The Houyhnhnm language ("HWEE-num") is the language of the race of intelligent horses known as "Houyhnhnms". It sounded more like neighing, although Gulliver described their language as being similar to High Dutch or German, but being "much more graceful and significant".
The Houyhnhnm language does not have a writing system.
The Houyhnhnms, being a nearly-utopian civilization of equines, do not have a word for "to say a lie". They instead use "to say that which is not".
Glossary[]
- Yahoo - a race of barbaric humanoids; bad; evil; poor in quality
- Houyhnhnm - a horse; a member of a race of intelligent horses; perfection of nature.
- Hhuun - attend to him
- Hnea-Yahoo - the Yahoo's evil; a disease
- Ylnhniamshy - the aborigines or natives of a land
- Ihnuwnh - to return to one's first mother; to pass away; to die
- Hhnm Yahoo - folly of a servant
- Whnaholm Yahoo - the loss of a child
- Ynlhmndwihlma Yahoo - a stone that cuts their hooves; continued bad weather
- Ynholmhnmrohlnw Yahoo - a poorly-built house
- nnuhnoh - a small mammal around the size of a rabbit that is hunted for its furs.
- hnhloayn - an exhortation, or a wish; a decree of the general assembly
- Hnuy illa nyha majah Yahoo - take care of thyself, gentle Yahoo
Trivia[]
- Jonathan Swift intended for the word "Houyhnhnm" and its language to resemble the sounds horses make.