Sperethiel is the language of the elves. A number of words from Sperethiel are present—as loan words—in Or'zet.
Unknown to most, Sperethiel, like Or'zet, can trace its history to the Fourth Age. It was preserved by the Immortal Elves and reintroduced to the elvish culture after UGE.
Sperethiel is described as a very complex language with a number of subtle variations enabling expressions of different levels of formality and rank between speakers, much as in Japanese.
Structure[]
Sperethiel is supposed to be a unique language isolate, related to no other language or family of languages. In reality, the authors of the Shadowrun game borrowed heavily from Irish for many of the words or phrases given as examples. E.g. Tír na nÓg and Tír Tairngire relate to concepts of Irish mythology. On the other hand, the word inventory is not very fleshed out, and many words or morphemes are not cognate with Gaelic, but are new combinations somewhat suggestive of that language.
Some commonly known Sperethiel words[]
- Carromeleg - The elven martial art
- celenit - non-elf (insult)
- goronagit - an elf who isn't part of an elven group (insult)
- goronit - barbarian (insult)
- li-ha - "Isn't that so?"
- liayah - "Sure" "I'll do it" "I agree"
- Rinelle - rebel, deserter
- sielle - "Yes", literally "It is the way of things"
- Speratemel rel timaan perest? Hellon Sperethiel. - "Communication is for all to have? Share the language.", saying that can be found in Dunkelzahn's Will in the bequest to Tir Tairngire or Tír na nÓg.
- Taéngelé - An elven liquor related to mead and produced in Tir Tairngire.
- tech - common swear word, equivalent to "drek"
- wineg - ork or troll (insult)