Ages of Lingusia: Languages of the Middle Kingdoms

Languages of Lingusia       

   Lingusia is home to a diverse range of dialects and languages, many harkening from ancient roots. Some species have languages shared universally by one another, and other species are given to as much linguistic diversity as humanity. In fact, the root of Lingusia comes from the idea "of many languages" in the Old Tongue.

   The “common” tongue of Lingusia is the Middle Tongue, closely followed by tradespeak, a language of common reference cobbled together by traders and merchants across the globe. Any character listed as knowing “common” is assumed to know one or both of these languages.

 Below is a chart of many fo the languages all characters can learn. Characters always have their native tongue as a base language, and some multilingual characters learn more than one, depending upon circumstance. There is at least one invented language as well, a sort of Esperanto called Tradespeak, which was created around the time of the founding of the Great Old Road, and while it has evolved dramatically over time, tradespeak remains the favored language of traders and merchants around the world. Anyone who speaks one of the common human tongues of Lingusia can communicate at least 30-50% of the time with a person who speaks tradespeak but no other common language. Likewise, a man who speaks tradespeak but not, say, one of the the Northern tongues can still speak to and understand a user of the northern tongue with 50% accuracy as well. The Merchant Houses of the Middle Kingdoms and the Eastern Kingdoms have conspired to make this so.

   Some of these languages are special. No character may begin play knowing Prehunate, which must be learned from a practiced student of the languages, and is never considered a class skill. Likewise, no character can pick a language for which no possible exposure could have occurred prior to the beginning of his or her adventuring career.

Bonus Language Rule: Because there are more than ten conventional languages in this setting, all characters may begin play with additional bonus languages equal to their Intelligence modifier (or none if negative).

A Sampling of the Languages of Lingusia

The Languages of Man:

Middle Tongue (common)

Tradespeak

New and Old Galonian

Southern Tongue (Galvonari)

Eastern Tongue  (Zuedi)

Cretean

Amechian

Northern Tongue (Nordamani)

Autrengardian

Steppelander’s tongue (no written language)

Zymharian

Avilinian

Nakamuran

Caelernin

Northern Hettanari

Starthiic

Hotepsalan

Foreign Tongues:

Old Karaktuan

Mataclani Haxitol

Mataclani Talay

Taian

Lako-no-hongo

Al’jhiri

Karakani

Khozakani

Neberanii (Gray Kingdom)

Old and Lost Languages:

Old Tongue (Arcane Script)

Ancient Middle Tongue (Holy Script)

Prehunate Script

Ancient Elvish Script

Kadantanian

Celestial

Abyssal and Infernal

Monstrous Languages:

Deep Speech

Minotaur

Goblin Tongue

Orcish (vandal)

Hidden Tongue (red orc)

Setiteese (serpent men)

Hashykirii (lizard man)

Draconic (Marlack, dragons)

Hyshkorrid

Thargonid Trollish

Mihidir Trollish

Fey Languages:

Faerspeak (elvish)

Darkspeak (ashtarth)

Syllenic  (sylvan)

Gnomish

Dwarvish (Endurian)

Faerie Tongue