Common

Common

Also known as	the Common Tongue, the Trade Tongue
Script	Common script (with Tone Indicators)
Family	Imperial (descended from Old Common)
Primary speakers	Nearly everyone on the mainland
Region	All of Thelemar
Dialects	Lexalian · Olympian · Jaknian · Clairnian · Hubian

Overview

Common is the language spoken throughout the lands of Thelemar, with each country using a different dialect in addition to the general, “common” use. It evolved from the old language of the Empire, which survives today only in ancient texts and artifacts. In Thelemar languages carry both cultural and practical weight, and knowing one often opens new opportunities and pathways for those who care to study.

The five recognised dialects of Common - Lexalian, Olympian, Jaknian, Clairnian, and Hubian - share a common root, yet a speaker of one will have a hard time understanding a speaker of another. Different dialects also colour the accent each speaker brings to the general Common.

Phonology & Script

Reading and writing are widespread throughout Thelemar, with the majority of the population - even in rural villages - able to read and write in Common. Its writing has a unique property: Tone Indicators are an integral part of the script rather than mere punctuation, and different dialects employ them in strikingly different ways.

Dialects

Lexalian

Standard · Common script · Children of the Empire (Lexalia)

The mercantile dialect of the Lexalian Republic, polished by guild charters, dock-ledgers, and the close-clipped haggling of its bazaars. Lexalian trims the lilt of older Common into something precise and contractual: phrases run short, vowels stay clean, and idioms leave little room for mistaking a price.

Olympian

Standard · Common script · Children of the Empire (Theocracy)

The dialect of the Holy Theocracy of Olympus, shaped by liturgy and recitation. Olympian carries long, rolling vowels and a fondness for elevated registers borrowed from celestial hymnals, so that even casual speech can sound like a sermon. Public oratory is a prized craft, and Olympian-speakers tend to gesture broadly as they talk.

Jaknian

Standard · Common script · Children of the Empire (Jaknia)

The dialect of the Jaknian Conglomerate, hammered into shape by decades of military command and frontier garrison duty at the edge of the Black Desert. Jaknian is terse and consonant-heavy, with a habit of compounding nouns into single battlefield commands; its Tone Indicators are used sparingly and to brutal effect.

Clairnian

Standard · Common script · Children of the Empire (Clairnia)

The dialect of Clairnia, sung as much as it is spoken. Born of farming hamlets and jungle-edge settlements, Clairnian uses musical pitch in a way no other dialect does, and its Tone Indicators have grown into something closer to a notation system than a punctuation mark.

Hubian

Standard · Common script · Children of the Empire (Hub)

The traders’ creole of the Hub, where all four nations meet and none rule alone. Hubian borrows freely from every other dialect of Common, peppered with loan-words from Jötunn, Gob, and even Sylvan picked up on the docks. It is the easiest dialect for an outsider to learn, and the hardest to speak with any pride of place.

Old Common

Ancient · Common script · Monks & scholars

The colloquial term for the language spoken in the days of the Empire, from which modern Common and its dialects evolved. Though mostly dead, it survives in the monasteries of the Old Gods and in the hands of archaeologists studying the fallen Empire - and, partly by tradition, newer Teleportation Circles are still inscribed with Old Common glyphs.

Speakers

Common is the shared tongue of the Children of the Empire and the default trade language of nearly every other people of the mainland, each region layering its own dialect over the general Common.

Appendix

Notes

• Cants and codes (preserved from the earlier page): Thieves’ Cant and Druidic are not true languages but coded registers that can be carried within other tongues - the former among thieves, the latter among druids.

Sources & Attribution

• Primary lore: editions/5e-2014/world/languages.md (Traveler’s Guide, heading chain Origins of Thelemar → Languages), author TrueMichato.
• Superseded original: content/General/Languages.md (now rewritten as the Languages of Thelemar overview; pre-reorganization version backed up under content/private/_originals/).

Languages

Languages

Languages of Thelemar

Common & Dialects	Common Lexalian Olympian Jaknian Clairnian Hubian Old Common
Exotic Tongues	Skyspeak Mictlānian Jötunn Gob Trunkodon Felis Minotaur Beastspeech
Planar & Ancient	Draconic Sylvan Stygian Primordial Celestial

Link to original