Cthuvian, which is also called R'lyehian, is a fictional language created by H. P. Lovecraft in "The Call of Cthulhu" and expanded upon by various authors.
The name "R'lyehian" was first used in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", which claims that the language was brought to prehistoric Earth by the Spawn of Cthulhu.
Introduction[]
R'lyehian is described as sounding strange and guttural, and is supposedly impossible for the human mouth to speak or pronounce. Humans have still tried and tired again to transcribe the language, leading to consonant clusters that sound relatively foreign to the English ear - such as mglw'naph or fhtagn.
Phonology[]
As R'lyehian does not have any canonical spoken content and, even besides, is a language purely made to adapt something unspeakable to begin with, multiple phonological proposals exist.
Proposal 1[]
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m [m] | n [n] | ng [ŋ] | ||||
| Stops | p [p] b [b] | t [t], d [d] | k, c [k] g [g] | ' [ʔ] | |||
| Fricatives | f [f], v [v] | th [θ] | s [ʃ] | h [h] | |||
| Approximants | r [ɹ] | y [j] | w [w] | ||||
| Lateral Approximant | l [l] |
| Front | Mid | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i [i] | u [u] | |
| Mid | e [e] | o [ʊ] | |
| Low | a [a] | ä [ɐ] |
H also exists as a modifier character; in addition to standing on its own as a consonant, it can also soften the preceding consonant - e.g. [ph] is pronounced /f/ rather than /ph/.
Proposal 2[]
| Labial | Laminal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | ng [ɴ] |
| Stop | p [p], b [b] | t [t], d [d], c [ts] | k [q], g [ɢ], ' [ʔ] |
| Fricative | f [f], v [v] | s [s], z [z] | h [χ], r [ʁ] |
| Approximant | (w [w]) | l [l], y, i [j] | (w [w]) |
| Front | Mid | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i [i] | u [u] | |
| Central | e [ɪ] | ä [ə] | o [ʊ] |
| Low | a [ɑ] | ||
Grammar[]
R'lyehian is highly agglutinative and possesses free word order; it makes extensive use of prefixes and suffixes to alter and derive meaning from pre-existing words. Articles such as prepositions are prefixed - such as ph-, meaning "beyond," as in ph-shugg "extraterrestrial;" or nafl-, designating the past tense, as in nafl-sll'ha, "invited."
Plurals are formed within R'lyehian via reduplication of the final syllable - e.g. ngha-gha "deaths."(source?)
Linguist Paul Tuttle believed that the prefix nafl- denoted a negative construction. For instance, if "Cthulhu fhtagn" can be translated as "Cthulhu waits dreaming", the phrase "Cthulhu naflfhtagn" means "Cthulhu no longer waits dreaming" (i.e. has awakened). (AWD: "The Return of Hastur")
Analysis[]
| “ | ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu lies dreaming. |
„ | |
| ~ HPL , "The Call of Cthulhu" |
Literally translated as:
| “ | Over the limit (dead), still dreaming, Cthulhu, (at) R'lyeh, (in) the residential place (palace), lies. | „ |
The Cthulhu Mythos is different from our world so word-to-word translation from English to R'lyehian is not possible.
Sentences[]
| “ | Ya na kadishtu nilgh'ri stell'bsna Nyogtha, K'yarnak phlegethor l'ebumna syha'h n'ghft, Ya hai kadishtu ep r'luh-eeh Nyogtha eeh, s'uhn-ngh athg li'hee orr'e syha'h. |
„ | |
| ~ The Burrowers Beneath |
The provided translation is:
| “ | I knew nothing at all, I petitioned Nyogtha, We shared our thoughts beside the darkest pit, I know now the dark wisdom Nyogtha imparts, This dark pledge I seal with my immortal soul. |
„ |
| “ | ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthugha Fomalhaut n'gha-ghaa naf'lthagn. | „ | |
| ~ EXP: "Dead of Night" |
translated to
| “ | Over the limit (dead), still dreaming, Cthugha, (at) Fomalhaut, (wanting) deaths, lied. | „ |
| “ | Y'ai 'ng'ngah, Yog-Sothoth h'ee - l'geb f'ai throdog uaaah. | „ | |
| ~ HPL , "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" |
translated to
| “ | I call death, Yog-Sothoth answers - here they call trembling. | „ |
with added emphasis indicated on the word for trembling, and the final word (uaaah) indicating the end of an incantation or spell
Words and Phrases[]
| Word/Phrase | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| shugg | noun | earth |
| c- | prefix | e, our, us |
| f- | prefix | they, their, them |
| ph'nglui | adjective, adverb | dead, paralyzed |
| mg- | prefix | yet, but, still |
| cthulhu fhtagn | phrase | cthulhu is waiting |
| ftaghu | noun | covering |
| nafl- | prefix | subjunctive marker |
| syha'h | adverb | forever, always |
| bug | verb | go, leave for |
| k'yarnak | verb | share |
| hai | adverb | at present |
| ilyaa | verb | await |
| -agl/agr | suffix | |
| ron | noun | cult |
| wgah'n | verb | being in |
| -agn | suffix | |
| uaaah | interjection | used to end the spell |