Dwemeris, A Study (Elderscrolls Dwarvish)

Hello, my fellow Elder Scrolls enthusiasts! For my next installment in language study series, I give you Dwemeris! The language of the reclusive, subterranean Dwemer!

The only usable source (only comprehensible source) of written text is the Calcelmo’s Stone in Markarth (Appears in Skyrim). The tablet is marvelous find! This is the tablet in English alphabets…

(If you are just here for the phrases I have made, scroll to the very bottom of the page)

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Falmeri (Ayelidoon)

ye sa sou meldi calne tarn va molagnensaliye trumbi nou bala
ilpen av sou meldi nagaiale as guntumnia spantelepelaelia arani morae
ye sou liebali racurane ye nu rautane sye ye nu hautalle nou buroi
gune sou gravuloi sa metane sye garlis frey as gondra doemera tarcel
lane sou agea silya nu hecta sou arcten rias nu nemalanta ge nu hecta sou epe
gandra rias ne nemelauta ge nu frey sepe sye arcta varlor denai
cullei noue staneiaye ry sou alasil auta ry loria shenta abagaiavoy
malautavoy fey nou darre ye alata rou malae asma maraga sou anyamis
av sercen ye getheng sou wend riarilia vey emeratu sou oia besia

Dwemeris

Chun thuamer arkngd chend duathand, th ahvardn btham. Amz thuamer ahrkanch kemelmzulchond aka Mora, th thuangz ahrk, th duum melz thuabtharng, th kanthaln duabcharn mzin thuastur, btharumz thuamer zel. Abakch duumarkng tuathumz amakai, th abakch avatheled kagr tuamkingth mzan. Du chal fahl ngark, che du fahl bthun ur. Du chal fahl ngalft, che du bthun ur. Du abak chal thu abazun nchur duabthar, nchul duanchard. Th ur thuanchuth irknd, ur irkngth eftardn, thunch fahlz. Bthun abak dua mzual th nchuan duarkng, chun fahlbthar thuanchardch anum ralz, th eftar thuachendraldch kagren thuavanchningth.
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Here was my thought process… The tablet has two parts: One in Dwemeris and the second part in Ayelidoon (It’s technically Falmeri, but Falmeri and Ayelidoon are virtually identical. My speculation is that all of the surface-dwelling elves used Ayleidoon with little to no alteration while isolated Dwemer deviated from the traditional tongue by leaps and bounds.)

I thought ‘these two texts must detail the same thing in two different languages like the real life Rosetta Stone. If the texts were in sequence, meaning that one text has different content and leads to another, one race could never read the whole script.’ So, I juxtaposed each full sentences, ending with a period, of partly translated Ayleidoon and Dwemeris side by side. And Voila! My theory was true! Or it is very plausible at least… phrases italicized are Dwemeris and the ones that are not are Ayleidoon. The capitalized words are Ayleidoon words with unknown definition.


And your people driven CALNE pass into our Halls of Fire, and TRUMBI our power.
Chun thuamer arkngd chend duathand, th ahvardn btham.

ILPEN of yours driven NAGAIALE by GUNTUMNIA SPANTELEPELAELIA kings of the wood,
Amz thuamer ahrkanch kemelmzulchond aka Mora,

and your LIE-stones RACURANE, and you RAUTANE SYE, and you shall become our slaves,
th thuangz ahrk, th duum melz thuabtharng, th kanthaln duabcharn mzin thuastur,

GUNE your people's GRAVULOI.
btharumz thuamer zel.

METANE SYE GARLIS FREY, by GONDRA DOEMERA TARCELLANE your wisdom SILYA.
Abakch duumarkng tuathumz amakai, th abakch avatheled kagr tuamkingth mzan.

You HECTA your ARCTEN, RIAS you NEMALANTA GE. You HECTA your EPE
Gifts, RIAS you NEMELAUTA GE.
Du chal fahl ngark, che du fahl bthun ur. Du chal fahl ngalft, che du bthun ur.

You FREY SEPE SYE acknowledge lower-cast DENAI CULLEI our STANEIA.
Du abak chal thu abazun nchur duabthar, nchul duanchard.

And as your ALASIL AUTA, as darkness comes forbidding.
Th ur thuanchuth irknd, ur irkngth eftardn, thunch fahlz

High-AUTAVOY FEY our DARRE, and ALATA ROU high, by what MARAGA your life
of SERCEN,
Bthun abak dua mzual th nchuan duarkng, chun fahlbthar thuanchardch anum ralz,

and GETHENG your WEND RIARILIA VEY guiding your eternal BESIA.
th eftar thuachendraldch kagren thua vanchningth.


HOW I DID IT: I divided the sentence by periods and assumed Dwemeris and Alyeidoon have the same syntax. In other words, each words correspond to the words in similar position in the opposite language.

NOTE: from the looks of it, Dwemeris had extensive use of prefixes and suffixes in their vocabulary. So, one word may be two words (prefix + word or word + suffix, maybe even prefix+ word + suffix). Here is a sentence by sentence comparison of two texts. Another observation is that, like some words in Ayleidoon, many Dwemeris words have multiple variations of them. Grammatical rule that dictates which variation to use is at which time unknown to us at the moment.

These are each sentences and the possible words I was able to decipher from the comparison. (sentence 1 is translated Alyeidoon and sentence 2 is the Dwemeris)


1. And your people driven CALNE pass into our Halls of Fire, and TRUMBI our power.
2. Chun thuamer arkngd chend duathand, th ahvardn btham

And (so) = Chun

Thuamer = your people
(Thua can only mean ‘your’ (explained later) which leaves Mer as the word for people. Use of Mer to define ‘People’ is one of the more convincing proof that Dwemeris is an offshoot of original Aldmeris that so many other Elven language derived from)

Arkngd = driven CALNE
(I believe Ark or Ahrk means ‘driven’. The reasoning is explained in the next sentence)

Duathand = halls of fire

Duath = Fire

-and = Hall (since –and is a common suffix after place names (EX: Irknthand, Alftand…), I would assume it means hall)

Btham = our power (it is possible that our is omitted since prefixes for ‘our’ doesn’t appear in Dwemeris version)


1. ILPEN of yours driven NAGAIALE by GUNTUMNIA SPANTELEPELAELIA kings of the wood,
2. Amz thuamer ahrkanch kemelmzulchond aka Mora,

Ahrkanch = driven NAGAIALE

(Only similarity between “driven CALNE” and “driven NAGAIALE” was the similar prefix, Ahrk- and Ark-. This led me to believe those two prefixes both mean driven and are only variations of each other)

Aka Mora = King of the wood

(Arai Morae was the Ayelidoon phrase for “king of the wood”, so keeping in mind that Dwemer and Falmer both derived from Aldmeris, it is somewhat safe to assume that Aka Mora is the Dwemeris for “king of the wood”. I don’t know why M in ‘Mora’ was capitalized, more study required)

Aka = King

Mora = Wood(s)


1. and your LIE-stones RACURANE, and you RAUTANE SYE, and you shall become our slaves,
2. th thuangz ahrk, th duum melz thuabtharng, th kanthaln duabcharn mzin thuastur,
---> From the information gathered from other sentences, I would guess the word ‘you’ is omitted in the last Dwemeris phrase. That leaves…

Kanthaln = shall

Duabcharn = become

Mzin = our (so the city of Mzinchaleft would mean “{something} of ours”)

Thuastur = slaves


1.      GUNE your people's GRAVULOI.
2.      btharumz thuamer zel. (Not much to be gained from this sentences…)

Thuamer = your people


1. METANE SYE GARLIS FREY, by GONDRA DOEMERA TARCELLANE your wisdom SILYA.
2. Abakch duumarkng tuathumz amakai, th abakch avatheled kagr tuamkingth mzan.

Th = and (Used extensively in this definition later), By

Tuamkingth = your wisdom

Mkingth = Wisdom



1. You HECTA your ARCTEN, RIAS you NEMALANTA GE. You HECTA your EPE-Gifts, RIAS you NEMELAUTA GE.
2. Du chal fahl ngark, che du fahl bthun ur. Du chal fahl ngalft, che du bthun ur

Du = you

(Duum is also used for ‘you’ once in the text but judging from the similarity between two words, I would guess Duum is a variation of Du (perhaps more formal way to address a person. PS: This theory is most plausible since Ayelidoon for “You” is “Nu” but also uses “Ni” in some sentences.)

Fahl/ thua-/ Tua- = Your (?).

All three of these words mean ‘your’ in some way. I figured prefixes Thua- and Tua- are variations of a same term and the word that comes after them determines which form to use. Fahl is also used as ‘your’ but is not a prefix to other words. Maybe that is the only difference between fahl and the two prefixes and has no difference in definition. It is difficult to tell without more data.

Ngalft = EPE-Gifts

(Since there is a location called Alftand, and suffix –and means ‘hall’ , it is safe to say Alft means gifts, which leaves Alftand meaning Hall of Gifts; makes sense since it contained the Elder Scroll. To the knowledge loving dwemer, insight from the Elder Scroll would have been a great boon indeed)


1. You FREY SEPE SYE acknowledge lower-cast DENAI CULLEI our STANEIA.
2. Du abak chal thu abazun nchur duabthar, nchul duanchard.
(This sentence was difficult to analyze since the Dwemeris had a coma when Ayelidoon did not. Bear with me as I try to figure this out.)

Abazun = Acknowledge.

Nchur = Lower-cast (I have no idea what this means)


1. And as your ALASIL AUTA, as darkness comes forbidding.
2. Th ur thuanchuth irknd, ur irkngth eftardn, thunch fahlz.
(AGAIN Dwemeris text had a coma when Ayelidoon text did not.)

As = ur

Irknth = darkness (So, Irknthand may mean Hall of Darkness)

Eftardn = comes

Thunch fahlz = forbidding (?)


1. High-AUTAVOY FEY our DARRE, and ALATA ROU high, by what MARAGA your life of SERCEN,  
2. Bthun abak dua mzual th nchuan duarkng, chun fahlbthar thuanchardch anum ralz,
(Dwemeris is MISSING a coma now, but thanks to word ‘th’, Dwemeris for ‘and’, I was able to see where the coma would have been)

Thuanchardch = your life

Nchardch = life

Anum = of (Slightly similar to Ayleidoon word ‘Av’ of the same meaning)

Mzual = Our (?) (This word is similar to Mzin- and has the same definition but is not used as prefix. Maybe that is all the difference)

Duarkng = high

Chun falbthar = by what (?) (I am unsure what this phrase exactly mean, but if falbthar means “what”, there is a location called Falbtharz in Solstheim. So, Falbtharz may have meant “what(s)” or more contextual speaking “Unknowns”. This sort of make sense (?))


1. and GETHENG your WEND RIARILIA VEY guiding your eternal BESIA.
2. th eftar thuachendraldch kagren thua vanchningth.

Kagren = guiding (funny since Kagrenac was the name of the spiritual leader of the Dwemer people, quite literally guiding them to divinity)

Vanchningth = eternal BESIA (I cannot accurate tell where to divide the word, but I guess ‘vanch’ could mean eternal, while ‘ningth’ means BESIA, unknown Ayleidoon word)
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SUMMARY OF VOCABULARY I WAS ABLE TO DECIPHER (May or may not be canon)

Chun = And (so)

Thuamer = your people

Ark- or Ahrk- = driven

Duathand = halls of fire

Duath = Fire

-and = Hall

Btham = (our) power (it is possible that our is omitted since any of the prefixes for ‘our’ doesn’t appear in Dwemeris version)

Aka Mora = King of the wood

Aka = King

Mora = Wood(s)

Kanthaln = shall

Duabcharn = become

Mzin- = our

Thuastur = slaves

Th = and (Used extensively in this definition), By

Mkingth = Wisdom

Du = you

Fahl/ thua-/ Tua- = Your  

Alft = gift

Abazun = Acknowledge.

Nchur = Lower-cast (I have no idea what lower-cast means, maybe lower-'caste'?)

As = ur

Irknth = darkness

Eftardn = comes

Thunch fahlz = forbidding (?)

Nchardch = life

Anum = of

Mzual = Our (?) (This word is similar to Mzin- and has the same definition but is not used as prefix. Maybe that is all the difference)

Duarkng = high

Kagren = guiding/ guide

Vanch = eternal

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Officially known phrases

Fal Zhardum Din = Blackest Kingdom Reaches (Official Dwemeris name for Blackreach)
Fal = Blackest
Zhardum = Kingdom
Din = Reach/ reaches
Volenfell = City of Hammer
Volen = Hammer
Fell = city
Drung = might (as in Volendrung, the Hammer of Might)
Nchardak = City of Hundred Towers (I personally believe ‘City’ is omitted, judging from the lack of the word ‘Fell’. Instead, it only means ‘Hundred Towers’)
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Phrases I have made (may or may not be canon)

Thunch fahlz Nchardch = literally ‘Forbid life’ meaning ‘Leave no one alive’

Duath! = Fire!

Du kanthaln duabcharn aka = You shall become king.

Abazun btham! = Acknowledge my power!

Vanchkagren = eternal guide

Mkingthand = Hall of Wisdom