I got a notebook FULL of language work for the first era of the empire, and I’m slowly transcribing my notes onto my computer.
Green: the thing addressed by the symbol Light Blue: Glyphic symbol Dark Blue: Simplified script, ‘Common’ Purple: How the symbol is spoken aloud
You can think of these 11 syllables [ I believe the correct term is phoneme? ] as the basic core that future languages and dialects drifted from. Surprise! They’re symbols for the 10 divines venerated by the peoples of Jiaal, plus one phoneme that can mean moon, can be appended to the end of a word to make it masculine, and in general conversation means no, or not that. Likewise, the phoneme Ka can mean darkness and shadow, but when asked as a question is questing to see if someone agrees with you.
“I think chocolate is delicious, Ka?”
“Ka! Yes, chocolate is so good!”
-or-
“Na-ka, I don’t like chocolate.”
This use of Ka and Na Ka is still part of regular conversations well into the Third Era, even if most of the old writing system is lost and the language has developed into greater complexity.
