Chromawave

Public linguanthropological record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

Chromawave is the name of a family of languages used by the xeylons, where their natural ability to alter the coloration and texture of their skin is serve as the primary means of communication.
All but neutral colors (defined as black, white, grey, brown and yellow among the xeylon), including all their possible tints, hues and shades, are incorporated in the language, and so is a vast variety of patterns and textures (except smooth, which is their default skin texture) that the xeylon's skin is capable of showing. A concept or idea can be represented with three possible combinations:

• Color + Pattern
• Color + Texture
• Color + Texture + Pattern

The exact meaning of a particular combination is very dependent on which precise language or dialect the xeylon uses. A particular combination could have a slight differentiation in a nearby region or between two close-by ethnic groups, and it could mean something entirely different in another country/region. Some languages and dialects might not even have a particular combination translate to any concepts or ideas.
While a xeylon will naturally learn to communicate in their native language/dialect as they grow up without much need for additional schooling and can typically communicate with their kin with no effort past adulthood, xeylons moving to a new region often quickly find themselves being misunderstood (or not understood at all) unless having prepared ahead.
Learning new chromawave languages and dialects have previously been a difficult endeavor as the xeylons were mostly limited to what their local regions' libraries and education institutions had to offer. With the slow introduction of the meshverse network, some of this has begun to be pooled into a public archive although the devices needed to access these archives is still being slowly introduced and have mainly seen rise of use inside of the larger cities on Xuelsa.

Linguistic Data

Native Speakers

Xeylon

Writing System

Chromasign

Spoken Form

Tykuth

Spread

Primarily Xuelsa