"Casta for Beginners" is a fan published language book with exercises and vocabulary. The Xeroxed book was originally published in September, 1981 by John Shimwell (or Ionnu Ridenow as he was known in the Darkover fandom in 1970's and 1980's) in London, United Kingdom.[1]
Description[]
The book is
a 200-page Xerox'd book, spiral bound in suitable Bloody Sun red covers. It is a basic do-it-yourself casta course designed to be understood by even the dimmest of Terran Empire employees. (You the reader, therefore, have a considerable advantage!) The course begins with simple concepts and takes the student all the way through to complex tenses, intimate and derogatory mode, and a brief look at Hellers dialect. Each section is well illustrated with worked examples, and ends with a reading passage and a self-test set of questions, whose answers are given at the end of the book. There is a summary of the most essential points of the grammar, and a thousand-word vocabulary in both casta and Terran word-order.
The whole title of the book is "Casta par volmi y jagadei Terrani - Casta for Beginners and Especially Terrans", Casta being the name of the imaginary Darkovan language used by the Comyn, or the nobility, of the Seven Domains in Darkover.
The work was later expanded and around late 1986, possibly even earlier, Shimwell published The Darkovan Dictionary. In 1990, it was sold as part of a three volume set: "Darkovan Dictionary Part One" ("Terran to Casta"), "Darkovan Dictionary Part Two" ("Livara Das: Cast'al Terranan") and "Casta for Beginners."
THE DARKOVAN DICTIONARY: Volume 1, a companion volume to "CASTA FOR BEGINNERS," appeared almost three years after I first sat down with a blank loose-leaf book and a liberal supply of confidence, Ridenow laran, optimism, and-dare I say it-ignorance! What I begin I try to finish, and six months after its completion, Volume 2, the Cast'al Terranan, was also ready.
Volume 1 contains some 12,000 entries from pronouns to proverbs, and turned out to be a remarkably consistent, flexible, and beautiful language. Even though this is "unofficial" casta, it is at least a more-or-less -complete version, and amply justifies MZB's original premise that Spanish and Scots Gaelic would, in the unique environment of Darkover, merge to become an alien language in its own right. At any rate, this magnum opus has her blessing. Even though she continues to derive any necessary vocabulary intuitively, all her words are included (up to Thendara House), with book references. In fact, many of her choices were instrumental in shaping the final form of the language as I now perceive it.
Volume 2 contains basically the same entries in casta word-order (although not in casta script!). My original idea that each word of casta had only one meaning turned out to be false, but because the various renderings of a single word can often be accommodated on one line, this volume is much more concise (or should I say, compact?) than its predecessor. To make both books the same length, I added three valuable appendices of interest to Darkovans everywhere, whether working for the Empire or in exile on Terra: the Oath of the Free Amazons, Darkovan proverbs, and even the Ballad of Hastur and Cassilda (yes, it still rhymes in casta!).
Contents[]
Section Page
Front Cover
Dedication and Note Inner Front Cover
Endis/Table of Contents i
Elenco Bravathani/List of Abbreviatons iv
Casta par volmi/Casta for Beginners 1
1. Introduction 1
2. Spelling 2
3. Pronunciation and Elision 2
4. Verbs and Pronouns 4
5. Interrogative of verbs 7
6. Negative of verbs 7
7. Negative question 7
8. Gender 7
9. Definite and Indefinite Articles 8
9.(A) TENEIR and AVEIR, the verbs "to have" 10
9.(B) Regular -EIR verb; COSEIR 13
9.(C) "Euphonic" pronouns 14
Exercises (10) 15
11. Plurals 16
12. Numbers 1 - 20 17
Vocabulary (13) 18
Exercises (13) 20
14. Possessive Pronouns 21
15. Compound tenses with AVEIR - The Perfect Tense 23
Vocabulary (15) 24
15.(B) Object Pronouns 26
Exercises (16) 27
17. Adjectives 28
18. ZEIR and STAR, the verbs "to be" 30
19.(A) Compund tenses with ZEIR and STAR 34
Vocabulary (19) 35
Exercises (19) 36
20. Demonstrative Pronouns 37
21. The Imperative of verbs 40
22. Object Pronouns 41
22.(A) Possessive Pronouns 41
22.(B) Dative (Indirect Object) Pronouns 42
22.(C) The DIMI pronouns 43
22.(D) The LEISAMI pronouns 43
Vocabulary (23) 43
Exercises (23) 44
24. Interrogatives (Question-words) 45
24.(A) CHI? 46
24.(B) CUAL? 47
24.(C) KEYAN? 47
24.(D) PAR'KEI? 48
24.(E) CUAN? (Who?) 48
24.(F) CHI VEDO? 48
24.(G) CUAN? (When?) 48
24.(H) VAREI? and KATEI? (where?) 49
Summary of Interrogative Words 49
25. Relative Pronouns 50
Vocabulary (26) 52
Exercises (26) 53
27. Some Irregular Verbs 54
28. Comparatives and Superlatives of Adjectives and Adverbs 55
28.(A) Examples of the Comparative 57
28.(B) Examples of the Superlatice 58
29. The Imperfect Tense 60
Vocabulary (30) 62
Exercises (30) - MASHERA TUREZI DARKOVAN 63
31. The Past Definite Tense 65
Vocabulary (32) 68
Exercises (32) - KEEPERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN. 69
33. Reflexive Verbs 71
33.(B)-(F) on reflexive verbs 72
Vocabulary (34) 74
Exercises (34) - CADET'S LIF IS TERRIBLE HARD! 75
35. Defective Verbs 76
35.(A) VALEIR 76
35.(B) DEVEIR 77
35.(C) KEITENEIR 78
36. Infinitive Prepositions 79
Vocabulary (37) 81
Exercises (37) - WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY 82
Vocabulary (37 B) 82
Exercises (37 B) 83
38. Pluperfect Tense 83
39. Conditional Tense 84
40. Subjunctive Tense 85
41. Passive Voice 86
42. Adverbs 86
43. Verbs and Adverbs, Adjectives and Nouns 89
Vocabulary (44 A) 90
Exercise (44 A) - KERUIN CANDRA TANIQUEL(di "Grianaval") 91
Vocabulary (44 B) 92
Exercise (44 B) - AL TENEIR HIURAN, par Domna Felizia 94
45. Personal and Intimate Mode 95
46. Derogatory Mode 97
47. Hellers Verbs 99
48 Final Notes 102
48.(A) Special Words 103
48.(B) Special Words, continued 104
48.(C) The Five Words for "CLOAK" 105
48.(D) The Nive Words for "SWORD" 105
49. The Meaning of Darkovan Names 106
50. Numbers, 30 - 1000 and Ordinals 108
51.(A) Darkovan Script - Numerals 109
51.(B) The Darkovan Alphabet 110
51.(C) The Letters of the Alphabet 112
51.(D) Sentences in Darkovan Script 113
Vocabulary (52) 114
Exercise (52) - KERUIN AL TOR'ARILINN 116
53. Answers to Exercises 118
54. Summary of Grammar 157
55. Vocabulary; Terran - Casta 161
56. Vocabulary; Cast'al Terranban 179
Errata/List of Errors 195
END 198