Everytime I see your title I read it as "svetly I temmy"
...pff knowing you im. not surprised. ya nerd.
The Native Language of Zemnoy Shar (Shar is the name of the planet, and an alternate form of Earth with a different history) is a broken amalgam mixture of mostly English with Russian moniker. Thus the strange names. The Old Language is a stronger Russian amalgam, but doesnt quite line up to that of what our world’s russian is anymore.
svetlyy i temnyy, or Светлый и темный, is a poor way to say Light and Dark, but rather than light or dark, the ‘light’ refers to light in color rather than actual light, as does the Dark refer to color shade rather than darkness.
in the Old Language of Shar, though, Светлый и темный would translate roughly as Light my Soul, where ‘light’ written in this way can also mean ‘burn’ changing the the sentence to ‘burn my soul’.
in the modern language of Shar, the fraze svetlyy i temnyy (suh-VET-ley ah tEM-en-ly) would sound Russin like a horribly butchered “Light and Dark” but to them is a phrase spoken between either two enemies to mean “a god shall burn you” or between a close relationship like a married couple or a parent and child and can mean “may a god lighten you”. Its very rude to say to an aquaintance as, because if its contrasting double meaning, the relationship must be firmly positive or negative to be used.
