The dwarves had developed their own language and alphabet long before humans Alagaësia. The humans were illiterate, which must have made reading maps difficult and is perhaps why they landed up in Alagaësia - their ships were out for a cruise and ended up sailing into open sea instead of back to their homeland, because the captain couldn't read the navigational charts. However, soon after arriving in Alagaësia and meeting with the dwarves, the humans began using the dwarves' runic alphabet and even adopted some of their words, like "father" from the dwarven word "farthen" (probably to the relief of all the unnamed human male parents).
Sentence Construction
1. Descriptions are placed before the object they describe. Example: "Az egraz knurlag" means "a strong man", and literally translates as "a strong man". 2. Unlike in English, descriptions can be placed in any order following the object. Example: "Az carkna cesti borith" (a great, holy chief) can also be rendered as "az cesti carkna borith" (a holy, great chief). 3. Aside from questions, The structure of a sentence in the dwarf language is usually the same as it would be in English. Example: "Knurlag dorzada az mérna" would literally translate as "he loves the pool". No restructuring of the sentence was required. 4. Questions are ordered subject, verb, object. Example: "Jok oc fild?" means "who are you?", but literally translates as "you are who?" in English.
Prefixes
car-: changes verbs into nouns of action. For example, "ignh" (bring) becomes "carignh" (bringer). en-: turns adjectives into their superlative forms. For example, "egraz" (bald) becomes "enegraz" (baldest). men-: gives words the opposite meaning. For example, "alfrell" (kind) becomes "menalfrell" (unkind). q-: changes words to past tense. For example, "is" (do) becomes "qis" (did). If the "q" interferes with the word's pronunciation, it replaces the interfering consonents at the beginning of the word. For example, "zeitmen" (honour) becomes "qeitmen" (honoured). strâdd-: changes present simple verbs into present participles. For example, "smer" (serve) becomes "strâddsmer" (serving). vol-: changes words into having endless or eternal properties. For example, "brâgha" (danger) becomes "volbrâgha" (eternal danger). It also acts as "all" or "every" for a word. For example, "sartos" (family) becomes "volsartos" (every family).
Suffixes
-a: gives a word a membership or nationality connotation. For example, "ingeitum" (smiths) becomes "ingeituma" (of the smiths). -egûr: turns verbs into nouns. For example, "barzûl" (to curse) becomes "barzûlegûr" (a curse). -n: pluralises nouns. For example, "borith" (chief) becomes "borithn" (chiefs). -z: makes nouns possessive. For example, "jurgen" (dragon) becomes "jurgenz" (dragon's).
also: wharn and: oen are: oc by: vor do: is does: strâddis for: akh has: nos in: bahst is: ana let: os may: jordn no: eta of: rak the: az then: azt there: nithgech this: formv want: frekk was: qana what: hert who: fild yes: oeí
Pronouns
he: knurlag him: knurlag it: ilf our: dûr them: knurlar we: né you: joc
![.[Eragon. Dragons ang Riders return].](http://i071.radikal.ru/0807/10/e40f285d840b.gif)
