Spiik Piique-A Guide to the Language of Neverland

Piique is the language spoken by the natives of Neverland, the Piccaninny (Piquaninnii) tribe. The language is not mentioned in Barrie’s original works, however he has made it clear that the Piccaninnies speak a language other than English, and being that they are isolated on an island, their language is unlikely to sound like any other. Piique is used a lot in my series The Crown, and after reading these parts, one will see that it’s not just a random jumble of letters, but there are actual words and phrases being used. I don’t like to provide translations directly in my text, as I feel it takes away from the story. I do, however, provide translations at the end for those who wish to see them. Having an idea of how Piique works can put someone ahead of the story, as sometimes the Piccaninnies offer guidance or details that the Pirates or even the Lost Boys haven’t yet discovered.

The language was created using a combination of German, Old and Middle English and Cherokee and takes some of its grammar rules from German and Latin, while at the same time there are some rules that are completely unique to the language itself.

Alphabet:
The names for characters in the Piique alphabet stem directly from their sounds. Because Piique was not meant to be written in the Roman alphabet, some letters need to be combined to create the proper sound used.

B - beh
Y - yeh
L - el
S - seh
N - nah
H - ha
D - dah
T - tah
CH - kee
QU - kay
M - ma
G - geh
W - weh
V - vee
P - peh
R - ru
A - ah
O - oh
U - oo
E - eh
É - ay
I - ih
II - ee’in

*The letter ‘F’ is not found in Piique. Because of this, Piccaninnies trying to pronounce an F when speaking English often pronounce it like a V.



Basic Sounds:
Piique was not intended to be written with the Roman alphabet and so it needs to be adapted in some ways to accommodate some of the language’s unique sounds. However, this also means that most words are pronounced exactly how they’re spelt, given that one is already familiar with the rules. Though these aren’t all the sounds in the language, they’re the ‘special’ sounds that vary from an English pronunciation.

A,a :: the letter ‘A’ is pronounced with a more ‘Romantic’ sound, used in languages such as Spanish and French. It is always an open ‘ah’ sound.

E,e :: the letter ‘E’ is pronounced as a short ‘eh’.

É, é :: É is pronounced as ‘ay’ (as in ‘say’) and is a slightly longer sound than E.  Example: the word ‘onne’ which means to ‘wear’ is pronounced like ‘ohnnah’ while ‘limé’, the word for ‘love’ is pronounced like ‘leemay’ with the stress on the second syllable.
Depending on regions it can be a subtle difference that can only be caught by a native speaker, or could be more distinct. If an ‘E’ comes after an ‘A’, the ‘A’ is cancelled out and the ‘E’ is pronounced like an ‘É’.  Example: awae (bird) is pronounced like        ‘ah-way’

I,i :: The letter ‘I’ is pronounced as a quick ‘ih’ such as in ‘pick’, unless appearing at the end of a word, then it is pronounced like ‘ee’.

II, ii :: The letter II is considered a different letter than I and is one of the more versatile letters in Piique. It is pronounced like ‘ee’ (as in the word ‘see’) and is used when the ‘ee’ sound is needed in the beginning or middle of a word. Examples would be ‘iinne’ (meaning to ‘know’).
There are some cases of II being used at the end of a word, but this only happens if there is an ‘H’ before. Examples of this would be the words ‘neyhii’, meaning ‘fairy’ and ‘gahii’, meaning ‘family’. II is also used in ‘yii’ and ‘nii’ (Yes and No). When using II at the beginning of a sentence both i’s are capitalized.  To say the name of letter is “ee’in”; spelt IIen and literally means “two i’s”.

O,o :: ‘O’ is pronounced with an open ‘oh’ sound that is felt more in the back of the throat, similar to the Spanish word ‘Hola’.

U,u :: ‘U’ is pronounced with an ‘oo’ sound.

CH, ch :: ‘CH’ is considered a single letter and is a similar aspirated sound like the German ‘ch’ found in words like ‘Ich’ and ‘Mich’. The letter name is pronounced like the word, ‘key’

QU, qu :: QU is considered a single letter and is similar to ‘ch’, but is slightly softer. It’s another sound in Piique that is usually only picked out by a native speaker and not caught by an outsider. The actual letter name is pronounced like the word, ‘kay’

K, k :: ‘K’ is a harder stop than ‘CH’ and ‘QU’ is pronounced like the English ‘K’ like in the word ‘pick’.

T’H, t’h :: The ‘TH’ sound found in English is not found in Piique and Piccaninnies trying to speak English either use their pronunciation for TH or pronounce it like an ‘S’. T’H is best described as a ‘rolled D’ and is unique to Piique. The Piique word for a lesser chief is ‘throne’; though it looks like an English word, it is actually pronounced more like ‘D’rroh-neh’ with a soft roll on the ‘R’.


Looking at just how a word is spelt or pronounced can give an indication to its meaning. Words that use ‘higher pitch’ vowels such as e, i, or ii, tend to be positive while words that use ‘lower pitch’ vowels as o, oh, or u, tend to be negative. Though this isn’t always the case. Looking at the words for ‘Good’ and ‘Bad;
The word for ‘good’ is ‘os’, and is pronounced with a higher, happier pitch.
The word for ‘bad’ is ‘sig’, and is pronounced with a more ‘harsh’ tone, almost like a hiss.


Colours:
The Piccaninnies, being a very naturally-tuned society, tend to pair colour names with the objects most associated with them. They only recognize the ‘base’ colours and don’t differentiate between light and dark. An English speaker may call something ‘dark green’, but to a Piccaninny, they would just say ‘green’.

Red - Asa    (Aso - blood)
Orange - Onuhii  (literally night orange, referring to the setting sun)
Yellow - Ehii        (sun)
Blue - Ma            (water)
Green - Elah     (Elahii means earth)
Black - Onu    (night)
White - Ashé     (air)



Greetings and Others:
Most languages have some sort of word for initial greeting such as, Hello, Hola, Bonjour, etc. A Piccaninny’s initial greeting is simply a smile. If a Piccaninny is interested and wants to acknowledge you, they’ll simply smile. If they do not smile at you, there’s a chance they just didn’t see you. This can be misleading to those who don’t understand this; just because a Piccaninny smiles at you doesn’t mean they’re happy, or even willing to be friendly with you. They’re only acknowledging that you’re there.
However, for someone wanting to give their well wishes, either as a greeting or a parting, they would say ‘Osdana tudu’ which translates to ‘good spirits to you’ or ‘Innen osdana tudu’ meaning ‘let good spirits find you’.

Conjugations:
There are some conjugations in Piique that are often likened with the Romance languages. In English one would say “I run”, “You run”, “He runs”.  In Piique the verb would not change according to person, however the pronoun is added to the end of the word as a suffix, similar to Latin.  

“I run”, “you run”, “he runs”
“spriqueII”, “spriquedu”, “spriqueiir”

The only one that can stand on its own is II, so “SpriqueII” and “II sprique” are both correct.

Some languages often group inanimate objects as masculine, feminine or (sometimes) neuter based off the objects traits. ex: the German word for ‘necktie’ is ‘Krawate’ though it’s typically a men’s article of clothing, it is considered a feminine word and would be paired with the feminine ‘die’.

Piique only uses gender distinction in living creatures. While a rock may be referred to as an ‘it’ (‘id’), a tree or fruit would be referred to as a ‘she’ (‘iis’) as trees and fruit are creatures that bare life. Any life bearing creature is considered feminine. A creature that does not bare life, ie; a male, is referred to as ‘iir’.

Piique does not distinguish between the words ‘he’, ‘his’, him’ or ‘she’ ‘her’, ‘hers’, like English does, it is simply ‘iir’, ‘iis’, and ‘id’ (he, she, and it)
‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘my’ are distinguished as ‘II’ and ‘mii’



You and Me:
I - II
you - du  (depending on region, this can sometimes sound like ‘tu’)
he - iir  (depending on region the ‘R’ can be lightly rolled)
she - iis
it - id
we - viir
you, pl - you is always an ‘other’ - du  (the word ‘du’ is understood as  a ‘direct other’, so there is no need to differentiate between singular and plural)
they - duen  Pronounced du-in. It is an ‘indirect other’.

More than One?
Plurals in Piique work similar to plurals in English and German.  The only thing that is affected is the actual word itself, typically a noun. To make something plural there would be an ‘-en’ suffix added. If the word ends with a vowel (A, O, U, E, É, I and II), then the suffix would be ‘-nen’.
Neyhii (fairy) would become Neyhiinen
Mann  (man/person) would become Mannen

Word Order:
Piique is a very basic language that doesn’t follow a strict word order. This can make it difficult for someone new to the language to figure out what’s going on, since the same sentence can be said in a number of different ways. The listener must go by context clues and word variations to figure out what’s being said. Word order does not change depending on if the sentence is a statement or a question. Questions are posed in the same way they are in English with a change in tone. In English there is an upward inflection towards the end of the sentence, however in Piique there is a downward inflection.

Tenses:
Piccaninnies do not measure time, and so they don’t have specialized rules in their language to dictate past, present or future. They are simply stated as is. However, in a case where someone is saying something will happen, the word ‘vol’ will be added.
‘He runs’ - ‘spriqueiir’
‘He will run’ - ‘spirqueiir vol’

Numbers:
The numbers work in a very similar way to the Mayan number system in that they work on a scale from 0 to 9, instead of 1 to 10.

0- nii  (same as no)
1- iin
2- ta
3- tii
4- quiir   (pronounced like ‘keyer’)
5- quhii  (pronounced like kooee)
6- sii
7- siiv
8- och
9- neh
10- iinii
11- iiniiiin   (yes, that’s four i’s in a row. IIn-nii-iin)
12- iiniita
From 11 to 19, the prefix ‘iinii’ is added before all the numbers. If literally translated, the number 13, iiniitii, would mean ‘ten three’
20- tanii
30- tiinii
40- quiirnii
and so on. On the rare occasion that the number 100 is needed, it would be iiniiiinii, (ten tens).

This is by far, NOT all the rules of Piique and is meant to just be a simple guide.  Hopefully it is found to be helpful and I thank you for being interested in this, and in my series, The Crown.

Miirque et Osdehii tudu.
Thank you and good day