Compass directions

Posted by Philip Newton on 5:48 9/11/01

In reply to: (none)

Hi Mark,

are the compass directions (N S E W = nan er sar tel) in Verdurian only nouns, or can they be adjectives or adverbs as well?

For example, how would one translate 10 cemisî south of Pelym? I can imagine any of

• Dec cemisî er Pelymei (though this sounds like 10 cemisî and of Pelym)
• Dec cemisî ad/im erán Pelymei
• Dec cemisî erece Pelymei
• Dec cemisî er azh/dör Pelymán

And how about southern Viminia? Is that er Vimínë, which sounds to me more like the south of Viminia (which, admittedly, has a similar meaning)? Or maybe erise/erete/erë Vimínia?

And is Viminia is west of Caizura translated as Vimínia zet tróue im (soán) telán Caizure? Or perhaps Vimínia zet tróue telece Caizure or something like that?

How would one express North Elbonia or Lower Slobovia, if that's a country name? For example, there's a difference between west(ern) Germany and West Germany (the second no longer exists, while the first just describes a region inside a country). Is northern Elbonia nanise/nanete/nanë Elbonia while North Elbonia would be Nan-Elbonia or something like that? Or is no distinction made?

And would Lower Slobovia be Hip-Slobovia, by analogy with upper which is translated as ir = above in Eng2Ver? Or maybe Basë Slobovia? And are their pals further into the mountains Ir-Slobovia or Altë Slobovia?

How about He lives in the South? Zhesei im soán erán, perhaps?

Finally, is there a traditional order in Verdurian for reciting the compass directions? English and German both have North, South, East, West and Norden, Süden, Osten, Westen, but Japanese, for example, has 東西南北 tou-zai-nan-boku or East, West, South, North.

And what about compass directions in between? English, German, and French have northeast, Nordost(en), and nord-est (that is, first north-south, then east-west), while Japanese has 東北 touhoku/higashikita or east-north (that is, with the two components in the opposite order). Does Verdurian have sarnan or nansar? Or maybe some other compound of the two words such as sarise/sarete/sarë nan eastern north or sar nanei east of north? And how is (something is located) northeast of ... expressed?

Filipo Petrei Lebdaney

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