Language Notes

IC language display v the actual IC language

The language Gaerans speak isn't English...or, for that matter, Cantonese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, or anything else of the sort. Even though Hakaril Silvar is apparently speaking English while turning the national treasury into fish, an Englishwoman from Earth would not understand what he is speaking because he is speaking Common. We write it in English because that's the language we know how to write.

The same goes for, say, Inustani, which is represented by Spanish. A Spaniard from Earth such as Cardinal would not understand Inustani until he learned it as a separate language.

Table 1

This table shows [1] the name of the IC language, [2] how that language is displayed, and [3] the language "expert(s)," or a person or persons with some knowledge about how to display the language. For instance, glu_glu is a native Spanish speaker, Daien and Malta Jean natively speak Maltese, pdrydia has studied an amount of Spanish as Taiar has Cantonese and Squintz Hebrew--and so on.

RP language	displayed as	expert(s)
Common	English	virtually anyone
Barian	fictional; Italian/Russian hybrid	Shinigori
Demonic	Maltese	Daien, MaltaJean
Dragonic (Draconic)	fictional	--
Dwarvish	Russian	--
Griffonic	fictional	Nekogami
Goblin	German	--
High Elvin+	Hebrew	SquintzAltec
High Nekonian+	Japanese	Nekogami
Inustani	Spanish	glu_glu, pdrydia
Lanese (Long)	Cantonese	Taiar, Nekogami
Mazoku++	Cantonese	Taiar, Nekogami
Ryuuzoku++	fictional	LadydragonclawsEDW
Sidhe	fictional; combination of Welsh, Gaelic, other British Isle languages	UnclePervy
Sagii (the Woodlands)	French	--
Valthi	fictional	Namagomi

Notes on the above table:

• +Barian, High Elvin, and High Nekonian are used only by certain social classes in their respective countries
• ++Ryuuzoku and mazoku are offworlder languages. While there are now mazoku native to Gaera, these people have their own native languages, usually that of the culture they were raised in or around.

Table 2

Some languages are, if not quite identical, close enough in vocabulary and structure so that if a character can understand one language, that character can understand the other. This has developed largely for the sake of deus ex machina and has been, so far, kept within the IC languages.

RP language	identical to
Common (Ayenee)	Common (Gaera), Common (Lunar)
Common (Gaera)	Common (Ayenee), Common (Lunar)
Common (Lunar)	Common (Ayenee), Common (Gaera)
Lanese	Mazoku
Mazoku	Lanese

Alphabets

Common

Archmage has made this into a downloadable true type font which can, currently, be downloaded here.

Griffonic

Notes on the Griffonic language from Nekogami:

Griffons technically have two languages. When in griffon form, they talk much like bird, with warks, coo, warbles, and so on. However, in elven form they have another language that can be spoken by other non-griffons. It is this latter form that is generally what is being referred to with the word "Griffonic."

There are 16 letters in the griffonic alphabet: A U I O E W R Y S F G H J K L M

'R's are often trilled or rolled. G is never soft like a J. Vowel sounds are as thus:

A = 'ah' as in father
U = 'oo' as in food
I = 'ee' as in feed
E = 'ey' as in pain
O = 'oh' as in bone
AA = 'ah-ae'
UU = 'oo-oo'
EE = 'ee'
I is never doubled.

Sentence structure in the Griffonic language follows the SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) format.

Peeah a sufae.
pig to attack - Attack the pig.
(literally: Direct your attack to/at the pig.)

Wea luu is soe ka err.
red ribbon of girl is - The girl's ribbon is red.
(literally: The red ribbon of the girl is red.)

Some other rules:

When directing an action to something 'a' comes before the verb.
When stating a fact 'ka' comes before the verb.
When stating an uncertainty 'on' comes before the verb.
When asking a question, 'sofa' is added at the end.