Council English
While the Council worlds relied mostly on the languages of their dominant cultures during the Silence, English remained as an academic curiosity, regarded in much the same way as Latin on Old Terra. In 3051, when House Dionysus ship The Fenris arrived on Corinth III, it was English that allowed the cousin civilizations to communicate. The two worlds developed a pidgin language, using English as a basis but simplifying the grammar and adding vocabulary from both Spanish and Hindi. As more Council worlds were brought into the fold, each language added its own terms and expressions to the growing library. By 3058, all extant House worlds had been recontacted and the language had become a complicated morass of contradictory terms and shifting grammatical rules. It was clear that structure was needed, but no organization existed to make the needed reforms.
In 3060, the first Imperial Council was elected from the nobles of each world for the express purpose of creating a formal trade language. It was language and its importance to commerce that brought together the organization that would eventually found the Divine Imperium. As ever, the cynical would remark, it is credits that move the stars. Council English, colloquially known as modern English, was codified by the Imperial Council in 3063, following three long years of revision and debate. Efforts were made to restore the core characteristics as English, though this decision was not made without dissent. In particular High Priestess Delphine, of House Hera, voiced her objections but was ultimately outvoted.
Council English is technically a creole language, drawing the majority of its vocabulary, grammar, and syntax from the English of Old Terra but it borrows vocabulary from all the major languages of the Council worlds. Though there are enough similarities between Council English and its predecessor that a time-displaced tourist from Old Terra could communicate, there are sufficient borrowed terms and shifted definitions that much of the nuance would be lost on them and communicating complex ideas would be all but impossible. The language has seen few revisions in the century-and-a-half since its definition and there is significant commercial interest in maintaining it as-is; with so many worlds involved, language drift could have catastrophic consequences to the Imperial economy.
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