Language

The languages currently spoken by the peoples of the continent of Falgranen can vaguely be broken down into language families, which are as follows:

Gnomish Languages (Common, Gnomish, Anglic, etc.)

Humanic Languages (Latian, Byla, Bosaelir, etc.)

Uxkolic Languages (Tselchi, Dyrrvak, Dwarvish, etc.)

Elvish Languages (Standard Elvish, Elsarian, Gallic, etc.)

Orcish Languages (Alaric, Morvan, Standard Orcish, etc.)

These families are roughly determined by the base of vocabulary in each language put into context with the origin of these languages and how they've developed. Some languages, however, fall outside the easily identifiable typing of these. A good example of this is the Halfling language, which is very unstandardized and within it can be found aspects of the Gnomish, Humanic, and Elvish language families. While some scholars group these uncertain languages into one of the families, most have restrained themselves from doing so and keep them separate from this form of classification.

The Common Language
The language now mostly referred to as "Common" is by far the most widely spoken language in the entire world, with every major political power on Falgranen recognizing it as their nation's language of commerce and most individuals using it as a bridge language when encountering those who do not speak their own. The history of this now widespread and dominant Human dialect is cloudy and uncertain, with only scant records able to be found about it's origin and development. The earliest text found in what could be considered to be an early form of "common" is from 875 BTI, a record of transactions between Human and Gnomish merchants in the Heartland area. This text, which not decipherable to a modern speaker of Common, shows very similar grammar and language rules to what is known today, and when combined with the areas in which texts such as these were found it's almost certain this was the direct ancestor to the modern language.

Following this logic, most linguists who study the topic are of the belief that Common was a dialect of the Humanic Heartland language known as "Atelish" being heavily influenced by one of the many Gnomish languages of the time. With Heartlander merchants spending more and more time within Gnomish lands the practices of their language began to impact them more, and soon enough the dialect of merchants was referred to as "Gneli Atelish" (Literally Gnome-Atelish) by writers of the time. Over time the dominance of the merchants of this region spread this odd amalgamation of a language far and wide, and soon it began to be adopted by the wider population. This trend over thousands of years is what caused Common to be the mutual language of most people today.

Gnomish Languages
The origin of the Gnomish languages lies, obviously, with the various Gnome peoples who once ruled over powerful states before they were divided up and partitioned by the powers which surrounded them. These languages are notable for their harsh and hard vowels, typical lack of noun cases and gendered words, and convoluted spelling rules. Gnomish languages tend to have a very strict sentence structure that, if altered at all, can completely change the meaning of a sentence.

Though the modern standardized Gnomish language may be the oldest of all the languages, others within the family such as Common and Anglic are much more widely spoken, with Gnomish typically being considered a useful minority language for most.

Examples:

Basic Verb Conjugation

Simple Sentences

Humanic Languages
The Human languages (now commonly referred to as "South Human") are the languages which retain the roots of the Agnic language spoken throughout the united Human empire led by the Helikan dynasty thousands of years ago. Though the origins of the Agnic language are uncertain, their roots are easily identifiable due to the mountains of literature written in the language before the collapse of the empire and subsequent age of warring states. Today only two major national languages can be identified as Humanic, these being Byla and Latian. However, several minority languages within other Human nations such as the UAD are considered to be within the Humanic family, a prominent example of this being the Bosaelir language which is still spoken by approximately 130,000 people within the Baramyr River Delta.

The Humanic language group is recognizable by a similar base vocabulary but over thousands of years of these languages being far separated from each other most are not even slightly mutually intelligable to each other, a problem exaggerated even further by the influence of other surrounding languages on the native speakers.

Examples:

Basic verb conjugation

Simple sentences

Uxcholic Languages
There are 3 primary languages in the Uxcholic group: Tselchi, Dyrrvak, and Standard Dwarvish. This language family is named after the Uxchol mountain range, the primary feature of the northwestern Falgranen region where this language is spoken. This language family has roots and features which can be traced to various places all across the world, however, the manner in which they've come together in these languages via cultural exchange has created a language grouping completely unique from any other.

The Uxcholic languages are all, despite the similary brought about by the influence they've had on one another, very different and not considered mutually intelligable in most cases. Notable exceptions to this are that various smaller Dragonborn, Tselchi, and Dwarven regional languages tend to be very intelligible to the standardized language from which they've descended.

Examples:

Basic verb conjugation Simple sentences

Elvish Languages
The Elvish language has, for the majority of it's history, been a single and unified language used by a united people in their front against the rest of the world. However, with various Elvish groups, such as the Elsarians, splitting off and others being geographically cut off the once-unified Old Elvish language turned into a language group all on its own. The two primary languages in this group are Standard Elvish and Elsarian, which are the languages of the Wood Elves and High Elves respectively. Most scholars also recognize certain Halfling dialects as being in this language group, as certain Halfling tribes and clans have adopted many Wood Elven language customs due to close proximity with them.

Examples:

Basic verb conjugation

Simple Sentences