Dwarvish

Writing System

The design of the written alphabet is very angular, optimized for being chipped and carved into solid stone. When it is written out, only the consonant sounds are written, with the in between vowel sounds inferred by context. This works out, since dwarvish is 99% consonants.

Geographical Distribution

It is almost exclusively spoken by dwarves. The notable exceptions are if a dwarf has a family that consists of non-dwarves, or someone who works closely with dwarves might want to pick up a few words if they want to know what the hell is going on.

Phonology

The only consonant sounds present in dwarvish are occlusive, or sounds with a full stop of airflow. Therefore, it can be kind of a clunky language for newcomers to learn, and sounds very harsh. The vowel phonemes are made primarily in the back of the throat, such as "uh" "ah," etc.

Morphology

Dwarvish is a highly morphological language, with words compounding onto each other with complex morphemes tacked onto simple root words to create meaning. It features lots and lots of compound words that sound a little silly or drawn out when translated literally.

Tenses

Present and past tense are inferred by the necessary addition of date and/or time in every sentence where it is describing a real action that occurred (unless other context clues would be sufficient).

Structural Markers

Between each written word is a small round marker, in the vertical center, like a floating period. This eliminates the need for spaces between words, which is pretty useful when carving paragraphs into a mountain wall. At the end of a neutral sentence there are three dots in a triangle. If the sentence needs to be emphasized (like an exclamation point) the dots are connected with a line to the center. If it is a question, the dots are connected from the outside, like a triangle.

Dictionary

18 Words.

Common Female Names

Traditionally feminine names end with an "uh" sound, but other than that just slam any group of consonants together (or a more literal name based on something from the dictionary) and you've got a name.

Common Male Names

Traditionally masculine names end with an "eh" sound.

Common Unisex Names

An "ah" sound is considered a reasonable end of any name, and works well for non-gendered names.