High Elven today is mutually intellible with Dunmeri and Bosmeri and passingly resembles Old Cyrodiilic. Compared to its cousin languages, Altmeri most successfully preserves the melodic, flowing nature of old Aldmeri. Its grammar structure incorporates pitch and inflection in a way that almost resembles music. Like its predecessor, melodies and lietmotifs infer nuance and meaning beneath the spoken words. However, the structure lacks flexibility. With only a handful of socially acceptable melodies permitted in everyday speech. The same handful of themes are repeated over and over, their most distinct notes exaggerated in performative deference to their historical significance. In the end, what once was beautiful becomes uncanny, almost fearful, as one wrong note could mean a career-ending scandal.
History
In the First Era, when the Aldmer of the Summerset Isles became isolationist out of fear of becoming like their offshoots on the mainland, there was a cultural movement to purge foreign influence in the Aldmeri language. Over generations, the language was gradually stripped of loan words, slang, and neologisms. Even the Ayleid language was considered tainted. At the same time, scholars were beginning to reconstruct a hypothetical global root language they called Ehlnofex from which new grammer was derived.
Their intent was to recreate the language of Aldmeris, the mythical lost continent from which all elven kind are thought to originate. In reality, the language of the High Elves was born, an artifice with strict and logical grammar combined with elaborate spelling rules meant to preserve the intelligibility of root words.
It did evolve, however. Over milennia, High Elven went through several distinct phases, sometimes opening up to foreign influence, particularly during the ages of the Aldmeri Dominion and especially during the Third Era, while under the domain of the Septim Empire. Because of this, High Elven in the Fourth Era bears only a passing resemblance to the version developed in the First.
