Nostraman

This project is to decipher the language Nostraman from Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Night Lords books from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Nostraman is the third language used by the Eighth Legion, aside from High and Low Gothic, and is also their native tongue. Culturally it is set as an extremely poetic, “flowery” language that doesn’t translate well into English or any other language. Its customs are ruled by deceit, violence, base human nature and gang/mafia themes.

The analysis of this language will come from the examples pulled from the trilogy’s three books, Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker. Not all examples have adequate context to translate them.

The method of analysis will be a comparative sequence to English sentences and patterns, which most likely are reflected in the text, “Kosh, kosh’eth tay…” He’s saying thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. There are numerous places where the English pattern seems to surface in reflection to the gloss but within the Nostraman text.

The following are excerpts from the books which have, at least, some kind of context from which to draw translation:

CORPUS

Soul Hunter

Viris colratha dath sethicara tesh dasovallian. Solruthis veh za jass.

Sons of our father, stand in midnight clad. We bring the night. 

(When they are speaking about Septimus' eye:)

Athasavis te corunai tol shathen sha'shian? – (?)

Kosh, kosh'eth tay... Ama sho'shalnath mirsa tota. Ithis jasha. Ithis jasha nereoss. 

Thank you, thank you very much… Good color, very good color.
 

Jasca – Yes

Blood Reaver

Ashilla sorsollun, Ashilla uthullun – I am blind, I am cold

Vaya vey... ne’sha – I don’t… understand

Shrilla la lerril – whore that mates with dogs

Vellith sar’darithas, volvallasha sor sul – (-asha might mean “I” in some way)

Tosha amthilla van veshi laliss – This vessel is cursed.

Forfallian dal sur shissis lalil na sha dareel - We must be cautious, watch yourself

Sil vasha nuray – He has no arms

Void Stalker

Sinthallia shar vor vall’velias – That woman will be the death of us.

Corshia Sey – Breath now

Nishallitha – poisonous (p 165), since –llia is often a noun ending, -llitha is an adjective ending.

Athrillay, Vylas – greetings, brother

Vulusha, vulusha sethrishan? – How, how much? 

Valmisai, shul’celadaan… Flishatha sey shol voroshica – Variel’s call to arms for Nostraman crew (p 344), perhaps with the phrase "Be ready now or die"

Vishi tha? – (p 347)

Ivalastitha – peace

Yrosia se naur tay helshival – smiling to mock me

Vel jaesha lai – I love you (?)
Juthai'lah – Preysight
Valas Morovai – First Claw (First Squad)

LEXICON

Amthilla – vessel

Ashilla – I, or I am

Athasavis – eye, lens (?)

Athrillay – greetings

Dasovallia – being midnight clad, Dasovallitha – midnight clad (adjectival form)

Flisatha – ready, Flisa – prepared (?)

Forfallia – being cautious, Forfallitha – cautious

Ithis – color

Ivalastitha – peaceful, Ivalastia – peace

Nishallia – poison, Nishallitha – poisonous

Ruthis – absence (?)

Sinthallia – woman

Solruthis – night, “being wanting of sun” maybe, or “absence of sun” (sol – sun)

Sorsollia – sun that illuminates, Sorsollun – blind (lit. sunless)

Uthullia – sun that warms, Uthullun – cold (lit. sunless)

Valas – claw
Vallia – armor, cover, clad

Viris – sons

Vor – death

Vylas – brother (being addressed), possibly Vyla – brother

Corshia – to breathe (second person singular)

Vasha – to have (third person singular), veshi – third person singular inanimate

Vaya vey ne’sha – to not understand (first person singular)

Voroshica – to die (second person plural)

Yrosia – to smile (second person singular)

Jasha – good

Morovai – first
Nereoss – very

Kosh – thanks, Kosh’eth tay – thank you very much

Sey – now

Shol – or

MORPHOLOGY

Since both the Ashilla sorsollun and Sinthallia excerpts has the “to be” verb in their translation, perhaps the ending –illa itself means “is”, since it’s seen that not all nouns have the ending –illa but when the word “is” specifically occurs in translation.

-ll- if not the verb “to be”, it probably denotes the nominative declension case

-asha is contained in all first-person nouns, therefore “I”

-as is the only example we have of a singular second-person address, therefore “you”

-ia is contained in all third-person references, therefore “it”

-ay is contained in the only plural third-person reference, thus “they”

-is is contained once in a plural second-person reference, therefore possible “you all”, or an adjectival ending (ithis – color, solruthis – without sun)

-ian probably means “we”

-un means without

Possible Personal Declension, e.g. Vallia – armor

Vallasha – “I, armored”

Vallas – “you, armored”

Vallia – “it, armored”, “it, armor”

Vallian – “we, armored”

Kinship terms, from the two stated here (Vyla – brother, Vira – son) center around the v and l/r continuum, which is common in Latin (High Gothic) and Indo-European in general to denote the word “man” or “person”.

Nostraman is rife with apostrophes, being either a multiplicity of contractions as is common in degenerate languages, or a simple aesthetic motif which is common of scifi (I’m inclined to believe the former). Whether or not A.D.B. actually has a language – if he actually constructed the language of Nostraman and used it for the books – or has only made up the sentences as he’s gone on is unknown.

You can find links to the two earlier articles about Nostraman here:

Deciphering Nostraman I

Deciphering Nostraman II

The data from both of these works has been compiled into the present page. This is one of the most popular pages and hopefully it continues to be of use to you. 

Disclaimer: Soul Hunter and all other books, and their contents, released by Black Library are their property. I'm not stealing.