Tallonari
Mother tongue
Tallonari is not a language. It is a heritage. It is the soul of a people, breathed upon the land.
Eka Nakani, Gorganian netminder, 3094 AoG
T
allonari is the primary language of the Tallonai and Elladoran cultures. Tallonari (including Elladoran dialects) is also a progenitor of the Diasporan patois Ammiscence. It was established in casterway society by Cervia Polonosa. Not only did she naturally read-and-write the language herself, having been born on the alien world of Tallon (from where it originates), but she made it a point to emphasize that her fledgling nation would only speak Tallonari. Although this may initially appear to be an act of ego or hubris on her part, it's generally understood that she enforced this language in her village - and eventually, across her entire nation - mostly as a means of creating a tactical advantage between her and the original casterways against which her people were constantly struggling for resources and supremacy.
Origin
The language originated on the planet Tallon - and that planet is a location which no living soul on Excilior has ever visited, or will ever visit. More importantly, the language came over thousands of years ago and has endured a constant cycle of evolution and revision. Beginning in the earliest days with Cervia herself, there is direct evidence that Tallon-specific terminology was removed, certain language constructs were simplified to ease casterway adoption, and many terms specific to this world and its environment came flooding into the language. For these reasons, its assumed that what is known as "Tallonari" today has very little in common with its mother tongue on a planet many light years away. Nevertheless, some of the most skilled of modern scholars have been able to formulate fascinating hypotheses about the never-seen world of Tallon by closely studying what they can of the "original" Tallonari as it was spoken in Auld Cervia.
Writing System
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he Tallonari alphabet has an extended character set that allows for a full range of phonemes. The language can be written in several distinct, and varying, styles of letters that reflect the formality of the underlying text. However, the more formal styles are nearly extinct in Excilior. The dominant modern form is characterized by a series of symbols and characters that all "hang" on a central line. The following example shows the common form of Tallonari writing, used to display a translation of the message in this paragraph.
TheTallon arialph abe thas anext endedc haract erset thatal lowsfo rafull range ofpho nemes Thel angu age can bewr itteni nsev eraldistin ctandvary ingstyl es oflet terstha trefl ectth efor mality ofthe unde rlyin gtext How ever them orefor mals tylesare nearlye xtinctin Excilior Thef ollowinge xam pleshows thecom mon formof Tallonari usedto displa yatra nslation ofthe messa geint hispa ragraph
Geographical Distribution
A
lthough Tallonai society was, long ago, the dominant culture on the planet and their language was spoken nearly everywhere, their influence has been shrinking ever since the splintering of Auld Cervia in 479 AoC. Nevertheless, Tallonari is still the official language of all countries based in the central continent of Islemanoton. The language also maintains a "classical" stronghold in the western coastal regions of Blepi and Cervi.
Through most of greater Islegantuan, in what are acknowledged as Elladoran lands, Tallonari is also the default language. However, Elladoran Tallonari has been drifting from the mother tongue for millennia and there are now scenarios where a person of Tallonai heritage may struggle to understand someone of Elladoran background - even though they are both, ostensibly, seeking the "same" (Tallonari) language.
Phonology
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allonari is unique from other languages on Excilior for its use of tone and volume as codified in the alphabet itself - specifically, as it applies to vowels. This means that multiple letters can convey what is, technically speaking, the same phoneme. But each letter indicates the phoneme is to be spoken, or understood, in a different way.
For example, both of these symbols represent a short "e" sound, as in bed or fed:
H h
However, the first symbol indicates that the sound is generated in a breathy, whispering tone. The second is generated loudly and/or forcefully. They are given separate letters not only because they should sound different when spoken, but also because swapping out just these two letters will make it a different word altogether and often, the meanings of those two words will have nothing in common.
Spoken by
Common Female Names
Lyseia, Rochan, Soli, Ahlea, Mindeneja
Common Male Names
Fialeo, Freres, Norleigh, Paveau, Beres
Common Unisex Names
Poni, Valles, Ermeau, Arbonn, Charmonn
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