Languages

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Please help Hollowworld by improving it. This includes: reviewing the Engem section.

(*Credit to Rygan)*
Altera is host to a number of differing cultures and races. Each of these groups bring forth their own dialect or language, and while many of these are able to be learned, some remain secret to only their kind, outsiders having to work hard to learn. Others are from long endangered and extinct races that no longer exist, rendering their language either near impossible to learn (for example, while technically extinct there are a handful of nakam remaining who know Verba) or unable to be learned.

To show these languages being spoken, the symbols "<" and ">" are used around a sentence. Elvish, for example, would look like

## Learning Languages

The only languages a new character can begin with are:

* Common
* Their race's language
* Their subculture's, if applicable *(please carefully read their language section)*

## Core Languages of Altera

Core race languages are the most commonly seen in Altera, as they originate from the most populous races. It is usually quite easy to find a teacher for core languages perhaps barring Mok'yra, language of the moor elves. **Non-moorish races can never fully be fluent in this language**, which is explained in further detail below.

### Common

*For further questions, inquire to staff*

Common is rather aptly named, being the most spoken language among all races, namely humans and halflings. Beginning rather humbly as the language of the humans, due to their nature and restless need for adventure Common has spread via trade to all races on Altera in some form or another. It remains highly popular for a race to teach its people Common, as to remain relevant for both world politics and trading. Certain special cases are existing, of course, such as an isolated forest elven village that remains blissfully away from the outside world and has no need to bother learning it.

While there is no special criteria for learning/starting out with Common, please do keep in mind that you should *always* have an explanation for knowing it that makes sense in-character.

For example, a caparii child who has lived in a village that spoke only Fae their entire life would not be likely to know Common on a masterful level right from the beginning. **Common is exempt from the use of "<" and ">" and is typed normally.**

### Elvish/Elven

*For further questions, inquire to staff*

The language of the Elves, it remains popular on Altera due to the large amount of Elves that near rival Humans in population. Elvish has been spoken among the Elven breeds for their entire history, dating back to times before the first Exodus. However, this does not mean it is spoken in the same manner by each. A silver elf raised with proper Elvish is likely to sound different than a forest elf who has more than likely received a more relaxed education, in both word choice and accent.

Characters of any other race are more liable to know this, but knowing it for the sake of knowing it is *highly discouraged and overpowered*. Please use common sense on what is a legitimate reason for knowing Elvish. A human who regularly trades with Elves is more likely to know Elvish than an Earthspawn soldier who has lived among his kind.

### Mok'yra

*For further questions, inquire to Cukie1 or staff*

Spoken and created by the moor elves, Mok'yra is a sickeningly twisted version of Elvish. During the times before the second Exodus, when they were referred to as 'corrupted elves', there was a strong wish to help Queen Grief in her war efforts. Despite the Corrupted Elves' efforts and amassed army they had persistent issues with the other races of Elf, particularly their scouts. Regardless of the codes and ciphers they used enemy scouts were fully capable of intercepting important messages and spying.

Frustrated and brutally dedicated to their cause, the corrupted clves tasked their linguists to carefully create an entire new language based off of Elvish. This new language would then be adopted, Mok'yra being born. When the war concluded it spread amongst the corrupted elves rapidly and replaced traditional Elvish.

To learn Mok'yra one must either offer a great thing in exchange, or be of the greatest of allies. Other Elves are capable of learning Mok'yra to a decent degree, while other races are only capable of learning the basics. **Only Moor Elves are truly capable of mastering Mok'yra. Non-Moor Elf characters should not begin knowing Mok'yra.**

Mok'yra has a decently sized list of words available on its lore page.

### Horgaahn

*For further questions, inquire to PirateP00f or staff*

**Other races are most likely not to learn it.** Not even all Dwarves know it because it's like Latin in our world. A Dwarf has to really trust you in order to teach it to you. There are few cases of humans that know even basic Horgaahn, partially because it is as ancient as the rocks. It is the language of Korog and the first language both Zustid and Babin were taught, if you believe the folk legends of the dwarves.

From that moment, so far back in time, the language hasn't evolved much as the dwarves learned to speak Common when they ran into humans and traded with them. The fact that it is not an evolved language explains the fact that for a multitude of similar words, there is only one word in Horgaahn. The language embodies the being of the Dwarves; it sounds rocky, it is rudimentary, and the amount of words is relatively lacking.

Addressing each other in Horgaahn is seen as a token of nobility and sense of respect. It is one of the many things the dwarves are proud of and will live on as long as their are noble dwarves to speak it. While using the Common tongue, you might catch a dwarf shouting a Horgaahn phrase every now and then, as the language is rooted in their everyday life. They cheer with it at a beer, they greet with it, they curse with it.

### Fae

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The language of the caparii, supposedly gifted to them by Shalherana alongside life.

**Only caparii characters should begin knowing Fae.**

## Non-Core Languages

These cultures may possibly have their own language, free from any of the racial restrictions when it comes to learning. However, this does not mean that they should be treated with any less respect when it comes to following the rules for learning. Below are the player created culture languages that may be learned.

### Rede

*For further questions, inquire to Cap or staff*

Rede is the language of the human subculture, the Anhalder.

After the fractured fall of the Lavoyard empire, the Lavoy language was lost to the fate of the dead tongue, remembered only by a few noblemen and scholars. Taking its place was the language of the western imperial commoner, Rede, which developed from Common across a period of hundreds, or perhaps thousands of years. Considered poor and harsh on the ears by noblemen of old Lavoyard, the language was isolated only to the lower classes in some far reaches of the empire.

When the Hallon dynasty came to power, with it they brought the language of their western territories to take the place of the forgotten Lavoy. Official documents and church texts are often written twice, once in Rede and once in old Arcturian, a language considered outdated even during the time of Lavoyard. This custom is purely due to old traditions refusing to die, as the only old Arcturian the common man knows is a prayer or two taught by his priest, and has little use for ancient tongues.

### Marjash

*Main article: Marjash*

*For further questions, inquire to Baron, Michcat, or staff*

Soolerans were once a desert people, and to this day their language is as dry and coarse as the sands they were born in and go to die in. To the uninitiated, the language of the Soolera, Marjash, is a language filled with hard consonants and tricky vowels. Marjash is not overly difficult to learn, with only three tenses and many words belonging to a group having common roots. For example, the verb “to eat” is expressed as “vamarh”, while the noun “food” is said as “valosh”, both words sharing the root “va”, indicating the words belong to the foods group.

Marjash, the name of the language, literally translates as 'the knowledge of the legendary', due to the root combination of mar- and ja-, with the sh suffix added to define it as a noun.

## Legacy Languages

Legacy races are races no longer considered a part of the core race category due to not being playable beyond procreation. One may only learn a Legacy language from a legacy character. For the majority of these languages, a person of another race not native to it will ***never be entirely fluent and must learn it from one of their own kind.***

### Eark'Zian

*For further questions, inquire to staff*

While the earthspawn have had issues rallying under one banner in the past, they retain a common tongue among themselves. During the time in which the greylings enslaved the earthspawn, they developed a crude yet effective language as means of secretly speaking to each other to avoid the wrath of their masters. Over their time of being a free race, Eark'zian has been refined to its current state today. As the trend amongst most races is, they consider their language a treasure and fiercely preserve it.

*"Only those who truly gain their trust will ever learn the meaning of the clipped guttural shouts they exchange." -*King Oguk's thread on Eark'zian.

**Any non-earthspawn characters should *not* have the knowledge of how to speak Eark'zian unless correctly taught.**

An amount of basic words can be found on its lore page.

### Verba

*For further questions, inquire to Michcat or staff*

The nakam are now near-extinct, aside from a handful. This makes learning Verba extremely hard (but theoretically possible) for obvious reasons. Used on their home island of Kavdek, the language of the nakam is exotic and completely foreign to most of Altera. It cannot be learned by any form of text.

Verba has a number of words available on its index page.

### Greyling

*For further questions, inquire to Jak or staff*

Greyling, as can any language can be learned to read if you are taught by a native reader. Its reliance on a completely different grammatical structure and the seeming lack of any full stops or other punctuation means that even if you are fluent, the spoken word is preferred.

The same applies for writing it. One can also understand Greyling being spoken, if they are taught, although this is a skill that is restricted to those who study it from a Greyling themselves. However, **speaking Greyling is a near impossibility.** The full range of sounds produced from the greyling's mouth is, due to their former corruption and now changed bodily structure, completely restricted to them. Even study under a greyling for years can result in garbled messy talk that any listener will have to pick through rigorously to understand.

## Extinct/Near-Extinct Languages

These languages are considerably rare, and thus **finding a teacher would be very challenging if not impossible.**

### Engem

Please help Hollowworld by improving it. This includes: making it more concise, reviewing formatting, reviewing spelling and grammar.

*For further questions, inquire to Goldengem25 or staff*

The engem language is probably one of the most alien languages out there. It was developed in isolation, and as such, bares utterly no resemblance to the more common languages of Altera. The engem language could be summed up as a cross between African Traditional languages, Irish and Celtic languages, and a bit of gibberish. The language has been influenced over time by cultural divisions, however due to Druid Bitzbank Engem, who was the seventh druid ever and created the written script, during*Ko Chalkan's* Highland Conquest the subcultures of the engem still retained the same basic language; with only dialects differing.

The Engem language features a lot of synonyms. Depa, for instance, means both 'war' and 'true'. Due to this, the language is defined by certain assumptions. A good example of this is *Dav'id. Dav'id* is a compound word of 'mason' and 'stone'. Mason stone, however, is gibberish, and due to this *id*'s pronunciation is changed from "id" to "eed"; making it *Dav-eed.*Engem names are almost always these types of compound words; with *all* names requiring some sort of language basis.

Even city and place names will have meaning, for instance, *Hound-ru* is the result of *Ho,* meaning final, and *und-ru,* meaning capital. Notice the *-ru* ending to *und-ru*. Normally *und* would mean city, but the ending changes it to capital. There are certain endings that will do that, *-ru* is just one of the ones that combines authority with the given word. Spoken outloud, *Hound-ru*would be pronounced *Ho-und-ru,*not *How-nd-ru.* These compounds can grow to ridiculous levels, for example, *Orangutan*in Engem legitimately translates to: "Great Orange Shaggy-back Ape of the Lowland Forest", or *Uaegjinswogrowsopopo'Golongodae.*

Spoken, the Engem language tends to sound unusually aggressive, lovely, or biased to one emotion in the extreme. Written, the Engem language is horrendously weird. The Engem written language is half artwork and half language. It goes from left to right as normal, but does not abide by normal characters as with most tounges. Instead, it's much closer to a tribal Arabic. While writing a sentence, you'll often start off with a long line called the base. The base is then built upon, with unique symbols for unique words, and dots, zigzags, curls and more to signify individual letters.

In the end, this makes Engem a hard language for most humans to learn, however earthspawn probably have the best time learning this. Engem tattoos often consist of these long strings, and as such it's considered as much an art as it is a form of writing.

Engem is not common knowledge, as all engem are secretive about it, and even if it was publicly available it'd hard to learn.

### Arcturian

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### Lavoyard

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