Dysgeiaith (Dusk-yai-th)
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."Dysgeiaith, literally Teaching Tongue but referred to in common as Wise Speak, is a language that was found in the ruins of Afallon. While the erudite nation is very old itself, being one of the first three kingdoms, it is scattered with the remnants of a precursor known only as The Ancient Kingdom which existed before them, yet has been lost to history. However, not every piece of the old nation has been lost, and miraculously a mostly intact dictionary was one such piece found. Working off of that, the scholarly of Afallon reconstructed the language to the best of their abilities, and in the modern day to know Wise Speak is to be considered, well, Wise and among the "enlightened" class of Afallon. Unfortunatley, what could've been another language and tool of education has frequently become yet another barrier and weapon to seperate the wanted and the undesirable of Afallon, even as forces do their best to change old ways in the nation of scholars.
Disclaimer: Since I use IRL languages within Edda for various reasons, and Dysgeiaith is Welsh, this article is more going to be about the cultural/historical aspects of the language rather than the mechanics of it. Because mechanically, it's just Welsh.
History
Shortly before the Era system began in -3200 EE, Afallon had explored various ruins belonging to a precursor kingdom. At first these were misunderstood as eroded rock formations, or attempts at civilization gone awry without the benefits of the Oases, but soon explorers found them for what they were: preserved pieces of a kingdom that came before the Afallonians but after the Mortal Forms, a quirk of history many thought impossible. While they were working on understanding as much as they could, one of these expiditions found a goldmine of information: a mostly intact dictionary! Tasking linguists and historians of the nation with decoding it, the learned got to work piecing apart the alphabet, word structure, phonetics, all of it. It was quite some effort to get it all pieced together, and they had to invent some aspects of the tongue themselves, but by -2852 EE, they had completed this monumental task, aided by new discoveries and inscriptions being found all over Afallon. Over time, it became a beacon of pride at the educational institutions of Afallon, and soon became mandatory education at the most esteemed among them. In conversation the language bloomed and filled in the cracks left by the fog of time, and soon many of the elite and learned of Afallon, those who had the privledge of studying at these esteemed institutes and reaping the benefits post-graduation, were speaking the tongue not just among each other, but in daily life. Since then, it has been a staple of Afallonian culture, alongside their native language still spoken among the average citizen and in the deserts. Unfortunatley, as time has pressed on, and the Enlightened, as they call themselves, look further down and deprive the Unenlightened, so they are called, of oppritunities and resources, speaking another tongue that the Unenlightened are given little chance to learn has become another point of contention between the two classes. It is a shame that the thrill and excitement of the new and the re-discovered can quickly give way to isolation and othering, especially when applied at a national level. In the most recent years, following the rise of Grand Seer Eirian Scheherazade, the young and open-minded among these elites have been putting in the work to open up the chances to learn the language and join the ranks of the scholars, but for as many people who jump at the chance, there are just as many who rightfully protest that their lauded psudeo-language shouldn't be a national requirement for things like jobs and assessments for resources at all. Such bigger change is one that the Grand Seer will have to truly fight for, as the conservative and the elite surround her on all sides.Writing System
Wise Speak, in it's fragmentary state upon discovery, was recorded down using what has been called Formic Runes, basic shapes that the Mortal Forms seemed to use as letters after they became flesh and blood. Most languages of Edda use the Formic Runes as building blocks of their alphabet, even if some have different varieties of the letters. Wise Speak is no different, and as other languages developed in the modern common alphabet, so too were they used to record Wise Speak, albiet with their own unique variations and additions.
Geographical Distribution
Wise Speak, as a relic of the Ancient Kingdom, is only found in Afallon and certain islands to its south and east. In it's modern incarnation, it's still primarily spoken only in Afallon, as scholars, aristocracy, nobility, and those among the Cabal of the Night Sky faith use it to speak with each other in a way that alienates the common class they view as "unenlightened".
Morphology
Wise Speak is a reconstructed language, taken whole-heartedly from remnants of The Ancient Kingdom and put together like a jigsaw puzzle by linguists and historians, until enough of the details to speak in conversations were recovered.
Spoken by
Common Unisex Names
For those in the "enlightened" class of Afallon, being either the noble, the affluent, the scholarly, or the devout, their families are likely to only give them a name in Wise Speak, or at the very least ensure their first name is in the tongue. Many who wish to remain true to their natural Afallonian heritage will have their birth name be in Afallonian, while they take on a name in Wise Speak later in life.
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