Elvish in the Realms

TethorilofLathander

Is there a dictionary of elvish words within Toril or is it the same as Tolkien's language(s)?

Catoblepas

No dictionary of D&D elven that I know of exists. You can learn snippets here and there from the various novels and splatbooks. Keep in mind that Drow primarily speak elvish as well as the various surface subraces-so drow words and phrases can reasonably be extrapolated to be elvish as well. Considering the plethora of material on the Drow in Forgotten Realms, they can be a rather useful tool for finding the odd elven word or phrase. "Elliya Lolthu" for instance means "Test me Lolth", and "Valsharess" means "Queen". Both Viconia and the Male/Female Drow voicesets in IWD2 slip into elvish rather frequently, so that's a good place to start. IWD2 even provides translations if you turn subtitles on!-in case you ever wanted to learn how to say "Bull****" in Elven.

Metalloman

Personally I always liked to use the Quenya dictionary in my D&D campaigns if I had the needing to show some elven words or writings at the best of my capacities.
I've seen some elven words in some D&D prebuilt adventures but these seems to be slight modifications of Tolkien's.
Drow seems to be another kind of language of which you surely could find some kind of list in the internet, even if I don't know where they took inspiration to create the drow language and structure (if there is a defined structure...).
Maybe @Viconia_DeVir‌ could help you more.

Archaos

I know but the "Drow" tongue is basically Elven. Drow have no language of their own.
They basically speak Elven and Undercommon and mix them together when they feel like it.
But it might not be necessarily identical.

Imagine them as British English and American English. Basically the same but doesn't sound or is written the same always (color vs colour, armor vs armour etc).

And there Drow translators on the net. Like this one: http://www.eilistraee.com/chosen/language.php

Metalloman

For the little I know about drow seems to be a sort of strong dialect, but I think that in the ages the Drows splitted from the Elves to go in the Underdark, they developed their own way to pronounce words and created new ones too. I think that many Drow words could appear equal or similar to Elven ones while written, but strongly different while pronounced, like modern english and german, but it is only my supposition.

Viconia_DeVir

While it is true that there was once a common root to our languages, in the time of the ancient Ilythiiri before our curse and flight underground, rest assured that they are not merely one and the same. Centuries of life apart has meant the two tongues diverged wildly, though the insightful @Metalloman is quite correct in that while they are different, it is possible to glean a basic meaning from one to the other. For example of such difference, where I would name one of the hateful surface elves a 'darthiir', they might refer to themselves as 'Tel'Quessir' or 'The People'.

The elves refer to the language they speak as the 'True Tongue' - such arrogance rivals that of my own people, of course! Different varieties exist, depending on which particular group of elves one chooses to associate with. The ancient Seldruin language, for example, was commonly used in the incantations of Elven High Magic, or 'Arselu'Tel'Quess' - the Great Art of the People. Even 'Faerun' itself is a word of ancient elvish, meaning 'One Land'. Clearly what the darthiir lacked in imagination they made up for in presumption!

As for the Drow tongue, it is a far more elegant language than the clumsy, blundering common speech. Zhal'la jala kampi'un ol, nind ph'ulu tlu laoles! Any spending even a short time in my company will doubtlessly grow very familiar with the curses of my people; travel among the rivvil - humans - does tend to wear upon one's patience. Should any cause you undue aggravation, a fiercely-uttered 'Oloth plynn dos' - 'Darkness take you' - will leave them in little doubt about their eventual fate should they continue such vexing behaviour.

Archaos

@Viconia_DeVir

Usstan talinth nindel gaer xal tlu aster wun dosst d'roll, jalil.

Viconia_DeVir

In that, @Archaos‌, you speak much sense. Ves bekea; gaer xal tlu kestal whol dos quin!

TethorilofLathander

Oh god, drow flirting

Anduin

Slightly off topic... But we need to see more Gnomish...

OneAngryMushroom

I'm not even going to start on our spore language.

Kamigoroshi

Urgh, spores... I can't handle spores at all. To Baator with that damn hay fever! :<

Back on topic: Imagine a very drunk Frenchman who has a dozen of walnuts in his mouth. Then let him speak in rimes. The end result will sound like 120% authentic Elven!

meagloth

Kamigoroshi said:

Urgh, spores... I can't handle spores at all. To Baator with that damn hay fever! :<

Back on topic: Imagine a very drunk Frenchman who has a dozen of walnuts in his mouth. Then let him speak in rimes. The end result will sound like 120% authentic Elven!

So true. So painfully true.