Shaeen peers at the parchment before her and smiles warmly before she picks up a quill, dips it into the ink and begins to write:
"So you wish to understand how we talk in the Maerc? Well I can teach you as best as I can, how I talk and write, I hail from the Eastfold, so my accent may vary a little bit, but every Maerc-man will understand you, even if it isn't perfect.
First we should maybe learn to say Good day. So here we go.
You greet someone by saying:
Wes þu hal. or just Wes hal.
You may want to ask them their name or where they hail from. So...
Hwæt is þin nama? or Hu hatest þu?
is how you ask for someone's name.
If they ask you, you respond by saying
Ic hatte Shaeen. or Min namma is Shaeen.
The polite thing to say now is
Eadig þec to metenne.
Which means, nice to meet you.
Now to ask where someone is from you say
Hwanon come þu?
and to ask where they live
Hwær wunast þu?
Now to tell someone you don't understand them you say
Ic þæt ne undergiete.
And to say that you don't speak the Maerc language well
Ic ne cann wel maerc gereord sprecan.
To say goodbye, you can say
Sīe þu hā
to a friend, we call a friend freond, don't get that mixed up with feond though, because that means enemy!
If you don't know the person so well yet, you would say
Beo gesund.
Here are a few more greetings that may be useful.
Good morning. - Godne morgen.
Good evening. - Godne Æfen.
Good night. - Eadigne Æfen giet.
or when you say good night to go to sleep you say
Gode Niht.
Next time we will try and learn some about more polite conversation, compliments, how to behave yourself in a tavern and order what you need there and to understand some insults should you then have upset someone you should at least know what they are calling you."
Shaeen puts down her quill and neatly gathers up the pages and puts them into an envelope before mumbling to herself: "I should get this to the town-hall soon..."
((OOC: Initially I had this written up as a story teaching people, but on further thought it is more beneficial to everyone when it can indeed be read in a public place somewhere. No guarantees for errors and the like since I am a novice to the language myself.
The funny letters and how to type them:
Þ - ALT+ 0222, þ - ALT+ 0254, Ð - ALT+ 0208, ð - ALT+ 0240, Æ - ALT+ 0198, æ - ALT+ 0230. Hope this helps! ))
