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JourneyQuest – A Primer on Modern Orcish

JourneyQuest is a fantasy comedy web series from the creators of The Gamers and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. To learn more about the show or watch the series for free online, visit the official website. This article is part of a series that explore the world of JourneyQuest, its locales, myths, monsters, and characters.


Orc Shaman


Modern Orcish and its sister tongue, Austral Orcish, are both derived from Orkaanz (also known as High Orcish).  Orkaanz, a dead language, is one of the three original arcane languages and one of the hardest in the world to learn.  Modern Orcish, by comparison, is vastly simpler, and doesn’t have nearly as many declensions or irregular verbs.

Modern Orcish—usually referred to simply as “Orcish,” since Austral Orcish is rarely encountered on this continent—is an inflected language with grammatical gender and adjectival agreement.  The language does not use articles, and thus “the” or “a/an.”  The declension of a noun, pronoun, or adjective indicates its grammatical case, number, and gender.  Though the language contains prepositions, a word’s case often precludes the need for a preposition.   Orcish also doesn’t rely heavily on pronouns, as verb conjugation is usually enough to indicate the voice, mood, tense, number, and person performing the action.  It is an economical language for a blunt and decisive race.

Orcish Verbs & Conjugations

The infinitive form of a first conjugation Orcish verb ends in “a” (ka = to kill, pekka = to defeat, viska = to gut).  Attach the proper ending to indicate the person and number of the verb.

Present Active

Singular Plural
First Person –g –gax
Second Person –s –gas
Third Person –k –gek

Thus, kag means “I kill” (ka + –g, first person singular) and pekkagak means “they defeat” (pekka + –gek, third person plural).

Past Active and Future Active are most easily indicated by attaching the prefixes ash– (Past Active) or ar– (Future Active) to the verb, and then conjugating accordingly.  Thus, ashdobnagax means “we worked” (ash– + dobna [to work] + –gax), and arvansas means “you will understand” (ar– + vansa [to understand] + –s).

The Irregular Verb “To Be” (AA)

As in most languages, the Orcish “to be” (aa) is an irregular verb.  Here it is in the Present, Past, and Future Active Voices.

Present Active

Singular Plural
First Person aga aggax
Second Person aas aggas
Third Person aka aggek

Past Active

Singular Plural
First Person ashag ashax
Second Person ashas ashagas
Third Person ashek ashagek

Future Active

Singular Plural
First Person areg areggax
Second Person aras areggas
Third Person arek araggek

Orcish Nouns & Declensions

Modern Orcish has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.  How a verb declines indicates its role in the sentence and in the action being performed.  For first declension verbs, most cases, regardless of gender, have only one ending.  However, the nominative case has multiple endings for each gender, and the feminine accusative has one common alternate ending.

Masculine

Case Singular Plural
Nominative –ul (–or, –k, –x) –ulz
Genitive –u –urru
Dative –o –ors
Accusative –udz –uluz
Vocative –o –ors

Feminine

Case Singular Plural
Nominative –ad (–am, –ag) –adz
Genitive –ar –arru
Dative –ae –aes
Accusative –az (–adz) –aruz
Vocative –ae –aes

Neuter

Case Singular Plural
Nominative –id (–ed, –d) –idz
Genitive –u –urru
Dative –o –aes
Accusative –udz –uluz
Vocative –o –aes

Some Useful Orcish Phrases

Hadzag doru. / Hadz.
“I hail you.”  (Formal greeting) / “Hi.”  (Informal greeting)

Skald aga.  Djag skaldudz gadzkudz.  Mathas nudz gadz ka.
“I am a bard.  I have bardic immunity.  You can’t kill me.”

Franzhag shugadzkit.
“I surrender unconditionally.”

Orkulz kogulz ek gazgulz aggek.
“Orcs are strong and smart.”

Duwuluz yakagek.  Ekto humadz.
“Dwarves suck.  So do humies.”

Karit nudz gadz!
“Don’t kill me!”
Translator’s note: There is no Orcish word for “please.”

Aka drur kelled ud no guro?
“Is that your atrocity-knife in my stomach?”

Klergul aas!
“You bastard!”

Chu ashkas nudz?!
“Why did you kill me?”

Vart zak abssudz!
“Go to hell!”

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