• Overview
  • Map
  • Areas
  • Points of Interest
  • Characters
  • Races
  • Classes
  • Factions
  • Monsters
  • Items
  • Spells
  • Feats
  • Quests
  • One-Shots
  • Game Master
  1. The Expanse
  2. Lore

Belter Creole

Belter Creole, often referred to simply as "Belter", is the cultural language spoken by many Belters. The Belter name for the language itself is Lang Belta.

History

As its English name suggests, Belter Creole is a creole language. During humanity's expansion into the solar system, people from many different parts of Earth or Mars often lived and worked together, and they developed a pidgin language to communicate with one another. Over time this developed into a full-fledged creole language, lang Belta, which became the lingua franca, a common tongue, of the Belt and the outer planets.

Vocabulary

As a creole language, Lang Belta is primarily derived from English, with influences and contributions from languages of many different families, such as Germanic, Chinese, Romance, Indic, Slavic, and Niger-Congo. Many of its words were derived from words or phrases in one or more of these languages.

Example Words

  • Belta=a Belter, an inhabitant of the Belt.

  • beltalowda=Belters as a whole, or "us Belters"

  • inyalowda=Inners, or people of inner planets

  • tumang=an Earther

  • pomang=a Martian, or "Duster"

  • beratna=brother

  • sésata=sister

  • seteshang Erosh=Eros station

Example Phrases

  • Oye="Hello" / "Hey"

  • Oyedeng="Goodbye"

  • Taki="Thanks"

  • Im ta nating="You're welcome." (lit. "It was nothing")

  • To pochuye ke?="Do you understand me?" (lit. "You hear?")

  • Sabaka!=a general-purpose curse; "Dammit!" or "You bastard!" (lit. "Dog" in Russian)

  • Kewe to pensa ere X?="What do you think about X?"

  • Mi pensa="I think"

Grammar

Like English and many other languages, Belter's basic word order is SVO (subject-verb-object):

da Mila lit da buk=Miller reads the book.

Adjectives follow the word they modify, as do nouns when showing possession:

setara "star" + mali "small" → setara mali "little star"

kopeng "friend" + mi "I, me" → kopeng mi "my friend"