Major Living Languages

We classify as "major" those languages spoken in the present day by several millions of people in the population of the Known World.

Renredeshi

Renrendeshi, meaning "Language of Cities," is the most common spoken language of the imperial domain of the Great Kingdom of Usiren. Some unicorns can speak Renredeshi passably well, though like most humanoid languages it is a challenge for their organs of speech.

(New) Shunhaurati

Shunhaurati is the language of the coasts of the Shun, of the seafaring traders and the salt-water herders. It serves as the koine of the Shunhaurat, and, in written form, it is the international communication in commerce. Some unicorns can speak Shunhaurati passably well, though like most humanoid languages it is a challenge for their organs of speech.

(Vulgar) Usirenic

Vulgar Usirenic, the contemporary spoken form of the Usirenic language, is the primary language of the traditional heartland of Usiren, and especially of the common urban people of the capital and its sphere. It exists on a dialect continuum with Renredeshi, which has more Shunhaurati influences than Usirenic, as a general rule.

(Vulgar) Eloidenic

The common spoken language of the Kingdom of Eloiden, both in the countryside and in towns.

Oriental Unicornic

Oriental Unicornic is the language spoken by the eastern unicorn tribes. Each tribe typically has its own distinctive manner of speaking, generally mutually intelligible with those of nearby tribes, but perhaps not so with those farther away.

Occidental Unicornic

Occidental Unicornic is the language spoken by the western unicorn tribes.

Wet Unicornic

Wet Unicornic is the language spoken by the "Wet" unicorns, i.e. those on the windward side of the Mountains of the Dawn marking the Eastern extremity of the known world.

Minor Living Languages

Montanic

The language of the people living in the fjords and rugged valleys upland from the sea. These communities have always included substantial numbers of unicorns, and perhaps as a result, it can be spoken fairly well with the vocal apparatus of unicorns.

High Eloidenic

The traditional language of secular high culture and administration in the Kingdom of Eloiden. In the latter role, particularly at the highest levels of the state, it is has been giving way in the last two centuries to Court Usirenic. The grammatical and orthographical forms of High Eloidenic are generally imitated with varying success when literate speakers of Vulgar Eloidenic write.

Desert Eloidenic

Desert Eloidenic is a family of languages spoken by the nomadic tribes in the Eloidenian hinterland. Some unicorns can speak Desert Eloidenic passably well, though like most humanoid languages it is a challenge for their organs of speech.

Specialized Languages

Temple Eloidenic

Temple Eloidenic is the archaic form of the Eloidenic language used in the rituals and sacred writings of the state religion of Eloiden. Though actively spoken and written within the hierarchy, it is not a living language in the sense of having first-language speakers.

Court Usirenic

The prescriptive form of the modern Usirenic language, used by the royal court and higher administration of the Great Kingdom of Usiren's sphere of hegemonic influence. It is also used for many other official documents, though koines are used pragmatically where necessary.

Serene Language

The language of the Giants, said by them to have been given to them by the Serene Goddess at their creation. It is notable for its low rate of linguistic change; the spoken language of today is grammatically almost the same as the oldest written texts, with the only substantial difference observed diachronically being the acquisition of new vocabulary. The Serene language is also used by human priests of the Serene Goddess and many of her family.

Dead Languages with Written Corpora

This languages are no longer spoken or written, but their respective literate speakers each left a corpus of writings. Some scholars may still be able to read them.

Old Shunhaurati

The writing system for Old Shunhaurati was really only for record-keeping; writing capable of representing the entire language is not known. It seems to derive from a common origin with early proto-Usirenic writing.

Old Eloidenic

The writing system of Old Eloidenic seems to have developed mostly independently of that of civilizations to the South. The form used for monumental inscriptions has changed little since its codification late in the First Shunhaurat, but forms of writing used for ephemera have varied dramatically from that time until the present.

Usirenic

Starting with early proto-Usirenic in the First Shunhaurat, Usirenic developed a complete writing system. When the Dark Age cut off external trade and the material culture and administration of the Shunhaurat simplified, scribal output decreased but did cease. Literary texts continued to be copied and developed even through the Dark Age, at least in a few urban centers (such as Usiren itself.) During the Usirenic renaissance, an improved and simplified writing system emerged, which is used substantially unchanged today. In less troubled times, there were many scholars able to read pre-renaissance tablets surviving from the First Shunhaurat, though the disruption attending the conflict with Shezeqan has reduced this faculty.

Early Montanic

Montanic writing seems to have developed very late in the First Shunhaurat, and been an adaptation of Old Shunhaurati. It had little time to develop beyond a marginal phenomenon before the Dark Age began. It is known today from a few monumental inscriptions of royal genealogies.