Making it fit

One of the many complexities that the Khalani language presents us is that, although we have a good number of attested words, we do not have the meaning of most of them or any indication as to what the phrase as a whole means. Not only that, but most of the phrases have been tentatively written and in fact we have some divergencies as to how to write some of them, the most famous being "Khassar De'Templari" which is actually spelt in two different ways:

• Khassar'Detemplari..., in StarCraft by the High Templar
• Khassar de Templari!, in StarCraft II by the High Templar
• Khasar De'Templari!, in StarCraft II by the Zealot

So as you can see not even the same game gives the same sentence. Are there 2 words? 3 words? 2 words and a preposition/particle? One particular objection to this phrase is that it includes the word "templari" which is tempting to translate "Templar", but is this even the case? How could the native term for the templar caste be in Khalani the same as the "translation" into Human and even mean more or less the same? The Protoss have been given names and terms reminiscent of religious fanatics (zealot, templar) and others taken from latin terms (judicator, executor) to make it sound more "religious" or "inquisitional". So is this even a valid word?

As we can see the transcriptions are merely attempts at transcribing the sentences used in the game, we do not know the actual official wording. It has been said that Blizzard keeps a dictionary with the Khalani words and terms, if this is so shouldn't there be a more coherent rendering of the words? I think the "dictionary" is mostly used for one or two words and mostly for names, as it has been said in an interview that Blizzard puts great detail into the naming of the Protoss.

About the translated words

Of all the sentences and phrases we have only 18 are "translated". Why do I say "translated"? Because these have only been translated in novels and authors could have been making attempts at translations as any of us might with the same restrictions. I always toyed with the idea that being an official Blizzard novel may be they have been giving information from the legendary dictionary, but this doesn't seem to really be the case. We have words such as "Adun Toridas" translated in the novels which might be such a case, but then we have a word like "Alys'aril" which doesn't fit the pattern of words used in the games or "zagatir" which is a very uncommon word for the rest of the corpus. Yet I have been assuming they might have more information than us and therefore their translations have been my guide most of the time.

How to continue?

Maybe Blizzard is more interested in the names of the Protoss than the words themselves and that'd be why we find such a divergence. In any case if we are to follow the translations we have approximately a corpus of 28 - 30 words and that's it, everything else has to be assumed. I've been careful enough not to rush anything because I want the language resulting to be as good as it can get, and also I've been carefully using the translated words to attempt the translation of the others. We might not know what "Oranj Istal!" means, but phrases like "Khas arashad" and "Khas naradakh" seem to incorporate "Khas" he name of that great Protoss who created the Khala. Then again, this might be a slip or mistake on the part of them, and maybe has nothing to do with Khas but rather has a relation to the "Khassar" which I previously mentioned. The first theory allows us to advance further on, the second one... well... we'd be back to square one.

As the project goes on many more choices will arise and will have to be decided for the sake of coherence and formalization of the language. I hope you are all looking forward to this and endorse the decisions that will have to be made.

Adun Toridas!

About inconsistencies

Many will be aware of the fact that there is no real agreement on Khalani transcriptions into the Roman alphabet. The fact is that there was no standard whatsoever followed in any of the novels and authors just went as they wanted when facing the problem. The StarCraft quotations were no better in this respect. It seems they were intended as an approximation to English pronounciation, but in fact confused more than they helped for lack of a standard way to actually express the sounds of Khalani.

While facing the challenge of creating a consistent language for the Protoss I had to make some decisions on the way the words and phrases would be transcribed. Most of them will show no significant changes from what fans are used to seeing in such places as the StarCraft Wiki, some others had to be changed in favor of a standard or agreement. My approach was intended to be as close to the known transcripts as possible, while at the same time taking the similarities to make fixed rules. I will include the IPA of most words and sentences when needed. Links to show how the vowels and different consonants sound will be provided.

Some diphthongs and consonant clusters will be hitherto standardized. For instance the famous name Raszagal will here stand for /'ɹaʒagal/ which would sound very close to English "rashagal" the way Zeratul pronounces it in StarCraft II. Or the example below Adun toridas! is written in IPA for better understanding.

A different matter is the one about the tribal names of the Protoss, which I think are Human translations of the actual names in Khalani, since they represent stars and constellations as are named by Humans. So this will be addressed also in following posts.

En taro Adun!

About Khalani

To actually speak about Khalani is quite difficult. Describing its sounds and phonology could be quite a challenge since the Protoss do not really 'speak' but engage in a telepathic communication. This is the same reason as to why humans can understand Protoss speaking or why do Protoss speak in Human tongues. What really happens is that Protoss can perform a kind of communication that goes directly to the brain, avoiding the whole middle step of using a particular 'language'. But we are told Protoss do have a language of their own.

It seems that when Protoss 'think' they think in this ancient language, in the same way that a german person thinks in German or an italian thinks in Italian. This kind of communication would be a previous step to the full telepathic communication they use. So Protoss can alternate between these two kinds of speech.

As they are not actually speaking it is really hard to determine where is the place of articulation or obstruents in such a 'thought-language'. The best idea I had is that these concepts are here viewed as how humans would 'hear' the consonants and vowels and different sounds, and this is based in the canon in-game sentences and phrases (so in this point it can be pretty subjective).

I thought it would be for the best if the sounds in Khalani were not completely impossible to pronounce, since the idea of the language is that it can be used by humans (and therein lies all the fun, also) so I did the best I could with the material I had to devise the grammar of the language to a point that it will not be plainly taken from English but won't be completely impossible to understand. In a previous attempt I did have some very odd constructions which I've discarded in favour of something clearer.

Enjoy!

Welcome

Welcome to this newly formed blog about the Khalani, the Protoss' language as depicted in the StarCraft series of games and novels.

For the most part I will assume the figure of Arassar, Protoss grammarian of the Shelak tribe. I have considered all available canon to make this project possible, and also combined some knowledge on different not-so-common Earth languages or at least not-that-popular languages, which I thought could share some features with Khalani. I thank deeply the StarCraft Wiki for compiling various StarCraft phrases and sentences, and bid you pay a visit there if you are interested in a thorough retelling of Protoss history and culture.

This project is meant to be pure entertainment an unofficial (yet) and unfunded imagining of how the Protoss' language could have been and also to be able to express in the language for fans of this noble alien race, as well as for those curious who wonder what the phrases in the game could possibly mean. I hope this comes to be enjoyed by all who like StarCraft series and enjoy language creation, to them

Adun toridas!

/a'dun 'tɔridas/ 

May Adun give refuge!