Verzpertillio

Extract from Gone From Daylight: Nights Eternal.

History
Verzpertillio is the ancient language of the Vampires. The language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, being directly related to Latin and the Romance languages of Europe. Etymological evidence suggest that the language can be traced as far back as 3,000 B.C. where it seems to have evolved alongside a young and evolving Latin. Verzpertillio however, maintained a strong link to the Latin language and it shared many characteristics and vocabulary making it almost identical to Latin for many centuries. It wasn’t until around 200 B.C. that Verzpertillio began to evolve into its own. During this time Latin had become the dominant language of Europe, when the Roman Empire ruled the known world. And it was during this time that Vampires seemed to have a greater need to seclude themselves from direct contact with human beings; a direct result from being hunted down and almost wiped out. In their exile from culture, the ‘Latin language’ they had been using began to change… and it evolved and became as elegant and courteous as the Latin language of the Romans - but it became a terrifying language to hear; and it brought fear to those who heard it being whispered in the darkest shadows of the night. For it became a night language, using vowel and consonant clusters that sounded dark yet beautiful.

But even as the language reached its peak around late 100 B.C. there were greater and greater Vampiric genocides and the language was almost lost. Eventually and sadly, most Vampires were forced to abandon the one thing that they could call their own and began speaking the local languages of the areas they lived in - the vulgar Latin, which would later become the Romance languages; or in the north, early Germanic languages. And since Vampires were now spread scarce and wide, the ability to maintain Verzpertillio as a language became all but vain. But the language did not die; the Elders and authors of the Scriptures themselves, and through them historians, were able to preserve and continue this hidden language even to the present day where it may still be heard and written by them. But the language has fallen out of general knowledge and it is no longer used by Vampires in daily speech; essentially making it a "living dead tongue".

Structure
Verzpertillio is categorized under the Indo-European and Italic family of languages and it is grouped under the Romance language branch. Thus Verzpertillio is very similar in structure to languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, and Latin. Like most European languages Verzpertillio is a highly inflective language meaning that words are modified and changed to add different meanings, tenses, moods, and characteristics. An example is shown here:

The principal characteristics Verzpertillio differs from English are pronominal ending qualities, gender, adjectival agreements in number and gender, and finally Verzpertillio nouns contain a total of five cases along with five different case declensions they can be categorized under.

It is important to understand that while Verzpertillio can be translated into any other language the translation will not always be exact: As shown, sentences in Verzpertillio cannot be translated simply word for word. For more information, see Verzpertillio Grammar.

Usage
Verzpertillio as a language can be translated into English or any other language into what can mean the same thing and give the same meaning. But like any other language, Verzpertillio developed its own system of expression and communication and there are times when the translations suffer because there are some phrases and sentences that were just meant for the Verzpertillio language. In linguistics, these are called idioms. An example in English would be the phrase “a pretty penny”. In English, when someone says this phrase, they are usually expressing that something costs a large amount of money.

There are many idioms in Verzpertillio that have their origins through Vampiric thought and experience and even from Latin based idioms. Many idioms also had developed due to the Vampiric way of life and thus cannot be easily translated into other languages without fully expressing its meaning. An ancient idiom in Verzpertillio is:

“vidiova diero sol egredio luna; egredio deostiova dierti luna”

Literally translated it says “we saw the Sun and Moon; but we followed the Moon”. Vampires used this phrase as a way of expressing that they regret a choice and that they took the moment for granted. It was originally used directly to express many who regretted crossing over, but it fell out that direct usage and was eventually generalized to mean anything they made a bad choice on, before or after crossing over. The closest English equivalent is “you’ve made your bed – now lie on it”.

The word “egredio” is also an idiom in Verzpertillio. It came from the Latin word “egredior” meaning “to come out”, and Vampires took the word and modified it to be used as a transitive interjection/conjunctive/preposition word. The word in Verzpertillio thus can mean many different things depending on when it is said, and how it is said (such as tone and mood). It is generally used in Verzpertillio to mean “and, but, then, stop! watch out! alas! yet, (and even) look! look out!"

Alphabet Structure
Verzpertillio uses the Roman alphabet as its alphabet. However, K, W, and X do not exist in Verzpertillio. Verzpertillio once had its own alphabet system that was utilized mostly for Scriptures. It was around 500 B.C. that strong Latin influence coupled with increasingly shrinking Vampire populations that caused the Vampiric alphabet to be replaced with the Roman alphabet; and it was lost. It is known however that there are some who still know the ancient Vampiric script.

Phonology
Verzpertillio follows certain rules when the language is written, read, and spoken. Vowels and consonants in Verzpertillio have similar Spanish and Italian equivalents. The clusters “th,” “gh,” “ch,” do not generally occur in Verzpertillio. K, W, and X do not exist in Verzpertillio. Y is rare and Z is common. But “c” always has a “k” equivalent as in “can,” or “carry”. R is always trilled like in other Romance languages although usually it is trilled more harshly, especially to express heightened anger. Z is pronounced clearly as in English “zone”, and this consonant is also pronounced more clearly and harshly during heightened anger.

The language was spoken at an average constant speed similar to other European languages. But speakers of Verzpertillio were known to pronounce consonants more loudly, clearly, and sharply when angered or agitated, or during heightened physical activity and they spoke the words much slower than average during these times. At other times, the language was spoken at a regular pace and vowels and consonants sounded much like “regular speech” to be expected from the day population in Europe. However, during non-aggressive intense moments, such as in intimacy or when confiding with other Vampires, they were known to speak in hushed whispers. “Verzpertillio” itself is translated literally in English “to whisper” although it means “Vampire language” more commonly. The language was never really known to be spoken at a fast pace and every new speaker that crossed over generally assimilated with those other Vampires who had been speaking the language through many long years.

Since Vampires of ancient times seemed to be linguistically inclined, for aesthetic reasons they refrained from using the cluster “th” written or spoken, though they saw the cluster appearing in many languages around them through the ages. It was difficult then, for a Vampire to not pronounce “s” as “th” while they had their fangs down, and for this reason they modify the “s” to “z” during times they have their fangs down. Similarly during whispering, Vampires would pronounce “z” as an “s." But while Vampires had their fangs down, they were known to place their tongue higher on their palate causing the “s” in words to change into “z”:

Other Material:
 * Verzpertillio Grammar
 * Verzpertillio Vocabulary