I think the Gerudo language is a very interesting part of The Legend of Zeldathe construction of the world in Breath of Nature and Tears of the Kingdomand I just wish the franchise made more use of it. The spoken form of the fictional language notably contributed to the incredible depth that the open world BOTH gave the Kingdom of Hyrule. Since its debut, TOTK also drew on this language, although not as much as I would have preferred.
The Gerudo may be one of the many breeds found in The Legend of Zeldabut they are undeniably also one of the most significant. In addition to its prominent role BOTH and TOTKas well as more recently in Echoes of Wisdom, ZeldaGanondorf's iconic villain is himself a Gerudo; the only known male Gerudo, in fact. For the most part, Gerudo are defined by being exclusively female, as well as their prominent physical prowess; as such, much of their cultural identity in the games is analogous to the Amazons of Greek mythology.
The Gerudo's spoken language is fascinating
Fictional languages are incredible pieces of world-building
To me, one of the most interesting aspects of worldbuilding that a fictional world can contain is a conlang, a constructed language. The Gerudo language is a simple but no less intriguing example of this concept, presented in BOTH and TOTK as an integral part of Gerudo culture; many NPCs consistently use Gerudo greetings, as well as some other nouns. Although the full list of Gerudo words is very short, the prevalence of the language among the Gerudo still gives the illusion that a much more extensive dictionary exists.
It's really cool to be able to learn some words from a completely fictional language through a normal game. The experience makes Gerudo culture feel real and distinct from the rest of Hyrule.as indicated by their native language not being shared by the rest of the Kingdom. Of course, this makes perfect sense, given that the desert-dwelling race was once in conflict with Hyrule while under Ganondorf's leadership; originally existing outside of Hyrule's borders would undoubtedly contribute to the Gerudo having a more distinct culture and language.
It is important to note that the written form of the Gerudo language has existed longer than the spoken one and follows completely different patterns. In fact, similar to other alphabets in The Legend of Zelda, the Gerudo alphabet can be mapped to the Latin alphabet, effectively making it a substitution cipher with direct English translations. Of course, this complicates things from a linguistic point of view, as it implies that English words are part of the Gerudo language; This would obviously make little logical sense, considering how different the spoken versions of the two languages are.
The Legend Of Zelda Should Expand The Gerudo Language
The Gerudo Dictionary is disappointingly short at the moment
The only negative aspect I can find in how BOTH and TOTK implementing the Gerudo language is the extent of its use. TOTK introduced abbreviated slang versions of many Gerudo words, but failed to take advantage of the opportunity to build the dictionary much beyond that. However, I would love to have the opportunity to learn more Gerudo words in the future. Learning more about a fictional language is an intriguing concept in itself, but expanding the dictionary would also expand the cultureespecially if the series started introducing Gerudo idioms and similar concepts.
Of course, I understand why the series hasn't provided a truly extensive dictionary until now. Despite how prominent the Gerudo language is when speaking to Gerudo characters, in the end it is only a relatively small part of the language. BOTH and TOTK. The short list of official words is a natural consequence of this; the Gerudo dictionary is just varied enough to provide tantalizing hints about the broader language, whereas developing it further would have distracted from the development of the broader game. However, there are still opportunities for building the Gerudo language in the future.
There are several ways to do this. Of course, the most direct method would be to have the next Zelda The game once again puts Gerudo in a prominent role and introduces new language naturally through interactions with them. Like this BOTH and TOTKGerudo introduced and explained his language to Link as a stranger, as well as a new game with new words. Similarly, a supplementary book could also expand the Gerudo dictionaryarguably even more comprehensive than a game would be capable of.
It would be easy to create new words in Gerudo
Existing Gerudo words are based on real-life language
Conlangs are an incredible area of worldbuilding for me, given the amount of work it can take to produce new words and grammar. Of course, Gerudo grammar is almost non-existentalthough some rules emerge on the exam. For example, the prefix “sav” evidently means “good,” as in “Sav'otta” (“good morning”), while the apostrophe seems to indicate that it is being used as a modifier. While this in itself provides an almost blank canvas for future developments, Creating new words in Gerudo is easier than it might seem at first glance.
In truth, Gerudo words appear to be derived from Japanese (or Japanese pronunciation of English loanwords)although the meaning of the original word may differ greatly from its in-game counterpart. For example, Sav'otta appears to be a corruption of “Sabotta” in terms of pronunciation, a word meaning “relaxed”. Notably, many of these Japanese roots are related to a desert theme, such as the surprised exclamation “Sa'oten” originating in “Saboten” (“Cactus”). As such, whether continuing the desert theme or branching out into similar-sounding words, there should be plenty of inspiration for new Gerudo words.
Learning about the Gerudo language offers people a unique way to immerse themselves in the culture of one of the ZeldaThe language's most unusual breeds, with the only limiting factor being how concise the language's list of known words is. I love this kind of world-building and I sincerely hope that The Legend of Zelda features more Gerudo characters speaking more of their native language. As interesting as the Gerudo language is, it is still quite superficial at the moment and deserves to see further development in the future.