Dwarvish Tongue
Dwarvish or Dwarven was the name for a family of languages used by dwarves. The dwarves called their own language Dethek, but most other races used that term to refer to the runic alphabet in which the language was written.
Although the language in its pure form and exclusive vocabulary had fallen somewhat in disuse by the mid‒14th century DR, Dwarvish was still found all over Faerûn inscribed into weapons, buildings and mystical items.
The language followed dwarves all over Faerûn and beyond, making it an extremely widespread language. Communities and races that had been separated for some time evolved their own dialects
History
Originating from the ancient Elder language, Dwarvish saw many incarnations and variations.
Although once a strong and exclusive language, actual Dwarvish words only made up a fraction of the words used by dwarves by the mid‒14th century DR. Many dwarves tended to speak Common mixed with Dwarvish words. Dwarven record-keepers and historians were among the few left that could speak whole verses in pure Dwarvish.
Dialects
Being such an old language, Dwarvish had been subject to various changes over the generations and had spawned numerous dialects. All of these dialects employed Dethek as their written alphabet.
While there are many other dialects, the two most prominent are Riftspeak (Gold Dwarves) and Duergan (Shield Dwarves).
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