Realms and Tongues
The many and varied people of
Virosia have produced many different languages, detailed here in broad strokes. There are also articles that detail these languages more in depth, including more of their rules and specificities. Altogether, there are five main scripts that are commonly used, as well as the script appearing on the Gates of Silaea. Each script is used for multiple languages, except for Dwarvish.
There are three distinct human tongues, the most well known being
Alerean. Alerean is also referred to as the basic language, or the common tongue, and is the language used for diplomacy between all races and realms. It is the language of trade and worldly conversation, and as it has grown, has began integrating all languages. To the day, it's the most blended together language, using grammar, words, and sometimes complete phrases directly borrowed from other languages.
Drostollorian is a relatively new language as it had broken off from Alerean sometime during the reign of
Rizhane Kathira Ulmenvos VII. At first it simply took on a new accent, and soon, new words. Eventually it had developed into a semi-unintelligable version of Alerean, and sometime during the following century, around the 1200's, had fully landed itself in the territory of a new language. It maintains the same basic script as Alerean, and if they take their time, an Alerean speaker and a Drostollorian will be able to communicate with only minor difficulty.
Camtean is a northward language that finds itself texturally somewhere between Drostollorian and Alerean. Despite this, many that speak this tongue are of far-out-of-the-way villages and townships that are relatively untouched by the Akathian realm at large. These places, typically north-west of
Aleryn, share a fair bit of speech with
Dwarves, and thus have a healthy portion of their verbal aesthetic in their language.
The script of the Alerean languages is intended to be hand-written with ink or other pigment on parchment. As a print, glyphs are separate and represent typically a single sound. When written, the glyphs and blend together in a cursive format, and many variations of the glyphs can be recognized for what they represent.
The Dwarven Language
Dwarvish is a language used almost exclusively by dwarves, between dwarves. The language is extremely intricate, and learning it is regarded as a troubling experience. Dwarven physiology allows for a couple specific sounds that other races simply cannot create, thus, other races have work-around sounds that dwarves acknowledge as correct. Dwarvish is uniquely sound-based, necessitating a specific pitch and timbre of tone in order to communicate effectively. Dwarves can see sounds, and when one speaks to a dwarf, they get information both from the sound and the shape that the words let them perceive. As a result, many do not pick up dwarvish as a second language.
Dwarvish runescript is another unique facet of the dwarven language. Their script are knot patterns that are carved into stone walls. The patterns are designed that three lines form many individual shapes, each specific shape representing a sound and/or specific meaning. When a dwarf traces their hand over the grooves of the knot, they can discern meaning from feeling alone. In light, they can also simply read them for their meanings in the way Alereans would read their script. Some meaning, though, is lost from feeling, and dwarves will imagine what the grooves would feel like.
Elvish Languages
Elvish or
shaelarilya are the languages of the
Elves. They are quite similar to one another, and the distinction between them is largely the concepts in the language of the "orders", and what specific order a given elf is expected to speak within. Much like the Alerean "formal" and "informal", the orders declare what kind of elf is speaking. Qenaaran elves speak in one order, Shaelarae in another. The dynamic is traditionally of a ruling class over a subservient class, respectfully.
The
araenvitaesilya order of shaelarilya literally means "spoken by the arbiter", and is primarily spoken by Qenaaran elves. The term is archaeic at this point, though many that used it in its original form are still alive. Nonetheless, the elven language in this order is as rigid as the language comes. Araenvitaesailya allows for very clear dictation and simplistic sounds, elegant in its form, its main difference from the common tongue being a continuous nature, with a specific rhythm in the araenvitae order. The language is spoken with emphasis and word-pattern in a two-two-three organization. Within this pattern, any of the three words can be reorganized to fit the scheme, though most often any nouns or subjects will be relegated to the three-syllable spot, and if they are more syllables, the pattern can be broken as that word is put at the end of the scheme.
Oesilya is the primarily Shaelarae order, and literally means "spoken by the servient". This order is overall more loose in structure, and adherence to the order's scheme is not as imperitive to the grammar as in araenvitaesilya. The emphasis pattern for oesilya traditionally is two-three-two, though some will interweave three-two-two, or even two-two-three in the right company.
Shaelarilya script was originally written in sand, and on surfaces that would rapidly deteriorate, the elves content to pass along knowledge verbally. Its glyphs are on two planes at a time, the top plane representing the first two designations of an order's scheme or pattern, and the bottom plane representing the last. The glyphs are designed such that they would be written into soft or silted surfaces, again including sand. Thus, the patterns curve and have a fair amount of negative space in their efficacy.
Talii Languages
Talii'ono is the primary language of the Talii's spiritual and religious rituals. Almost exclusively at this point, it's used for ritual activities and music of those times. The language is passed exclusively through an oral tradition, and has apparently seen virtually no change in the last millennium. The language is largely spoken, but a significant portion of it is also gesticular, and requires the individual speaking it to be fully submereged for all components to be articulated. As a result, especially once the realm was integrated into the cohesive four realms, common Talii'endo was favored.
Talii'endi, also known as common Talii or common Talii'endi, is the most used form of the Talii tongue in the modern world. The language does not require but typically involved a lot of hand gesticulation, in addition to being quite contextual in nature. The language is both audible above and below water, with the most important aspects of communication translatable into the hand-sign language of Talii'endi. The rough gesticulations when completely audible become much more deliberate and actually serve as a means to communicate non-verbally altogether if need be. The spoken component of the language is quite gutteral, and intake of breath is used as a sound for certain consonants and vowels.
There are no written components of either of these, though pictographic records are kept in many domiciles and within holy sites in the form of murals and other wall decorations.
