Language in the old empire

There are many languages and dialects spoken across the breadth of the world.  In the lands that were once part of the old empire there are several major languages.

• Low Imperial: This is the most prevalent language in the province of Cisallia itself and was the primary tongue spoken by imperial citizens and their descendants.  It is an elegant tongue with a tight grammatical structure and is capable of great precision even when speaking of highly abstract concepts.  Almost everyone in the Cisallian peninsula speaks low imperial or a derivative thereof, this includes halflings, who have been part of human society so long that their original language has died out except in the form of some few words that were absorbed into imperial(most of which are ways of describing food).  In addition, many in the western land of Prydein also speak a form of low imperial, especially the educated urban nobility.

• High Imperial: This is a very formal and much more restrictive subdialect of low imperial.  It is considered the most noble of languages (at least by imperials and their admirers).  Its baroque and convoluted grammar and syntax are seen by its users as proof of its superiority and it is the tongue most often used both in poetry and scholarly works as well as in magical writings created by imperials.

• Prydi: This is the language of the western peoples.  Looked down upon for their barbarian heritage, in truth the Prydein people were absorbed by the empire during its early expansion and have a tradition of urban culture almost as old as the Cisallians.  The Prydi tongue has changed significantly since contact with the empire has begun and it can legitimately be said that their are now two distinct sub families; Imperial Prydi and Old Prydi.  The imperial version of the language uses Prydi vocabulary for the most part with some loanwords for more abstract concepts but is structured according to imperial grammatical rules.  Old Prydi on the other hand is rare outside of the northwestern hills and is most closely related to the original speech of the barbarian Prydeins.  It is a musical and somewhat singsong tongue that has a tendency for grand exposition.

• Harudish: The northern peoples were never entirely conquered by the empire and so their speech is much less affected by imperial language.  The Harudish tongue is a simple, blunt thing that is well suited to conveying simple concrete information quickly and efficiently.  It has little ability to cover more scholarly topics and is disdained by men of learning as the tongue of savages.  Harudish people return the sentiment as they have a dim view of sophistry and prefer men to speak clearly and to the point.

• Common Elven: This is the language that elves speak during their everyday lives.  It is also the only elven language that non-elves are likely to be able to learn.  It is a language of capable of astounding clarity but also enormous depth.

• Sylphan: This is a bastardized offshoot of Common Elven that is spoken exclusively by the isolated forest-dwelling wood elves.  It retains many of the features of Common Elven but its separation from the Elven community has resulted in the Sylphan language developing an additional level of complexity.  Those few outside the wood elf community that have learned something of the language are fascinated by it, they say that it seems to be cryptic by nature, as if it was a conscious decision on the part of the speakers to hide what they were thinking at all times.

• Arcane Elven: This is the Elven language at its most inscrutable.  The Arcane dialect of elven is almost never spoken in mixed company and indeed only a small percentage of elves are capable of speaking it, as it is truly a magical language and it requires the application of mana in order to convey meaning with it.  Those who are not capable of wizardry who simply repeat the sounds by rote will find that they merely spew meaningless syllables.
• Dwaryn: This is the common tongue of all of the dwarvish peoples and is quite commonly spoken by gnomes as well.  It is a craftsman's language and is simple in structure and efficient in use, but is capable of exacting precision in all things, especially discussing mining and metalwork.

• Courtly Dwaryn: This is an elaborate linguistic embellishment of the simple dwaryn and is almost never used outside of official court functions for the simple fact that it takes an inordinate amount of time to actual say  something.  It is a requirement of such formal occasions though and this custom actually represents the first level of insulation between the dwarven king and petitioners.  If the petitioner is not capable of speaking courtly dwarvish, they must obtain the support of one who does in order to have their issue raised in the presence of the king or his officers.

• Gnomish: Gnomish is a sharp, staccato speech that is prized by linguists for its enormous flexibility.  Gnomes rarely use loanwords because their own native tongue has such a robust system of prefix's and suffix's that it is almost impossible not to be able to describe something with gnomish vocabulary.  Gnomes have more ways to express the concept of stubbornness than dwarves, and are better able to describe ennui than elves.

• Orcish: This is the language spoken by the various greenskinned peoples of the far east.  It is a crude, guttural tongue with little capability for intelligent discourse and many words that express rage and hatred.

• Cheyua: This language is rarely encountered in imperial lands, but it is known as the eastern exiles speak it amongst themselves and can sometimes be heard quoting the wisdom of the ancient philosophy of their masters.

• Wilder: This is the brutish language of the wildmen.  It is unsophisticated in the extreme and has few abstract concepts and has a limited means of communicating events in time.  As such, wildmen have little concept of the passage of time.  Events can only be described as "before," "now," or "soon."