Languages of Wesnoth

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The world of Wesnoth is as rich in languages as it is in all sorts of creatures and races that inhabit it. Although fieldwork in distant lands is never easy, many mages from the Great Academy on Alduin as well as other scholars from Weldyn and Elensefar have managed to assemble impressive archives full of manuscripts on the various languages ​​of Irdya. Most of them date back to the Silver Age of Wesnoth (628-673 YW) and the peaceful reign of Konrad II, which sparked a minor scientific renaissance in the kingdom, reviving the level of interest in linguistics among the scholars seen before only during the Golden Age of Wesnoth (200-350 YW).

Drake Languages

Continental Drakish

Phonology

Continental Drakish phonology consists of the following phonemes:

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Obstruent	b	t d	t͡ʃ	k g	ʔ
Fricative	v	θ s	ʃ
Liquid		r l

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a
Diphthong	au̯

Presumably, all consonants can be geminated and all vowels have a corresponding nasal variant.

Orthography

• All phonemes are orthographically represented the same way they are in english, except for /ʔ/, which is written as an apostrophe ⟨'⟩.
• Final ⟨hn⟩ serves as a nasalization marker.
• Final ⟨é⟩ indicates the vowel is spoken rather than modifying a medial vowel (there is no silent final 'e' in the language).
• Word-final ⟨ck⟩ has the value /k/.

Drake alphabet
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	G g	I i	K k	L l
/a/	/b/	/k/	/d/	/e/	/g/	/i/	/k/	/l/
M m	N n	O o	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	Z z
/m/	/n/	/o/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/v/	/z/

Oceanic Languages

The oceanic language family includes two major branches: northern and southern oceanic, commonly referred to as the "merfolk" and "naga" branches respectively.

Merfolk Language

Phonology

Notable features of the merfolk language's phonology include the four long vowel variants, widespread vowel hiatus, a large amount of fricatives as well as a voiceless approximant series (/ç/ and /h/ are considered to actually be [j̊] and [ʍ] by some scholars).

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	c	k g
Fricative	f v	θ ð	s z	ç	x~h
Approximant			l̥ l	j	w
Trill			r

Vowels

	Front		Back
	unr.	rounded
Close	ɪ iː	ʏ yː	ʊ uː
Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	a aː
Diphthong	ai̯

Orthography

Most mermen live in isolation in shallow ocean waters and use their own script. During the Turmoil of Asheviere many coastal merfolk were made to join the sides of the conflict and integrate into army structures, adopting the wesnothian steel-hand with it.

Merfolk alphabet (steel-hand)
A a	Ā ā	B b	C c	D d	E e	G g
/a/	/aː/	/b/	/c/	/d/	/ɛ/	/g/
H h	I i	Ī ī	J j	K k	L l	M m
/h/	/ɪ/	/iː/	/j/	/k/	/l/	/m/
N n	O o	P p	R r	S s	T t	U u
/n/	/ɔ/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/ʊ/
Ū ū	V v	W w	Y y	Ȳ ȳ	Z z
/uː/	/v/	/w/	/ʏ/	/yː/	/z/

Merfolk alphabet (merfolk script)
Α α	Ᾱ ᾱ	Β β	Γ γ	Δ δ	Ε ε	Ζ ζ	Θ θ
/a/	/aː/	/v/	/g/	/ð/	/ɛ/	/z/	/θ/
Ι ι	Ῑ ῑ	Κ κ	Λ λ	Μ μ	Ν ν	Ο ο	Π π
/ɪ/	/iː/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/ɔ/	/p/
Ρ ρ	Σ σ/ς		Τ τ	Υ υ	Ῡ ῡ	Φ φ	Χ χ
/r/	/s/		/t/	/ʏ/	/yː/	/f/	/h/

The digraphs ⟨ll/λλ⟩, ⟨ββ⟩, ⟨ph⟩, ⟨th⟩, ⟨dh⟩, ⟨ch/χι⟩, ⟨kh⟩, ⟨κι⟩, ⟨μπ⟩, ⟨ντ⟩, ⟨ου⟩ and ⟨οῡ⟩ are used to represent the phonemes /l̥/, /w/, /f/, /θ/, /ð/, /ç/, [x], /c/, /b/, /d/, /ʊ/ and /uː/ respectively. The grapheme ⟨ι⟩ is also used to represent /j/, as well as palatalization.

Naga Language

Phonology

The phonology of the naga language appears to be typologically unusual in comparison to other languages of Irdya. It has several laterals, but no voiced [l]. The voicing distinction among obstruents is missing as well, unlike in its sister language. Details of the fortis-lenis distinction are still a matter of debate among the scholars of Wesnoth, as fieldwork in naga territory comes with considerable risks.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Dorsal
Nasal		m	n
Obstruent	Fortis	b̥	d̥		ɡ̊
	Lenis	p	t	t͡ɬ	k
Sibilant			s̻	s̺	ç~ɕ
Fricative		ʋ	ɬ		x
Sonorant			ɾ		j

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	o
Mid	e
Open	a aː
Diphthong	eɪ̯ aɪ̯ i̯a

The dorsal sibilant varies in pronunciation depending on the dialect. Voiced variants of lateral consonants appear intervocalically as allophones, as does the phone [v] as an allophone of /ʋ/ before an onset of a syllable.

Front vowels /i/, /e/ and /a/ tend to lenite into [ɪ], [ə] and [ɐ] when unstressed.

Orthography

Although the majority of the naga prefer to use the script of the dunefolk, learned from them due to years of coexistence, several communities in the Far North tend to use the wesnothian steel-hand as well.

Naga alphabet (steel-hand)
A a	Ą ą	B b	D d	E e	G g	H h
/a/	/aː/	/b̥/	/d̥/	/e/	/ɡ̊/	/x/
I i	Į į	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o
/i/	/iː/	/k/	/ɬ/	/m/	/n/	/o/
P p	R r	S s	T t	V v	X x	Z z
/p/	/ɾ/	/s̺/	/t/	/ʋ/	/ɕ/	/s̻/

Naga alphabet (dunefolk script)
ص	ش	س	ر	د	خ	ت	ب	ا
/s̻/	/ɕ/	/s̺/	/ɾ/	/d̥/	/x/	/t/	/b̥/	/aː/
ي	و	ە	ن	م	ل	ك	غ	ط
/iː/	/ʋ/	/e/	/n/	/m/	/ɬ/	/k/	/ɡ̊/	/t͡ɬ/

The digraph ⟨ll⟩ is used to represent /t͡ɬ/ in the steel-hand alphabet. Vowels /i/, /o, /a/ are typically not written in the dunefolk script, but can be represented with the diacritics ⟨ــِـ⟩, ⟨ــُـ⟩ and ⟨ــَـ⟩ respectively. ⟨i⟩ and ⟨ي⟩ also represent /j/ in diphthongs.

Gryphon Language

Phonology

Due to the biological constraints the gryphons possess, the diversity of sounds they are able to make appears to be quite limited.

Consonants

		Front	Back
Stop			q ɢ
Fricative	short	s z	ʂ
	gem.	sː zː	ʂː
Sonorant	short	j	r
	gem.	jː	rː

Vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long	overl.
Close	i	iː	u	uː	uːː
Mid	e	eː	o	oː
Open			a	aː	aːː

The rhotic /r/ varies greatly in pronunciation, but is most often pronounced as [ɰ].

Orthography

The gryphons themselves do not write their language down. For the purpose of keeping records and writing down names, the following alphabet is used in Wesnoth.

Gryphon alphabet
A a	E e	G g	I i	K k	O o	R r	S s	Y y	Z z
/a/	/e/	/ɢ/	/i/	/q/	/o/	/r/	/s/	/j/	/z/

The digraph ⟨sh⟩ is used for /ʂ/. Vowel length and gemination are represented by doubling/trippling the corresponding letter (/ʂː/ is written as ⟨sshh⟩).

See Also

• Races
• Campaign Dialogue