Relares is the ancient language of the Kingdom of Terises in the game Tales of Legendia. It is still read and spoken by the Ferines, and a few Relares words are still used even in the everyday language of the Orerines. Norma Beatty is a scholar of Relares.

History

Relares is an ancient language, but as far as scholars have learned, it was not used like modern languages. It seems its primary use was as a naming language. The few Relares writings that have been deciphered serve as records of major events or declarations from important people.

Rules

Relares is written using ideographs. Each character carries a basic idea and pronunciation. From that base, different meanings are derived by adding a letter to the ends of the characters. This final letter is only used when speaking, so it can be difficult to determine a character's meaning just from a Relares inscription.

Researchers have determined three letters which change the meaning of the characters.

• S - noun
• L - adjective
• N - verb

For example, take the symbol for fire, ke.

• Kes: fire, flame, or physical objects associated with fire
• Kel: hot, red, or conditions associated with fire
• Ken: to burn, be on fire, or actions associated with fire

Characters can be combined to form new words. The name of the language, Relares, breaks down as follows: Re-l: secret Are-s: writing

Pronounciation

Pronunciation of Relares is simple, with each character having one sound. There are no silent letters, and vowels are pronounced much like they would be in Spanish. Some consonants have irregular pronunciations; cy makes the sound sh, so cyel sounds like shell. X is always pronounced like z, so xelhes sounds like zelhes.

Special Characters

Two characters carry special meaning when used before another character. The character for 'nature, we, can make the following character plural or can add a feeling of "greatness" to the following character. Writing this character before the character for person, ne, creates the meaning of a great person, or welnes. The character for hole, xe, creates the opposite of the following character. For example, writing this character before the character for curse, he, creates the word for the opposite of curse, a blessing, or xelhes.

Modern Usage

While Relares itself is no longer used, modern speech uses many words derived from the language. However, scholars have noted a change in the pronunciations of some words through time, a fact that could explain why most people do not realize Relares' influence.

When the second character begins with a consonant, the pronunciation of the preceding letter has changed as follows:

• S - sa
• L - ri
• N - na

Thus, the Relares word weltes, or natural springs, has become werites in modern speech.

Known Relares Words

• Delques: Black Wings
• Eres: Fingernail; used nowadays to describe the arte-like phenomena that certain people can perform
• Fennes: One Who Prays
• Ferines: People of the Ocean
• Merines: Shining One
• Nerifes: The name of the sea which the people of Terises worshiped. Literally means Human-formed Sea.
• Orerines: People of the Earth
• Telmes: Morning Star
• Teriques: Refers to the physical manifestation of a person's soul. Literally means Wing of Birth.
• Welzes: Hope
• Weltes: Refers to a natural spring.
• Xelhes: Blessing

External Links

http://tales.namco.com/legendia/featured.php?p=4 - Namco official guide on Relares