kalyr.com

Dorothea�s Law of Velar Villainy

I once spent a lot of time making up languages for the World of Kalyr. Unlike the master of invented languages, JRR Tolkein, I didn't pay much attention to phonoaesthetics. Caveat Lector examines the concept, and proposes Dorothea�s Law of Velar Villainy

The more villainous you are, the more velars and postvelars in your name or your language. Corollary: the more villainous you are, the more likely your name or language is to contain velars or postvelars in syllable-final and word-final positions.

Velar consonants are pronounced by pulling the back of the tongue up against the velum, the soft area at the back of the mouth. The 'k' in 'kite' is velar. So are the 'g' in 'go' and the 'ng' in 'sing'

Doesn't seem to apply to many of my Kalyr NPC villains, but it does apply to some of my player characters - Should I consider Dharak, Jorlak and Jaldaric to be bad guys?

Posted by TimHall at December 12, 2002 09:51 PM | TrackBack
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