Languages - Overview

The world of Irminsul has dozens of languages and dialects spoken across dozens of intelligent species.

Northlands

The languages of the Northlands, though never truly studied or categorized, fall into several broad classifications:

• Orcish
• Goblinoid
• Imperial

Orcish

The orcish languages, as far as any can tell, originates from the far northeastern northlands, from in amongst the fjords and frozen bays of the continent's icy reaches. Each grand tribe has it's own dialect, and each dialect retains varying amount of mutual intelligibility between other dialects. The dialect spoken by the Ascetic tribe is notoriously difficult to understand for other orcish speakers; indeed, non-native speakers often consider the Ascetic dialect to be its own language. These differences necessitate a form of "standard" orcish that is used as primarily a trade and diplomatic language, known as High Orcish. High Orcish can be understood by almost any speaker of orcish, though it sounds extremely archaic and dated to most ears, and poses its own communication issues.
Many orcs, especially those old enough to have experienced slavery at the hands of the southern oppressors, were forbidden from speaking or learning orcish. The current generation of the Grand Tribal Confederacy is mostly bilingual, though knowledge of Southtongue is fading as the older generation either learns a dialect of orcish or dies of old age. There remain sizeable groups of orcs that only speak the Southtongue. These orcs are viewed with a mix of frustration and pity by their clanmates. Knowledge of Southtongue is maintained by at least one member of each clan, however, as a matter of grim practicality; know thy enemy, as it were. This phenomenon has created a curious development of Orcish Southtongue, an emerging dialect of Southtongue. Some orcs consider this a reclaiming, in a sense, while others see it as a remnant of domestication.
Official and distinct dialects:

• Blue Sky
• Swift Rider
• Sandstorm
• Sunbeam
• Mammoth
• Forseer
• Stone Eater
• Cedar Shaper
• River Warden
• Riptide
• Grey Pack
• Gold Tusk
• Moonglow
• Ascetic
• Rainshadow

Goblinoid

To non-speakers, the goblinoid languages are a meaningless mass of chittering and gibbering, punctuated by elongated screeches and chirps. In reality, however, the goblinoid languages are complex clusters of tones extended or compressed and spoken at varying speeds. Meaning is crammed into these elongations and pauses, with the speed and length of syllables influencing meaning.
The goblinoid languages are split into three related but not-intelligible languages: Stonesong, Deepchant, and Bugbear. Stonesong is by far the most widely spoken of the three, followed by Deepchant and Bugbear. Stonesong is the chief language of the Goblin Nations, but all official proceedings are undertaken in all three. The majority of residents of the Goblin Nations speak Stonesong. Stonesong gets its name from the musical nature and vocal traditions of the goblins, Deepchant comes from the low tones and deep voices of the hobgoblins, and Bugbear is so named because the bugbear themselves were too lazy to come up with a better name.
The goblinoid languages and their ancient progenitors come from deep within the earth, though the exact location is unknown. Some sages claim that the orcish languages and goblinoid languages share a distant common ancestor due to several curious similarities between archaic Stonesong and High Orcish, but the similarities are not generally enough to aid comprehension.
Goblinoid Languages:

• Stonesong
• Deepchant
• Bugbear

Imperial and the Minotaur Lands

Minotaur speak a wider variety of languages than anywhere else in the Northlands, few of which bear any relation to each other. The most widely spoken minotaur languages are as follows, though many dozens more exist:

• Common Imperial
• Rainspeak
• Swampie
• Wavecrest
• Inner Sea Jargon

Common Imperial, the official language of the minotaur protectorate, is by far the most widely understood and spoken minotaur language. A convoluted language of inflection, tones, and complex consonant clusters, it is as structured as the society that spawned it. The House of the Faceless Watcher claim that the language was divinely granted to them by The Faceless Watcher itself, and the level of effort required to learn and speak it seems to support this claim. Even native speakers of Common Imperial aren't considered fluent until they are in their teens, and few foreigners learn it with native level fluency.
Rainspeak is spoken by the continental minotaur of the rainlands. Entirely unrelated to Common Imperial, Rainspeak is barked out in rapid succession, the gaps between words being as important as the words themselves, much like rain thundering against the cedars. Swampie is a separate but related language to Rainspeak, spoken by continental groups in the great swamps in the southern Rainlands. It retains limited intelligibility with Rainspeak, though this intelligibility is mostly restricted to common nouns and simple verbs.
Wavecrest is an unrelated, isolated language spoken by the groups on the northern islands off of the coast and north of the House of the Faceless Watcher's directly-controlled lands. The language is elegant, flowy, and punctuated by trills that mimic the cry of seabirds. Curiously, this language is shared by the lizardfolk of the northern islands, who have lived alongside and been fully integrated with minotaur society for as long as any can remember.
Inner Sea Jargon is a trade language formed from a combination of Rainspeak, Wavecrest, and Common Imperial. Originally not capable of communicating advanced topics, the language is now used widely in the Minotaur Protectorate amongst those continentals who chafe under the rule of The House of the Faceless Watcher and who do not have the desire or ability to learn Common Imperial.

Southlands

The languages of the southlands are less varied and more standardized than those of the Northlands. They can be divided by language, rather than category, as none appear related to each other by the estimation of Northland scholars.

• Southtongue, the language of the elven nations. Slight variations exist between nations but they do not affect comprehension.
• Falsetongue, the language of the human empire of Careodunum.
• Silvertongue, the language of the dwarven kingdoms.

Lesser spoken southern languages include:

• Feytongue, the language of the gnomes. Intelligible with Sylvan, with difficulty.
• Swarmtongue, the language of the halflings.

Other Languages

Other languages include

• Aquan
• Ignan
• Terran
• Auran
• Draconic
• Sylvan
• Infernal
• Celestial

Spoken by

• Orc