listed above are currently pronounced this way in English dialects with young people and in English based creoles such as in Gullah (in Gullah, don, de, etc. are exact) .
• Kom: Used for all French and Spanish meanings of comme and como, as well as French/Spanish de.

Nouns: People and Places

• Army/unit of warriors: gonakru
  • combination gona + kru
• Body: medo
• Child: goufa or yongon
  • The etymology of goufa is unknown, but may be derived from "go-forth" or "goof-off". Yongon derives from "young one".
  • The etymology of, goufa, is from the Swiss-German language and means: urchin or naughty boy. Original: Goofa
  • Typically, goufa refers to any child. Yongon is used to refer to one's own child, or the child of a particular person. While the two are technically interchangeable, it is more common for someone to use yongon to refer to their own offspring.^{[citation needed]}
• City of Light: Soncha Kapa; Sonchageda/Sonchgeda
  • from soncha "light" + kapa "city"
  • Soncha comes from "sunshine"; kapa comes from "capital".
• Coalition/alliance: kongeda
• Commander: heda
  • from "head" + "-er"; heda is gender-neutral
• Commander of Death: Wanheda
  • from "wind" + "up"; die: wan...op
  • from "head" + "-er"; heda is gender-neutral
• English (language): Gonasleng
  • from gona + sleng
• Father: nontu
  • from "number two"
  • After the nuclear fallout, surviving Grounders didn't want to tip off scouts from enemy tribes (or Mountain Men) about the identities of their leaders, which in clans tended to be mothers and fathers, so they called their leaders "number one" and "number two", which eventually came to mean "mother" and "father" respectively. Over time, these codenames were slurred to nomon and nontu.
• Fight: gonplei
  • from "gunplay"
• Flame Keeper: Fleimkepa
  • from "flame" and "keeper"
• Forest: trimani
  • from "tree" + "many"
• Friend: lukot
  • ​The etymology of this word is unknown. It may be derived from "look out", as you would look out for or protect a friend. "I will (look out) for you" = lukot
• Girl: gada
  • The etymology of this word is unknown. It may be derived from "daughter".
• Gorilla: pauna
• Healer: fisa
  • from fis op "to heal" + -a "-er"
  • fis op "to heal" comes from "fix (up)"
• Ice: az
• Joined/entwined: teina
  • The etymology of this word is unknown.
  • It's possible that it could be derived from "tie" + "knot", referring to the phrase "tying the knot" when someone is married, or joined to another.
• Knife: swis
  • The etymology of this word is unknown. It may be derived from "Swiss army knife"
• Language: sleng
  • from "slang"
• Life: sonraun
  • from "sun" + "around", referring to the movement of the earth around the sun
  • This metaphor is present in Modern English, when we talk about "going around the sun" to mean getting older or living one's life.
• Lunch: sanch
  • The etymology of this word is unknown. It may come from "sandwich".
• Mother: nomon
  • from "number one"

• Mount Weather: Maun-de
  • from maun "mountain" + -de (an emphatic particle)
• Mountain Men: Maunon
  • from maun "mountain" + -on
• Murderer: ripa
  • from "rip"/"reap" + -a "-er"; used as a proper noun to refer to Reapers.

• Passage: gouthru
  • from "go-through"
• People: kru
  • from "crew"
• Prisoner: honon
  • from "hunt" + -on "one"
• Queen: Haiplana
  • Derived from English high planner.
• Raccoon: snacha
  • May be derived from "snatch" meaning "to take"
• Raiding party: veida tro
  • from "invading" + "troops"
• Rider: hosa
  • Probably from "horse" + "-er", like the one who uses horses. The "-er" suffix became "-a", like usual in Trigedasleng.
• Second (a warrior's apprentice) & second (ordinal): seken
  • English slang pronunciations. 

• Sky: skai
  • from "sky"
  • This is one example of a word that has been preserved from Modern English; it has undergone no phonological change and is only spelled according to the romanization system devised by David J. Peterson.
• Sky People: Skaikru
  • from skai + kru
  • This is the name the Grounders give the people from the Ark.
• Soul: Keryon. From "carry on"

• Shadow: Trikova, from tri "tree" + kova "cover"
• Warrior: gona
  • from "gun" + "-er"
• Tunnel: sobwe
  • from "subway"
  • Many or most of the tunnels that the Reapers hide in are abandoned subway tunnels.

Nouns: Things

• Number: noma, from "number".
• Blood: jus
  • from "juice"

Nouns: Events

• Fall (season): fotam
  • from "falltime"
• Never: nowe
  • from "no way"
• Nightblood: Natblida
  • combination of nat "night" (see also: sheidgeda)" + blida "one who bleeds"
• Outsider/outcast: splita
  • from "split" + -a "-er"
• Over/done/finished: odon
  • from "all done"
• Spring: sprintam
  • Derived from "springtime"
• Storm: skaikrasha
  • from "sky" and "crash"
• Summer: Sontam. Derived from "summertime"
• Winter: wintam
  • Derived from "wintertime"

Adjectives and Adverbs

• Strong: yuj
  • from "huge"
• Weakness: kwelnes
  • from kwelen "weak" + -nes "-ness"
  • Kwelen is derived in part from "quailing", in the sense of shaking with fear.
• Tree People: Trigedakru
  • from tri "tree" + geda "gathering" + kru "people"
  • The Woods Clan is known as Trigeda; the Tree People (people of the Woods Clan) may also be called Trikru.
• Tree People's Language: Trigedasleng
  • from tri "tree" + geda "gathering" + sleng "languange"
  • It's unknown how the grounder people named its language. This name is used by the production of the series. ...Possibly because Trikru was the first group near Mt. Weather, the first to need a code to hide from them, and it spread from there.
• Shallow:”louwoda”
  • from English “low” + “water”
• Winter: wintam
  • Derived from "wintertime"
• World: houd
• Worthless/foolish: branwoda
  • from "brown-water"
  • In the years after the nuclear apocalypse, the basic needs of finding drinking water clean enough for human consumption were often hard to meet. "Brown water" was a generic term for water which was not suitable for drinking. Over time, the meaning was extended to include anything worthless. It is now used as an insult as well, and can be used as a noun to mean "fool".

• Safe: klir
  • from English "clear"
  • Gadagapa ste klir.
• Lying: spichen
  • Ai don fis disha spichen gona op = "I cured this lying warrior."
  • The etymology of spichen is unknown. It may be derived from "spitting", vile creation of the mouth. To spich "spit" + en "that person"
• Hidden: stelt
  • from English "stealth"
• Black: Nat

• Night: nat
  • from English "night". The semantic English night is frequently used to describe black or dark colored things in materials production and the words are similar or the same in various languages.

• Enough: pleni
  • from "plenty"
  • daun ste pleni = "that is enough"
  • em pleni! = "enough!" (as a command)
• Then: den
  • from "then"
  • den, oso na zog raun kom trikova = "then, we will strike from the shadows"

Conjunctions

• And: en
• Again: nodotaim
  • from "another time" same a current English slang pronunciation
• But: ba
• Before: fou
• Because, for: kos
• But, except: sef
• Or: ou
• After: pas
• If...then: taim...taimm

Verbs

Note that verbs in Trigedasleng make use of satellites – see the linguistics section for a detailed explanation.

• Be: laik or ste
  • laik is from "like" and is used with nouns and prepositional phrases.
    • ai laik Okteivia = "I am Octavia"
    • yu laik kom Trigeda = "You are from the Woods Clan"
  • ste is from "stay" and is used with adjectives (as a stative copula) and verb phrases (as a progressive marker).
    • yu ste kwelen = "you are weak"
    • emo ste hon em op = "they are finding him"
• "Be" (figuratively or metaphorically): bilaik
  • bilaik is from "be like" and has many, many different uses
  • as a copula, it is used to mean "to be in a figurative way" or "to be, for all intents and purposes"
  • ai bilaik ticha "I am a teacher, for all intents and purposes", versus ai laik ticha "I am a teacher"
• Tell: tel...op
  • from "tell" + "up"
  • bilaik yu don tel ai op otaim = "like you have always told me"
• Help: sis...au
  • from "assist" + "out"
  • sis em au = "help him"
• Protect: shil...op
  • from "shield" + "up"
  • Den dula yu dula en shil ai op. = "Then do your duty/job and protect me."
  • This could also potentially have come from the popular sci-fi phrase: "shields up", which is forever quoted when under attack in a spaceship.
• Want/need/seek: gaf...in
  • The etymology of this word is unknown. Probably from "got to", or perhaps "go for".
  • ai gaf sen em in = "I need to hear it"
  • The satellite is optional in most cases, particularly when followed by another verb.
• Fall behind: drag...raun
  • from "drag" + "around"
• Leave behind: ban...au
  • from "ban" + "out"
  • Taim yu drag raun, taim yu ge ban au. = "If you fall behind, then you get left behind"
• Quiet/Be quiet: shof...op
  • from "shut up"
  • shof op has gone through "amelioration" and has lost the offensiveness of its Modern English ancestor
• Love: hod...in
  • from "hold" + "in"
  • ai hod yu in = "I love you"
• Wait/stop: hod...op
  • from "hold" + "up"
  • hod op! = "Wait!"
• Attack: jomp...op
  • from "jump" + "up"
  • Jomp em op en yu jomp ai op. = "Attack her, and you attack me."
• Strike/attack en masse: zog...raun
  • from the "Zerg rush", a maneuver which gets its name from the StarCraft enemy "Zerg swarm" that attacks in overwhelming numbers + "around"
  • den oso na zog raun kom trikova = "then, we strike from the shadows"
• Find: hon...op
  • from "hunt" + "up"
  • ai don hon em op = "I found him"
• Locate: lok...op
  • from "look" + "up"
• Fall: slip...daun
  • from "slip" + "down"
  • em slip daun kom skai = "he fell from the sky" (note: the past tense auxiliary don has been left out, most likely by mistake)
• Hear: sen...in
  • The etymology of this word is unknown. Perhaps from "sense".
  • ai don sen in chit bilaik ai gaf sen in = "I've heard what I needed to hear."
• Take: jak...op
  • from "jack" + "up"
  • Skaikru don jak ething op kom ai = "Sky People took everything from me"
• Go to/stay near/be near: kamp...raun
  • from "camp" + "around"
  • osir na kamp raun ona tri = "we will stay in the trees"
• Pull away/draw away: pul...we
  • from "pull" + "away"
  • pul em we gon emo honon = "draw them away from their prisoners"
• Free: breik...au
  • from "break" + "out"
  • breik em au = "free him"
• Die: wan...op
  • from "wind" + "up"
  • nau yu na wan op = "now you will die"
• Kill : frag...op
  • From FPS videogames slang "to frag" where "frag" number is the number of kills in a deathmatch game. So "fragged" means almost literally "killed". Originally from millitary slang for intentionally killing a fellow soldier, often done with a fragmentation grenade.
  • teik ai frag em op = "let me kill her"
• Cut: kot...op
  • from "cut" + "up"
  • kot em op = "cut him"
• Speak (for): shish...op
  • The etymology of this word is unknown.
  • Beja. Hod op. Teik ai chich op gon emo = "Please. Wait. Let me speak for them"
• Leave: gon...we or bants
  • gon...we is from "gone" + "away"
  • Derived from "bounce".
  • Osir na gon we or osir na bants = "we will leave"
• Eat: choj...op
  • from "charge" + "up"
  • ai don choj ai sanch op = "I ate my lunch"
• Watch: ai...op
  • from "eye" + "up"
• Wash: “wada...Klin”
  • from “water” + “clean”
• Go back: bak...op
  • from "back" + "up"
• Accuse: finga...au
  • from "finger" + "out"
• Burn: fleim...au
  • from "flame" + "out"
• Look for: lufa...au
  • from "look for" + "out"
• Enter: min...op
  • from "come in" + "up"
• Owe: ouyon...klin
  • from "owe one" + "clean"
• Execute: put...daun
  • from "put" + "down"
• Retreat: rowe...op
  • from "run away" + "up"
• Decide: sad...in
  • from "said" + "in"
• Send: sen...op
  • from "send" + "up"
• Begin: stot...au
  • from "start" + "out"
• Bind: tai...op
  • from "tie" + "up"
• Think: vout...in
  • from "vote" + "in"
• Forgive: wigod...op
  • The etymology of this word is not certain, however it could come from "with god", so someone is placed up with god when they are forgiven as they have been purified of their sins. Also could have possibly come from "We're good", 
• Trick: ponk...klin
  • from "punk" + "clean"
• Follow: mafta...op
  • from "come after" + "up"
• Happen/Become: kom...au
  • from "come" + "out"
• Save: kep...klin
  • from "keep" + "clean"
• Aquire: hon...in
  • from "hunt" + "in"
• Pass on: gyon...klin
  • from "get on" + "clean

Notes and Trivia

• Peterson originally transcribed Clarke's name as Klok, but later corrected the spelling to Klark.

See Also

• Trigedasleng
• Trigedasleng Linguistics
• Grounder Anthem