Standard Rokhandan

The Standard Rokhandan language, also called Unified or United Rokhandan is a lingua franca originating on Fen for ease of communication across the Directorate. Most clans have adopted it as their official unified language, although there are regional and clan differences, and some clans retain the use of their ancestral languages. The Directorate Academy of Language, a department of the Ruz'kahni Directorate Institute of Sociology, directly oversees the official dictionaries of the language to ensure that deviations are managed and updates are maintained across the entire Directorate. Some slang terms have been adopted from other cultures, particularly human languages, and have survived from those languages either wholly or partially intact.

Glossary

Common Words

• Amira: A word meaning “beloved”, used to refer to someone you dating or romantically engaged with.
• Amzhari: A conjugation of Amira Zharen, literally “beloved forever”, used to refer to a spouse.
• Atyan: A friend/peer in a soldierly or other professional context. Derived from a word for marching.
• Ba’khall: A challenge of some kind between two individuals, with pre-established wagers and methods. The rules can be very flexible, and the duels can be anything from simple fistfights to weeks-long tracking expeditions in the wilderness.
• Chomper: Lower-class colloquial slang noting someone as worthy of respect or who is a friend. Strangely, it does not refer to someone who “chomps” but someone who “isn’t gonna get chomped.”
• Dald: Literally knowledge: Used as an honorific prefix for a teacher, instructor, or elder.
• Fencer: Colloquial slang for someone who is tough, physically or mentally.
• Fennish: Colloquialism that refers to one of the various sentient species that natively derive from Fen who are typically known as ‘rokhandan’ to the world outside of the Directorate.
• Grazer: A wimp/weakling. Not a serious insult but a slight.
• Paala: A concept similar to karma, used by Paalamists.
• Siiya: Meaning wisdom, An honorific suffix for something or someone you respect.
• Zharen: Eternity, forever.

Profanity

• Drekh/Drekhir: Shit/Shitty. As in a situation or a person.
• Hurra: Derogatory word for a prostitute or someone who has promiscuous sex to the detriment of their family or clan in general.
• Jiya: A state of deadness or soullessness, used for both a corpse that is very old, eg. Its soul is moved on or as a term for a dumb AI. While not inherently a curse. If you call a person it, you’re dropping fighting words. Calling something a soulless flesh automaton is not very diplomatic.
• Khorr: A term for an anus, in a rude manner. Usually used for a situation, like calling something “ass.”
• N’Onis: Shortened ‘Na Onissi’ Literally ‘negatively sentient being’ or ‘without intelligence’ referring to a being incapable of reason, a ‘non sapient’, technically not a curse, but applied to any person it's very bad.
• Patah: An onomatopoeia for the sound of someone having sex. A mildy rude way of referring to something as being “fucked.”
• Patakh: Referring to a person as cruel, insensitive, or morally questionable, the p and t are spat forcefully when used with emphasis. It’s derived from the word khorr and patah, literally, calling someone a well-used anus.