Terran Language Families

This page lists language families in Terra and their members. For a simple list with no explanation, see Project Language.

Superseleyan
The Superseleyan languages are by far the most widely spoken language family throughout Terra. Linguinst believe that the language family originated on the Seleyan continent and from there was transported throughout the world through various migrations. The Superseleyan language family is broken into 5 main sub-divisions: Rhaetan, Selucic, Likaton-Delic, Celtic and Aryan which are further broken down into different dialects.

Rhaetan
The Rhaetan languages encompasses the Dundorfian language families. It likely began somewhere in central Artania, namely Dundorf where it get it's namesake from. The sub-family spread all across Artania as well as spreading to parts of Dovani, Majatra, Seleya and Makon. The base language of Rhaetan is Proto-Dundorfian, which modern linguist have worked extensively to compile resources on and have gained a much better understanding of the Rhaetan languages.

Northern Rhaetan
The Northern Rhaetan language family migrated south from northern Artania to other areas of Terra, the primary base language of Northern Rhaetan is Proto-Dundorfian, where most of the languages in the language group draw their basis from.


 * Proto-Dundorfian - The earliest known language of the Dundorfian people and primarily spoken in the area surrounding Dundorf prior to the eventual evolution into Dundorfian. Proto-Dundorfian through modern re-construction has been kept from going extinct.
 * The Dunic languages of Deltaria are known for their archaic use of the language due to the diaspora of proto-Dundorfian speakers during the Deltarian migrations. Doron is a relatively un-evolved language relating back to proto-Dundorfian, however overtime the language adopted the Kalopian alphabet, it however uses many of the archaic elements of proto-Dundorian. Akigan is related to the proto-Dundorfian language alongside the Luthorian language, the Akigan speakers, who resides in present day Luthori took part of the Deltarian migrations which relates to it's similarity with the Luthori language. Some have gone as far as calling it "proto-Luthori" but most linguist dismiss this claim.


 * Dundorfian (Dundorfische) proper is spoken primarily in Dundorf. Dundorfian spread across the Artanian continent due to it's central location and evolved into related languages and different Dundorfian dialects.
 * North Dundorfian languages
 * Kazulian (Kazulianisk) is Dundorfian-related through colonization and settlement. (OOC: Norwegian)
 * Telamonese (Telaska) developed similarly to Kazulian and is related to Dundorfian through heritage. (OOC: Swedish)
 * Hulstrian though very similar to standard Dundorfian, the Hulstrians have develop minor dialectical differences due to their influence from Kazulian and an extended period of time away from Dundorfian proper. (OOC: Low German)


 * Central Dundorfian languages
 * Dorvish (Dorvische) is almost identical to Dundorfian proper however it developed from a branch of proto-Dundorfian, known as Lorman sometimes called proto-Dorvish. Eventually the Dorvish language adopted the Dundorfian standards after the Ministry of Education and Culture attempted to unify an "Artanian" language in the 2950's.
 * Darnus is the dominant language of Darnussia and is considered to be very similar to Dundorfian, but, like modern Hulstrian, has dialectical differences, mostly influenced by Deltarian.
 * Dundorfian - Die Kinder spielten. ("The children were playing.")
 * Darnus - Die kinder meespeler. ("The children have been playing.")


 * East Dundorfian languages

Luthori (the game's English), is one of the most dominant languages on Terra. Developed by the Luthoris and spread through their conquests around the globe, the language quickly picked up. Luthori is spoken as a diplomatic language by most.
 * Luthori


 * Ikradonian (Ichredöne):
 * Highly-influenced by Dundorfian due to history, culture, and proximity.
 * Dundorfian - Das Fahrrad ging zu schnell ("The bicyle was going too fast").
 * Ikradonian (Ichredöne) - De fiets ging te snel ("The bicycle was going too fast").


 * Dorvish (Dorvische):
 * Dorvish is a very closely related to Dundorfian with only minor changes due to the influence of regional tribal languages early in the development of Dorvish. Modern Dorvish is often called Lorman due to it's close proximity to the Lorman tribal language which was brought to Dorvik by the Dorvi tribe.


 * Also, the Dunic family of Deltarian languages, namely Doron and Akigan, are Dundorfian in origin.
 * Doron is a Rhaetan language developed from proto-Dundorfian that retains many archaic characteristics, including a rich system of inflexion. The Doron alphabet is derived from the Kalopian script.
 * Akigan or Anglo-Deltarian is significantly different from the other Dundorfian languages, retaining many characteristics of proto-Rhaetan. Similarly to Doron, it is highly inflexionary.

Southern Rhaetan

 * Vanukeaans:
 * Language of Vanuku.
 * Vanukeaans is almost purely Dutch.


 * Narik:
 * Language of the islands of Narikaton (region).
 * Narik is based off the Dutch language with minor cultural differences.


 * Duntrekaans:
 * Language of the Duntrekkers.
 * Many dialects, depends upon area of Duntrekker settlement.
 * Dundorfian - Er hat ein gelbes Haus ("He had a yellow house").
 * Duntrekaans - Hy het 'n geel huis ("He had a yellow house").
 * Duntrekaans is based off the Afrikaaner language.

Selucic
OOC: Romance

The Selucic languages are all descended from one root language, Ancient Selucian (Latin), spoken most directly on several islands in northern Majatra. The various Selucic languages spread to many corners of Terra; most notably to Seleya. Below is a list of the many diverged languages:


 * Selucian (OOC: Latin) is the most spoken language in Selucia. It is the most conservative of all Selucic languages, and its speakers can easily understand texts written in Ancient Selucian.


 * Ushalandan (OOC: Romanian), a language of Deltaria, is normally considered a dialect of Selucian with Deltarian influences. It is also written with the Tokundian alphabet, with some minor adjustments.


 * Kizenian, the dominant language of Kizenia, is virtually identical to Ushalandan, but it is written exclusively in the Selucian script.


 * Canrillaişe (OOC: French), spoken in Alduria, Kanjor, Rildanor and Lourenne is one of the largest and most major Selucic languages. The three Canrillaise-speaking nations were formerly united in the Union Française, but this alliance is now defunct. Zardugal also has a large population of Canrillaise speakers, up to thirty percent of the country including Creoles.


 * Istalian in Istalia. Istalian was the language of the ruling elite from the third to the seventh centuries CE in Quanzar. Istalian retains many characteristics of Ancient Selucian.


 * Spanish in Egelion, Talmoria, Gaduridos, Dranland, and Baltusia. Talmoria has influences of the Asli language in their own language.


 * Alorian (OOC: Catalan) spoken in Aloria


 * Tukarese (OOC: Portuguese) in Tukarali.

Delic
Another Superseleyan language family is that of the Delic languages, a group of Deltarian languages originating in central Artania, which spread to Majatra and then the rest of the world with the Deltarian Migrations.


 * Daralizindan (West Slavic)
 * Daralian (Slovak)
 * Alazindian (Czech)
 * Valrizen (Polish)


 * Kozak-Trigunian (East Slavic)
 * Rodshya (Russian)
 * Dorvin (Russian)
 * Kozak (Ukrainian)


 * Tokundian (South Slavic)
 * Old Tokundian (Old Church Slavonic)
 * Tokundian(Serbian)
 * Statrican (Croatian)
 * Mothin (Bulgarian)

Likatonian
There are two major Likaton languages, Likaton (spoken in Likatonia) and Dolgavan (spoken in Dolgava.


 * Likaton is the dominant language in Likatonia, also spoken by minority communities in Telamon and Keymon. Likton is one of the things that proponents of Greater Likatonia use to claim that Likatonia, Keymon and southern Telamon should be united into one country. Likaton is the game worlds equivalent of Latvian.
 * Dolgavan is the most widely spoken language in Dolgava. It is also Latvian.
 * Karzonian, a dialect of Dolgavan, is sometimes considered to be a language in its own right. Karzonian is Latgalian.

Celda
OOC: Celtic

There are two important Celda languages. The first to be recognised is Celdanian(Celdanr), which is one of the two main languages of Cildania. It is very important to linguists because it is considered very archaic and close to proto-Rhaetan.

Draddwyr is the other Celda language, although in truth it bares lttle resemblance to it's Celdanian cousin. The language was first encountered when the continent of Dovani was colonised, and it continues to thrive in the Northern part of that continent especially in Dranland.

Ayran
OOC: Indo-Iranian

Ayran languages are a Superseleyan group of languages widely spoken from Vascania to central Seleya.


 * Aldegarian (Persian)
 * Namvietan (Hindustani)
 * Zaqran (Urdu)
 * Rajutti (Hindi)


 * Kalistani (Armenian)

Qedarite
OOC: Semitic Languages

The Qedarite language family is the largest language family in Majatra. It originated in Squibble, but in the Qedarite Migrations it crossed southern Seleya and settled in Majatra. (The areas in Seleya they previously inhabited now speak French.) The Qedaritelanguage family contains two branches: Eastern and Western, however, the distribution is not actually along an East-West axis.

The Eastern group is considerably smaller that of the Western and contains three dead languages; the most well known of which is Therakan, which was spoken in ancient Qolshamih and the Kingdom of Karronia in Quanzar from the 25th century BCE to the first century CE.

Linguistically, the Eastern branch is distinguished by two features:
 * 1) A reduction of the number of the largyngeal phonemes; the voiced pharygeal and velar fricatives were lost in all of the languages, and after the 20th century BCE most had lost the glottal stop as well. The loss of these phonemes resulted in a large set of defective verb conjugations and noun declensions and extensive vowel contraction.
 * 2) Unlike the Western branch, there is no suffixing verbal conjugation, and all Eastern-branch languages have an innovative perfect tense, derived from the T-stem conjugation, in addition to the ancestral perfective and imperfective tenses.

The Western branch has three primary languages. The larger of these is Majatran, spoken in Al'Badara, Cildania, Kafuristan, Wantuni and Quanzar. In Quanzar, it became the language of the lower classes when English and then Istalian overcame it as the language of the educated classes in 2110 and 2232, respectively. Beiteynuese and Cildanian, two closely related languages, are the other main Western Qedarite languages. Beiteynuese is spoken in Beiteynu, and has been very much influenced by the Jelbic languages. It has recently come into conflict with Pnték, due to the Pontesi invasion of Tadraki and Endild. Cildanian is the descendent of the Qedarite Languages in Cildania, and it is the country's dominant language. A medieval version of Cildanian, Church Cildanian, is the liturgic language of the Department of Cildania.

The Western branch has several extinct languages as well, including Old South Majtar, which is attested in rock-inscriptions in the deserts of Ingris in Quanzar.


 * Easten Qedarite
 * Therakan (Akkadian)


 * Western Qedarite
 * Yeudish (Hebrew)
 * Majatran (Arabic)
 * Church Cildanian (Syriac)
 * Modern Ciltanian (Phoenician)

Gao-Indralan
The Gao-Indralan Languages are a group of related languages spoken by the Gao-Showa people.


 * Han languages
 * Indralan (Mandarin Chinese)
 * Đinh (Vietnamese)
 * Phra (Thai)


 * Showan Languages
 * Classical Kunikata (Classical Japanese)
 * Kunikata (Japanese)


 * Kyo (Korean)
 * Tukarian Languages
 * Panmuan (Mongolian)

Jelbic
The Jelbic languages also known as Jelbék languages originated in northwestern Majatra before the year 400. They were subjugated by the Deltarians, and the languages were heavily influenced by them; this led many past linguists to think they were related. When the Vanukuese invaded from across the sea to the west, they split Proto-Jelbic into Jelbék, Pnték and Dissuwan, which are similar, but have slightly different influences: Dissuwan remained closer to Deltarian, while Pnték had some Semitic influences, and Jelbék was influenced by Deltarian and Vanukuese. Recently, Jelbék and Pnték have grown closer through convergent evolution.


 * Northern Jelbic
 * Pnték
 * Brmék


 * Southern Jelbic
 * Jelbék
 * Dissuwan

Makon-Keris
Prof. Poeki Znozin, a Pontesian historian, created an idea linking several language isolates, based on the idea of a people from Dranland, who left towards the southwest. Although this idea has now been proved false (Dranian is a Dovani-Dundorfian language), the study of these isolates has created a new theory, based on the idea that the original inhabitants of Makon and Keris spread southwestward towards Majatra before later abandoning their languages and switching to English.

The last vestiges of the original Makon-Keris languages are:
 * Tirgith, a native language of they eponymous island in Trigunia. The island was relatively isolated, and thus preserved its language after it had been lost elsewhere.
 * Davohuac, the native language of Davostan, which has been heavily influenced by Spanish.
 * Hutorian, closely related to Davohuac, wich has been influenced more by English and Telamonese.
 * The now-extinct Telan language (not to be confused with the unrelated modern Telamonese). But the Telan oral history claims they came from the south, i.e. Likatonia, the known location of Telamonese's origin. Due to the lack of written records, the language's history will probably remain a mystery for a long time.

Spreading southwestward, with the more warriorlike peoples moving farther, the following languages were formed:
 * The lowland Malivian languages. The Highland Malivian languages are the southernmost extent of the Artanian branch of the Superseleyan language family. Bahasa Maliv is a trade language used by the various tribal groups that occupy the Malivian sub-continent, as each tribe and region has its own language or dialect that evolved from the language of the original settlers; it is considered a mixture of Highland and Lowland Malivian.
 * The Solentian language family arrived in Solentia from the north, putting it as a likely offshoot of Vanuku-Malivian. There are two subfamilies of Solentian, Telaic and Ulmaic.

Hobrazian
The Hobrazian language family (OOC: Georgian) is a language isolate and the dominant language of Hobrazia. Some linguists consider it to be a distant branch of Superseleyan, but this is a minority opinion. In early 3406 a party arose in Kalistan named the Kalistani Democratic Party which claimed that the Kali tribe of Kalistan was derived from a Hobrazian despora which ended in Kalistan, this led a division of the isolated Hobrazian language family to include the unnamed language of the tribe (OOC: Armenian).