Analysing Furbish (their language)
- The prefix/suffix "may" seems to be in words that have something to do with affection, like "may-may" means "love", "ah-may" means "pet", "may-tah" means "kiss", "nee-may" means "sweet", and "may-lah" means "hug". The only exception is "ay-loh-may-lah" which means "cloud".
- The prefix/suffix "ay" seems to be in words related to light, like "ay-loh" means "light", "ay-ay" means "see" and "dah-ay-loh" means "sun". An exception to this rule (of thumb) might be the words "doo-ay", which means "fun", "Ay-way" which means "dizzy", "ay-koo" which means "diamond", "at-loh-may-lah" which means "cloud", and "doo-ay-loo-lah" which means "game". By itself, the word "ay" means "lightness".
- "dah" by itself means "big", and it can be a prefix or a suffix with no apparent meaning, but sometimes it is added to words for emphasis, like "boo" means "no", and if a Furby wants to put emphasis on that "no", like we would say something like "no way", they sometimes say, "dah boo". However, it's always "dah boo" and not the other way round, because then you get "boo-dah", which is a word in itself, meaning "bad". Another example of the emphasis thing would be when Furbies are afraid, they will sometimes say they are "dah bo-bay". "Bo-bay" in itself means "worried", "nervous" or "scared", and so "dah bo-bay" translates to "big scared", which I guess is a way of saying they got a big scare and are now very nervous.
- One problem with figuring out what a Furby is saying is that sometimes whole words get attached to one another to form other words, like "ee-ka-lee-koo" means "music" and "dah-ay-loh" means sun, but by itself "ee-ka" means "beautiful", "lee-koo" means "noise", "dah" means "big", and "ay-loh" means "light", so you have to provide context (unless they are speaking out of context) to tell whether "ee ka lee koo" means they are talking about the music that's playing or some other beautiful noise like the cat meowing and whether "dah ay loh" means they are talking about the sun or some other big light like a strobe light. The one thing that's for sure is that "dah-ay-loh u-tye" or "sun up" is their way of saying "good morning" and "dah-ay-loh nah-bah" or "sun down" is their way of saying "goodnight". One weird thing they do is say "Ay-loh-may-lah" to mean "cloud", which is strange as by itself the two words mean "light hug" which has no relevance to clouds.
- "Ooba" is a strange word. Furbish dictionaries list it as meaning "over", however when furbies are changing personality, they shout, "Ooba! Ooba!" repeatedly, and changing personality is no cause for shouting, "Over! Over!". Maybe "ooba" has a second meaning, but it's still a mystery.
- Furbish has no words for "the", "is", "will", "be", "and", "or", "are", "a", "an" or anything else like that, so when Furbys are speaking English they will also not say these words. And they also will tend to say "me" instead of "I" as Furbish has no words for "I" or "myself" and they always use the word "kah" which means "me", giving their English a You No Take Candle syntax. They also sometimes flip between Furbish and English in the same sentence, e.g. "me bo-bay", or say a sentence in Furbish and then repeat it in English, e.g. "kah bo-bay. Me scared". Sometimes, when speaking English, Furbies will add a "y" on the end of things for no good reason, i.e. "me no like-y".
- "Doo" is a word that has multiple meanings. It seems to sometimes mean "where", "when", "why", "what" or "who". Like if a Furby knows that something fun is on the way and is getting impatient, they might say "Doo doo-ay?" which translates to "where fun?", if they think you're not listening, they might say "Doo u-nye boo listen?" ("why you no listen?") and if they're meeting someone new they might say "Doo u-nye?" ("who you?"). They might also say "Doo?" by itself if they're confused, similar to how we say "What?" or "Huh?!". If it's a part of a word like "doo-ay" (fun), "doo-moh" (please) or "koh-doo" (health), it has no meaning and is just part of the word.
- "Loo" seems to be in words related to entertainment or joy. "Loo" means "humour", "loo-loo" means "joke", "noo-loo" means "happy", "toh-loo" means "like", "doo-loo" means "funny", "doo-ay-loo-lah" means "game", "loo-lay" means "play" and "wee-loo" means "story". The two exceptions to this are "oo-loo", which means "full" and "way-loo", which means "dream".
- "Ee" seems to be in words that have something to do with positivity. By itself it means "affirmative", "ee-tay" means "yes" and "ee-day" means "good".
- "Way" seems to be in words related to the mind. By itself, it means "thinking", "way-loo" means "dream", "way-lah" means "wise", and "way-nah" is "wonder". Exceptions are "way-loh" (sleep), "ay-way" (dizzy), and "nee-way" (now).
- Furbish words do not have tenses or plurals (like they will say "pu-ra" for "cat" but if there are multiple cats, they won't say "pu-ras", and "loo-lay" means "play", but they don't say "loo-laying", "loo-lays" or "loo-layed". When speaking English, they will sometimes not use these either (like they might say "you me play" instead of "we are playing"), however, they will not always do this and will sometimes use tenses and plurals while speaking English (An example can be that they sometimes say "puppies are cute").
- Furbish has no word for "not", the closest meaning "boo" which means "no". As such, when speaking English, they will generally not use the word "not" or words that imply it such as "don't", "can't", "doesn't", "cannot" and "isn't" and say "no" instead.
- "Ah-Koh-Boh" does not have an English translation. But considering it is said by the 2012's Cranky personality and by the Furby Party Rocker Scoffbynote , it might imply its some swear. Note that all six personalities, Furby Booms, all Party Rockers, and Furbaccas treat it as any other phrase.
