Common

iOverview

Common is the collective language used throughout the world. It is intended to simplify communication between ethnic groups and races. It lessens the need for translators, and it facilitates trading and peace agreements. The Common alphabet uses glyphs otherwise called the Standard Galactic Alphabet.

Origins and History

The language has no known creation date, but historians and anthropologists believe it was invented sometime in the late Gold Age. According to tradition, a partnership of Humans and Testificates created Common as a trading language, saving Villagers from having to learn the various human dialects, a subject with which they struggle. It later caught on as a general means of communication between the two races. With time, it gained its status as a universal language when Enders living in the Overworld picked it up.

Common had reached widespread use by the Iron Age. It was brought to the Nether by colonizers and explorers during the start of the Nether Wars. Attempts to replace the native Nethertongue with Common failed. (In the present day, communities of human Nether Settlers only speak Nethertongue.)
Hailith Chase made Common the official language of Treehold during her reign in the middle Netherite Age. She wanted it like this so correspondences and decrees from the monarchy would have a consistent language. While she herself did not really care what the common people spoke, some of her later descendants enforced it on the people. Richard II, the much-hated final ruler of the Chase dynasty, was infamous for his violent enforcement of Common as the official tongue of Treehold.

Writing System

The Common alphabet, also sometimes called the Standard Galactic Alphabet, is used not only for Common itself but for several other languages. Villagers, for instance, use it when writing in their own Testif language.

Syntax

Common has a purposely flexible syntax. It considers almost any arrangement of words in a sentence to be grammatically correct. Thus, it allows for the alternative syntax used in other languages and dialects.