Languages of Archaeus

—Unattributed

Numerous **languages** are spoken across Archaeus and beyond. Many of these languages represent characteristics of their species, and have been influenced by each others' development. Though almost all languages in Archaeus have a formalised writing system, illiteracy is very common.

## Languages of the major races

### Common

**Common**, also known as **Archaen'glish**, is Archaeus's trade language, a creole of the five major races' languages. Formed after first contact between the races and growing over time to incorporate the Human language after they appeared in Å-88, Common is now the most widely spoken language in Archaeus, used in almost every settlement containing multiple races.

### Elvish

**Elvish** is the language of Elves. It is noted for its melodic sound, and contains many different levels of politeness and formality. Elvish words relating to emotion and art are widely incorporated into Common.

### Dwarvish

**Dwarvish** is the language of Dwarves. Succinct and blunt, with rising and falling tones, its words relating to trade and industry form large parts of the related Common lexicon.

### Sylven

**Sylven** is the language of the Sylven race. The many subspecies of Sylven each have a distinct dialect, some of which contain sounds pronounceable only through the use of unique vocal organs possessed by the subspecies. Common contains many Sylven words relating to nature and magic.

### Greenskin

**Greenskin** is the language of the Greenskin race. Its complex grammar and word formation make it difficult to learn as a second language, but allow speakers to express complicated concepts in relatively few words. Greenskin words pertaining to philosophy and mathematics form the basis for many of their Common equivalents.

### Human

**Human** is the language of Humans. With frequent loanwords and a flexible word order, the more recent language has less representation in Common than its counterparts; however, it still contributes words relating to hierarchy as well as certain unique concepts and idioms that were previously unnamed.

## Archaeun Languages predating the major races

### Ninkilim

**Ninkilim** is the language of the Ninkilim, or 'Rat-Men', a sapient race believed to have existed before the major races. Though small elements were integrated into Common, the language is now almost extinct along with the Ninkilim themselves, brought to the brink of extinction by overpopulation and the resulting Great War.

### Celestial

**Celestial** is a language of unknown provenance that appears (in a strange, rapidly shifting form) on Sorrowfall, reading 'Control and Binding'. It is apparently a precursor language to Arvum Script (see Languages of the Mortuus Arvum).

### Miscellaneous languages of non-major races

Various other non-major races have native languages of their own, many of which remain undocumented due to their scarcity.

## Languages of the Mortuus Arvum

At least two languages have originated in the Mortuus Arvum, one of them seemingly completely independently.

### Pale Elvish

**Pale Elvish** is the language of the Pale Elves. A form of Elvish corrupted by time spent in the Arvum, the language is focused heavily around violence and cruelty. It has also abandoned the concept of tense almost entirely due to the Arvum's unusual effects on time.

### Arvum Script

The **Arvum Script** refers to a language in which multiple documents, seemingly from the Arvum, are written. Though its textual form has been translated, no evidence of a spoken form has yet been seen. The language's features appear completely alien to Archaeus's other languages, indicating that, unlike Pale Elvish, it developed independently of them within the Arvum.

## Languages of the larger galaxy

Races from the larger galaxy speak a variety of languages, many of them completely unrecorded.

### Beholder

The best-known non-Archaeun language thanks to the efforts of Rrrr'k't Zygyjy'pt! and Magnus Brock, **Beholder** is written with vertical lines protruding from a horizontal central line. For obvious reasons, it lacks terms for body parts that Beholders do not have; it also contains a large number of idioms pertaining to eyes.

### Kenku

**Kenku**, the language of the Kenku Empire, has been reconstructed from written texts and a very small number of encounters with the Kenku themselves. Containing beak clicks and other sounds produced by the Kenku, it is likely only correctly pronounceable by a Sylven with a similar birdlike physiology.

### Archosaur, Naga, and Others

Each non-Archaean race presumably has at least one language of their own, though they have not been encountered frequently if at all. Known species without recorded languages include the Naga and the Archosaurs.