Dit is het espruar gebruikt in de Forgotten Realms boeken van D&D 3e.
NOTES ON ESPRUAR3.TTF
Font created by Robynn of Semberholme, at www.semberholme.com. This font is to be freely shared, and is not for sale. If you appreciate the font and would like to know more of Elvish lore, please drop an email at the "contact" button at semberholme.com.
The font is based on the new Espruar lettering appearing on page 86 of the Forgotten Realms(tm) Campaign Setting for Third Edition, Copyright 2001 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (available at www.wizards.com/forgottenrealms).
LETTERS
For the most part, each letter and number on the keyboard corresponds with the Espruar character. There are a few exceptions:
* There is no "c" in Elven, although sometimes the "k" sound gets written as "c" in Common.
* The combination "qu" is simply the symbol "q" ... so when writing "Quessir," type "Qessir."
There are a few extra characters in Espruar, denoting additional sounds:
* "ch" looks like a soft "k" and is located at the "c" key.
* "ng" is a variation of "g" and is located at the "[" key.
* "sh" looks like a soft "s," and is located at the "]" key.
* "th" has two slightly different sounds: hard (thank, thief) and soft (them, then). "Hard" is the more common, and is located at the "/" key. "Soft" is at the ";" key.
PUNCTUATION
There is actually very little punctuation in Espruar. The language is rarely written, and is usually reserved for important missives, magical items, and decorative engraving. The fact is that most elves will outlive the materials they are writing on.
There are of course periods, commas, question marks and exclamation points. These are located up along the "baseline" which is near the top of Elven lettering.
The question mark and exclamation point are both used at the beginning of a sentence. Each sentence always ends with a period.
Many Elven words are combinations of other words, connected by `. For example, the race of wood elves is referred to as Sy`Tel`Quessir.*
There are other words with ', the single accent or quote mark. This is usually placed between vowels that would otherwise combine to form another sound. The syllable following the stress mark is usually accented.
Capital letters are indicated by a crescent at the upper left side of the letter. The crescent is the symbol of Corellon, the leader of the Seldarine. His mark indicates importance, and is usually placed on the first letter of a name. Sentences do not usually begin with capital letters.
*Various FR books give different instructions on ` versus hyphenations. At first, the books read Sy`Tel-Quessir. Just recently, they read Sy-Tel`Quessir. The truth is neither, and is found in the Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves accessory. All breaks in thought use `. I believe this to be more consistent with what the Elven way of life, and explain the other descriptions as regional corruptions, or human misinterpretations trying to translate spoken Elven into Common characters.
NUMBERS
Many N`Tel`Quessir believe that Elves use a base ten system, like Americans and British do. Some communities with excessive contact with humans have reverted to a base ten system, but Evermeet and Evereska use a base twelve system.
The numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are all used as normal. But there are two additional numbers, which have their own symbols in Espruar. One has the value of 10... this is the "-" key (right next to the 0). The one with the value of 11 is the "=".
The value of 12 is written in Espruar as 10. Common "13" is written in Espruar as 11. Value 24 is written 20.
Think of it this way... 10 for us is 10 times 1. 20 is 2 in the tens place, and 0 in the ones. 2 times 10 is twenty. But in base twelve, 2 is in the twelves place, and 2 times 12 is 24. So an elven missive announcing something happening in 30 days actually means would be 36 days in the Common calendar. (This could lead to interesting puzzles for your group.)
There are a few great web sites that explain Base Twelve further.
Why is it base twelve instead of base ten? First of all, elves have a longer life span, and a more patient outlook on life. As the Cormanthyr book points out, one span of elven time is actually four human years. Every four years, elves hold the festival of the King's Peace, a feast of Corellon. Multiples of four have a slightly higher significance than other numbers. The numbers 4 and 8 looks very similar, and "5" looks like one plus four.
