Qhélssénnish (qʰĕlsːĕnːɪʃ)

The northern tribes of Gruthe—the Kharnnes and the Qhélssénns—are thought to have come from a common group called the *Gziel which originated in Tcha. In the proto-history of the *Gziel, Gruthe was a torus as the Qh'ill Strait had not opened and Chaalai was both much smaller and fresh water. The *Gziel peoples who came to Gruthe from Tcha, spread throughout the northern half of the continent well into Dhaoshee in the west and Thōurraidt in the east. They were the first humans on the continent.
Eventually splitting off into different groups, the tribes descendent of the *Gziel coalesced into the proto-Kielik (who remained in Tcha), the *Itchar (proto-Kharnnes, proto-Sarnish), and what would become the Qhélssénns who settled largely in the north and northwestern regions of Gruthe.
The height of the of Qhélssénnish civilization was during the Three Kingdoms when the established colonies of Ptarshishin and Tlatotlys became established enough to dominate the east and south of the continent after the collapse of the dwarven states—daoSvor, Illaohh, Rheddait, and Aricc—left a large power vacuum.
By the end of the Three Kingdoms Era, the Qhélssénns had become the Qh'énns and internecine conflicts split the kingdom, which lead to the Period of Clans in the region which would then become known as Qh'énnshaiyn (lit. "region of the Qh'énns").
For more than one thousand years, on the continent of Gruthe, Qhélssénnish (and to an extent its descendant, Qh'énnish) was the language of the elite, the educated, historians, magi, and all scholarship. This is further enforced by the Kaajhai dialect which hybridized Qhélssénnish with Arakhsh which is used as the primary language of users of magic. The putative divine language of Raachern, is also a dialect of Qhélssénnish, such that they are collectively called the Qh'Raa languages.

Phonology

Qhélssénnish has the same phonology as Qh'énnish and Gh'ennish—its daughter languages—however it lacks the /ɹ/ rhotic, using /ʁ/ and /r/ where its daughter languages might have more variation including /ɹ/.
In related/descendant languages of the Qh'Raa group, some phonemes common in Raachern and Sarnish most notably /ŋ/, /ɲ/ and /ɳ/ are not present in Qhélssénnish.

Dictionary

5 Words.

Successor Languages

• The Qh'énnish Language

Spoken by

• The Kharnnes
• The Qh'énns
• The Qhélssénns

Common Female Names

Like Qh'énnish and Gh'ennish, Qhélssénnish is a gendered language. The distinction between masculine and feminine is almost exclusively denoted by vowel length. Short vowels are gendered feminine; long vowels masculine. As such male and female names are often used interchangeably, albeit with small, often subtle distinction in one or more vowels.
The language name itself is feminine, and because of its two short vowels, it is emphatically so. Qhélssénn the people and Qhélssénni the language are more feminine than other words.
Hence the triplet: Qō m., Qo n., Qò f., all of which mean "one who hunts," or hunter, (divine) hunter, and huntress.

Common Unisex Names

Because of the gendering of vowel length, true unisex names have neither short vowel or long vowel markers. Furthermore, the names of divinities and gods are not bound by this convention and although most common names for deities lack vowel length markers—see Qo above—male deities with short vowels (e.g. Ghèrhéich, god of metalsmiths) and female deities with long vowels (e.g. Hnōr, goddess of the Red Moon) do exist without objection. (Largely, because divinities are often considered beyond such mortal conventions.)