Sperethiel

Sperethiel is the fictional language of the elves in the role-playing game Shadowrun, as well as Earthdawn, which is set in the same world.

A number of words from Sperethiel are present—as loan words—in Or'zet.

Within the world of Shadowrun, Sperethiel is supposed to be a unique language isolate, related to no other language or family of languages. In reality, the authors 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.

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.

Examples:


 * Glerethiel Morkhan Shoam (title of a popular Tír Tairngire sitcom) may mean either "Keeper in the Monkey House", "Inbreeding Causes Stupidity" or a third expression that is considered too taboo to publicly mention as it involves humans copulating with pigs (and possibly, inferrable from an episode's description, Elvish voyeurism thereof).


 * Speratemel rel timaan perest? Hellon Sperethiel. - "Is not communication for all to have? Share the language."