Dwarvish (language)

The language of the dwarves is called by them XXXXXXXXX, meaning "the honest speech," but humans simply call it dwarvish or dwarven. It uses a runic alphabet and is written vertically, in columns ordered left to right. This alphabet is a relatively simple syllabic script with 22 characters, but there is also a much more complex system of runic logograms, numbering in the thousands, which is used in some cases.
The dwarven tongue has remained remarkably consistent across great lengths of time and wide geographical dispersion, with very little variation in dialect even between far-flung dwarven populations who had have no contact for many centuries. Even the corrupted and degraded speech of the foul Derro is fairly comprehensible to other dwarves, offensive as they may find it.