Languages of Ella Enchanted
I read Ella Enchanted one night in six straight hours; I couldn't stop reading until I was done. I still think the ogres should have eaten Hattie.
When I was done I had an urge to figure out the Ayorthaian language; it looked quite interesting. Of course, when I started collecting all the dialog in Ayorthaian, I started wanting to collect all the dialog in the other exotic languages too. I had to admit it: I had a touch of Jeffrey Henning Syndrome, the irresistable urge to extract and analyze constructed languages from works of fiction!
It turns out that there are absolutely no web pages out there about the languages in Ella Enchanted, except for one which just listed the lines of dialog, missed a few, and had some mistakes on it.
Table of Contents
Kyrrian
This is either a language exactly like English or all the dialog was translated from it; we have no way of knowing.
Ayorthaian
Names in Ayorthaian: Areida, Elle, Eneppe, Ollo, Uflimo, Isti, Ettime (the last five are Areida's relatives)
Cities in Ayortha: Amonta
Abensa utyu anja ubensu. - I'm pleased to meet you.
Ubensu ockommo Ayortha? - Are you from Ayortha? or You speak Ayortha?
Utyu ubensu evtame oyjento? - Do you like finishing school?
Ecete iffibensi asura edanse evtame oyjento? - Is this how they behave at finishing school?
Otemso iffibensi asura ippiri. - Sometimes they are much worse.
ibwi unju - tall girl
Abensa eke ubassu inouxi Akyrria. - I don't understand Kyrrian.
Adumma ubensu enusse onsordo. - Please write soon.
Abensa ohudo. Isseni imi essette urebu amouffa. - ???
There are no L's in the language itself, but there are in proper names. L's are pronounced as Y's. Ayorthaians tend to smack their lips after an M. There is no IPA symbol for this that I know of; the closest is probably the bilabial click.
/ubɛnsu ɔkomʘo əjoɹθə/
All words start and end with a vowel, and the same vowel at that. This makes it ridiculously easy to tell where words start and end, even if there are no spaces in the text.
abensa - I
ubensu - you
iffibensi - they
utyu - pleased, like
anja - meet
ockommo - speak
evtame oyjento - finishing school
ecete - is this how
asura - behavior
edanse - at
otemso - sometimes
ippiri - much worse
ibwi - tall
unju - girl
eke - don't?
ubassu inouxi - understand?
adumma - please?
enusse - write?
onsordo - soon?
ohudo - ???
isseni - it?
imi - ???
essette - ???
urebu - ???
amouffa - ???
Lexicon Size: 25
Elfian
Names in Elfian: Agulen, Slannen
Porr ol pess waddo. - Walk in the shade.
Kummeck ims powd. - Sun and rain / hello.
Yun gar. - A little.
Aff ench poel? - Who are you? or What is your name?
Dok ench Ella, jort hux Sir Peter hux Frell. - I am Ella, daughter of Sir Peter of Frell.
Wattill len. - Sly man???
Mund len. - Not like father.
Vib ol pess waddo. - Stay in the shade.
torlin kerru - justice mushrooms
porr - walk
kummeck - sun
ims - and
powd - rain
yun - a
gar - little
aff - who
ench - to be
poel - you
dok - I
jort - daughter? child?
hux - of
wattill - sly
len - father? man? person?
mund - not like
vib - stay
ol - in
pess - the
waddo - shade
torlin - justice
kerru - mushrooms
Lexicon Size: 21
Gnomic
Names in Gnomic: zhulpH, zhatapH
,fwthchor evtoogh brzzay eerth ymmad boech evtoogh brzzaY - Digging is good for the wealth and good for the health.
,achoed dh eejh aphchuZ uochludwaacH - ??? aphchuZ uochludwaacH is probably the name of a place or person.
.iqkwo pwach brzzay ufedjeE - Until we dig again.
,pwich aooyeh zchoaK - ???
,pwich azzoogh fraecH - Where is my mother???
fraechramM - grandmother?
fraecH - mother?
!chocH - Oh! / Oh my! / Eek!
!choe echachoed dh zchoaK - ???
!jdgumkwu azzoogH - Kiss me!
.pwoch ech jdgumkwu azzoogH - Don't kiss me.
This one is written with punctuation at the beginning of a sentence and capital letters at the end of a sentence or word; reversed from what we're used to.
brzzay - digging
evtoogh - good
jdgumkwu - kiss
azzoogh - me
pwoch ech - don't
fraechramm - grandmother?
fraech - mother?
zchoak - child?
pwich - where?
fwthchor - wealth?
eerth - and?
ymmad boech - health?
achoed - ???
dh - ???
eejh - ???
aphchuZ uochludwaacH - probably somebody's name
iqkwo - ???
pwach - ???
ufedjee - ???
aooyeh - ???
choe - ???
echachoed - ???
Lexicon Size: 22
Ogrese
Names in Ogrese: SEEf, NiSSh
ahthOOn SSyng - Much eating / Farewell
szEE frah myNN. - ???
myNN SSyng szEE. - ???
myNN thOOsh forns. - ???
mmeu ngah suSS hijyNN eMMong. - ???
myNN whadz szEE uiv. - ???
szEE AAh ohrth hahj ethSSif szEE. - ???
psySSahbuSS - delicious
SSyng - eat
hijyNN - dinner
eFFuth - taste
FFnOO - sour
forns uiv eMMong FFnOO ehf nushOOn. - It will taste sour for hours.
lahlFFOOn - vegetables
ruJJ - fish
SSyng lahlFFOOn, haZZ liMMOOn. lahlFFOOn eFFuth wAAth psySSahbuSS. - One should eat vegetables, not humans, because vegetables taste more delicious.
szah, suSS fyng mOOng psySSahbuSS. - Yes, and they were delicious.
Obviously this language is ill-suited for the Roman alphabet. To have to resort to capital, lowercase, AND double letters!
ahthOOn - much
SSyng - eat
psySSahbuSS - delicious
hijyNN - dinner
eFFuth - taste
FFnOO - sour
lahlFFOOn - vegetables
ruJJ - fish
haZZ - not
liMMOOn - humans
wAAth - more
szah - yes
suSS - and?
fyng - they?
mOOng - were?
forns - it?
uiv - will?
eMMong - taste?
ehf - for?
nushOOn - hours?
szEE - ???
frah - ???
myNN - ???
thOOsh - ???
mmeu - ???
ngah - ???
whadz - ???
AAh - ???
ohrth - ???
hahj - ???
ethSSif - ???
Lexicon Size: 31
Abdegi
Names in Abdegi: Uaaxee, Koopooduk, Udabee
Aiiiee ooo (howl) bek aaau. - I miss you already.
Oooayaagik (honk)! - Welcome!
Aaaope! Aiiiee uuu koobee (screech) oob payiipe aau. - Hello
Aiiiee koobee (screech) deegu (whistle)! - ???
This language is full of vowels and special noises. Obviously giants must use a lot of air to talk. I just can't get over that this language has the longest way of saying hello I've ever seen.
Since this is the least prominent language in Ella Enchanted, I'm not going to even try building a lexicon of it. My approximation of the size, however, is 16; I don't know if the honks and whistles count as a word or part of a word, so it could be less.
