Gerish Language
Gerish is the language of the Gerishmen of Geryatdale. A descendent of the Ancient Gero Language, it has no legal recognition in the Duchy of Charl; indeed, it is considered a minor crime to speak Gerish before a thane. Still, it has survived as a common language utilized mostly by Gerishmen of lower class, as well as those wishing to reconnect with their Ancient Gero roots. The only place of learning in the Duchy of Charl that offers classes in the Gerish tongue is Denplum College in the County of Denplum.
Writing System
While Gerish can be rendered using Gero runes, the practice is lost to the commonfolk; it is exceedingly common for speakers of Gerish to simply be illiterate. Those literate in the language typically write in elvish script, a practice adopted from the Charlish dialect of Marlish. The oldest non-Gero inscriptions of proto-Gerish are typically rendered in the Marlish runic script.
Geographical Distribution
Limited primarily to Geryatdale and the Gerish diaspora. Due to its associations with the lower class, it is typically eschewed by wealthy Gerishmen in favor of Marlish.
Morphology
Gerish derives many nouns from agglutination, meaning morphemes are strung together to create compound words. For example, Geryatdale is rendered as Geryatdala, a combination of gerya (mountain), yat (river), and dala (valley or dale). It is not a wholly agglutinative language, but compound words are exceedingly common.
Old Gero seemingly had a complex case system, wherein the final morpheme of a word was modified depending on its grammatical function within the sentence, such as whether it served as the subject, object, possessor, or recipient. While most of these distinctions have been lost, modern Gerish retains a simplified two-case system used exclusively for male personal names, except in the case of certain irregulars (e.g., Hessap). Female names do not decline and are are used in their full form regardless of grammatical function.
The following is a sample sentence:
Sapporas a Eoganas a Taranas a Gyaranas Filen taruno.
"Sapporas, son of Eogan, son of Taranas, son of Gyaranas, spoke to Filas."
Vocabulary
Much of modern Gerish's vocabulary descends from Old Gero, with significant influence from Marlish.
Sentence Structure
Gerish follows a SOV sentence structure. Typically, the subject is mentioned once and then dropped thereafter except for a shift in subject. Much of the meaning of a Gerish sentence relies heavily on context.