#fantasy languages

Frankly speaking, in the first three trilogies language stuff was done pretty neatly. We see that the Six Dutchies language (which has many regional accents) and the Outlandish language have the same mother language, but got separated after some time. Speakers of both languages can understand each other with some difficulties as some words changed their meaning or pronunciation. So it's something like an Englishman talking to a Dutchman. And it was soo cool and realistic

I did enjoy every mention of language learning stuff and translation, bits of information about Mountanian and Chalcedian languages

When the Common language was first mentioned in the Rwc, I thought it was called so because it was common for the Pirate Isles, Bingtown and Jamilia.

But then in Fitz and the Fool it was ruined: it turned out that Six Dutchies speak the same language as Bingtown and Jamalia, though they hardly ever interacted with each other for a very long time. Even if they had spoken one language centuries ago, it would have changed much more visible than Outlandish (that changed despite close trade). And they are not even bothered by accent!

I had a theory that the Common language could be an artificial language for communication like Latin had been used, but that means it had to be learned and I doubt that, for example, Persistence, a stable boy who couldn't read or write, had time to learn a language to easily communicate with folks in Kelsingra.

And it's especially funny that in Liveship Traders Clef, who was born in Six Dutchies, had a strong accent and when Fitz meets him in Assassin's Fate, he notices Clef's accent. Man, his accent is supposed to be because of your Native language!

I’ve been thinking more about my Lantern Corps Language Au and started getting the basic idea more together then it was in my one post where hall gets doused with truth pollen or something.

Okay basically all the different Lantern Corps share the same language (just to clear that up) and this language is a mix of a bunch of alien languages in part due to how many cultures mix in the corps. Since humans have barely ever been in the corps there’s very little earthen influence so far but with how many lanterns are coming from earth… Anyway!

So each corp has different accents that they tend to speak Lantern in, and the language sounds sorta similar to earth music? Each accent sounds like a music style (haven’t completely decided but think angry music=red and stuff like that?) and changing corps doesn’t change the accent directly (if you moved from America to Italy would you gain an Italian accent? Probably not immediately!).

Unlike most alien languages where they speak their normal language and it translates to the one they intend lantern is actually spoken (for beings that have vocal capabilities), and has to be learned, but new lanterns do automatically understand it even if they have a bit of trouble with telling the tone.

Logically humans shouldn’t be able to speak lantern because some of the required sounds to speak it aren’t possible for humans but depending on what you like you can either say that A: the ring helps with any impossible sounds or B: you also headcannon that joining a lantern corp leaves permanent changes (which is another headcannon I have but that’s not important for this post-) that allow for this

Tone is REALLY important for Lantern, the same direct translation can mean wildly different things based on the emotion behind it. In the written version this is represented by differently colored ink (and if I’m not lazy for the vocalization as well). Also the tone isn’t only verbally communicated but also sort of projected? This ties in with one of my other head cannons that being so entangled with the emotional electromagnetic spectrum allows lanterns to vaguely feel the emotions of those around them and project their own-

Along with a verbal version, a mental ish version, and a written language, Lantern is also spoken in several other ways because not every species is gonna communicate in the same way as humans. The most prominent of these is a ‘visual’ version that utilizes the lights on their suit to create different colors and brightnesses (almost a sort of Morse code/sign since limbs are sparingly used to further the meaning).

Anyway the last point I have for now is that because there are so many requirements and details with Lantern it’s extremely hard for a non lantern to learn (if they even know about it, which most don’t) let alone speak. The only species I can think of that would be able to speak lantern semi easily would be Martians…

Oh also if anyone likes this I’ll expand on it someday with my headcannoned culture that lanterns have developed lol.

Part 1 - Djinnistani

From the Daevapedia Wiki: The language of the Daeva tribe. Described by Nahri as sounding similar to Hebrew, though Yaqub adamantly disagreed (City of Brass, Ch.1, p.17). When discussing with fans about writing some Divasti dialogue, the author wrote, "there was an embarrassing amount of time spent with proto-indo-european roots" (Chakraborty, Twitter, 4/13/2020) (1).

First of all, what is Proto-Into-European? It’s the “reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family”, which contains about 446 living languages spoken by over 3.4 billion people (2). That’s quite a lot, but we can narrow it down geographically.

This is a map of West Asia slapped on top of the Daevabad map from City of Brass. I made this overlay a while ago (in Google Slides, please excuse the quality), and while it’s not a perfect match, it gives us a better idea of which countries (and languages) make up Daevastana. In case the map text is too blurry, this region includes Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztan, and Pakistan.

This region overlaps with the Iranian (or Iranic) branch of the Indo-European Language Family, shown by this map (3): 

So here's my question: The Daeva tribe adopted the original name of their species as their tribal name. Did they do the same for their language? IE, is Divasti the original language spoken by the Daevas pre-Suleiman’s curse? In that case I want to look for the oldest language spoken in the “Daevastana” region.

The Iranian language family is chronologically classified into Old, Middle, and New Iranian, with evidence of only TWO Old Iranian languages surviving. These are Avestan, and Old Persian (4). Avestan was originally spoken from around 1500 - 400 BCE (8), and Old Persian was adapted to cuneiform around 600 - 500 BCE (6).

Fun fact, Old Persian would have been the language used around the time of Darius the Great, whose name is a derivation of... Darayavahoush (9).

Avestan was already a dead language known only to priests by the 5th century AD, so I doubt any modern production would be able to adapt it for use as Divasti (5). That leaves Old Persian, which is a DIRECT ancestor of New Persian, aka, Farsi (6). Farsi is the most commonly spoken language of the Iranian language group (4). It has been spoken in its current stage since around the 8th century, and has around 127 million speakers today, predominantly in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; all of which are located in "Daevastana" (7).

Here's a map of Farsi-speaking areas overlaid with the Daevabad map from City of Brass (10).

TL;DR: Divasti - Farsi/Persian

Bonus info and works cited under the split :)

The late John M. Ford told his editors: “I have a horror of being obvious.” As a reader, I have a horror of being force-fed the obvious. I like a little confusion. I don’t mind dropping into a world and being forced to wander it before I can figure it out; In fact, if I’m honest, I prefer that. I wonder, sometimes, if authors are done a disservice when we are so often pushed to revise toward “clarity.” Of course unintentional confusion or inconsistency can sink a story just as surely as over-exposition can, and often it’s easier for a third-party to see those gaps in internal logic where a story has gone astray or gotten tangled in its own machinery. That kind of clarity can be helpful, even essential. But too often I think the scale tips toward encouraging a kind of exposition that begins to tell the reader how they should read a piece. An attempt at a shortcut, a trapdoor in the prose rather than a carefully built maze, winding turn by turn toward its end."

This website will be your new best friend to make custom fonts!

The language of Mermaids is Italian. 

Talking animals all know Spanish as their first language.