Naacal

Naacal is a language supposedly spoken on the lost continent of Mu, according to the pseudo-science of British author James Churchward. H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price later incorporated Churchward's invented language into the Cthulhu Mythos in the short story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". 
==Pseudo-Science==
The term "Naacal" first appears in the work of Augustus Le Plongeon (1825-1908), a 19th century archaeologist who believed that civilization originated with the Mayans of the Yucatan peninsula, then spread via Atlantis to the rest of the world. Le Plongeon called the Mayan adepts who carried civilization across the globe Naacal, which he said meant "exalted".Wikipedia, "Naacal". 
Author James Churchward adopted the term in his book The Lost Continent of Mu, Motherland of Man (1926), an ostensibly nonfiction work considered to be pseudo-science, or lacking in proper scientific verification. Churchward used the word "Naacal" to refer to both the people of Mu, a continent that supposedly vanished under the Pacific Ocean, and to their language. Churchward claimed to have learned Naacal in India, where it was still spoken by only three people, allowing him to read Naacal tablets containing the lost history of Mu.Jason Colavito Blog, "The Naacal Tablets and Theosophy", Jason Colavito, January 21, 2013. 
==Alphabet==
Churchward provided a Naacal alphabet (labeled "Mu"), comparing it to Mayan and Egyptian: 
 
==In Lovecraft's Fiction==
In "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", by Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price, Harley Warren is described as a "South Carolina mystic whose studies in the primal Naacal language of the Himalayan priests had led to such outrageous conclusions." Churchward is name-dropped in the story, as Etienne-Laurent de Marigny says of a parchment found in Randolph Carter's car, "Col. Churchward declares it is not Naacal." (The Swami Chandraputra later confirms that "the language of those hieroglyphics is not Naacal but R’lyehian, which was brought to earth by the spawn of Cthulhu countless cycles ago.") 
The revision tale "Out of the Aeons", written by Lovecraft for Hazel Heald, describes "a vanished continent...which legend has given the name of Mu, and which old tablets in the primal Naacal tongue speak of as flourishing 200,000 years ago." The scroll created by the High-Priest T'yog for protection from Ghatanothoa is said to be written in "the hieratic Naacal of his order."
==Other Appearances==
August Derleth also makes reference to the Naacal language in "The House on Curwen Street" and The Lurker at the Threshold.Cthulhu Files, Cthulhu Universalis, "Section N". 
==References==
Category:Artefacts Originating From Mythos-Adjacent Works