Languages of Dort

Language is a barrier in Dort. Each land has its own Common, and in Dort "Common" means the human language of that land: there is no single human language and no world Common. The Commons are mutually unintelligible. A traveller who speaks only their home tongue is a foreigner the moment they step off the boat.

Irna Common is the trade tongue of the world. It plays the part English plays in our world: the default between two people who share no other language, understood in any port and most significant inland trade posts. Irna's script is used for diplomatic and trade documents everywhere. Shoing Common is the second most spoken language in the world, carried by Shoing's population and trade. Funta, Jazirah and Antaea Common are rarely heard outside their own lands.

Two rules matter at the table:

The faith of Zopha credits the scholar Kater with the first standard written language that people of different regions could learn. Her followers in the Comitatus call themselves the Keepers of the Common Tongue.

Six human tongues are native to the lands: one each for Irna, Jazirah, Funta and Antaea, and two for Shoing (Shoing Common and Perian). For how to say Dort's names, see the Pronunciation Guide; for how each culture builds its names, see Names by Culture.

Spoken in: Irna, the seat of the Empire, and in every Irnan port, garrison and colony abroad.

Sounds like: hard and structural. Words are short (two syllables is normal), usually end on a consonant, and carry heavy consonant clusters: rst, ld, rn, ck, tt, gh. Stress lands on the first syllable almost without exception (PER-ci-val, CHAR-lotte), which gives Irnan speech a declarative, documented feel. Northern speech is shorter and blunter; western and island speech is softer and more vowel-forward.

Dialects: within Irna, the northern mountain peoples and the Mocan Sea coast peoples speak dialects different enough that talking takes effort. Smalings speak Irna Common with an accent and farming vocabulary that is recognisable at once.

Writing: Irna's script is the most widely known in the world. Gnomes write Zannori in a modified form of it.

Abroad: everywhere, from Shoing's ports to the Funta coast.

GM note: modelled on English and German, with Norse and Celtic layers.

The tribes of Irna's northeastern plains and coasts (the Sequan, Pomo, Hesutu, Kiowa and others) are older than the noble houses and keep tongues of their own, entirely separate from Irna Common. In Kelowna the Hesutu language defines the town. These peoples keep their history in oral tradition, and in Savisqa the weaving patterns form a symbolic language of their own, readable to those who know the code. Tribal by-names are translated into Irna Common for outsiders: Running Foot, Grey Elk, Quiet Water.

Sounds like: clear, even and measured. Syllables are simple and evenly weighted; q, tl, ts, ch and a glottal catch are common. There is no th, f, v or z, words never start with r, and vowels are said separately rather than blended. Stress falls on the next-to-last syllable (Na-HIN-ni).

GM note: modelled on Indigenous North American languages (Hopi, Miwok, Pomo, Plains and Inuit sources).

Spoken in: Jazirah, from Iskash to the interior and the eastern hills.

Sounds like: full of throat sounds: q, kh and gh, along with th, dh and sh. Vowel length carries meaning; long vowels (aa, ee, oo) sound formal, and clipped short vowels sound common. Stress lands on a long vowel (ka-REEM, ra-SHEED). The article al- blends into the next sound (ar-Rutbah, ash-Sharah). The Arabic-style core has no p or v. Eastern speech allows both, and its words are often two short pieces joined (Nik Pey, Taj Kuh).

Dialects: there are many interior dialects; brokers in Al Dirdaha advertise how many they speak. Fishing towns keep local dialects with older elements in their songs and fish names. A "mainland" accent is recognisable, and an islander's speech gives them away.

Writing: Jazirah's script is bound to Oshala's holy texts, and clerics are the main literate class. Calligraphy is the highest art form, and reciting scripture is a skill with recognised masters. Pre-Oshalan script survives on old monuments, and Sand Elf religious texts are written in their own old language; both are touchy subjects.

Abroad: seldom heard outside Jazirah, apart from Jazirah settler communities such as Shilder's Outpost.

GM note: modelled on Arabic, with a Persian and Balochi layer in the east.

Spoken in: Shoing, above all in the east around Gwajin, and as the trade tongue of the whole continent.

Sounds like: every syllable gets equal weight, and the melody comes from pitch, not stress. Watch for zh, ch, sh, x and q at the start of syllables. Syllables end only on a vowel or on n, ng or m, and there are no consonant clusters. Some speech is longer and strictly alternates consonant and vowel (Hi-ga-to-mo). Family names come first in formal speech, which Irnan speakers find backwards at first. Many place names keep an older form; Akagane, in Chon Buri, means "red metal" in the old Shoing tongue.

Writing: eastern Shoing's courts treat calligraphy as a primary form of knowledge.

Abroad: the second most spoken language in the world. It is heard in Oceanic ports such as Junaloia and Passhall, and in the Shoing merchant quarter of Armarga, where the streets carry Shoing names.

GM note: modelled mainly on Mandarin, with Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai layers.

Southern Shoing has a civilisation and a tongue of its own. Perian takes its name from the Perian coast, home of the southern capital Zazua.

Spoken in: southern Shoing under the Raja system: Zazua, the towns of the southwestern inlets such as Galshi, and the Cracked Sea League.

Sounds like: breathy. Aspirated consonants are the signature: kh, gh, th, dh, bh, ph, each with a puff of air. Long and short a mean different things (Arjun against Aarav). Stress falls on the next-to-last syllable, and words end on a vowel or a soft consonant (n, m, r, sh, t). The given name comes first, the reverse of Shoing Common, and southern families keep that order deliberately to mark who they are.

Relationship to Shoing Common: southerners use Shoing Common as their trade tongue. In Galshi the older generation speaks it with a noticeable accent, and younger speakers do not.

Abroad: rarely heard outside Shoing.

GM note: modelled on North Indian languages (Hindi and Sanskrit), with Marathi and Gujarati family names.

Spoken in: Funta, from the cosmopolitan eastern seaboard to the desert and plains tribes.

Sounds like: open, musical and unhurried. Most syllables end on a vowel, and a dominates. Words begin with nasal blends (mb, nd, ng, nz, ny) and rounded stops (kw, tw). Stress lands on the next-to-last syllable. There is no q, x or th. An apostrophe marks a catch or dropped sound in some lineages (D'Kar). Names are made to be called across a distance.

Tribal tongues: Funta has thousands of tribes. Stories in Tontou are performed "in Funtan languages", and in Chigobo the timber workers sing in an old tribal language whose words few of the young still know.

Writing: in much of Funta, oral tradition is the record. Oral transmission comes before writing, and literacy varies more by community than in Irna or Shoing. Lahale, the library city, is the exception.

Abroad: rare. A harbour innkeeper in Junaloia speaks "enough Funta Common to manage".

GM note: pan-African, drawing on Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, Swahili, Shona and Nguni, and Amharic. Keep the variety; do not flatten it into one sound.

Spoken in: Antaea, especially in the commercial north and in The Heavens.

Sounds like: the language of Antaea's map: Sonoro, Claragua, Punta Seca. It has five pure vowels that never blur, a rolled rr, ll and ñ, and words that usually end on a vowel. Stress falls on the next-to-last syllable (so-NO-ro).

Layers: Antaean speech has three layers, and the one a speaker uses says how long their family has been there.

Abroad: rare, though well-travelled people do learn it.

GM note: the indigenous layer is modelled on Nahuatl and Andean languages, the Common on Spanish and Portuguese, and the newest layer on Irnan settlers.

The Second Lands have no native Common. The people there are explorers, settlers, refugees and pirates from elsewhere, and they speak what they brought:

The malevolent races of the interior speak their own tongues. Creatures there that speak Common usually speak Irna Common, the tongue most newcomers bring.

Oceanic has no Common of its own either. Its ports are mixed: Passhall shows two generations of blending between Irna and Shoing, and Junaloia's innkeepers work in Irna, Shoing and Funta Common.

Undercommon is divided by land, the same way Common is: Irna Undercommon and Shoing Undercommon are different languages.

Ancient is magical. It can only be understood by actually learning it; spells that grant understanding of languages do not work on it. Pronunciation is very hard and often fails. The Stone of Izon takes its commands in Ancient, and a mispronounced word can change the meaning disastrously.

Thieves' Cant: see the Thieves Cant supplement.

Drakari is not a full language but a cant of terms used among Drakin. It is written in a simplified form of the ancient draconic script found in old dragon lairs. Drakin otherwise speak the Common they grew up with.

Planar tongues: the Aelar tongue of the celestial layers, spoken by some Serren; the infernal tongue of the devil-ruled upper Hells, spoken by some Zerren; Vaelith, the shared language of the Deep Arcana and of the Vaelhari; and the gestural current-language of The Tidal Realm.

Racial tongues. Most peoples keep a tongue of their own and learn the local Common for trade. Smalings, Serren, Zerren and humans have no racial language.