The Languages of the Region and adjacent lands Part II

Oddities and Anomalies

The main oddity as far as human languages are concerned in the area is represented by the settlement at the Hidden Dell and the as yet unnamed settlement being built by the rescued plantation slaves from Kalamaria which Violet brought over the high pass at about the same time as the goblins raided the Hidden Dell.

The Hidden Dells lingua franca is probably best described as high Kalamarian being almost identical to the modern form of Kalamarian spoken in the court at Bet Kalamar, though most of the inhabitants are at least bilingual. The other known languages are in order of importance, the eastern form of Merchants tongue, Fhokki and Reanaarese most are also literate in at least one language, typically Kalamarian.

The rescued plantation slaves currently building a settlement at the water caves  to the east of the Hidden Dell speak low or common Kalamarian amongst themselves and most of them are illiterate. It seldom suits the masters of labour slaves to teach them to read and write even in literate societies.

The non human languages

Demihumans

In the actual region there are very few non humans and the majority of theses are elves or half elves from more central Cosdol or Halflings from the Halfling baronies off to the south of the region. Halflings locally speak a Brandobian derived Dialect as mentioned above and Elves naturally the two forms of Elven both of which are very constant over time. There are no resident Dwarves or Gnomes though either may be encountered as travellers.

Humanoids

The fringes of the region especially to the north and east are rife with humanoids mostly Goblins to the north and a mixture of Orks and Hobgoblins to the east. The Goblins as can be expected speak one of the many dialects of Goblin and here unusually a few of the ranking goblins are literate using a script which they adapted from Dwarvish as the Great goblin of the region’s citadel is in a lost dwarf hold and it is rife with inscriptions in Dwarvish, the goblin leaders adapted this for their own use as they did the other works of the Dwarves

 

The Orks speak, as you would expect, one of the many dialects of orkish and are universally illiterate beyond the practice of something akin to Gleasee by a few. The Hobgoblins are interesting for a number of reasons the most relevant to a piece about languages is that they speak a language completely unrelated to either of the major Hobgoblin languages or any other language as far as any can tell. Most also speak Goblin as the tribes have long been under control of the regional great Goblin and are as illiterate as their orkish neighbours.