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.
No comments:
Post a Comment