The language of the Ayleids, like other Elven languages, shares a common ancestry with the Aldmeris language. Because of this, Ayleidoon shares many words with the other languages of Mer, such as "Bal", which means "stone" in both Dark Elvish and Ayleidoon. These qualities are only present between the languages of Mer.
In the aftermath of the Alessian Slave Rebellion, as the Ayleids migrated and split up, distinct regional dialects began to form. The language of Men (modern Cyrodilic or Tamrielic) appears to have been partially based on the dialect of Ayleidoon found in Cyrodiil, resulting in that variant being referred to as "Old Cyrodilic". Another variation that arose was unique to the Ayleids who lived in Valenwood, possibly influenced by the cultural exchange between the Ayleids and the local Bosmer.[2][3]
Possessive Case: When referring to something's ownership of an object, an "e" is added to the end of the noun. This applies no matter where the noun is placed in relation to the object in question. For example, "Umarile Abasel" would translate to "Umaril's Forbidden Hall." "[The] Forbidden Hall of Umaril", however, would translate to "Abasel av Umarile". Notice that the added "e" is often used after the preposition "av" when denoting possession, although this is seemingly not always the case.
Plurals: When referring to more than one object, an "i" is added to the end of the word. For example, "Sel" ("hall") becomes "Seli" ("halls"). The ending "is" is added to words that end in vowels such as "varla" which means star becoming "Varlais" meaning stars. This can also be seen in "brelye" meaning beech tree and its plural "brelyeis" meaning beech trees. Using this logic "mora" meaning a wood should become "morais" meaning woods.
Compound Words: The Ayleid language is largely composed of compound words. These words are typically a combination of adjective + noun or noun + noun. In the latter case of two nouns (Noun1Noun2), it is normally safe to assume that the word means "Noun2 of Noun1", as in the word "Ceysel" ("shadow"+"hall"), which translates to "Hall of Shadow." When a compound word becomes plural, the normal rules apply. Note that "i" at the end of a word in a compound only denotes plurality of the word it is placed after. For example, the word "Laloriaran" is made up of the words "La" ("time"), "Lor"("dark") and "Aran"("King"). The "i" at the end of "Lori" presumably denotes plural. This means that "Lalori" becomes "dark times" instead of "dark time", which would be "Lalor". "Laloriaran" therefore means "King in dark times".
Imperatives: In the Ayleid language, imperative verbs generally have "-voy" as a suffix. Sometimes, the imperative is identical to the infinitive.
Definite Article The Ayleid language does not normally use a definite article. Therefore, "aran" might mean "a king" or "the king". However, when a definite noun is part of an adverbial phrase, particularly after an imperative verb, the article "an" can be added before the noun (e.g. "Epevoy an anyadena pado an sunnand", "Speak the life-treaty before the blessed-stone")*.
* "An" should be read as "the" when translated, but the two words might not be entirely synonymous.
Below is a list of known Ayleid words that were, for the most part, extracted from the names of ruins found in Cyrodiil. Definitions are provided when known. Because of the large number of compound words in the Ayleid language, many words in the list will have similar parts.
God[27], Spirit (in the sense of a divine being, not any mortal's ghost)[28]
Adabal
Diamond (lit. god-stone)
Adabala
Divine Power (lit. god-power)
Adabal-a
probably a word-play on the similarity between "Bal" (Stone) and "Bala" (Power) overlapping with "Adabal" (Diamond, in that case the Red Diamond given to Alessia by Akatosh) and "Adabala" (Divine Power, in that case the political and supernatural power conferred to Alessia by the gods)
[to] Accept[37] (grammar would dictate that "Arctane" is the past tense conjugation of "Arcta", [to] acknowledge, so the given translation might actually be an approximation made by Vastarie, especially since "Arcta" can already mean [to] partake, [to] face or [to] accept depending on context according to other Elvish languages)
Not [our] Ancestors (when referring to spirits of Oblivion, lit. "D-Ae-Dra", not to be ancestor, Ayleidoon seems to prefer the synonym "Mora" to refer to daedric spirits)[29]
Your mortal gods (the usage of the suffix "-ya" is unknown at this time, but points to a 2nd person singular possessive)[23]
Ehlno
Mortal
El
"Star-Made"[50], Starry. A title used to show holy/important significance, and/or god-like status (used in a name, like a compound word, except that the "El" is separated by a hyphen. The El can be used as a prefix, or a suffix, and it is usually hyphenated).
Your (second person plural possessive pronoun, for the singular, see "-ya")[26]
Span[ia]
perhaps "Snow" or "Snowy" (from Falmer "Spantelepe-laelia", roughly understood asSnow-Throated but which can be divided as "Span-Tel-Epe", Snow-Tower-Speak, and "Lael+ia", Throat+adjectival suffix)[UOL 2]
perhaps "Stones" (possibly a non-possessive plural form of a root-word like "Stan", compare with the possessive plural form "Staneia" meaning of [the] Stones in Falmer)[UOL 2]
From the context of an old ghost from a time of war asking what we're doing here after we were told us to leave, could mean Persisted? ["Why are you staying?"] (from "Tarcel", [to] endure and "Tarcellane", did endure in Falmer[45][UOL 2] and "Tarcel", [to] resist in Ald Chimeris[UOL 3], lit. "Tarcel-Lane-N", Resist-Past-Me, I endured? or [You] resisted me?)
possibly "Silver"[UOL 4], or "Tower" as in Dark Elvish, perhaps even both in reference to the metaphysical Tower of the Ayleids being silvery in color (hence its name, White-Gold Tower)
Telepe
probably "Silver Voice" (lit. Silver-Speak), possibly also "Prolix Tower" (lit. Speaking Tower, like in Falmer "Spantelepe", the metaphysical Snow Tower of Skyrim)
Barra agea ry sou karan. — "Wear lore as your armor."
Agea haelia ne jorane emero laloria. — "Wisdom learned by pain is a reliable guide in dark times." [literally, "Terrible wisdom never betrayed the loremasters."]
Va garlas agea, gravia ye goria, lattia mallari av malatu. — "In the caverns of lore, ugly and obscure, shines the gold of truth."
Vabria frensca, sa belle, sa baune, amaraldane aldmeris adonai. — "The foaming wave, so thunderous, so mighty, heralds the lordly Elves."
Nou aldmeris mathmeldi admia aurane gandra sepredia av relleis ye brelyeis ye varlais. — "Our exiled Elven ancestors heard the welcoming gifts of peace in the streams and beech trees and stars." ["Mathmeldi" means literally "from-home-driven."]
Hyrma MORA pado ADA oia NAGAIA aba AGEA cava APOCRA dena GORIA gandra ARCAN — "Herma MORA before (THE) GOD(S) eternal DEATH forbidden KNOWLEDGE [cava] [APOCRA] treaty OBSCURED gift MAGIC"
Which can be understood as a great shortening of this much longer incantation:
"Hermaeus Mora, elder than Ada, Abyssal Cephaliarch, hearken to the plea of this unworthy, for I come to barter for knowledge denied. That which I seek is named on this parchment, which I consume in your honor, O Demon of Knowledge. For my desire to know is beyond reckoning, and in recompense, whatever price is named shall be met."
"Tel Var" is supposedly an adaptation of the Ayleidoon word for "Silver Star",[UOL 4] which would imply that the original Ayleidoon word was similar, albeit slightly different (probably "Tel Varla").
Ayleidoon sounds similar to the languages of Faerie and Nymph, but the connection shares no vocabulary.[64]
Uncivilized "wild elves" were originally intended to be encountered as enemies in Daggerfall, who could be non-hostile to players fluent in Elvish, before they were cut from the game.[1]
Ayleidoon is used as a direct predecessor and translator for Falmer. Calcelmo's Stone in Skyrim has many words from Falmer that are used to help translate Dwemer as well, meaning that translations for all of these rely on the Ayleidoon language.
Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.