Gnoll

Language of the Gnolls

A language that was the focus of research and fascination for some time, in much the same way that the Dwarvish language is meant to be carved into stone, the language of Gnolls is meant to be created by a set of teeth called a Dervish Grin. Speakers of this language are primarily Gnolls, most other humanoids find a hard time emulating the howls and growls that form the vocal component of this language but it should be noted that the Lycanthrope and Were-species respectively have the natural ability to understand and speak this language. The script for Gnoll is seldom written because it cannot be properly transcribed with just a two-dimensional medium, rather the proper way to "write" this language is to press a set of actual teeth into a soft medium like clay or dirt. The earliest appearance of this language is hard to pinpoint, most would tie it to the appearance of Gnolls as a race but there is a camp of thought that says this language is just an offshoot of a common speech that all canines use. For their evidence they reference the recent discovery of Lycanthropes and Were-species being able to comprehend and speak the language in their bestial forms. The script of the Gnoll language can only be properly transcribed by using a set of teeth, often carried in a leather bag, called a Dervish Grin. This set of teeth is usually harvested from a fallen Gnoll or another large canine and the language's letters are created by pressing the teeth into a soft medium. The context and meaning of certain words seem to undergo a change depending on if you use the front or the back of the teeth, as referenced when you would consider them to belong to the writer or reader. This seems to mimic the vocal component in the respect that the language changes depending on pitch, exposure of teeth, and ear position for those species that can change the position of their ears. These components make the language time-consuming to transcribe properly and difficult to speak because of its reliance on a wide range of vocals, volume, and body language that may be impossible for some species to mimic. The advantages of speaking this language rely on how much time you intend to spend on the Southern Continent, the native homeland of the Gnolls, are found scattered throughout forests, plains, mountains, and desert with little rejection of any area save the coastline. If you can speak even broken bits of this language you may not be immediately identified as food by the ravenous race of Gnolls, though it may only buy you a sparse moment or two. The same can be said when trying to use this to reason with a Were-species, but for Lycanthropes, there is true merit in speaking this language because they consider it a sacred tongue. Creatures that are known to speak the Feline language as their primary tongue have described this language as nothing but howls, growling, and gibberish and regard it as a savage language spoken by the unintelligent.