- "What the hell does 'kree' mean?"
- "Well, actually, it means a lot of things. Loosely translated it means 'Attention', 'Listen up', 'Concentrate'."
- "'Yoo-hoo'?"
- "Yes, in a manner of speaking."
- —Daniel Jackson, responding to Jack O'Neill
The Goa'uld language is spoken by the Goa'uld and Jaffa. The Goa'uld language started out as the Unas Language, but it was limited by the vocal abilities of the Unas. As the Goa'uld started to take more human hosts, their language developed and became a primary influence for Ancient Egyptian. It is now the lingua franca of the Milky Way galaxy and has retained that status in spite of the fall of the System Lords.
Grammar
The grammar of the Goa'uld language is fairly simple to grasp, the language uses a subject verb object (SVO) word order, as in English.
Pronouns
The pronouns of Goa'uld are fairly simple. At present, it is believed that Goa'uld has no third-person pronoun; instead, one uses the proper noun for that object.
The pronouns are:
- Ta—I
- Lo—you
Plural forms of these are created with the suffix -p, creating tap "we" and lop "you". The proper noun can also be used instead of the pronoun. It is unknown as to whether any special suffixes are used to indicate possession.
Verbs
Verbs in Goa'uld do not inflect for tense or person. Therefore, the Goa'uld verb tal pac can, depending on the situation, mean "to fall", "falling", "fell", "will fall", et cetera. In general, the context of the situation or time phrases in a sentence will indicate when the verb is taking place, as in most forms of Chinese.
Suffix order
Suffixes will be numbered (1), (2), (3) in the order that they belong. Intentionally or unintentionally, this is similar to the Klingon language; if the former, it could be a complex joke (a thing for which SG-1 writers are notorious). For example:
nok "now" with -ia "not" (1) and -k "to be" (2) is nokiak "in the beginning there was". Notice that this is translated as "in the beginning", and not "in the end" or "not now", although it could mean either. The phrase mel nok "after now" is used to mean "later", while nokia is used to mean "earlier".
Kree
The word kree has many meanings, but it is in essence used as a general call to attention or a call to duty. It is often used as a generic call to action, being translated as "be prepared", "aim", "listen up", "let's go", or even (as Colonel Jack O'Neill once quipped) "yoo-hoo". Kree can be combined with verbs to indicate action or as an imperative. For example, kree hol means "We are going", "Let's go", and by adding mel "to die, to end" it becomes kree hol mel "We are standing by" or "Wait." It is frequently heard addressed to a particular group, as in, Jaffa, kree! (alternatively kree Jaffa!) "Listen up, Jaffa!" or "Jaffa, Attention!" It is occasionally heard addressed to other groups, such as Tok'ra, kree!, Tau'ri kree!, Goa'uld kree!, and Shol'va kree!.
Lo'tar
In Goa'uld, tar is a shortened slang form of tau'ri "Human". Lotar literally translates as "You, human", which is probably how the word originated. Over time it evolved to become a very prestigious position among slaves to the Goa'uld.
Shol'va
This is a pejorative term used by Jaffa and System Lords alike to refer to betrayers of their "god" — it is akin to the term "heretic" or 'traitor'. Some Jaffa, such as Teal'c, became notorious examples of the Shol'va, renouncing his "god" as divine.
Modifying words
In Goa'uld, adverbs come before the verb they modify. Sometimes, a direct object will precede the verb, rather than follow it.
Dual sentence
Goa'uld is a very powerful language because of the dual sentence ability of the language. This allows two separate ideas to be expressed in one sentence. If the ideas have a common word, then it is only said or written once, saving time and effort.
For example: Lo tak meta satak oz means both "You are speaking to the great Oz" and "I am the great Oz". Broken down, this sentence is composed of two segments: lo ... meta satak Oz "You ... are speaking to the great Oz" interpolated with ... tak ... satak Oz "... I am ... the great Oz" — both of these ideas are conveyed simultaneously within the sentence.
Writing
The Goa'uld use several different forms of writing, most of which are based on Egyptian Hieroglyphs (though the show claims the reverse). There is also a cursive Goa'uld script that appears to have been created from scratch.
The alphabet illustrated has been seen in the series, in a text message sent by the Goa'uld to Stargate Command. It is the only Goa'uld script in the series that can be translated easily. The alphabet in the series is actually the Nahkt hieroglyphic font, and it was used to write various jokes in different episodes. Another hieroglyph font used in the series was the Meroitic script font. [1]
It was originally believed that Goa'uld is usually written left to right, top to bottom. However, official documents of the Free Jaffa Nation, as seen in the offices of Gerak and other Jaffa High Councillors, show Goa'uld written from top to bottom; as yet, it is unknown whether the columns begin on the right (as Chinese characters traditionally do) or on the left (as with the Mongolian alphabet).
The Goa'uld have also been known to use various other ancient scripts and languages. Among them are Greek, Chinese characters, Cuneiform, Cretan Linear A, and Maya hieroglyphics.
Dictionary
A
- Anise — "Noble strength" (SG1: "Upgrades")
- Al'kesh — Mid range bomber (SG1: "Exodus")
- Arik tree'ac te kek — We do not surrender, even in death. (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Aray Kree — Stay where you are (SG1: "There But for the Grace of God")
- Ashrak — "Hunter", a high ranking Goa'uld assassin (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Avidan — Gods are just (SG1: "Icon")
B
- Bashaak — "Wooden staff" used in training Jaffa warriors/Jaffa training (SG1: "The Warrior", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Benna! Ya wan ya duru! = Kneel before your masters! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Bet = Surrender, or possibly weapon
C
- Cal Mah — Sanctuary (SG1: "The Warrior")
- Cha'hai — Be without fear (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Cha'tii — Warrior apprentice (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Chappa'ai — Stargate (SG1: "Children of the Gods")
- Chappa'ko — Supergate (SG1: "Flesh and Blood")
- Chappa—gate (logic of previous two entries, both have chappa and both have gate in their respective names.)
- Chel hol — Greeting (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Chel Nak — Very cool (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Chel nok — Good luck, very well wishes (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Chula a lazla — Do you choose (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
D
- Dal shakka mel! — I die free! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Delmac — Control crystal (SG1: "Deadman Switch")
- Depet reshwet herew — And now I awaken only to die again (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
G
- Goach, sha kree, lo Goa'uld — Tok'ra password response (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Goa'uld — God, Children of the Gods (SG1: "Children of the Gods")
H
- Hakorr kra terak shree — Banished to oblivion (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Hak'tyl — Indepenence/Liberation (SG1: "Birthright", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Hal mek — Hold! (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Hara'kesh — torture device (SG1: "In the Line of Duty")
- Harcesis — the child of two Goa'uld hosts (SG1: "Maternal Instinct")
- Hasshak — Weakling, fodder, fool (insult) (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Ha'taaka — Slayer of children, poisoner of minds, the forgotten (insult) (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Ha'tak — Attack vessel, or simply attack (SG1: "Into the Fire")
- Hok'tar — Slang for "advanced human" (SG1: "Rite of Passage")
- Hol — Hold, stop (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Hol mel — Hold your fire (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
I
- In'trom popra cursor're — To enter by infiltration (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Intar — Stun weapon used during training (SG1: "Rules of Engagement")
J
- Jaffa — Servant/slave (SG1: "Children of the Gods")
- Joma secu — Challenge of leadership (Follow me) (SG1: "The Warrior", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
K
- Ka - No
- Ka kek — Lies
- Kal kek m'al shol'va — Ready to die, traitor? (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Kal mek — Location (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Kalach — Soul (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kalach shal tek! — Victory or death! (Soul returns home) (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kal'ma — Child (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kara kesh — Hand device (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Kek — Kill, dead, weakness (from Unas "keka") (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kel — Where, when is, what, what is (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kel mal tak Tauri! — Destroy the people of Earth! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kel mar tokeem — Revenge by the wearer of horns (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Ket mattet — Jaffa challenge (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Kel nok shree Jaffa — I am no Jaffa (SG1: "Into the Fire")
- Kel'no'pah — Lightning strike (RPG: "Fantastic Frontiers: Stargate Season One")
- Kelno'reem — Jaffa meditation/meditative trance (SG1: "Holiday") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Kel shak — What, what is it, what is going on (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kel shak lo — Fight to the death
- Klavel ha — Too late. (SG1: "Enemies")
- Korush'nai — Turn back, radioactive contamination (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kree — Attention, listen, yoo-hoo (SG1: "Children of the Gods", "Point of View", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kree no tel, Reenlokia! — The Asgard are approaching! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kree shac, shel nok — Bite me (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kree tak? — Is this a trick? (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kree tal shal mak! — Identify yourself! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Kresh'taa — Outcast, banished, untouchable, not of the people (SG1: "Bloodlines", "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
L
- Leaa — Listen (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Lek tol — Signing off (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Lok'nel — Ancient Jaffa martial arts (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Lo'taur — A Goa'uld's personal Human servant (slang literally meaning "You, Human!"), High ranking Human slave (SG1: "Summit", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
M
- Mak — My identity (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Mak lo onak! — Oh my god! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Mak tal shree! — I am a lord. (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- M'al Sharran — Last Rite (SG1: "Threshold")
- Mashur-nat — Mutation (SG1: "Prototype")
- Mastaba — Form of Jaffa martial arts (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Mekta satak Oz! — My identity is the Great and Powerful Oz! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Mel nok tee! — Evacuate now! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Mikta — Ass (insult) (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Mok — Your identity (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Mol kek! — Kill them all! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
N
- Na'onak — Not a god (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Naquadah — quartzite stone
- Naquadria — a modified form of naquadah
- Nek'sed — Lightning cannon (RPG: "Fantastic Frontiers: Stargate Season One")
- Nemeth kree! — You dare touch me! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Nish'ta — Biological brainwashing compound (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Niss trah! — I am here! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
O
- Obi-tan — Halt! (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Onak — Goa'uld, God(SG1: "Summit", "The Warrior")—Also the Unas word for the Goa'uld (SG1: "Enemy Mine")
- Onak sha kree, shel Goa'uld. — What god do you worship? (Tok'ra password) (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Orak — Unspeakable, referring to Kull Warriors (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
P
- Pal time shree tal ma. — Our love does not end in death. (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Pel'tak — Bridge of the ship (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Prata — Puberty (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Prim'ta — Larval Goa'uld (also the ceremony of implantation) (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
Q
- Quell shak — Please (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
R
- Ra'kek — Sunburst grenade (RPG: "Fantastic Frontiers: Stargate Season One")
- Ral tora ke — Good luck (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Roshna — Drug used by the Ilempiri that keeps them slaves of the Goa'uld, mixed in their water (SG1: "Deadman Switch")
- Reenlokia — Asgard (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Remoc — The end of a journey (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Rin nok! — Silence! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Rin tel nok! — Protect me now! (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Ring kol nok — Strategy (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
S
- Shal kek — Dismissed (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Shal met — A toast/good health (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Shal tek — Return home, dial home (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Shek kree — A declaration of shame (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Shel kek nem ron — I die free (passcode among the Rebel Jaffa) (SG1: "Birthright")
- Shesh'ta — Goa'uld currency/Jaffa unit of money (SG1: "Family", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Shim'roa — Honeymoon (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Shin tel? — What's going on? (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Shol'va — Traitor/heretic (SG1: "Bloodlines")
- Sim'ka — Betrothed (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
T
- Tacluchnatagamuntoron — Automatic remote weapon, heat-seeking, small globe shaped device ("Deadman Switch")
- Tak — Trick (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tak mal tiak — Greeting/You are remembered (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Tak mal arik tiak — You will not be forgotten (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Tal — Wait (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tal Mak — A world on which life is now extinct (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tal'ma'te — Affectionate greeting, farewell (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tal met. Priem ta shree, tal ma — Our love does not end in death (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Tal pat ryn — Falling star (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tal shak! — Attack (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tal shaka mel! — I die free! (SG1: "The Nox")
- Tar — Goa'uld Slang for Tau'ri (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Tau'ri — The first ones, Earth, the people of Earth (SG1: "The Enemy Within", "The Tok'ra, Part 1", "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Teal'c — "strength" (SG1: "Past and Present")
- Tek'ma'te — Friend, greeting of respect (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Tek'ma'tek — Friends well met. We come in peace, be welcome (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide") (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Tel — I, I have (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tel kol — I beg your pardon (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
- Tel'tak — Cargo vessel
- Tok — Against (SG1: "The Tok'ra, Part 1")
- Tok'ra — Resistance (literally, "against Ra") (SG1: "In the Line of Duty", "The Tok'ra, Part 1")
U
- Unas — the First Ones(The First Hosts For Symbiotes) (SG1: "Thor's Hammer")
V
- Vo'cume — Holographic projector (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
Y
- Ya duru arik kek onac — I honor him who would kill his god (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")
Z
- Zat'nik'tel — Goa'uld energy weapon (RPG: "Roleplaying Game")
- Za'tarc — Programmed assassin (SG1: "The Ultimate Visual Guide")