Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Imythess, the border between dreams and reality. We hope you enjoy your visit.

Imythess is a creative writing board where you narrate the story of a character in the medieval land of Imythess, on the planet Chaon. Each topic is an opportunity for your character to interact with the world and its peoples by cooperatively writing pieces of a story with other members, one post at a time. We call this role-playing, because you assume the identity of your character as if it were your own.

In order to play, you must register an account for each character you would like to write about, and begin their tale by filling out their basic profile information: Race (human, elf, demon, etc.), class (warrior, mage, etc.), physical appearance, and any other personal details you would like to describe. You are also encouraged to come up with some background history information for what your character's life has been like up to the point at which their story in Imythess begins.

There is no approval process or application required to join, so long as you follow the rules then you are free to write whatever character details you choose. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Create a character now!


If you're already a member, you can log into your account below:


Username:   Password:
Reply
Major Languages of Imythess and Beyond; Languages
Topic Started: Wed Mar 29, 2017 11:21 pm (703 Views)
Ozan[Adm]
Member Avatar


Major Languages of Imythess and Beyond


Communication is essential in a world full of diverse cultures and sapient species. Without it, coexisting with anyone who looks different from you would be a distant dream. This article summarizes the main types of languages that can be found in the continent of Imythess. It also provides some background and description for a select number of specific, major languages spoken in the setting, with a special emphasis on those found natively in Imythess. You are always welcome to design and write about your own languages at any time.

Table of Contents

  • Types of Languages

  • Examples of Major Languages

    • Imythessian Common
    • Commerce Languages from Other Continents
    • Traditional Debonese
    • Istani
    • Balefiren Bridgetongue
    • Rehel
    • Elvish Language Family
    • Brightspeak
    • Highplane "Broad-Scale" Languages






Types of Languages

Languages grow and change through active use. Different tongues can arise in order to fulfill some sort of need for communication within or between groups of people. Depending on how languages are used, they can split into separate dialects (a way of speaking a language unique to a particular subgroup). Over time and with enough isolation between groups of dialects, they can also turn into separate languages unto themselves, forming a language family of similar tongues. The distinction between a dialect and a new language is nebulous, but some are based on how mutually intelligible they are: in essence, how well a native speaker of one tongue can understand a native speaker of another. If languages are mutually intelligible, they are probably closely related.

In Imythess and beyond, most languages have at least one of the following major uses. A tongue used for commerce likely arose from different conditions or needs than one that arose from racial/species isolation, for example.


Commerce

Imythess is highly multilingual, and many languages coexist in small areas. In no region does a single language rule absolutely. In that case, how can two groups of people who speak two totally different languages do business or enact diplomacy? A commerce language helps with this.

Also called a lingua franca, commerce languages are most often used in situations where people with differing native languages are trying to interact. They act as a sort of common ground. These types of languages also vary widely in scale; some are local, some regional, and some even continental. Imythessian Common is a prime example, as it is the most widely used commerce language on the continent.

In some cases an especially powerful political entity can, through sheer force of influence, cause their political language to also serve as the area's commerce language. This is the case in the Istan Desert, where the dominating Istani Empire has caused the Istani tongue to serve as a language of trade and diplomacy even between all of the myriad, smaller cultures and ethnic groups found in the region.

Generally the more rural the population of people, the less likely they'll know a large-scale commerce language like Imythessian Common. They'd be more likely to know their native cultural or political tongue and possibly a local, smaller-scale commerce language.


Political

If you were to map out all of the speakers of a given language based on where they live, those who use a political language would, more often than not, be found within the borders of a certain nation. Immigration and emigration complicates this, but overall these tongues tend to be the "official language" of a nationstate.

You can often see the use of a political language as a sign of where someone is from or where someone is living. It's more related to geography (although it can also be related to culture in some cases). For example, Balefiren Bridgetongue is spoken predominantly by people from the Balefire Dominion, but also by people who moved there or otherwise need to communicate with the locals more effectively than using a commerce language (such as in a rural location where a commerce language might be less prevalent).


Cultural

Cultural languages ignore political barriers. They develop in groups of people who live in fairly close proximity and have a similar way of life: social structure, kinship, religion, traditions, rituals, festivals, values, taboos, folklore, food, and all of the other aspects that make up a culture.

Since cultures can exist within or between political boundaries, these languages are distributed more based on how those groups of people move within the world. However, in cases where a country is composed of one major culture, the political language and cultural language would be the same thing.

Rehel presents an example of a cultural language straight from recent events. Spoken by the Stranded (the people of Rejevi who were left in Striberg after the White Queen's invasion), Rehel allowed people who shared that culture to communicate in their mother tongue despite being part of a larger country.


Racial

Some sapient species in Imythess are both gregarious and isolated. That isolation could be geographic, such as a group of elves being confined to a specific habitat. It could also be some kind of cultural or political isolation, such as the human slums that arose in Balefire due to political and economic pressures. Regardless of the method, this isolation might keep members of one species close together to such an extent that culture and politics make less of an impact by comparison.

In some rare cases, smaller nationstates in Imythess can be dominated heavily by a single species. For example, in Norwood Kingdom, Elvish is both a political language and a racial language because elves are the overwhelmingly predominant species. As of this writing, Norwood is the only viable example of this being the case among major nations. The Deep Cities used to be this way, but is rapidly changing as it integrates into the Ivory League and becomes more welcoming to outsiders.





Examples of Major Languages

The following is an index of noteworthy languages in the setting. These are tongues mentioned heavily in lore articles and Storyteller-led events, but they are by no means exhaustive. Imythess is highly multilingual and contains far more countries and cultures than are listed in Core Imythess Lore or Supplemental Imythess Lore. For player-made languages, check Local Lore.

For the sake of encouraging additional player-made lore, only one cultural language is detailed here.



Imythessian Common
Commerce (Continental)

With a name often shortened to Common, this is the preeminent language of trade and diplomacy in Imythess. Still, not everyone who lives in Imythess is fluent in this language, and aptitude greatly varies regionally. You are much more likely to have grown up learning the language if you were born in an area where it is common for people to travel internationally -- which usually means densely settled areas such as cities. This is the language of long-distance wanderers, adventurers, merchants, ambassadors, and any other person who frequently moves from country to country in the Imythess continent.

People are less likely to know very much Common (or no Common at all) if they live in rural areas, remote or poorly settled areas, or areas where people tend not to travel internationally due to economic disparity or extreme environmental conditions. In that case, they will instead speak their native tongue and possibly a more local commerce language.



Commerce Languages from Other Continents
Commerce (Continental and Intercontinental)

We now know that at least some of the continents neighboring Imythess also have continental commerce languages. Choer Common (used by the Katai Union and others) and Kalackim Common (used by the United Dynasties of Abnathea and others) are mutually intelligible with Imythessian Common, yet are not quite mutually intelligible with each other. Choer Common is more intelligible with Imythessian Common than Kalackim is.

This suggests that Imythessian Common might have acted as a progenitor language of some kind, although the mechanism for this is unknown considering the continent's historical isolation from the rest of the world. Some cite religion as their explanation, while others wildly hypothesize that these common languages are somehow hardwired into the sapient species of the world. For these reasons the Ivory League has suggested making Imythessian Common a "world language" used for intercontinental communication, but this idea has yet to gain any ground.



Traditional Debonese
Commerce (Regional)

When the Council of Clans -- now headquartered in Kellen -- was first formed, a common language was suggested. Before then, the myriad horselord clans and "wandering nations" of the Debon Plains all spoke the cultural languages of their ancestors. Cultures that were geographically closer together had a tendency to have more mutually intelligible languages or languages that evolved from a common progenitor.

In order to avoid accusations of bias toward one cultural tongue or another, Traditional Debonese was actually a language that died generations ago and was deliberately revived for this very purpose. It took a very long time to catch on as a commerce language, since the different peoples felt that their cultures were being undermined by this artificial insistence. It took a new generation of open-minded youth to finally allow the language to catch on.

Nowadays, Traditional Debonese is taught to most youth in the Debon Plains alongside their mother tongue (their native cultural language). Knowing the language allows you to communicate with most of the native peoples in the region, with the exception of cultures that are extremely remote, hyper-traditionalist, or have never had contact with the Council of Clans. If you're in Debon and no one in the area seems to understand Common, try Traditional Debonese instead.



Istani
Political (Istan City, Rozanai), Commerce (Istan City)

Originally used by the ancient human clans that predated the founding of the Istani Empire, this is an example of a racial language that later "diluted" into a political one due to influence from many different outside forces. Istani uses a huge number of word roots, grammatical conventions, and borrowed words from the jundari (star elf) language, which is part of the Elvish racial language family. In a way, this reflects the changing of the balance of power in ancient Istan from predominantly jundari to predominantly human.

Istani comes in three speech forms. These are not quite dialects, but simply specialized ways of using the language based on the context of the situation. Canal Istani, named after the numerous artificial rivers used like streets inside the city's walls, is the speech form used in most situations: basic conversation, business, etc. Military Istani, used by the armies of Istan and Rozanai, is focused on hyper-condensed grammar and efficient conveyance of ideas. Formal Istani is used for being as respectful as possible, such as when you're speaking to someone of higher status.

With the founding of the kingdom of Rozanai by former Istani government officials, the Istani tongue has been imposed on these political boundaries even though most civilians in the area speak their local cultural languages or Traditional Debonese. This has resulted in some initial friction, but will likely calm down as time goes on.



Balefiren Bridgetongue
Political, Commerce (Extraplanar)

Balefiren Bridgetongue (Vorbescbakrål, lit. "bridging-speak") is a creole-language that developed from both Imythessian Common and the local Ethereal Plane tongues. It is spoken most often in the greater Gloomwood region and serves as the official language of Balefire.

This language formed during Balefire's time in the Shadow Plane (the local term for the Ethereal Plane). With Imythessian Common as a base, many words and language conventions were adopted from the languages spoken by Ethereal Plane natives. In its early stages, it was a pidgin: a grammatically simplified tongue that allowed for communication between Balefire and surrounding ethereal groups. As time went on, it evolved from a pidgin into its own stable tongue as it was passed down from generation to generation, gaining native speakers in the process.



Rehel
Cultural, Political (Modern Striberg)

This language is not from Imythess. It is a cultural language from the continent of Kalack that, through events in recent history, spread to Imythess. When Imythess was invaded by Sibylla, the queen of a mana-starved nation called Rejevi, the nationstates partially united to defeat her forces. However, this army was not completely exterminated. Stuck in a strange land, these "Stranded" settled into Imythess -- primarily Striberg -- as a downtrodden people. The Stranded spoke Rehel, the political language of Rejevi.

The Stranded Revolution (ST02, "Seeking Flames") changed things. No longer beaten down and now one of the dominant subcultures in Striberg, Rehel grew in usage and popularity. When word arrived that another Kalackim nation called Abnathea conquered and absorbed Rejevi, the Stranded in Striberg felt a great need to keep their native tongue alive despite the destruction of their country. Rehel is in the process of transplanting into Imythess, in a way.



Elvish Language Family
Racial, Political (Norwood Kingdom)

While it is not universally the case, scholars have observed that elves (and their various subspecies specialized for certain habitats) either currently or historically tend to gather into tight-knit social groups that exclude other species. Different scholars present different hypotheses for why this is the case. For example, this could be because they naturally congregate with other long-lived species, creating slower cultural progression and a greater sense of isolation.

Regardless of the reason, elves are the prevailing case study for racial language development and retainment in Imythess. Within the language family a dominant, generic Elvish language has given rise to numerous variants based mainly on subspecies isolation. Of those variants, Wood Elvish (the political language of the Kingdom of Norwood) and Mountain Elvish (used in the Gwilikith Mountains, with a separate Dragonspine dialect) are the most common. Elvish languages tend to be mutually intelligible.

Surprisingly, these languages even manage to proliferate when elf populations are mixed with other species and cultures.



Brightspeak
Racial

In the Gloomwood backswamps, a land of absolute darkness at all times, bioluminescence is found in species at every level of the food chain including sapient apex predators. Brightspeak might refer to any complex, culturally inherited communication used by species with bioluminescence. It is strictly a visual language and is not spoken or written. Individuals lacking the proper bioluminescent organs are physically incapable of speaking Brightspeak, but can learn to understand it with familiarity and practice.

Different species use different types of Brightspeak. The most famous form of the language -- the type that most people think of when the generic term Brightspeak is used -- is Gloomwood Werewolf Brightspeak, which is often employed in combination with traditional speech and writing in other languages such as Bridgetongue. Gloomwood Werewolves are known for their alien, monstrous appearance, their rapid regeneration and their bioluminescent markings, the colors and brightness of which they can control consciously. In this case, Brightspeak is used to communicate ideas far faster than traditional speech or writing.

Since very few people outside the species group know these languages, they can also be used for secret codes. For example, the Ivory League has intercepted clandestine communications from Marquise Karstoff of Balefire that use hard-to-crack "color codes" loosely inspired by Brightspeak.



Highplanar "Broad-Scale" Languages (Celestial, Abyssal)
Commerce, Racial, Cultural, Political

When discussing the ways that sapient highplanar beings communicate, we most often use extremely broad terms: Celestial language and Abyssal language. While useful when talking about highplanars communicating with lowplanars using lowplanar means, these are gross oversimplifications when referring to highplanars communicating with each other.

Keep in mind that parallel planes are worlds unto themselves, and they contain all the racial, political and cultural variation that Chaon does. This will result in all kinds of languages that fit within any and all of the language types.

Since they live in an entirely different world with different rules of nature, highplanars often develop means of communication that are beyond the ability of lowplanars to comprehend. This is especially true in regards to ways to display the written word. Information from the highplanes must be transcribed or "compressed" in some way in order to be published in Chaon.

These oversimplified "Celestial and Abyssal languages" -- sometimes called mouth-languages by the entities themselves -- are still extremely useful, since many highplanars find themselves in contact with lowplanars. These languages attempt to take some of the more complex communication forms and give them a format that lowplanars can perceive properly.
Offline Profile Quote To Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Culture and History Lore · Next Topic »
Reply

Top RP SitesVote for Imythess at Top Site List Planet
Top Site Lists
Misty Woods created by Helena & Cory of ZNR