Old Peculiar

“	All the while, Miss Wren rocked in the chair and stroked Miss Peregrine's feathers, singing her a soft, lilting lullaby: "Eft kaa vangan soorken, eft ka vangan soorken, malaaya..." "That's the tongue of the old peculiars," Millard whispered. "Come home, come home... remember your true self... something like that."	”
–Hollow City

Old Peculiar is the ancient language of peculiars. It is not widely spoken, and even Millard—who prides himself as a scholar of all things peculiar—only knows a little.

History

Old Peculiar is famously inscrutable to those that don't grow up speaking it. Its rules are often contradictory and change seasonally according to a calendar devised by ancient peculiar king Eldric the Indecipherable. The language developed in parallel with major Indo-European tongues, closely resembling Saxon at times while incorporating elements of Cornish, Old Norse, Sentinelese, Etruscan, Owlish, the Silbo Gomero whistling tongue, and a smattering of Cro-Magnon grunts that hail from an age before the human larynx had fully descended.

Old Peculiar has 57 case forms depending on whether a noun is nominative, inessive, comitative, etc., and thus 57 ways of spelling every noun. It has 107 synonyms for "home" but no word for "foreign," as the word loses its value for peculiars.

The language was widely spoken in Europe, North Africa, and Constantinopole loops, and is still taught at the Ymbryne Academy as well as used conversationally in the Hebridean Islands and the Atlas Mountains. Many ancient texts are written in Old Peculiar. Ymbrynes mostly use the language to conduct important political business and in rituals, and it is a very polite way to speak to a senior ymbryne.

A group of twelve ymbrynes can use Old Peculiar to perform procedures such as the intentional collapse of a loop or the creation of a Quilt.

Words

• ymbryne—literally, "revolution" or "circuit"
• coerlfolc—literally, "Common Folk"
• syndrigast—literally, "peculiar spirit"
• Aldinn—Meaning unknown. The word is used in the phrase, "the Aldinn days."
• Aswindan—"shrink"
• Yeth-Faru—"merman"
• Wolsenwyrsend--"centaur with control over clouds"
• Styl-hyde—"metal skin"
• Suul— presumably"a peculiar soul"
• lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechymenokich-lepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon - "the feeling of exhaustion one gets after eating too much fish on one's birthday"

No direct translation

• Gorettungæmtianfeornes - the act of gazing vacantly into the distance
• Heáfferbladglíwungblædhyngran - weeping that turns suddenly into laughter, then snacking
• Becarcianbrūcepbrycpgaldorsorgeuncergehierstgeniole - the anxiety of enjoying a song while worrying that the other people listening are not enjoying it as much as you are
• AtánonollmúþaungerýdeunderngeweorchwÆte - when the roof of your mouth feels rough after eating certain breakfast cereals
• [Two high-pitched grunts and a long owl hoot] - the burned-toast smell left behind by a collapsed loop.

Phrases

• Wyrmæte nu þu bip - "hello", literally: "I see the worms haven't eaten you yet"
• Byp egle empty penden þu mæg haelf - "goodbye", literally: "May your grave-hole remain empty until next I see you"
• Ic wære federhama slite de wes - "thank you", literally: "I would tear off my wings for you"
• Ic pe slím under þu héla - "I'm sorry", literally: 'I am the mud beneath your feet"
• Ic cude bip gléd pouppe - "I'm hungry", literally: "I could eat a burning turd"
• Þes sy offer monegum knudleae - "This is too many noodles"
• Mæg beséowian hu eft oftiho? - "Can it be sewn back on?"
• Ic hreo hyge on feran to niht - "I'm too depressed to go out tonight"
• Hu penden þes egesan bewlátung? - "How long is this movie?"
• `Þes ne sy min sop andsýn - "This isn't my real face"
• Maeg þu cyð ear byp neóbedd? - "Can you direct me to the catacombs?"

Sayings

• Nu hit ys on swines dome, cwæð se ceorl sæt on eoferes hricge. - "'It's up to the pig now,' said the man sitting on the pig's back."
• Cræfta gehwilc byp cealde forgolden. - "Every deceit will be coldly repaid."
• Wide ne bip wel, cwap se pe gehyrde on helle hriman. - "'Things are bad everywhere,' said the woman peering into hell.”
• Ellen bip selast þam þe oftost sceal dreogan dryhtenbealu. - "Courage is essential for one who must often suffer great evils."
• Wes pu pinum ymbrynum arfæst symle, pa þec geornast to gode trymmen. - "Be respectful to your ymbrynes always, who eagerly urge you to good."
• Seoc se bip pe ferhþgeníðla ieteð. - "The one who eats his enemy's omelette will soon be ill."
• Wineleas wonsælig aglæcwíf genimeð hae wulfas to geferan. - "The friendless woman takes wolves as her companions."
• Yldo beod on eorðan æghwæs craftig. - "Old age has power over everything on earth."
• Ne flit du wið ungerád monn. Manegum menn is forgifen ðæt he spræcan mæg, swiðe feawum þæt he seo gesceadwis. - "Don't argue with an idiot. Many have the power of speech; very few of wisdom."
• Gif ðu hwæt on druncen misdo, ne wit du hit dam grimbera. - "If you do something wrong when drunk, don't blame it on the grimbear."
• Monig mon hæfð micel feax on foran heafde, wyrð færlice calu. - "Sometimes a man has plenty of hair on his head, then suddenly goes bald."
• Sceal aghwylc syndrigast alætan lændagas. - "Every peculiar will have to relinquish the days loaned to him."
• Eghwæt forealdað þæs þe ece ne byð. - "Everything grows old that is not eternal."
• Þyrs náhtlic sceal on fenne gewunian ana innan lande. - "The naughty giant must dwell alone in the bog."
• Cwipinga bið bunyippe tittum: þu næfre unberéafigendlic. - "Complaints are like the bunyip's teats: You'll never run out of them."
• Hy héafdu bætera þonne óynos. Būtan þrī héafdu bætera þonne hy. - "Two heads are better than one. But three are better than two."
• Hopa nae áwringan coney. Ortruwung est spere ne héafdu. - "Hope is an unsqueezed rabbit. Despair is a pike with no head on it."

Idioms

• Min hycgan cleweða; nearon stánas min ceole - "My heart is itchy, there are stones in my larynx" (when struck dumb by someone's beauty)
• Þu cuỗe scearpen brádlástæx hróf to héafod - "You could sharpen an ax on top of his head" (said of a very stubborn person)
• Hringsetl ne; appui ne - "Not my circus, not my monkeys" (when something isn't your responsibility)
• Þu eagum hlides eac sweard - "Your eyes are covered with ham" (when someone doesn't notice what's right in front of them)