About LoL's fictional languages

Ithil Snek··11 votes·9,296 views

/!\ I am not a native english speaker so if there are mistakes, tell me!

So far we know that Vastayan and Shuriman languages are a thing in LoL.

We already know few Vastayan words and their translation: Mu'takl : traitor Miella : Honey (affective meaning towards a female Vastaya) Mieli : Honey (affective meaning toward a male Vastaya)

And we may know Shuriman words as well:

For example, there are in Shurima a void monster species called the Xer'sai, whose queen is Rek'sai. This species lives in the Sai desert, if we assume that the desert's name was given by Shurimans, we can logically say that the Xer'sais and Rek'sai were given their names by Shuriman as well. This said, there is 3 shuriman words we know: "Xer", "Rek" and "Sai". Considering that Rek'sai is the Queen of the Xer'sai, we can assume that "Rek" means queen. This said, we can find out that "Xer" is not only in Xer'sai but also on Xerath. Taking in consideration that Rek is the queen of the Xers and that Xerath was a slave, we can imagine that Xer means "Servant" or something similar. Then, we can find out even more things, Rek'sai and each voidborn champions/creatures we know have a namethat loos like this: xxx'xxx(x), which mean that "cho", "gath", "vel", "koz", "kha", "zix", (and each part of a voidborn monster's name) may be a shuriman word. Then again if we split Azir's and Sivir's names like we did with Xerath to theoretically find the meaning of the word "xer", we have the words, "az", siv" and "ir". Note that in the Shurima story "Bloodline", the hierophant that claims to be one of Azir's scion (chapter 6) is called Azrahir, we can split the name to get "azrah" and "ir" again. We can guess that "ir" is a word used to say if someone belongs to the royal family of Shurima.

This is so far what I have found but, honestly if Riot is planning to make these languages complete enough to be spoken like Tolkien's Elvish, it would be awesome.

25 Comments

RiotBioluminescence15 votes

Another fictional language to look into (and another WAAARGHBobo creation, I believe) is the language of the Buhru people (Illaoi). She has a few lines spoken in her people's language in the VO, for example. A few threads out there that discuss it if you search.

Kaisergarde4 votes

Is the Vastayan language the same or related to ionian? (I mean what karma speaks)

Btw what is with this word? https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/a/ad/Xayah.move33.ogg/revision/latest?cb=20170422022652

Idk how to write it

RiotWAAARGHbobo8 votes

Lore: The Vastayan language is older than Ionian and Ionian borrows a lot from it. (Think Latin vs English).

Production: We reverse engineered Vastayan from what we knew about the ionian language.

ULTRAF0RCE1 votes

wouldn't you mean Latin vs Italian? English is a germanic language which has some stolen words from the romanic(based off of latin) languages of Italian, french and Spanish.

RiotWAAARGHbobo2 votes

I don't think they are that close. I might give you latin to haitian creole or maybe, maybe brazilian portuguese. [slayer-jinx-wink]

ULTRAF0RCE1 votes

Okay so relatively far removed from the original.

Megagargomon1 votes

{quoted}

I don't think they are that close. I might give you latin to haitian creole or maybe, maybe brazilian portuguese. [slayer-jinx-wink]

What's your job as a writer ? What does this role concretly imply ?

Chromatic Eagle1 votes

Do all regions have their own language? Can we expect Noxus to have their own language or at least words borrowed from other cultures? Are there any notable accents? I think Caitlyn mentioned a Noxian or Zaun accent in one story.

Sharjo4 votes

Noxus has its own native language. In fact if memory serves it has two.

Chromatic Eagle1 votes

I would love to know why, and if it has anything to do with Mordekaiser? Katarina VO update when?

What about Demacia?

Sharjo3 votes

Well the original language, Ur-Noxian, is mostly used by the old families more so than anyone else. Va-Noxian (vanox for short) is the more modern take, and borrows heavily from places and cultures Noxus has conquered. Ur-Noxian's super angular in its script where as vanox has no script, and is a highly evolving language.

I have no idea about any Demacian language.

Chromatic Eagle1 votes

What does Ur and Va mean?

Who would use Urnox? Katarina Elise Who would use Vanox?

Sharjo2 votes

I have no idea on what Ur and Va actually mean, but champion wise Cass and Kat are most likely to use Urnoxian. I'd imagine Darius, Draven and Riven are more likely to use vanox. Most noxians use vanox since it draws from every corner of the empire.

Destínum2 votes

I know in Swedish, Ur is something you add to a word to make it the ancient version of something else, so Urnox is simply the ancient version of Nox.

Maybe they took "inspiration" from this?

Beyond Legends1 votes

Wait so is Ionian language completely romanized? That's kinda disapointing

Fasmodey2 votes

Xerath has meaning of ''little cunning demon'' or something similar according to WAAARGHBoo iirc. It was used to be mocking, like people wouldn't take it serious in Xerath's human life. But after Xerath's Ascension, meaning of name also has changed thanks to Nasus. People now know it as something seriously devilish. Like name of the Voldemort, people avoid to speak it.

I'm pretty sure Xer doesn't mean something equal to cuteness and innocence of baby bunnies either.

Edit: I found the answer.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/f2tgimyd-something-interesting-about-the-shuriman-language?comment=001a0000000000000000

Xer seems like also has meaning of ''hateful and ''devil''.

RiotWAAARGHbobo4 votes

Yep. This is also an example of how the Shuriman language has changed in 1000+ years.

AS noted in Sivir's color text "Water"-- she can't really understand what Azir is saying most of the time.

Fasmodey1 votes

What does Nasus and Renekton mean? Why are Azir and Sivir's names similar?

Also why don't you have Rioter icon? Don't come with bad news pls.

RiotWAAARGHbobo3 votes

Technical problem.
I hadn't noticed it. The talented (and witchy!) Bioluminescence fixed it.

Ithil Snek1 votes

How come does Nasus know the modernShuriman language, correct me if I'm wrong but after the fall of Shurima, he isolated himself from the world, but when he met Taliyah and Sivir, he was able to understand them and to be understood from them. How did he learned the modern Shuriman language?

RiotWAAARGHbobo5 votes

Isolated is not the same as trapped in box -- or outside of time. (like his peeps)

I imagine he speaks with a heavy accent-- but can communicate.

'cause, I mean, he had to go out and eat tacos sometimes.

Chromatic Eagle1 votes

Do Ascendants need to eat? Sleep? Use the bathroom? I don't want to think about what happened to Renekton…

THE RlVER KlNG1 votes

I actually explored the Vastayan language in the lengthy color piece I wrote for a champion concept.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/x7pVEOyQ-champion-concept-wanno-the-eternal-traveller

Ask the Herald1 votes

Wait.....Xerath's name means something to do with devils? But didn't Azir name him Xerath because it meant "one who shares" because they met in a library or something?

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