Basic

History

Though speculative, it is believed that Basic was created from the first interactions of Tabaxi and early humans as a method of inter-species communication. The earliest discovered document containing written Basic was found by the Temu'jai Sultanate, approximately 80 miles south of Artemi Lake. The document is consistent with early forms of record keeping; made of hardened clay and etchings carved by a sharpened bone or stick. From what is legible, the tablet describes a marriage proposal between to prominent tribes and has thus been dubbed "The Unity Letter" by scholars. Current methods of dating place the tablet's creation between 150 A.T. and 200 A.T.

Due to its widespread influence and use in international matters such as trade, diplomacy, and legislature, Basic is recognized as the official language of Goia. Internal communications may vary with specific dialects of Basic, but these are rarely used outside their own realm of influence.

Spoken Form

The purest form of Basic is punctuated by harsh consonants and soft vowels, while regional dialects often blend these sounds and become more tonal. In extreme instances, the consonants are replaced with glottal "clicks" or pauses, as seen in the rare nomadic dialects of the Temu'jai Sultanate. On the other spectrum is the harsh sounding Pesea Dynasty dialects, which almost entirely remove the need for vowels.

Written Form

While the spoken form of Basic can be seen as having a familiarity within each unique dialect, the written form of Basic is almost entirely dependent on location. While some nations use majuscule and minuscule characters, others rely purely on forms of ideograms or glyphs. For instance, the Pesean written language is purely hieroglyphic, relying on symbolic text rather than individual characters. Other unique variations include the linear form used by United Provinces of Credia, which is believed to have been influenced by their early systems of mathematics, or the geometric ideograms of the early Temu'jai Sultanate tribes.

Due to their unique allographic structures, entire fields of studies have been focused purely on how such wide variations came to be, especially since there is such a strong relationship between the spoken forms of Basic throughout Goia. This has led scholars to the conclusion that any communication from the Tabaxi to early man was done strictly via spoken methods. An unforeseen result of these discrepancies is the innate difficulty for one to master more than one written form, as well as the easy identification of forgeries or false documents.

Universal Tongues

Widely regarded as the first spoken language, all other phonetic languages can trace their origins back to the foundation of Basic. Linguistic scholars refer to all other languages as "informal dialects" of Basic.

One would be hard-pressed to find a person without at least rudimentary knowledge of the language.