Elven

When it is spelled with a lower case "e", "elven" means "having physical or cultural traits of an elf." When "Elven" with a capital "E" it means "the language of elves."   There are exceptions, but the majority of mortal races that had their genesis during the the Second Age speak some sort of dialect of Elven whether they were friends or foes to the ancient elves, their ancestors found it pragmatic to learn this tongue.  This includes but is not limited to metamorphs, goblins, and tengku    A great many humans learn Elven as a second language. It is especially popular among high born humans as it is often used for government documents. Some consider no one truly literate unless they can read and write Elven. There are probably more books written in Elven than in Common.   Wood elves, dark elves, grey elves, and sea elves have no problem understanding each other, but the accents are very noticeable. If a human or anyone else speaks Elven as a second language, it is obvious to any elf who the human's teacher was.  Because of the accent difference, it is difficult but not impossible for an elf to infiltrate the society of another elf culture.   The Wood Elf  dialect borrows a lot of words from Sylvan. The Dark Elf dialect borrows a lot of words from Grauen, and the Sea Elf dialect unsurprisingly borrows a lot of words from Sea Common. The Grey Elf dialect is the closest modern dialect to ancient version of the language that most elves spoke in the Second Age, a fact of which the grey elves are very proud of.   Along a similar vein, the half-elves of Apseldia  speak Elven as their native tongue as well as Common, but they have their own regional dialect. Apseldians have a habit of switching back and forth between Common and Elven mid conversation or even mid sentence.

Dictionary

1 Words.


Cover image: by Eron 12 with Hero Forge

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!