Human-Elvish Language Family

 

The Human-Elvish family was grievously mis-named by Senecian scholars at the very beginning of the Fourth Epoch as a bit of political maneuvering to imply cohesion and political alignment between the Kingdom of Tulosz and the Senecian Empire. The language family might more properly be called the Tulo-Senecian language family, as the languages within the family have historically been spoken by a wide diversity of peoples in the region - including, but not limited to canus, porcine, rodian, tauran and avian peoples. By the late Enlightenment, some scholars were finding evidence that the languages in this family had originally descended from Ancient Mer, leading to discussions about whether the language family should not simply be dissolved, and its languages placed in the Mer language family.

Early Human-Elvish (Year -4000 to Year -1500)

Similar to the Early Gnolnic Dialects, Early Human-Elvish is more precisely a presumed group of languages spoken, but never written, across all of Tulosz and much of the Senecian Archipelago. Assumptions about the existence of these languages are based largely on the similarities of the different languages in the family - suggesting a common protolanguage. Additionally, similarities between many tones and sounds in Ancient and Old Mer songs and poems and avian pronunciations of many modern words suggests a continuity between the Mer languages and the first written Human-Elvish languages, which could only be explained by a transitional language or languages.

Old Tenecian (Year -1800 to Year -800)

Old Tenecian is believed to be the first written language to emerge in the world after the disappearance of Ancient Gnomes and Ancient Giants. Ancient clay tablets found in Senecia from the end of the Second Epoch seem to have a form of writing that is similar to musical notation, but that contains letter-like symbols that persist into modern Senecian. The extent to which this language was spoken or written prior to the Upheaval and the Ash Winter is a matter of speculation, but there is evidence from the early Third Epoch that this language had a ‘head start’ and heavily influenced the development of languages in the region and even extended its influence thousands of kilometers away, to Marcosta.

Middle Senecian and Middle Tuloszian (Year -1000 to Year 500)

Sometime in the first half of the Third Epoch, Old Tenecian, which was already well established across there Senecian Archipelago, made its way to Tulosz. There it likely mixed with many still in use Human-Elvish dialects, causing Old Tenecian to transform significantly into Middle Senecian, and leading to the birth of Middle Tuloszian, the first widely written and commonly spoken language shared across much of Tulosz. The two closely related languages evolved and expanded in parallel, often remixing with one another, and giving rise to other languages in the process.

Middle Vercian (Year -500 to Year 700)

Sometime in the mid Third Epoch, as trade across the many islands of the Senecian archipelago became increasingly sophisticated and important, a new language began to form. Middle Vercian began as a register of functional terminology and jargon relating to sea trade and sailing, but as it spread among sailors and traders across different societies it started to pick up more vocabulary and grammar and became a pidgin language. At the same time, it picked up a huge range of sailing songs, both old and new, coming from many different cultures. Many of these songs were contrafacta going back as far as the original songs of Ancient Mer. By the time the compass was invented and Tatra was rising as the most powerful city in the world, Middle Vercian had established itself as a fully functional creole language, no longer confined to a subset of specialized workers. For many port cities, Middle Vercian became the de facto, if not the official written and spoken language up to the Imperial Era.

Middle Marcostic (Year -400 to Year 500)

Prior to the rise of Middle Vercian in Marcosta, most Marcostans were speaking Middle Goljanic. However, due to the relative importance of sea trade in Marcosta, Middle Vercian took hold there quickly, mixing extensively with Middle Goljanic and giving rise to another new language known as Middle Marcostic. This language would effectively replace Middle Goljanic in the interior of the continent, but its propagation was outpaced by Middle Vercian, which became the dominant language in the port cities.

High Elvish (Year 472 to Year 1100)

Just as Human-Elvish is a grossly inaccurate name for the language family, so to is High Elvish an inaccurate name for this language. There exists no record of a language specific to the Elvish species, and this language is nothing more than a regional variant of Middle Senecian that was made the official language of the Senecian Empire in 472, shortly after formation of the Empire. High Elvish differs from Middle Senecian in that it features many simplifications to conjugation and declension that make the language more rhythmic and rhyme-rich. Many of these changes seem to correspond to contemporary artistic usages of Middle Senecian in plays and poetry of the era, and it seems likely that the peculiarities of this language come from Empress Lucillia Vindis’ adopting the affectations of speech of a fictional nobility as depicted in theatre of the era as the ‘court vernacular’ of the early Empire.

Royal Tuloszian (Year 475 to Year 1100)

Royal Tuloszian is similar to other ‘Imperial’ languages in that it was declared by King Szoliu to be the official language of Tulosz at the beginning of the Imperial Era. The language descended from Middle Tuloszian which was widely used across much of Tulosz in the Third Epoch, but which became greatly simplified as many regional variants and emerging dialects were ‘forced into alignment’ by the communication pressures of a war that lasted a hundred and fifty years. By the end of the Orcish Conquests many regional diversity in Middle Tuloszian had been squashed, and a new standard version of the language was dominant across the continent. It was this highly function and ‘battle-proven’ language that became the official language of the Kingdom of Tulosz.

Imperial Comercja (Year 700 to Year 1260)

The nearly two and a half centuries of relative peace that began with the start of the Imperial Era saw the formation of dozens of Crown Companies and a massive rise in global trade and commerce. Middle Vercian largely facilitated this trade in Senecia, Tulosz, Golanicja, Obersch and Marcosta, and had begun to spread westward to ports in Jumira and Ayodesh. On encountering languages from the Desh and Sechumaharan language families, Middle Vercian began to drift again, and by the time the major wars of the Imperial Era were erupting at the beginning of the eighth century, Middle Vercian had evolved into a new language known as Imperial Comercja - or the Imperial Trade Language. As with Middle Vercian, Imperial Comercja was excellent at adopting and integrating words, phrases, grammar and concepts from other languages, while at the same time offering enormous value in terms of a sophisticated and precise vocabulary for weights, measures and other standards. In short, the language was welcoming to new speakers, and valuable to learn. By the end of the Imperial Era, Imperial Comercja was spoken on every continent in the world, and was an important part of daily life in most port cities around the world.

Senecian and Tuloszian (Year 1100 to current)

Over centuries of Imperial rule both High Elvish and Royal Tuloszian drifted to become increasingly intricate sociolects spoken only by the nobilities of their respective societies who were becoming increasingly detached from the people. Senecian and Tuloszian, then, were born when native speakers of High Elvish and Royal Tuloszian were excluded from the continued drift of those languages as practiced by an insular nobility, and had to simply go on speaking and writing anyway. The rise of the printing press effectively made the obsolescence of High Elvish and Royal Tuloszian unavoidable. By the end of the Imperial Era, public records in Senecia and Tulosz became increasingly muddled because the general public, and even the bureaucrats could scarcely comprehend official documents and could not properly keep important records (such as birth and death records, contracts, or deeds of ownership). With the collapse of the Senecian Empire and the Kingdom of Tulosz, almost every city on both continents was rechartered, and abandoned their official imperial languages for either Senecian, Tuloszian, or in some cases, Imperial Comercja.

Marcostic (Year 500 to current)

Marcostic is one of the least spoken languages of the Third and Fourth Epochs, having evolved from Middle Marcostic, and regionally isolated almost entirely to a handful of cities in the interior of Marcosta. It is, in fact, not very different from Middle Marcostic, and many scholars propose that the two languages be treated as a single language.

Comerta (Year 1260 to current)

With the end of the Imperial Era and the beginning of the Enlightenment, Imperial Comercja - which had evolved from Middle Vercian, had become the de facto operational language of every major company in the world. With the collapse of the Six Empires, a ‘clean-up’ of Imperial Comercja began with the development of formal world-wide standards for weights and measures, which were most easily agreed upon using the words and concepts from Imperial Comercja. Following this standardization, companies, universities, and the councils of major cities began standardizing their internal bureaucracies, redrawing maps, and conducting censuses. All of these efforts led to the evolution of a leaner, more concise version of Imperial Comercja, that became known as Comerta. By the middle of the Enlightenment, Comerta was the most spoken second-language in the world. Unlike its ancestors, Imperial Comercja and Middle Vercian, Comerta is considered a dry and soulless language. Extremely functional, it is excellent for conducting business or for expressing simple concepts clearly and precisely - but poets, mages, musicians and other artists typically dislike it. The famous fourteenth century Odovicjan painter Zirena Olmec once lamented that, “Comerta is anti-life. Learning to speak it blinds the soul to beauty forever. No one who speaks Comerta will ever become a great artist.” While the position is extreme, it illustrates how far the language drifted from the one that carried the epic songs of the Ancient Mer forward across the millennia.