Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Languages in the Green Coast



Dozens of languages are spoken throughout the Green Coast, and most languages have distinct regional accents and even full-fledged dialects. Though the lingua franca is Aethron, frequently called the Common Tongue or Common, most races have their own languages that they prefer to use when with each other. In addition to the civilized races, the savage races have a myriad of languages and the races that live under the ocean waves also possess their own, unique means of communicating.


The main languages of the civilized races are:
Common, or Aethron
     When people think of Aethron, they think of humans. The predominant language of humans, Aethron rose to prominence with the expansion of the Aetherian Kingdom. What scholars attribute most to it is its tendency to borrow words, phrases, and other elements from other languages.
Dwarven, or Nelzev
     A language with a favoring of harsh consonants, Nelzev is the most guttural of the civilized languages. The language is not the harshest of the known languages, that dubious honor belongs to Goblin, but many find the words unpleasant to their ears, especially elves. An old elven joke is that if one hears a trespasser speaking a language that makes your ears bleed, if the speaker has a beard it’s a dwarf, otherwise it’s a goblin. Dwarves are not amused.
Elven, or Ilyth
     A smooth, flowing language with frequent use of l’s and y’s, Ilyth is thought by scholars to be one of the oldest languages in the Green Coast. As any fortunately enough to know their grandparents knows, the way that people talk changes over generations, to the point that some scholars believe that if you go far enough back the language becomes incomprehensible. With the elven lifespan, the theory goes, the language takes longer to change.
Gnome, or Linga
     The gnomish language is jokingly referred to as the Scholar’s Language, as so many gnomes use it to name discoveries that nearly half of the ruins and artifacts in museums and libraries have names in Linga. What is of particular interest to scholars, is that Linga has far more similarities with the sea gnome language than any language in the Green Coast. This has given rise to a controversial theory that gnomes are relative newcomers to the Green Coast.
Halfling, or Reord
     Bearing multiple similarities to Nelzev, many scholars that specialize in languages believe that at some point in the distant past the two languages were one. Despite its similarities, Reord is less harsh and guttural, bearing some similarities to Ilyth as well. The theory is that halflings spent time amongst elves after they split from dwarves, but before they spread throughout the Green Coast.

The primary languages of the savage races are:
Giant, or Kindol
     Frequently spoken slowly, Kindol is a language in which the length of vowels changes the entire meaning of what is said. It shares the same consonants as Goblin, though roughly double the vowels, leading some scholars to believe that the two languages are related.
Goblin, or Imbatur-az Zush
     Roughly translating to Language of Kings, the goblin language is more widely known because of the rise of hobgoblins than actual goblins. A very harsh language, scholars were surprised to learn that it possesses surprisingly few sounds, less than twenty. An additional quirk that baffles scholars is that the first person, me and I for example, has no counterpart in the language. This explains the tendency for goblins to refer to themselves in the third person when they speak in other languages.
Orc, or Khezyk
     To all scholars the orc tongue spoken in the Green Coast is an oddity, it has no shared characteristics with any other known languages leading some scholars to believe that the orcs emigrated to the Green Coast some time shortly before the Historical Wipe.

Nearly all the languages that originate under the ocean waves can be learned by outsiders, but not spoken as they are reliant upon the biology of the race that speaks it. The known languages of the aquatic races are:
Aquan
     Filling the same niche as Common on the surface, that is a widely known trade and diplomacy language, Aquan is also the primary language of the merfolk. Lacking any kind of sounds, it is a purely gestural language, with deeper meaning being conveyed largely though context and energy.
Dohrnira, or Tintonah
     Nearly impossible to speak during the day, Dohrnira is composed of flashes of patterned light across the body. To outsiders, a conversation between two dohrnii is a beautiful display of light and color. The conversation itself may be as bland and base as discussing the weather, and outsiders would never know.
Koup’irola, or Klack-Flare-Click
     A non-verbal language that incorporates gestures and claw snaps, Koup’irola is the primary language of the lobster-like koup’ira. While many that live in the district colloquially called the Crab Docks can understand the bizarre language, only the koup’ira are capable of speaking in it.
Squoran, or Ashranna
     Similar to Dohrnira in that it is dependent on color, Squoran is spoken by changing color pigments in the skin as well as adopting slightly different textures to alter how those colors are displayed. Capable of extremely subtle conversations, two squoros can engage in deep philosophical debates without bystanders even realizing that they were speaking.
Tabemisu, or Akkardian
     One of the few spoken languages of the aquatic races, the language of the tabemisu requires them to come up to the surface in order to speak it, else they waste air. To surfacers unfamiliar with the language, it largely sounds like barking seals mixed with the yips and laughter of foxes.
Zang, or Zugnor
     Possessing rudimentary lungs to enable to spend longer periods out of water, Zang is one of the few aquatic languages that is actually spoken. Typically spoken slowly, since water can’t pass over vocal chords as quickly as air, it is supplemented with pheromones that convey tone and emotion. None of the more populous aquatic races can detect these scents, and few zang care enough to explain.

Other languages include:
Abyssal, or Khaz’ak
     The primary language of demons, Abyssal is frequently used by conjurers when utilizing summoning rituals as well as cultists making prayers to demon lords. Though not illegal in most places, being caught speaking Abyssal is still traditionally frowned upon.
Celestial, or Yinolu
     Little is known of this language, as less than a dozen individuals in the entire Green Cost are fluent in it. From what is known, it is rare to have a word where vowels and consonants do not alternate, and it almost seems designed to be sung rather than spoken.
Draconic, or Tichkin Draesnath
     The language spoken by dragons, with cruder dialects used by kobolds and lizardfolk. Draconic, especially the variant spoken by true dragons, is difficult for humanoids to learn as the place in a sentence almost completely changes the pronunciation of a word.
Druidic, or Dun-ghwa
     The language spoken by the priests of Kyrnash serves as evidence that languages change over time, as according to lore their lore is passed down by spoken word with no variation allowed. Despite this unchanging nature, the lore is in a language that is seemingly unique, but sounds similar to Aethron. Many scholars believe that Druidic is essentially an early predecessor to Aethron.
Infernal, or Toch-ko
     The language of devils, Infernal is appropriately convoluted and difficult to speak. Fond of consonants, every sentence is condensed into a single word. Simplified, a sentence consists of a subject word, the action added as a suffix, other actors added as prefixes, adjectives inserted after the first syllable of the subject, adverbs before the last syllable of the verb, and tense is prefixed before the entire sentence.



*For a sample of the Goblin language, click here. Reading begins at 7:21.

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