Languages of Shireon in Shireon | World Anvil

Languages of Shireon

Shireon is a diverse continent with many different cultures and species scattered over the area. This result in a lot of languages being spoken all over the nations. Some of these languages are tied to an area, like national languages or the language of the Dwarves, while others are not.

National Languages

Asharia

Asharia has two languages, Northern Asharian and Southern Asharian. These two are related, and easily understandable between the two languages, yet foreigners not too used to the language won't necessarily understand one if they understand the other.

Kupria and Vulborim

Kupria have one language, which is Kuprian. This language is closely related to the language spoken in Vulborim, which is Vulborish. These two languages can, with some effort, be understood if you speak one of them, but some words mean totally different things in the two languages, which can lead to hilarious misunderstandings.

Enarion

The Elves of Enarion speak Enari. Most of them learn another language as well, often Lenthiri or Inmali Standard, but some of the nobles in the land get needlessly offended if the people coming to their nation haven't bothered to learn their language, and refuse to speak anything else.

Inmalenor

Inmalenor is probably the country with the most languages, since a lot of the different tribes inhabiting the lands have drastically different languages than the others. An attempt was made to combine the different languages into a common language when the Humans arrived, but the Inmali Elves are reluctant to change completely to it. Still, there is at least one in each tribe that speaks this hybrid language, called Inmali Standard. Inmali Standard is also the official language of the Inmali government, and the main language spoken in Niskala and all permanent settlements in the nation.

Lenthir

The Lenthiri language is spoken in the city state of Lenthir, as well as by most traders that deal internationally, making it a good language to learn when dealing with foreigners in general.

The Dwarves

The Dwarves have two languages. The Dwarves in the Frozen Mountains area speak Ochdarki, while the Peaks of Heaven Dwarves speak Maedarki. Both these languages come from the old Dwarven language Darki, but have developed separately for many centuries. It is possible to understand some words between the languages, and it's fairly easy to learn one if you know the other since they have the same structure, but it's almost impossible to understand what someone say in Ochdarki if you only know Maedarki.

Other Languages

There are other languages in Shireon that's not tied to any area or nation.

Ithari

The best known is Ithari, which is the language of magic. This language is, in fact, imbued with magic, and the words do actually have power. If you say the wrong thing in Ithari you might actually set someone on fire, so it's not advised to read anything out loud. This is halfway solved by having two alphabets - Ithari-En and Ithari-To. Ithari-En is a more runic alphabet that is easy to chisel, scratch or etch onto surfaces, and is magical in nature in the same form as the spoken version of the language, as in having power at the moment it is written. The writer of Ithari-En must be very careful about what they write. Ithari-To has more rounded letters, and is designed to write with a quill and ink. The text written with Ithari-To won't have any power in itself, but if read aloud it might be dangerous. All books on magic, and over half the books in the Arcane Library are written in Ithari-To.

Winging, Druidic, Draconai and Edoi

The Ravenous Ravens have their own way of communicating. The language called Winging is a well-kept secret that takes body language to another level.

The Druids of Mynelion also speaks their own language called Druidic. This is also a secret language that shouldn't be shared with outsiders.

The Dragons speaks the language of Draconai, which is the oldest language in the world.

Edoi is an obscure language only spoken by the Elders, and is without a doubt the language spoken by the least amount of people in the world.


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