NIBBOAN [NIB] {And Rosta} C. 1,000,000+ speakers. Koine spoken as a first language throughout Livagia, in informal colloquial contexts. It comprises a mild dialect continuum, chiefly with differences of lexis and pronunciation. The only Livagic language surviving as a native tongue. Whole Bible by c. 1850.
NUMIDIAN (MIDDLE ATLAS BERBER) [NUM] {Leo Caesius} 3,000,000 in all countries. Western Numidian mountain area of Atlas and adjacent valleys to south near the Mauritanian border. Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Northern, Atlas. One of the most important Berber languages. 'Numidian' is the name of the language, 'Berber' of the people. Typology: VSO. Traditional beliefs. Bible portions 1919-1981. Survey needed.
NUREMBERG [NBG] {Alfred Wallace} Spoken by 127 members of the Roderick Spode Party of National Emergency and Renewal compound in Belleville, IL, USA. Language isolate. Typology: SOV. Language is very difficult to listen to. Inhabitants live in and around large, neo-gothic wood-and-sheetrock structure atop a hill in this western Illinois suburb of St. Louis, MO, USA. They subsist on produce grown on-site and snacks smuggled in from a nearby convenience store. Few have any identifiable employment, living instead off donations from more-or-less shady organizations and individuals from around the world and spending their days stomping around and shouting. Their ideology, once apparently highly developed if despicable, has since been subsumed by the desire to wear spiffy black uniforms, thank heaven. Heavily bowdlerized Bible. Survey needed.
OLD AFER (LIMBA AFAR BETUS) [OAF] {Leo Caesius} Decreasing use in Roman Catholic liturgy. There is an effort to revive it. National language; strongly associated with Roman Catholic element in society. Typology: SOV. Bible 1385-1906. NT 1516-1943. Bible portions 1457-1945. Extinct.
PHALERAN [PHA] {Thomas Wier} ca. 5,832,000 first language speakers, and 45,570,000 second-language speakers according to the latest procuratorial census (1203 P.C.); 82% live in K'eÞnaia. Also in Loriom, Effeisa, Trans-Alideru, Tharri. Dialects: PHALER-AIDU, KWEINOITLI, PHALITLAI, K'OI-PHALA, ÖNOPALES, SIKASTRA, NESSUBIM, GRÆKSI, TWOLYEO, T'ERAI, ORUNNA, LOREIAN, EFFEISAN, THARRINAN. Anglophone (?), Tlaspian, Upsilon Andromedan Tlaspi, Phalera Tlaspian, Northern, Plains Phaleran, T'erai-Twolyeo, Twolyeo. 64% lexical similarity with Acropedial Phaleran, 48% with Tic'|onga, 37% with Walsi, and 36% P'orræs. Language of official imperial administration, public education, and, along with C'|ali, international political, intellectual and religious discourse. Not inherently intelligible with Acropedial Phaleran, Tic|'oNga, Walsi, or P'orræs. Dictionary. Typology: SOV; head-marking; postpositions; genitive marking on head nouns; adjectival relative verbs, numerals before head nouns; question particle final; case endings distinguish grammatical relations; ergative morphology and syntax; active, passive, antipassive, middle; causative; two morphological modes: realis and irrealis; progressive and perfective aspects, prospective tense; onset consonant and vowel clusters, no coda clusters; five series of stops: voiced, voiceless, aspirate, voiceless ejective, and (marginally) aspirate ejective; nontonal; grammaticalization of social class structure through honorific clitics and lexical verbs; gender marking not grammaticalized, but expressed through context or adverbs; no articles: word order distinguishes new and old information. Tropical, deciduous forest, taiga. Light industry, agriculturalists, apiculture, craftsmen, artisans. Relations with other colonists in system minimal; reduced to occasional radio transmissions. Ancestor worship; Twolyeo ruler cult; monotheists; secular.
PIGAIC (PIGAYINA) [PGG] {Pierre Abbat} 430,000, mostly in the Pigay Islands. Pihaki, Western, Afodnega, Insular. Typology: SVO, inflecting. Numeric system in Afodnega languages is centered base-9.
PUNIC (CHANANI) [PNC] {Leo Caesius} 20,000 in Tripolitania, 5,000 in Numidia, 30,000 in all countries. Most speakers of Punic are bilingual in Afar or Numidian. Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, Northwest, Canaanite. Traditional beliefs. Bible portions 1919-1981. Typology: SVO. Survey needed.
ROKBEIGALMKI [RKB] {Steg Belsky} Unknown number of speakers, probably a few hundred thousand, almost all in the Southern Hemisphere of Aambalá (Arda), primarily concentrated in the area of the island of Tólosed (Itahhalôsednun), with small scattered settlements along the western coastline of Anti-Valinor (the Sun-Rising Lands), the south-eastern coast of the Dark Lands (Southern Middle-Earth Proper), the entire habitable range of the shores of the South Land, and islands in the seas bounded by these continents. Very little dialectal variation - the larger and newer homelands are generally less conservative in colloquial speech, but all varieties of Rokbeigalmki are completely mutually comprehensible. Very closely related to the language of the Drughu (Drughmki), and much more distantly related to Taliska and other Mannish tongues of Middle-Earth. Many lexical items borrowed from Proto-Elven and Nandorin. Written in an isolate alphabetic script, although historically morphemographs were experimented with for a time. The majority of the Rokbeigalm are human, with substantial elven and mixed-descent minorities. Fiercely monotheistic with animist leanings. Alternate universe (see: Tolkien).
SAALANGAL (APALIM, SAALAPALIM) [SAA] {Barry Garcia} Estimated 70,000 speakers in the Alinyahinsaal archipelago. Territory includes the islands Hayawsaal, Alinyasaal, Lambaksaal, and Pakusaal. DIALECTS: Tasok (Harbor), Kayno (Lake), Lambaksaal (Palm Island), Alinyasaal (Green Island), Eastern. Main dialect is the Tasok dialect of the capital city.The Tasok dialect is the dialect used in education, government, and business. Language isolate.
SHTEETE (SEDEETA, ZHDETEEMOWINH, SE'E:Ã) [SDT] {B. E. Walker} 40,000 - 60,000 in all regions. Canada, Central Manitoba - Interlake; Northwestern Alberta - Grande Prairie, Grande Cache & surrounding areas. Language Isolate, heavily re-lexicalised with loans from various Cree and Ojibwe dialects. Considerable dialect diversity, no written standard, most prestigious variety in Grande Prairie region. VSO, affixing, agglutinating. Native animistic religion, considerable oral literature consisting of song cycles and hero epics. Latin alphabet and Syllabics used. No Bible translation. Work needed, esp. dialectology.
SILINDION [SIL] {Elliott Lash} 5000 - 10000 speakers in Nole Silinel (most in the capital Silinestin). Nestionea, Western Nestionea, Silinestic, Silic, North Silic. Closest relatives are West Silic and South Silic (names to be changed). A large dichotomy exists between the court or High variety and the everyday or Low variety. High Silindion is very much influenced by South Silic. Poetic varieties also exist in both registers as well as three major dialects: Nellanea, Silinestie, and Dorussie. Typology: VSO with SOV and SVO alternatives occurring mainly in poetry. Agglutinative, tending toward inflecting, 13 cases, 4 verb tenses. Religion: primarily shamanistic.
SKERRE (SKERRENSKA) [SKR] {Doug Ball} Spoken by 500,000 speakers residing on Plane 86, spoken by maybe an additional 1,000 spread throughout other planes. Skerre is an isolate, being the only indigenous language to Plane 86. Dialectical difference is small, as all inhabitants live in a relatively small area. Many Skerre (especially those involved with interplanar trade) are bi- or trilingual. Zo is the most common second language - Kuvolan, Koen, and Decohonte are the next commonly spoken or understood. Typology: VSO (head-intial); small phonemic inventory; morphologically ergative, but syntactically accusative.
TALARIAN [TLN] {Padraic Brown} Approx. 200.000 to 500.000 speakers in Kingdom of Illenere; perhaps 5.000 in Kingdom of Ylluria. 15% live in the capital city (Illenere), while 85% live in rural clan holdings. No dialect variation. Aryan (Indo-European), North Asiatic; lexicon affected by several adstrate languages. Typography SOV. Official writing system is a combination of ideogrammes and a modified cuneiform syllabary. Ordinary writing system is a cursive alphabet derived from the cuneiform syllabary; Latin characters are found increasingly. First texts written more than 2000 years ago. Alternative timeline.
TECH (TEKH, TEX, AT-TEKHIYYA) [TCH] {Danny Wier} 1,350,000 in Techia (2050); 1,440,000 in all countries. Language Isolate. Dialects: SOUTH SHORE (QOT'ÏLA) TECH, HIGHLAND TECH, MA<OW, NORTH SHORE (FNALQ, FYNALKH) TECH, PIEDMONT TECH. A "Standard Tech" has been established as a national language based on a common literary language, more or less based on South Shore, the language of the ruling Qot'ïla tribe. Loanwords from English, French, Arabic very common. Ma<ow is spoken by the Muslim Ma<ow tribe and may be a separate language. Written in various scripts (Arabic, Coptic, Ge<ez, Latin). National language. Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist. Bible NT 1681-2042, OT 1762-2042, Braille Bible portions 1986. Survey needed.
TELEK [TKE] {Marcus Smith} 1,000 or less: 600 in Kaldila; 400 in Saskum. Unconfirmed rumors of other populations. Isolate. Two dialects: KALDILAK and SASKUMIK. First language for all residents, most also speak Igassik, some speak English. Standard orthography. Literacy: 30%. Dictionary, grammar in progress. Typology: SOV, active agreement.
TEPA [TEP] {Dirk Elzinga} Upper Colorado River valley, Glenn Canyon (southeastern Utah). Isolate. Inflecting, verb-initial, hierarchical argument structure, and complex sandhi alternations similar to neighboring Southern Paiute. Only extant documentation is contained in unpublished journals of Alma Walker, based on material collected from a Southern Paiute-Tepa bilingual in the latter half of the 19th century. Extinct. Work in progress.
THAGOJIAN [THG] {Paul Bennett} No modern native speakers. Peak native population of less than 1,000,000 speakers. Western Asia Minor. Indo-European, Wene-Thagojic, Thagojian. Liturgical language with some minor secular use. Typology: Mostly VSO or SVO, Head-Modifier, mainly suffixing with some proclitics and non-concatenative morphology, large pronoun set based on Animacy. Anamoean Arianist Christian sect, with possible roots in Mithraism. Largely eradicated during the 8th and 9th Century, although traces linger into the 10th.
TOKANA (SUL TOKANA) [TOK] {J. Matthew Pearson} Estimated 30,000 speakers along the northwest coast of Nala
UBNADCK (ÁBNEDK) [UBN] {Pierre Abbat} 900,000. Pihaki, Western, Afodnega, Continental. 90% lexical similarity with Pigaic.
UMMA (UMMA OF THE SHELL, SHELLUMMA) [WMM] {Mikael Johansson} One of the languages spoken in the Umma -- the spacebound decendants of 20th century moslem arabs. Ultimately based on arabic, it employs a system of consonant roots for semantics and vowel and semi-vowel patterns for grammatical distinctions. Umma features three different vowel lengths, but only three different base vowels. Three numeri are present: singular, plural and omnative (denoting _all_ of a kind). Wordorder quite free, but VSO and SVO are favoured. High number of cases, and six geni present. The verb is declined after five moods and two times -- now/future and past. Pronouns may be suffixed to nouns and verbs, or independent.
VAIYSI [VSI] {Mangiat} Barely spoken nowadays (2810) by about 5.500.000 (85% of the population of the Vaiysi States) About 400.000 mother tongue speakers in the State of Leiy - the language has been strongly replaced by local dialects within the last 500 years. Central group of Peninsular branch of Northern branch of the Hyarian family. Many borrowings from foreign languages. High number of dialects (some of them can be treated as different languages): CENTRAL dialects (Leiy, Sentoure, Hyatempi), EASTERN dialects (Zalitalu, Impu), SOUTHERN dialects (Raine, Migaure, Gora) and WESTERN dialects (Houvera). Creolization occurring in some colonies along the South Eastern coast (COLONIAL dialects). Diglossic situation in the North and in the West. Ergative, SVO. Traditional polytheistic religion (60% of the population) - Monotheistic religion (40%).
VIVO [VVO], properly VIVO LINGA. {czHANg} Creole language. Approx. 2,750,000 speakers/users (circa 2323 CE/123 SE) on the Terran expatriate colony planet Polo near Caos Vorta - one of the first Terran star-jump gates. Once the principal trade-and-barter pidgin language, now second language creole of most. Declared by popular vote official language of Polo on the eve of January 1, 2301 CE/101 SE. Typology: SVO, isolating/agglutinizing, Italo-polyglot creole. Phonemic writing system based on Basic Modern Roman with use of punctuation marks. Est. 99% literacy. Spirituality or worldview: Chaos Taoism - a mixture of Chaos Science, Taoism, and Gaian Futurism. Adherents are noted throughtout Terran space for extremely creative use of various communication technologies -especially soundscapes -and for their ecology-minded terracolonizing methods perfected on Polo.
WANIAN (WENIT) [WEN] {Pierre Abbat} 2,600,000. Weniti, Eastern. Wania is south of Filofonecia in western Gon; the language originated in the nearby continent of Weni. Typology: SOV, agglutinative.
WATAKASSÍ [WTK] {Nik Taylor} Population unknown. Spoken by 100% of the population in Homeland of Kassí Holy Empire, uncertain percentages outside the Homeland. Kashic, Southern, Kassi-Plia, Kassí. High number of early borrowings, during the migration from the Kassi-Plia homeland to the original Kassi Homeland (which is on the Continent). Small number of borrowings from now-extinct indigenous languages of the Homeland. Currently, very small dialectal variations in Heartland, due to the expansion of the Prophet's Followers, and the deportation into slavery of most of the non-believers. Most of the Northern Kassí migrated to the Little Island Province of Kar'el Empire, where they speak Northern Kassí, considered a separate language. Outside the Heartland, very large dialectal variation, with creolization occurring. Diglossic situation between Classic Watakassí and Common Watakassí in the Homeland, and Classic Watakassí and creole Watakassí outside the Homeland. Ergative, VSO. Monotheistic religion with traces of animism. No translation of the Bible [due to no contact with humans at that time]. Terra Nova (another planet), c. late 18th century AD.
YIVRÍNDIL [YIV] {Jesse Bangs} About 15,000,000 speakers in the nation of Yivríndas, with very small immigrant communities in Anmur Lan and Wynnawe. Yivric, Yivríndanic, Tingris-Yivríndilic. Agricultural, family-based society with polytheistic, mystical religion. Religious center in Vanavar, political and cultural center in Kendilar. About 60% literate; higher in cities, widespread illiteracy in rural areas. Typology: SVO agglutinating, suffix-dominant. Extensive native literature and histories, mostly not yet translated into English.
YLANK (ILANK) [YLN] 70,000 - 80,000 speakers scattered across the southern hemisphere of the world. Lanugage Isolate. Typology: SOV, isolating, minimal syllabic inventory, singular, dual, plural distinction. Monotheistic. Work in progress. Survey needed.