Languages

Languages
There are many languages spoken on Oenus. Most owe their roots to the ancient Dominari tongue of Ollambac, The Language of Dragons, The Language of the Halflings of Pridan, or the unknowably origined beast tongue.

Languages of Ollambac
Most of these are descendant from the Ancient Dominari language. This makes it a fairly linguistically homogeneous place from an academic standpoint. These languages are very complex, so despite it being somewhat 'easy' for a speaker of one to learn another they are not commonly intelligable despite their similarities. The details matter a great deal in these languages. These are difficult languages to learn if one doesn't pick up at least one of them natively. These languages use word-order syntax and pictographic representation of sound patterns for their written forms.

Ancient Dominari had a German kind of sound. This was lost over time and the languages of Ollambac now carries a Sumerian/Babylonian kind of sound with many Ancient Dominari names for people and places (or bastardizations thereof). This shift occured due to the influence of the colloquial tongues of the non-ruling castes of the Old Dominion becoming accepted but lacking in standardization, structure, and a written form. Ancient Dominari utilized word-order syntax when spoken. Among high class members of the Dominion a form known as High Dominari was used which carried a pictographic written form with no morphological process in each pictograph. A single symbol carried a single immutable meaning and their order was irrelevant with no correlation whatsoever to a sound - there was no way to read it aloud and this fundamentally disagreed with the spoken form in syntax. Low Dominari was the same as the spoken form of High Dominari but utilized pictographs to represent sound patterns. Through the use of several hundred pictorgraphs every sound pattern could be represented.

Languages of Aelkot
The languages of Aelkot are descendant from the same Dominari langauge of Ollambac but there is a strong influence of Draconic on the development of the language. Notably the linguistic shift away from the Dominari vocalization pattern did not occur. Dragons are native to Aelkot and their language proved to be strongly influential on the development of language there - generally causing a shift away from word-order syntax to morphological syntax. Draconic is unspeakable by humanoids due to limitations on the humanoid voicebox but it can be understood by the ears of lesser creatures. It is a language with both an alphabet and a morphological syntax making it astoundingly easy to learn. Wizard's Draconic is a more or less identical language which has undergone a vocal shift to a form speakable by humanoids.

Draconic
Draconic is the language of Dragons. It is unspeakable by lesser creatures but can be understood by them with very little trouble. It is a rigidly structured language with morphological syntax - words are given grammatical purpose by the addition of prefixes and suffixes and sentences constructed independant of word order. It is written with an alphabet. The Draconic script is angular, consisting mostly of lines at different positions and is easily carved in stone.

Wizard's Draconic
Wizard's Draconic is a form of Draconic which has undergone a vocalization shift to be producable by the humanoid voice box. This was done by speakers of Middle Ael and so it sounds similar to many modern languages. It utilizes the Draconic script but can be transliterated in the Ael script.

Ael
Ael is a language descendant from the old High Dominari language spoken by the first Elves to flee Ollambac. Over time it became strongly influenced by Draconic taking on a hybrid morphological/word order based syntax and adopting an alphabet based on the Old Draconic script.

Spoken in Imperial Aelessia, Caywood , the Kingdom of Amarth

Ael shares a script with Dat and Detsich.

Calth
Calth descends from the Low Dominari tongue spoken by early immigrants from Ollambac and has very little influence from native languages. Over time it developed a more fluid speach pattern but it retains the Dominari sound pattern pictographs.

Spoken in Lanneim, Caleah , and Udnor.

Calth sahres a script with Bruinan and is mutually intelligable with that language in it's written form.

Bruinan
Bruinan is an offshoot language developed from self-imposed isolation of certain religious groups within Calth-speaking groups. It is faster language with a tendency to roll off the tongue. Speakers of Bruinan and Calth use the same written language as only the vocalizations have changed.

Spoken in as a primary language in The Republic of Pwllheney and Ynnean.

Bruinan shares a script with Calth and is mutually intelligable with that language in it's written form.

Nari
Nari is a language which grew as a natural progression of High Dominari. It is a simplified and more uniform natural growth of that tongue using a system of pictographs to express itself in written form.

Spoken in the Kingdom of Maesteg, the Kingdom of Colme.

Nari shares a script with Detsche and Marne.

Marne
Marne is a faster and more rythmic tongue, similar in many ways to Nari and using the same script.

Spoken in Chionvoie, Amalat , Caprissa , Avias , and Trigio.

Marne shares a script with Marne and Nari.

Detsche
Detsche is a language that formed from the intermixing of intermediate Nari grammar and writing with the Middle Ael Lexicon.

Spoken in Hemsewald, the Betzenheim Protectorate , and Lantwe.

Detsche shares a script with Nari and Marne.

Detsich
Early settlers in the North of Aelkot spoke a mixture of Bruinan and Ael. Detsich and Dat both grew from this pidgin language. Detsich remains very close to the Ael tongue, utilizing some but not all of the Bruinan grammar, the Ael Lexicon and writing system.

Spoken in The Cair Lands, The Wydal Union, Bonnestadt, and Grand Hofferund.

Detsich is mutually intelligable in both written and spoken form with Dat. It shares a script with Dat and Ael.

Dat
Dat is spoken in the far west of Aelkot. It is a language born from the mixing of the Ael Lexicon and script with the Bruinan grammar.

Dat is mutually intelligable in both written and spoken form with Detsich. It shares a script with Detsich and Ael.

Spoken in Imperial Muscan and the Utrentian Empire.

Languages of Arno and Pridan
The native Halflings of Pridan have several tongues with ancient and unknown roots. When the taller folk settled in the western parts of those lands they brought their own language with them which blended very quickly with the native ones.

Languages of Marfet
Marfet was mostly inhabited only by beats prior to the arrival of Elves from Ollambac. Their language remains similar to Ancient Dominari, but most other tongues are found there from the many immigrants to that land.