Languages

Common

Common is the language of the people. Initially this simplified and standardized version of the old Hinnish language was created to aid in trade deals with foreigners, merchants and adventurers. The Hinfolk have since brought this language to every end of the continent and it has been accepted by almost every society. The language grew massively in popularity with the establishment of the Land of Willonia, whose native language, Armadic, shared a similar proto-Varian ancestor language. After that, the Hinfolk modified their language with popular loan words and Armadic grammatical logic.

Non-Common speakers may still understand the occasional word, as Common has thoroughly borrowed from nearly every language. The Imperial Beanut court has recently cemented common as the official shared language. In the modern day, all Imperial legal documents must have a common translation regardless of the signees’ native languages.

Armadic

This dialect of the ancient Varian tongue is only kept alive by the Armadian peoples, who find the Common language has done too much to complicate communication. In truth, the Common tongue has strayed quite far from its Varian roots, and today this dialect is likely all that truly remains of the ancient Varian language being spoken today. Speakers of this dialect can understand Common, spoken and written, at a rudimentary level, due to the high frequency of shared words, but the complexities of the grammar in both written and spoken forms means that people who are only fluent in Armadic are still illiterate in Common, and holding a real conversation may be difficult.

Grim-Tongue

The language of the Grimkin is a complicated system of verbal and non verbal communication, while it takes its roots from the same language as Common, the modern form has diverged so far it is scholastically considered its own language family. Full conversations can be had between experienced linguists in the formal sign language developed within Grim-tongue, colloquially known as Grim-hand. The language is difficult to learn for outsiders, almost by design, and is commonly used by Grimkin to talk with each other while in the company of foreigners.

Sylvan

Sylvan is the artful language of the Fae, Bodren, and Fangren. While there are strong regional and cultural influences on the languages between the races, the root language is so well developed the three never have any trouble communicating. Mythos tells that the ancient Faekin learned the language from the natural gods living amongst the trees and amongst the native spirits and creatures. Many regional speakers will borrow words from other dialects that they find appealing, even commonly taking names borrowed from each other’s dialects. Spoken primarily by the Sylvans of the Heartland and Bog, the language has been heavily influenced by the Common Language. Its simplicity and wide range of speakers makes it much easier to learn than any dialects, and most foreign speakers who learn Sylvan are introduced to this broad dialect first.

Thilyn

“AeroSylvan”

This is the oldest dialect of Sylvan, and lacks much of the simplifications and modifications that broad Sylvan has adopted to make it easier and more intelligible to new speakers. This dialect has the least influence from foreign speakers and is the closest dialect to the ancient forms of the language.

Ihyn

“MerSylvan”

This dialect, spoken mostly by the natives of the Bog, has the least native speakers of any Sylvan dialect. Its influences are varied and scattered making it feel vaguely foreign to even native Sylvan speakers. Likewise most speakers have distinct accents that are immediately identifiable, even if not intelligible.

Gryln

“VerdiSylvan”

This is a dialect spoken specifically by the native population of the Nettle Forest. While people who are fluent in Sylvan can often effectively communicate with those speaking Verdi-Sylvan, occasionally there may be some mistranslations, due to the heavy influence of the Tok language.

Loval

Originally known as “High Tokish,” Loval has developed into its own full language, with a formal written system that shares words with the neighboring Grim-Tongue. The Lovalian people quickly developed a rich culture of philosophy and rhetoric but struggled with recording these works due to the informal nature of the original Tok language, thus Loval was born. Many Loval speakers can roughly understand Tok, but the same is not true conversely. The complex grammatical system of Loval leaves Tok speakers overwhelmed.

Tok

The oldest language still in existence, Tok is the ancestral language of the Torgali and their Tok brethren. It lacks a consolidated written form and a standard alphabet, but has been passed down through endless generations of Torgali clans. At times great leaders have attempted to consolidate a formal pictographic system, but in the Kartakaum Valley alone there are over 400 unique dialects of graphics. Some traditionalist Canzians still speak the language for storytelling and mythos rituals, but rarely is the sole language spoken by any individual outside of the Torgali Jungle.

Dawin

The Dawin language is a mystery, seemingly having appeared with no origin. The first Dawi spoke Tok like their Torgali ancestors, but adopted the Dawin language soon after the separation of the “Forgotten Islands”. There is no history, even internally, as to how or when this happened, but many historians believe Dawin is the ancient Tok-speakers’ attempts to decipher an ancient Varian dialect that was only left etched into the surviving buildings of their once great civilization in the Dawi Lands. While Dawin shares some letters with Common, the alphabets have developed entirely differently and the two modern languages are almost entirely unrelated.