Alien lexicon
Nhál
First contact 2192 · spoken tongue, largely auto-translated · 19 words recorded
A spoken, human-descended tongue. Two-beat words, soft fricatives, a glottal stop (written ’). The register is low and even — raising the voice is itself meaningful. Translator tech renders most Nhál automatically; the words below are the ones that survive untranslated, because the not-translating is the point.
A non-human tongue with recorded vocabulary.
Physiology
Human-descended Seam-traversal communities, stranded long ago and grown a long way from their root. By the Spent Light era they keep an oral language alongside their older Seam-network signalling.
Structure
Roots compound by joining, with no connective (grief + weight → grief-debt). Belonging is marked by the suffix -en ("of"). Plurality is unmarked; context carries number. There is no tense — words mark certainty and standing instead of past and future. Pronouns are fixed: Naral = she/her, Saen = he/him (never "it").
Contact protocol
Translator renders almost everything; the catalogued words are the ones speakers deliberately leave untranslated.
Recorded vocabulary
The words characters deliberately leave untranslated, because the not-translating is the point.
vesh
/vesh/
Renders as
“the standing-quiet; rest, stillness, baseline”
What it actually means
The Nhál resting state. To "hold vesh" is to be at peace. The root from which much of the language grows.
vesh’a
/VESH-ʔa/
Renders as
““be still / it is well / peace””
What it actually means
The default greeting and leave-taking. Lands like both "hello" and "be at peace" at once.
korr
/kor/
Renders as
“weight owed; a debt”
What it actually means
A central Nhál concept. Roots most of their words about obligation, grief, and inheritance.
korrvesh
/KOR-vesh/
Renders as
“grief-debt”
What it actually means
A grief formally carried rather than discharged quickly — held, witnessed, not rushed. korr (weight owed) + vesh (the standing-quiet).
sael
/sah-EL/
Renders as
“breath; voice; the act of speaking”
What it actually means
A human root buried in it, just out of reach. The unit from which speech-words are built.
sael’en
/sah-EL-en/
Renders as
““of one voice” — agreement, accord”
What it actually means
Weightier than the human "agreed." The -en suffix marks belonging.
sael’korr
/sah-EL-kor/
Renders as
“the debt of inheritance”
What it actually means
What every voice owes the voices before it. "Every hand that writes is full of older hands." Paid formally, witnessed.
naru
/NAH-roo/
Renders as
“to listen; to receive without answering yet”
What it actually means
A virtue the Nhál prize. Listening that does not rush to reply is its own act of respect.
naru-sa?
/NAH-roo-sah/
Renders as
““will you listen?””
What it actually means
The politeness frame that opens a serious exchange. Asked before something is given that matters.
tael
/tah-EL/
Renders as
“light; a star”
What it actually means
A plain word, made heavy by what it compounds into.
tael-vesh
/tah-EL-vesh/
Renders as
“spent light — a guttered star; a dead or dying sun”
What it actually means
tael (light) + vesh (the standing-quiet). The far edge is full of tael-vesh. Often left untranslated; the silence around it carries the weight.
thren
/thren/
Renders as
“the long view; the fixed line of time”
What it actually means
The concept that lets the Nhál speak with no grammatical tense — time is a line already drawn, not a before and after.
aune
/OW-neh/
Renders as
“kin; line; those one belongs to”
What it actually means
Family in the widest sense: the line you come from and answer to.
kel
/kel/
Renders as
“no; a refusal; a closed door”
What it actually means
Short, flat, final. The hardest small word in the language.
kel’korr
/KEL-kor/
Renders as
““the debt that cannot be paid””
What it actually means
Despair, or an unforgivable act. kel (refusal) + korr (debt). Reserved for the worst weight a voice can carry.
threi
/thray/
Renders as
“breach; the wrong-loud; disorder unset”
What it actually means
The order broken and not yet set right. To raise the voice is a threi- act.
threi-sael
/thray-sah-EL/
Renders as
““haste-speech”; speaking or acting before standing”
What it actually means
threi (breach) + sael (voice). The human habit of rushing. Not quite an insult — closer to "breach-speech."
threivesh
/THRAY-vesh/
Renders as
““the breach-silence / the wrong-still””
What it actually means
A silence that should be a voice and is not — aware, unanswering. The dark inverse of vesh. Reserved for the truly alien.
saelvesh
/SAH-el-vesh/
Renders as
““the voice-quiet””
What it actually means
A willing, openable silence — stillness that holds a voice ready. The good inverse of threivesh. sael (voice) + vesh (standing-quiet).