Darth Krayt writing in Decreton.
Decreton was the language of the ancient Sith Order of Decreto.
With its origins deeply infused with the Sith language of old, Decreton Sith merged the complicated sentences of the Sith with simple phrases of Galactic Standard to form a sturdy, elaborate language. Although Decreton Sith used many of the the symbols of aurabesh for its writing, it also added several of its own.
Grammar notes[]
Decreton sentence structure was very similar to Galactic Basic: that is, subject-verb-object, although there were a few points of difference. Decreton was a purely spoken language, and only the necessity of written words during the later years lead to the development of a written form.
Most words in their plural form looked the exactly the same, although there were exceptions. It was often the case when spoken that one would simply refer to a plural in its singular form, and allow the context of the sentence to specify whether it be plural or singular.
The Decreton language did not include nominative plurals such as he, she, they or their. Instead, these were replaced by personalizing the name. For example, the line "They are conquering Coruscant"; would be translated as "Decreto decret Coruscanta" (literally translated as "(The) Conquerors conquer Coruscant"). This was carried on in some form when referring to place names, although it was often the practice of adding an "i" to clarify it as a location. For example the planet Bespin would be spoken/written Bespini. In the case of places ending in "t" an "a" was instead added; so Coruscant would be spoken Coruscanta.
As such, full sentences could become somewhat complex unless one had a native knowledge of the language; although it was widely considered much simpler in its written form.
Word merging in Decreton[]
It was not uncommon in the names of Sith individuals; and some other cases, for words in Decreton to be merged out of two or more other words to complete the sentence. When translated literally, these merged words sounded awkward, however when translated properly worked fine. For example, the name Ater Phasas'a spoken in true Decreton would be spoken as Ater'phasas'a, although it would still be recognized as two separate names; and would later still be spelled in two separate forms.
When, in later years, the Sith would add the title of "Darth" to their names, the citizens of the Empire would simply treat said as an extension of the name; so when addressed individuals such as Darth Abeonis would be called Dar'Abeo'nissa.
Known words[]
- Ater – dark
- Atra – discolored, black
- Manua – (fitted to the) hand
- Phasmas'a – ghost, spirit
- Decret – conquest
- Decreto – conqueror(s)
- Darth – Overlord
- Ordeer – shield, defense
Behind the scenes[]
In most cases, Decreton is a direct translation of the real-world Latin language.
