LIST LANGUAGES

Apkallu - This language has consistent grammar and would be easy to learn save that it is somewhat hard for non apkallu to pronounce, especially underwater, without a lot of practice. Deepwater accents are slower and more enunciated, as sound carries different in the deep ocean and clarity is of utmost importance to apkallu. Surface apkallu accents are fast and sloppy by comparison. Apkallu letters have a flat base known as the surface and a top stroke which always curves upward to the right and resembles stylized waves cresting in rows. Letters might be modified by strokes beneath the letter known as currents. The most commonly used written numeric system comes from the apkallu. Aquan - Seemingly a language shared by intelligent but non-gebbiform oceanic creatures. Even some incapable of speaking it, such as lower-order cetaceans, are able to comprehend it. There is no known written form. Common - This language shares influences of pre-discovery human languages with a great deal of iaret vocabulary overlaid. It enthusiastically borrows (and usually corrupts) loan words from other sources. In Balt it is spoken with very clipped tones. Jewel Cities accents bear far more iaret influences, with drawn-out sibilants, softer pronunciation, and a fondness for long, roundabout description. It is written phonetically using the iaret alphabet. Draconic - Spoken natively by dragons. Draconic is full of long and complex words for extremely nuanced concepts and descriptions. Words are written as single runes built by additions of strokes to the whole. This language comprises the root incantations by which the academic traditions of arcana are performed. It is not known if the draconic language is part of an underlying ontological structure of existence which the dragons adopted, or if dragons somehow originated the language and its magical potency. Iaret - Iaret is sibilant and drawn out, full of flowery turns of phrase. It was originally written using hieroglyphic pictograms, but reforms during the Suzerainty led to the creation of a simplified alphabet. Infernal - an esoteric language of some importance to summoners and planar researchers. While it apparently originates with devils, it is widely understood by explanar beings. Until the Gate War it was used by natural philosophers as an example of language evolved completely separate from Gebbite influences. Muruch - Muruch is musical and flowing, supplemented with gestures and signing to facilitate communicating underwater. It is written with bold and simple symbols which may have evolved from something akin to surface trail signs. As such writing is limited to conveying simple messages. Blue water muruch are able to speak to small fish using this language, even though it does not appear to be related to Aquan. Ozrut - Ozrut is a rough, complex language with little relation to the iaret alphabet now used to write it, as it contains sounds that the iaret letters were not originally meant to express. Its own word for itself is “dvojka,” referencing that both rumian and markotny speak it. The original ozrut alphabet was runic, with symbols that functioned as both pictograms and alphabetic letters. Ptak - The ptak language is composed of clicks, whistles, screeches, and snatches of warbling that is nigh impossible for non-ptak to reproduce and has no written language. Soldati - The soldati language is sharp-sounding and full of prominent expressive vowels. It shows signs of evolving very quickly throughout their claimed conquests, with a great many compound words used to describe previously unfamiliar things and experiences. Wide and toothy galiardi mouths can have trouble with pronunciation, and their dialect is notably mushier, with some sounds substituted for their own ease. Stretti adopt local language loanwords with more avidity than their larger cousins, who see it as disgraceful when a soldati term could be used instead. Tylwyth - Spoken tylwyth has been described as sounding like gusts of wind and is very difficult for most to speak. The sounds emerge from the mouth eerily, as if produced by no physical mechanism within. It is near infinite in dialect variance, and two Tylwyth speaking can often discern much about each other from subtle differences in their accent. Tylwyth is written in seldom-broken lines of cursive letters. Formal writing is often done in spirals. Voice - This is more properly a dialect of common, which diverged sharply during the isolation of the western steppe tribes following the Great Khet. During these periods of starvation and barbarism, the written component was forgotten and later replaced by a new alphabet promulgated by the Assemblage. It is understandable by speakers of Common, but the grammar is slightly different, and it is peppered with jargon particular to life under the Khalqist Assemblage.