Troll argot from Bob Stancliff on 1999-11-01 (Glorantha Digest Vol 07)

From: Bob Stancliff <stanclif_at_ufl.edu>
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 09:36:35 -0500

> At one point, I'd thought of trying to work out Darktongue structure
> by looking at the words Greg had provided. (I was pretty bored).
> Not enough of them, though, it turns out, and no grammatical
> usage. I'm also not sure that words produced by the man who coined
> "Corflu" and "Laca" are a sound basis for a language... ; )
> James Frusetta

This would be a particularly disappointing process since notable parts of troll language are gangster slang from old movies... basically Chicago slum argot circa 1930. The prime example is 'Dagori Inkarth', which is 'Da (the) gory ink earth' and is actually translated in the books as 'the bloody, black ground'. 'Uz' is 'us', and 'you' is probably 'yuz' or 'yuz gyz'.

By the time Troll Pak came out there was a trend away from this, but trolls and trollkin started as a mix of comedic elements and physical danger, whereas Drulz were almost entirely comedic.

The speech pattern was the precursor for the Ork Boyz in Warhammer, and has strong similarities to the Ferringi in 'StarTrek' who couldn't speak with 'humanz' well.

When Glorantha was created, far more of it seems to have been comedic, such as Hungry Jacks and ducks, than is true now. Scholarship is fine to a point, and I do try to look up questions when we play, but when it interferes with the game, I tend to run from my feelings, and 'who cares about the details'.
Bob Stancliff