List of Languages

There is no "common" trade tongue. People generally speak the tongue of their homeland, while most traders and many in border regions are multi-lingual. Church business is conducted in Ubrekti. The mother tongue is generally called Prime, and is thought to have been primarily an oral language. Some particularly ancient monuments, such as the Black Obelisks, bear a unique and undeciphered script that some believe to believe to be Prime.

Demihuman

These languages are presumed to descend from Prime, although the mechanics and alphabets of Dwarven, Human and Elven show almost no similarities. The Gnomish alphabet has strong similarities to the Dwarven one, although Gnomes themselves argue that is due to linguistic corruption during the Gnomish Vassalage rather than a sign that some aspect of Gnomish culture is taken from the Dwarves.

• Gnomish
• Dwarven
• Sidhe
• Halfling (Oral only. Lost and Extinct.)

Human

The Human language tree, as one might imagine from such a short lived and prolific race, is much more diverse. All use one of two alphabets. Since the Human written tradition appears during the Ubrekti Empire, all of the human languages of the civilized mainland use the Ubrekti Alphabet. Written language was only introduced to Ulan in the first century FI, by Mikos Lygit in exile, who taught the Zupan Alphabet, a system of his own creation.

Prime Branch

All human languages are presumed to have originated with Prime, although the subfamilies diverge enormously, and in some cases the similarities are disputed.

Monotypic Languages

These languages are not related enough to any other to group them into subfamilies of Prime.

• Odessan
• Old Ubrekti (Extinct)

Fresian Subfamily

The Fresian tree diverged in relatively recent history within the past couple of thousand years. At least thirty variants are spoken, but any speaker of a Fresian language can understand any other speaker of a different Fresian language, although sometimes with difficulty if the two are of the more divergent subgroups. Listed below are a selection of the most-spoken variants.

• Malusian
• Temforith
• Temrennith
• Dulisian

Petaran Subfamily

Petaran's two major ethnic groups divide strongly on linguistic lines between its nomadic and its agrarian peoples. Bedowyld further divides regionally into several dialectical variants, but Petaran lacks this diversity.

• Old Petaran (Extinct)
• Petaran
• Bedowyld

Ulan Subfamily

Little studied, the Ulan subfamily is quite diverse, and consists of the various tongues spoken by its various tribal families. Writing was not developed independently in the Ulan--the alphabet used there was constructed and introduced by a Mikos Luget, and its use has spread throughout since. The following languages are a selection of the most commonly spoken tongues in the region, although possibly as many as a hundred variants have been noted.

• Root Ulan (Lost) (Oral)
• Medrol
• Yarnich
• Tefthur
• Medrich
• Kreblin
• Bledoc
• Eweack

Ubrekti Subfamily

The languages that derived from that spoken by the Ubrekti Empire are among some of the most influential in the world, and it is the Ubrekti alphabet that is generally used by all save the Ulan subfamilies. Speakers of these languages can often pick up on the vocabulary and structure of words spoken in the others of this group, and simple ideas can often be expressed between them, if the speakers are patient.

Ubrekti deserves special mention, as its status as the language of the empire of the same name has given it a very widespread usage.

• Old Ubrekti (Extinct)
• Ubrekti
• Flanneri
• Celesti
• Hakni