High Imperial
High Imperial - once known simply as Imperial - is a language created artificially by the specialists from Imperium of Menoria during inception of Imperium of Karadia as its lingua franca of sort.
It was never adopted on greater scale prior to Dawn War - during its late phase Imperial Gods recreated the Imperium to fit their preferred picture more. This included surprisingly wide expansion of slightly rusted already Imperial Speech.
Imperial Speech spread throughout the higher echelons of imperial organization, soon becoming an official state language on which entire administration works. Overtime it was divided into two main parts, the so called High Imperial and Low Imperial. Third part is Thaumaturgic Imperial, which is a very internally complicated variant of baseline Imperial but with slightly simplified runic writing, created to serve as a basis for imperial magic.
High Imperial is characterized mostly by almost total lack of changes done during centuries. While Low Imperial incorporated many foreign influences, High Imperial froze in time during the Dawn War and remained exactly the same as ancient Imperial Speech made by Menoria. High Imperial actually is an almost poetic language, to the point of not having any 'normal' swear words, all of them being almost 'poetic' and mostly religious in character.
Usage
Today High Imperial is used mostly for three things. First are official matters of Imperium - it writes most of its paperwork in High Imperial. Second are taxonomy - all scientifical naming of animal, beasts and plants is done in High Imperial. Thirdly, most scientific and thaumaturgic books in Imperium (especially in imperial provinces) are written in it. It is however mostly dead as a language, for all common talks are done in Low Imperial.
Writing System
Alphabet of High Imperial is based mostly on preimperial itavian alphabet. It includes following letters of this origin:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Y and Z.
A letter W (which started as VV) was added to accomodate certain wording popular in frankish part of the Imperium.
Syntax
Both comma and dot are used. Dots, exclamation marks and question marks end sentences. Commas show places where pauses should be done during speeking.
Common Phrases
Comments