Sechumaharan Language Family

 

The languages in the Sechumaharan family are spoken in Jumira and Sekhu. The origins of the Sechumaharan language family remain a mystery even beyond the end of the Fourth Epoch. It seems to have nothing in common with the other language families, which in theory can be linked back to ancient languages.

Proto-Sechumaharan (Year -4000 to Year -1500)

Proto-Sechumaharan is presumed to be one of a large group of languages that were used across Jumira and Sekhu in the Second Epoch, which continued on to give rise to Old Sechumaharan. It is believed that this language, and a few others of the era, may have had simple written forms, as symbols in the Old Sechumaharan written language seem to have been aggregated from different partial writing systems. No actual samples of these early writing systems have been found, however, so this remains speculative.

Old Sechumaharan (Year -1500 to Year -500)

Old Sechumaharan first began to be written sometime in the early Third Epoch. The earliest examples of the writing system are strange in that they seem to have evolved from the incorporation of multiple different writing systems including a linear writing system of blocky glyphs, a different linear writing system of flowing, cursive script, and a non-linear system of dots and dashes that seems to have been a counting system. The earliest examples of Old Sechumaharan come from early temples and fortifications found in northwestern Jumira and northern Sekhu, in the major cities on the coast of the Great Spiral Sea, indicating that the language was common across a major portion of both continents as early as the middle of the Third Epoch.

Middle Chumaharan (Year -500 to Year 340)

By the mid Third Epoch, Old Sechumaharan, which had spread across most of Jumira and Sekhu, split into two different languages, with each evolving their own written language separately. Middle Chumaharan became the dominant language in Jumira as it took hold in the northeast and Mudinak rose in prominence. The Middle Chumaharan script abandoned the flowing, cursive script of Old Sechumaharan as it evolves the glyphs of old Sechumaharan into an enormous logography of complex characters which were written vertically - often woven into banners or painted onto long scrolls of fabric.

Middle Sechuwaran (Year -500 to Year 725)

In parallel to the emergence of Middle Chumaharan in Jumira, Middle Sechuwaran began to appear in Sekhu. The language, which first appeared in the Great Copper Plain and was soon adopted in Mandala, abandoned the glyphs of Old Sechumaharan, and evolved into a flowing cursive of hooks, loops and dashes. While still having many similarities spoken similarities to its sister language, Middle Chumaharan, the written languages could not appear more different.

Short Chumiran (Year 340 to Year 950)

By the time of the Orcish Conquests, writing the highly stylized characters of Middle Chumaharan had evolved into an art form, and even writing simple sentences became time consuming and error prone. The urgency of military communication became a forcing function that simplified the written language and, as a result, led to additional simplifications in its structure, syntax and grammar. This ‘concise’ version of the language became known as Short Chumiran, first by the War Councils, and then by the City Councils and by the population at large, who were quick to adopt a faster, more functional, albeit sloppier form of writing and eventually to a slang that would overtake the language in Imperial Era, and last through to the Fifth Epoch and beyond.

Sekhuwaran (Year 725 to Year 1250)

Sekhu was not nearly as disrupted by the Orcish Conquests or the wars of the Imperial Era as much of the rest of the world, but the conflicts did have an enormous economic impact on the continent. With the relative peace and stability, Sekhu became an important trade center, and the major port cities grew into wealthy and powerful urban centers. As populations boomed with people arriving from all over the globe, the influx of languages and ideas had a significant impact on Middle Sechuwaran, which, by the middle of the Imperial Era had evolved into a new language. Sekhuwaran was adopted first in the major cities, but slowly propagated until it became the primary language of most of the continent.

Jumiran (Year 950 to current)

The economic boom that swept Sekhu during the Orcish Conquests spilled over into Jumira during the Imperial Era as Jumiran charter cities and companies profited enormously, first off of the rebuilding and the extravagant spending of the emerging Six Empires, and then later off their mobilization and borrowing as they spiraled into conflict. With the rise in wealth came a rise in culture, and a certain nostalgia for ancient tradition. Jumiran plays and poetry of the Imperial Era retold the stories of the Third Epoch, presenting them in an affected, lofty style that revived the more complex grammatical and syntactical features of Middle Chumaharan. The impact of this stylization would suddenly become very far-reaching and powerful as it coincided with the arrival of the printing press. Over the course of a few centuries, this affected style would make its way back into the common vernacular, giving rise to a new dialect that struck a balance between the overwrought and cumbersome features of Middle Chumaharan and the functional directness of Short Chumiran.

Sekhuan (Year 1250 to current)

While Sekhuwaran is recognized as it’s own language, it was never truly stable, and many scholars refer to it only loosely as a transitional language in the evolution between Middle Sechuwaran and Sekhuan, which was fully established as the primary language across all the major cities of Sekhu by the beginning of the Enlightenment.