#queekish

[mvtj-queekish]

Master post

Introduction

TBD

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Morphology

Nouns

Verbs

Syntax

Sentence order

Semantic fields and Pragmatics

TBD

Sample Texts

Ikit Claw's Pre-battle Speech.

Writing System

TBD

Lexicon

TBD

[multiversetravelingjournalist]

Queekish Ideas 3

the phonology has undergone a partial overhaul. Got rid of the Uvular and Pharyngeal consonants, added pre-nasalized stops and nasal releases, got rid of a consonant slot for the onset and coda clusters so now the forms are SCRVVVRCS, and reformed the orthography into something more satisfying to spell with. updates will come soon.

pragmatically speaking, all morphology listed below happens in relation to the highest-ranking individual to the skaven. that just means that a skaven slave will use the morphemes based on the positioning around his master and the master to whomever he or she is intimidated by.

Verbs and nouns are not concerned with tense or number respectively but spatial orientation and distance. the latter is marked on the nouns and the former the verbs.

Nouns have distance modifiers in relation to which referent is of the highest rank. distance gradates between on, near, far, and very far. on is the citation form of the noun and is unmarked. Near prefixes a reduplication of the consonants and vowels of the onset and nucleus. far suffixes the reduplicated vowel(s) and consonant(s) of the nucleus and coda of the root. Very far both prefixes and suffixes the consonants and vowels) of the root, onset and nucleus for the prefix, nucleus and coda for the suffix. both prefixes and suffixes reduplicate all the consonants and vowels of their respective segments. If a root has more than one syllable, the prefix takes the onset and coda of the initial syllable while the suffix takes the nucleus and coda of the final syllable.

Verbs mark for direction "charging" towards and "fleeing" away from the highest-ranking individual. there is a three-by-three distinction based on the action happening left, center, or right and above, level, or below the HRI. all forms use infixes before or after the root vowel. charging forms use glottal consonants while fleeing forms use labiodental ones. Left infixes a vowel-consonant before the root vowel, right a consonant-vowel after it, or central which circum-infixes both before and after it. above infixes use plosive consonants, level uses affricates, and below fricatives. if the root has more than one syllable, then the infixes go before the initial syllable's vowel and/or after the final syllable's vowel. examples will soon be made.

Adjectives are the simplest. each adjective has a normal or intense form. normal is the citation form, thus, unmarked. intense is formed by complete reduplication of the root.

"Hybrid case" particles which agree with the intransitive subject, transitive subject, and transitive object of the sentence. this agreement allows them to be placed basically anywhere in the sentence, whether at the end as an afterthought or after the word it agrees with.

This is all I got for now. feedback is appreciated. till next time... ;).

[serpentofslaanesh]

Lyss is naturally fluent in The Dark Tongue, the language of Chaos, but she is also fluent in Queekish, the bastardization spoken by Skaven. Her Slaaneshi nature means that the inherent repetition and quick manner of the Skaven tongue is no trouble for her to replicate.

That being said, Lyss doesn't actually speak it much herself unless she has shapeshifted and needs to blend in, or under other select circumstances.

[velvetwarfare]

There’s a letter pinned to @heliinx’s door.

It’s in rough Queekish, written in a neat cursive — and it’s not a love letter, surprise, surprise.

‘ Dearest Snowbell,

I hope I still live rent free in your snobby mind. I am not exactly dead yet, my sincerest apologies. I hope this letter finds you mortified and annoyed.

Thinking of you very fondly and hoping my memory brings you nothing but agitation,

Betty 🖤

P.S. that ass is still fine. keep up the good work with those glutes. :) ‘

[sallllltywater]

Hello Ive been trying to find an answer to this question but haven't any luck yet. You seem well versed in Skaven stuff so maybe you could answer this? What exactly dictates how Skaven talk? I understand that 99% of them use Queekish but then Ill see a quote during the loading screens for WH3:TW like this where its just perfect English (or Reikspiel I guess). Is that just literary license by GW to help better communicate to the reader whats actually being said, or do higher up Skaven actually speak as a person would?

Cannot say I'm know skaven lore that throughly but wiki about Queekish explain this very well

Because repetition and broken sentence is usually caused by their fast speaking speed and hypered emotions (to express their short-tempered and restless characteristics), when actually dive into calm and rational discussion like the one you shown, they probably can organize the sentence better.

Based on the character as well, the level of knowledge and different characteristic, would lead to different level constancy and repetition.

It is kind of like when people brain runs faster than the speed organizing sentence and get-casuse stammer.

hope this help… my English is even more broken than ratman

[warhammer-fantasy-muses]

💢 from your last reblogged prompt with Queek and Ikit 👀

- @viciouslyfilthy

Send ‘ 💢 ’ for a headcanon on what my muse looks like when all their buttons have been pushed and finally give into their violent urges.

Queek Headtaker

"Absolute mayhem" would be the most apt description for Queek when he is pushed way past the brink of his patience and emotional stability. He devolves into absolute mania and hysteria, killing anything and anyone with a pulse within arm's reach, and he will NOT discern friend from foe in the slightest. When Queek truly 'loses it', and gives in to his urges, he just becomes a rabid mess of feral instincts and murderous intent. His outbursts are usually short-ish, and right after he will just collapse from sheer exhaustion - both physically and mentally/emotionally, often curling up and sobbing for hours on end. He does not weep for any of his unintentional 'victims', but such intense episodes of mania strains his already frail Skaven psyche to the point of causing actual physical harm to him, and so he weeps through the pain.

Ikit Claw

Whilst his episodes of absolute rage are not nearly as intense as Queek's, Ikit can still get extremely worked up and furious when all his buttons are pushed. He'll devolve into rabid, sputtering ramblings in Queekish that not even his most talented scribes could decipher, speaking so rapidly and illegibly that one would think he speaks another language entirely. Then the violence takes over, and he will most likely hyper-focus all of his anger and emotional turmoil on one single target - which is usually the unfortunate son of a bitch who triggered his rage to begin with, and he will not stop assaulting them until either they are dead, or he succumbs to exhaustion, similar to Queek.

[sundrie-foolishnesses]

I thought this was just a silly passing thought, but there might be more to it:

Queekish (the language of warhammer skaven) is structurally similar to Mandarin.

Queekish runes are pictographic with one-word meanings, like chinese characters.

Some words are reduplified for emphasis (Yes-yes, kill-kill, quick-quick, vanish-vanish) and yes this isn't quite the same in Mandarin becuase reduplication softens the tone but it's still reduplication (看看，说说，走走) (and anyway if you listen to skaven speech enough, thats not always done for emphasis either).

Queekish words are short, often being one syllable (chinese characters represent only one syllable).

Often new words are constructed from two smaller words with similar meanings (seek-find, run-scamper, 完成，身���) .

This lends itself to a tendency towards a particular rythym, where the subject and object have the same number of syllables, usually one or two (seek-find(2) warpstone(2)). One of the most common chinese characters is 子, which has no meaning by itself and usually just makes single character words fit the two syllable rhythym (椅子，杯子，桌子).

子 can be compared to how the skaven use 'thing' as well, not for meaning but for rhythym. Elf-thing isn't more meaningful than elf.

Plus, in the lore, in the early history of the skaven Clan Eshin travelled to Cathay, where they learned how to be so sneaky and all their magics (and possibly also language??). In other words, Grand Nightlord Visktrin was a great sinologist and I respect him for it.

[heliinx]

❝ I didn't know where else to go . . . ❞

For Gordon, not in the best shape post assassination attempt~ >:)

Heliinx regards him with barely hidden aggravation. She considers siccing her guards on him; they're already looking at him hungrily and she doesn't recall when she fed them last. Better they chew on Gordon than her.

Then again.... The Rat King would be more loyal than them, now wouldn't he? Follow her orders, not backstab her, maybe even put himself between her and any malcontents.

Her disinterested consideration turns into a broad smile.

" Gordon, my friend-ally! Of course-course you are welcomed here."

" Find the Retchen king lodgings. Close-close to my burrow." She switches to Queekish.

"But not too-too close."

[viciouslyfilthy]

𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄'𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐓

🐀 {Basics} 🐀

Name: Quotittak Slinkbane.

Alias: retired Rat Mother; former Broodmother; giant rat; she-vermin; rat mom; Quo; Quoti.

Gender: cis female

Age: 200-400+

Species: Skaven

Zodiac: aquarius / aries / cancer / capricorn / gemini / leo / libra / pisces / sagittarius / scorpio / taurus / virgo / unknown

Talents/abilities: brute strenght (despite being a gentle giant, she is capable of things such as shattering rocks with a punch and lifting a whole chariot; she could easily snap a human's spine like a tree branch if she wanted to)

🐀 {Personal} 🐀

Alignment: lawful / neutral / chaotic / good / neutral / evil / true

Religion: She believes in the Great Horned Rat but she is not 100% devoted to it nor understands much about the chaos deity; it's just sort of a thing she's always heard about so it just kind of engraved in her mind without questioning it.

Sins: envy / greed / gluttony / lust / pride / sloth / wrath

Virtues: charity / chastity / diligence / humility / justice / kindness / patience

Languages: queekish; limited english.

Family: she likely has many Skaven descendants of her in the clans that get thrown in wars but she never really got to meet them ever since they were wee ratlings she nursed.

Friends: she doesn't have any for the time being, sadly.

Sexual Orientation: heterosexual / bisexual / pansexual / homosexual / demisexual  / asexual / unsure / questioning / other

Relationship status: single / dating / married / widowed / open relationship / other

Libido: sex god / very high / high (depends on mood)  / average / low / very low / non-existent

🐀 {Physical} 🐀

Build: twig / bony / slender / average / athletic / curvy / chubby / obese (?)

Hair: white / blonde / brunette / red / black / dark brown

Eyes: brown / blue / dark green / black / other

Skin: pale / fair / olive / light brown / brown / very brown / other

Height: under 3 foot / 3-4 foot / 4-5 foot / 5-6 foot / 7 foot / above 7 foot

Weight: under 100 pounds / 100-150 pounds / 150-200 pounds / 200-250 pounds / above 250 pounds

Scars: stretch marks on her lower belly (hidden by fur) & breasts; small scratches on her belly, back and tail from the ratlings being playful with her during her time as a Broodmother.

Facial Features: nothing much that stands out! She's just a giant rodent, her face is the average rat snout & short fur like most Skaven.

Tattoos: nope.

Supplemental: Quoti is disabled! As a result of the decades she spent in the same position making ratlings, her spine became twisted, malforming/misplacing some bones around her ribcage area; she requires a cane for support to properly walk and lean on. Unfortunately has to deal with chronic pain.

🐀 {Choose} 🐀

Dogs or Cats?

"Ohh... Quotittak never know-heard of smallthings before... want to care-love smallthings, yes-yes.."

Birds or Hamsters?

"So small-tiny! It is alive-live, yes? Ohhh! So-so small... like newborn ratling..."

Red or Blue?

She tilts her head, seemingly not understanding what is being asked of her.

Yellow or Green?

Same story. You might as well be speaking in riddles to her!

Black or White?

"Uhm..." she's getting uncomfortable, unsure if these words are supposed to mean something to her.

Coffee or Tea?

"...water, yes-yes?"

Ice Cream or Cake?

"Ohhh!! Sweet-things! Yum-yummy! Give-hand them to Quotittak, please-please?"

Fruits or Vegetables?

"More sweets! More-more!"

Sandwich or Soup?

"Yummy water..."

Magic or Melee?

"Quotittak not-not like fighting... but if must-need... to survive.... yes-yes.."

Sword or Bow?

"What-what that?" She sniffles the air.

Summer or Winter?

"Nice-warm... yes-yes! Quotittak sleep lots."

Spring or Autumn?

"Still giants shed! Like-like magic... warpstone cause-make this?"

The Past or The Future?

"Quotittak bad memory, yes... Quotittak look-see forward- always!"

[deathmastersnikch]

Deathmaster of Eshin, Snikch

Rules of the Kill-List

Master of the Kill-List

Follower of the Kill-List

Story commissioned for the Kill-List (Hasn't Happened in Continuity) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you like Skaven I am going to trust you're mature enough about what they are about. Death is in the title.

Rules for interaction:

Since I am playing this to work on my Queekish I would enjoy getting to use it.

Using an @ to start the thread is a good method. Even if I don't take it I will give a reason/acknowledge it

Doing my best to expound upon what Snikch is in canon and sticking to the general Skaven vibe.

He is for hire.

Skaven aren't the moral high ground of any species, if you want assassinations with gory details I can manage. As such viewer discretion is advised

An ask of message to establish tone for interaction is perfectly fine.

An anachronistic interaction is fine, Snikch will stay about as developed as he was at the Storm of Chaos event.

You write something engaging and then respond in good faith, I will continue in kind.

Rules on Types of Interaction:

Try to keep it limited to Warhammer fantasy but Age of Sigmar can work too. Until I get the tech-assassin Snikch rolled out don't think any 40k is gonna happen

Start as you mean to go on, if you come in with a tone I will try to match it with a limit on either side.

Try not to make it to where your interaction would logically lead to Snikch attacking. That just seems kinda self-defeating.

If you have questions about Warhammer Fantasy or 40k, I might know a few things if you want to drop into messages and learn.

[mvtj-queekish]

Vowels

<i ih e eh> are /i ɪ e ɛ/.

<u uh o oh> are all unrounded /ɯ ʊ̜ ɤ ʌ/.

<a ah> are /æ ɑ/.

[multiversetravelingjournalist]

Queekish Conlang Ideas 2

according to the wiki, Queekish is described as "hasty" with words being "clipped" and "repeated." which makes me think that it should be more analytic in its morphology, or lack of one. grammatical meaning is determined by extra words and/or particles that modify the phrase they are attached to.

also according to the wiki, Skaven will break up sentences into "fragments" that the listener has to put together themselves to get the meaning. This makes me think of Babelingua's (may he be missed, but not in a "he is dead" sort of way, he's pulled away from posting on the internet) "prophrase" system that is utilized in his cursed conlang Seraphim. What I am thinking of is a system of particles that begin and end a fragment of two to thirteen isolated words and particles where one "linking particle" will always connect to the next in a sort of cyclical pattern with special particles indicating the beginning or end of a sentence. this system could also allow fragments to be spoken in any order while still resulting in a coherent sentence.

Another potential way of having fragments that form sentences is maybe to have the verbs conjugate for the order in which they happen. or they could be a separate particle.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Queekish nouns -- especially nouns referring to Skaven -- are plural by default. they would need a morpheme to indicate that you are talking about one noun in particular. maybe this is also a system where all nouns are treated as mass nouns and thus need measure words when counting them.

I imagine Queekish to be highly diverse in terms of register for a civilization as dense and widespread as the Skaven Under-Empire. how thralls speak could differ from their masters to how female breeders differ from male studs and so on. this, I feel, would be the most fun and frustrating aspect to develope. for example, since it appears that females are kept isolated, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that each one has her own way of speaking that becomes almost dialectal to her and her group. or how slaves are more quick and short with their masters than they are to each other.

That is all for now, thanks for reading this far and as always, feedback is appreciated.

till next time... ;).

[velvetwarfare]

"If you were mine?..." The king mulls over it, swishing his tail. Before grinning deviously and taking a knee to be more a eye level, gently holding her hand in his own and kissing her knuckles.

"I'd keep you in a garden of roses and willows, with a bed of the rarest and finest furs, silks, and satins. troves of human blood kept in bottles of crystal and gold, served in glass blown pitchers and chalices of skulls and obsidian... Any man that would look on you with anything but reverence, any man that dares meet your eye, would be drained and burned in that very garden before your throne of bones and rubies. Anything for a lowly rat like me to see that twinkle in your lively eyes and sharp, intoxicating smile, for you to never want to leave... For if you were mine, I would be nothing if not yours."

Blink blink. Well gods be damned.

“ If I could blush, darling, I most certainly would be doing so right now ~ . What a FASCINATING way with words you have!

AND for VERMIN of all species! Why, that is DEFINITELY intriguing. Most only know Queekish or basic common. Just where did you learn such intricacy in the arts of literature? “

Oh, she’s eating this up. A hefty purr reverberates from the back of her throat as his lips transverse each knuckle, a devious glimmer of mischief sparkling behind evergreen irises. She then crosses one leg over the other, content with having her already inflated ego grow even bigger.

[weeping-gospels]

𝘿𝙊𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙀𝙍 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏

LEGAL NAME : Bethanne Whimsy Drozdov.

ALIAS : The Rat Keeper, The Eldritch Beast.

NICKNAME[S] : Betty, Undead-thing.

DATE OF BIRTH : January 22nd.

ASTROLOGY SIGNS : Aquarius.

GENDER : Female, goes by both she/her and they/them.

PLACE OF BIRTH : Al’Hazir.

CURRENTLY LIVING : The Fated Place, Castle Drachenfels.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES : Common, Primordial, Queekish.

EDUCATION : Taught by late family.

HAIR COLOR : Crimson red.

EYE COLOR : Evergreen.

HEIGHT : Humanoid, 5’7. Beast, 7’6.

WEIGHT : 153 lbs.

FAMILY INFORMATION

SIBLING[S] : Crina Catalyn (Non-blood related older sister, deceased.) , Florin Grigore (Non-blood related younger brother, deceased.) , Pasky and Mikatt Brownfelt (Non-blood related ratfolk brothers, both deceased.) [ STRAHD ]

Gideon Gold (Non-blood related older brother, active.) , Dimitrius Kolomonokova (Non-blood related older brother, active.) [ WARHAMMER ]

PARENT[S] : Mama Andreá (Non-blood related mother, deceased.) [ STRAHD ]

RELATIVE[S] : N/A.

CHILDREN : Morsfax (Rat-bat hybrid of Throt and Bethanne.) , Fang (Non-blood related son of Mange and Bethanne.)

PET[S] : the skaven lmao

RELATIONSHIP INFORMATION

SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Pansexual Polyamorous.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS : Verse dependent.

- @warhammer-fantasy-muses Throt The Unclean.

- @stories-from-the-warp Mange and Skreech.

- @hxnger-unbcund Gluttony.

SINCE WHEN : N/A.

tagged by : @skxrbrand and @vehxmence ily

tagging : steal it bitch

[warhammer-fantasy-muses]

@chapter-master-darius | x

The giant mutant-creature seems to be taken aback as Darius suddenly swaps to his native Norscan tongue, as if he seemed to understand what Darius yelled at him. Something flickers in those pools of warpstone-green that the creature could generously call 'eyes', as the jaws bit down and chomped off a good portion of meat that it'd swallow, the lump going down a half-visible gullet and into its chest cavity where it thankfully vanished, before the three-pronged claw on its left hand swirls and spins with a whirring hiss, and he begins to slowly circle Darius.

Then, he speaks. Not in Queekish, as one would suspect... but he'd respond in the very same tongue that Darius spoke.

"[You think yourself brave to challenge me, when I could snap you in half like a frozen twig? You are but a FOOL, Nordling! And fools only deserve to have their foolish heads parted from their bodies!]"

[alphabitchnkari]

Skaven Language — origins of 'jitter speak'

The canonical reason Games Workshop wrote for repetition of words is that it adds emphasis to the word. That the doubling of words is a direct translation of how it is said in Queekish. But language in real life is rarely so direct and simple with its translations.

But what if it's because Queekish just has less words? Since the rat-folk uses scents and body language in addition to spoken langue, it seems possible that they have less words. If you look at translating from Chinese to English (there are less words in Chinese) what often happens is there are multiple english words that could fit a chinese word depending on context. I feel like sometimes I desire to translante a chinese word, for example 福, into fortune/wealth. With 'wealth' serving as a modifier and context for the type of fortune I'm indicating.

What if Queekish is similar in principle? People assume that jitter speak is because of their nervousness, or simplicity of the uncultured rat-folk. But what if it's in fact a complex language like any other, perhaps even more poetic in some cases?

(I think the repeating sounds for emphsis would make a lot more since for Tzeentchian, that's an actual trait within irl bird languages)