Trigedasleng/Linguistics

Development
Trigedasleng is an evolved form of Modern English; however, the lexicon and grammar have shifted to be relatively unintelligible to a speaker of Modern English.

Trigedasleng developed partially due to natural linguistic drift, but also because there was a pressure for the Grounders to develop code-terms and euphemisms that their enemies, particularly the Mountain Men of Mount Weather, could not readily understand. For example, instead of calling their leaders "leader" or "chief" or "commander", a leader became known as a heda (from the Modern English "head"—in the sense of "head up" or "lead"—and the suffix -a which is equivalent to the Modern English "-er") They may also call the leader Heda as a decent from Becca Pramheda the original grounder commander. Warriors still learn Modern English so that they can understand and eavesdrop on their enemies.

When David J. Peterson developed Trigedasleng, he devised a phonetic writing system to use in the show's scripts and to better reflect the changes from Modern English to Trigedasleng. For example, the first person personal pronoun "I" retains the same pronunciation in Trigedasleng, but is spelled ai in the scripts. This writing system, however, is not used in-world; the Grounders are no longer literate and have no writing system.

Trigedasleng underwent extreme phonological simplification during its descent from English, resulting in numerous homonyms. For example, sis has several meanings depending on its context:
 * sis...au means "to help" and comes from "assist"
 * sis...op means "to grab"; the particle op differentiates it from the first meaning
 * as a noun, sis can mean "sister" but can also mean "six"

Trigedasleng is not a linguistic creole, but a descendant of Modern English alone, and while it may share similarities with AAVE (African American Vernacular English), those similarities are not intentional.

Pronunciation
Technically, Trigedasleng has no standard writing system. Below is David J. Peterson's romanization system for spelling and pronouncing written Trigedasleng words:
 * A, a = the “a” sound in “apple”— UNLESS it’s the last letter of a word, in which case it’s the “a” sound in “sofa”.
 * Ai, ai = the “i” sound in “bite”.
 * Au, au = the “ow” sound in “cow”.
 * B, b = the “b” sound in “bad”.
 * Ch, ch = the “ch” sound in “chop”.
 * D, d  = the “d” sound in “dock”.
 * E, e = the “e” sound in “get”.
 * Ei, ei = the “ei” sound in “eight”.
 * F, f = the “f” sound in “fate”.
 * G, g = the “g” sound in “goat”.
 * H, h = the “h” sound in “hate”.
 * I, i = the “i” sound in “kid”  OR the “i” sound in “machine” (no difference).
 * J, j = the “j” sound in “jump”.
 * K, k = the “k” sound in “keep”.
 * L, l = the “l” sound in “look”.
 * M, m = the “m” sound in “made”.
 * N, n = the “n” sound in “near”.
 * O, o = the “aw” sound in “law”  OR the “o” sound in “son” (no difference).
 * Ou, ou = the “o” sound in “wrote”.
 * P, p = the “p” sound in “pelt”.
 * R, r = the “r” sound in “red”.
 * S, s = the “s” sound in “slice”.
 * Sh, sh = the “sh” sound in “shark”.
 * T, t = the “t” sound in “talk”.
 * Th, th = the “th” sound in “think”.
 * U, u = the “u” sound in “rude”.
 * V, v = the “v” sound in “vice”.
 * W, w = the “w” sound in “wild”.
 * Y, y = the “y” sound in “you”.
 * Z, z = the “z” sound in “zoo”.

Grammar structure
Verbs in Trigedasleng have the biggest differences from English of any part of speech. Trigedasleng verbs have two parts: the verb root, and one of eight satellites. Some verbs, like auxiliary and modal verbs, don’t have or require satellites. Many verbs have different meanings depending on the satellite.

Satellites
Most verbs have a satellite that directly follows the direct object, if one is present; if a direct object is not present, the satellite follows the verb. Satellites precede indirect objects and other phrases that follow the verb. There are eight satellites present in Trigedasleng (op, in, au, we, of, raun, daun, klin, thru). Some useful guidelines for satellites follows:
 * raun is used for base-transitive verbs when used intransitively, and replaces op or in
 * op seems to be attached mostly to concrete verbs (verbs for doing and acting on the physical world), whereas in is more likely to appear with abstract verbs (verbs for things like thinking and saying and hearing, which don't really act on the physical world as much)
 * klin connotes/denotes finality and has very special uses
 * Octavia misspeaks when Lincoln is teaching her in "The 48", saying gouthru klin which translates as "commit suicide" but derives from something like "final passage".
 * au, we, and daun all seem to be used in places where their English origins would be used
 * thru is used to connote/denote continuation or progressiveness (kik raun "live" versus kik thru "survive")

Verbs without Satellites
Not all verbs have a satellite. According to David J. Peterson, verbs having to do with agent-initiated motion or causation, performative verbs, and auxiliary/modal/function verbs don't have satellites. They can co-occur with satellites, but that typically changes their meaning.

Auxiliaries & Modals
Auxiliary and modal verbs are used in a variety of ways. Mostly, they form tenses (as listed below), but there are other ways to use them. The future tense, for example, is also used for “in order to” phrases (ai don fis em op na sis oso au “I healed him to help us”). Trigedasleng also fails to distinguish the perfect tense, and instead uses the past tense: ai don fis em op “I have healed him.” For the most part, Trigedasleng doesn't distinguish between indicative and subjunctive moods. Hypothetical or conditional clauses are formed using bilaik (see above).
 * Present: no auxiliary:
 * ai fis em op = "I heal him"
 * Progressive: ste
 * from English "stay"
 * ai ste fis em op = "I am healing him"
 * Past: don
 * from English "done"
 * ai don fis em op = "I healed him"
 * Future: na
 * from English "gonna" ("going to")
 * ai na fis em op = "I will heal him" or "I can heal him"
 * The future tense marker na can also mean "can" or "could".
 * Passive: ge
 * from English "get"
 * ai ge fis op = "I get healed" or "I am healed"
 * Modal: beda and souda
 * from English "better" and "shoulda" ("should have")
 * yu beda fis em op = "you ought to heal him" or "you should heal him"
 * yu souda fis em op = "you must heal him"

Notes and Trivia

 * This language was made by David J. Peterson, who also made the Game of Thrones Dothraki and Valyrian languages. He claims that Trigedasleng is an a posteriori language based on English. He also says that he got his influences by studying pidgin and creole languages, "but [he] was probably more influenced by [his] recent read of Heine and Kuteva’s The World Lexicon of Grammaticalization more than anything else."
 * The official spelling in the script is phonetic, meant to reflect the pronunciation shifts which occurred in the Grounder language. However, Marie Avgeropoulos had difficulty at first, so language creator David J. Peterson made a transcription using more Modern English-like spelling, instead of the phonetic system: "I like Octavia come sky crew, an' I gaff go-through klin."