Dwemer Language

I created this post to be a collection of knowledge regarding the Dwemer language. Links, post, insight, theories...if you have them, post them. Comment, critique, analyse... it's here so we can gain some more insight into this interesting aspect of the Dwemeri's culture as a whole. Now then, I wanted to bring a couple of my own theories to the table. Keep in mind I'm a newb: some of it might be stupid ... but I did do my homework, and I'm confident it'll be at least somewhat interesting. In the above link to the Dwemer Academy, it states that between Dwemer glyphs and runes (which have only been found on the ruins in Morrowind) there is no understood relationship. Now, I don't know if I'm stating the obvious here but... the glyphs seem to BE the runes, it's just that the runes are a more artistic version. My theory is that glyphs were scientifically used for writing, notation, ect... and runes were a more decorative way of writing. There are some that are obvious: Look at glyph x20. This is almost identical to the W rune. Same as the Y rune, same as x21. Some comparisons are a bit harder when the runes are very similar, such as the case of Runes A and E. But in this case one must analyse where the curves in the runes are artistic and where the curves indicate magnitude of curvature. I deduced rune A to be x14 and E to be x16. Why? Notice the curve on A is slight, as if the writer just swished to give it an extra style. Now look at E. E's curve is much straighter, denoting an angle, and the end is the actual "style" part. Same thing happens with M and N (x8 and x7, respectively) Some assignments can still be debated, but the truth still lies in that the glyphs and runes are basically the same. My assignments go as follows: A-x14, D-x23, E-x16, F-x10, G-x5,I-x13, L-x12(duh!), M-x8, N-x7, o-x19, R-x6, S-x11, V-x9, W-x20, and finally Y-x21 (A minor speculation before continuing: Some runes look alike. Does this mean they sound alike. For instance, A,E,and I look alike. Are these the actual Dwemer vowels? Except for O, they seem to be agrouped that way, although one could argue that O has the same sort of straight lines and angles as the other vowels) Moving forward. Rounding up the letters we are left to decipher are B,C,H,J,K,P,Q,T,U, and Z. This brings an interesting conundrum, because there are ten letters left to decipher and 12 glyphs to assign. Now, the extra two might be some sort of combined sound (It's important to think of phonetics instead of alphabets when translating). Some possibilities for this include: TH,NG,LL,SS,AE,and CH, in summary, various double letters and vowel combinations. I believe that one of these is most probably CH, since it is commonly used in Dwemer names. Also, we have yet to assign C, and, taking into account that similar styles might mean phonetic relation, the glyphs C and CH will probably look alike. These might be x1 and x2 (which is which I can't say). x26 might be the other combined sound. I also believe that Q might be one of the very unique-looking glyphs (maybe x27?) because of it's unique sound. Now, it's important to remember that even if we decipher the sound and Tamrielic letter assignment of the Dwemer glyphs, they're still in Dwemeri, so, if translating

books and such, they will probably be something like "Mzeleking Chameri Ncelu Arkona...ect..ect...". Our only viable "Rosetta Stone" are the books written both in Aldmeris and Dwemeri, but these would only be of use to us if we both A) knew Aldmeris and B) could actually see the text. That's it, I'm done with my say. If everyone pitches in with they're two cents, we will soon have enough to buy the key to unlock this fascinating language (Meta: Or enough to buy the game developers into including a full Aldmeris-Dwemeri text in the next game,LOl)

-- Morbus Doom