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).

Anthropic Languages

Anthropic language family includes languages spoken by humans that originate from the Old Continent as well as the Green Isle. Merfolk language tends to be included as well, although it's status as a member of the anthropic family is not universally accepted and some scholars consider it to be a language isolate.

Wesnothian Language

Wesnothian language is the most well-studied one of all the languages of the Great Continent. It can be said to have the highest number of speakers as well, if one doesn't count the vast diversity of orcish dialects as one language.

Phonology

Notable phonological features of the wesnothian language include the isolated voiced stops, lack of fricatives (although intervocalic lenition is widespread, when voiceless consonants undergo spirantization), a voiceless liquid series as well as complete lack of [j] and [w], even in diphthongs.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Obstruent	b	t d	k g gʷ
Fricative		s
Approximant	ʋ	l̥ l
Trill		r̥ r

Vowels

	Front		Back
	tns.	lax		tns.
Close	i	ɪ	ʊ	u
Mid	e	ɛ~æ	ɞ	o
Open	a

Phonemes /t/, /k/ and /l̥/ lenite intervocalically, turning into [θ], [x] and [ɬ] respectively. /r̥/ only occurs word-initially. /k/ has an allophone [kʷ], which occurs after a liquid and before a back vowel (including /a/). Vowels next to each other are in hiatus and are never pronounced as diphthongs.

Orthography

The main writing system used to write wesnothian is the steel-hand alphabet implemented during the reign of Haldric II and later adopted by many other races to write their own languages.

Wesnothian alphabet
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	G g	H h	I i	K k	L l
/a/	/b/	/k/	/d/	/e/	/g/	∅	/i/	[kʷ]	/l/
M m	N n	O o	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	Y y
/m/	/n/	/o/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/ʊ/	/ʋ/	/u/	/ɪ/

Digraphs ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨eo⟩ are used to represent /ɛ/ and /ɞ/ respectively. Voiceless liquids /l̥/ and /r̥/ are written as ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨rh⟩. Despite not being full-fledged phonemes, allophones [θ] and [kʷ] tend to be written separately as ⟨th⟩ and ⟨k⟩ respectively. ⟨th⟩ also appears word-finally, where it's read as a normal [t] (the orthographic tradition of Wesnoth tends to prefer historical spellings instead of phonetic ones).

Merfolk Language

Language of the merfolk is primarily spoken in the Bay of Pearls and the area around Jotha and Tirigaz, although minor merfolk settlements can be found all over the shores of the Great Continent from the Far North to the deserts of the south.

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	Back
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	c	k g
Fricative	f v	θ ð	s z	ç	h
Approximant			l̥ l	j	w
Trill			r

Vowels

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

Orthography

Most mermen live in isolation in the shallow waters of the Great Ocean and use their own script. During the Turmoil of Asheviere, however, many coastal merfolk picked a side in the conflict and integrated into human 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/

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.

Elven Languages

Elven language family includes two major branches: southern and northern elvish, commonly referred to as the Aethenwood and Lintanir Elvish respectively.

Aethenwood Elvish

This elvish variety is spoken by the elves of Aethenwood and its surrounding areas, which include the Southwood and the Black Forest.

Phonology

Aethenwood Elvish posesses a unique unstable vowel system, characterised by an ATR distinction instead of length, which is more common in the sprachbund of the Great Continent.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Labio- velar
Nasal	m	n
Obstruent	p b	t d	k g	kʷ
Fricative	f v	s ð	x ɣ
Sonorant		ɾ l	j	w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ɪ	ʉ	ʊ
Close-Mid	e	ɵ	o
Mid		ə
Open-Mid	ɛ		ʌ
Open	a

Orthography

Elves, just like dwarves, use two writing systems: one in dealings with the humans and another domestically.

Elvish alphabet (steel-hand)
A a	Á á	B b	C c	D d	E e	É é	F f	G g	H h
/ʌ/	/a/	/b/	/k/	/d/	/ə/	/e/	/f/	/g/	/x/
I i	Í í	L l	M m	N n	O o	Ó ó	P p	Q q	R r
/ɪ/	/i/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/o/	/ɵ/	/p/	∅	/ɾ/
S s	T t	U u	Ú ú	V v	W w	Y y	Ý ý	Æ æ
/s/	/t/	/ʊ/	/ʉ/	/v/	/w/	/ɪ/	/i/	/ɛ/

Elvish alphabet (elvish)
ა	ბ	გ	დ	ე	ვ	ზ	ჱ
/ʌ/	/b/	/g/	/d/	/ə/	/v/	/ð/	/ɛ/
თ	ი	კ	ლ	მ	ნ	ო	რ
/t/	/ɪ/	/kʷ/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/o/	/ɾ/
ს	ჳ	უ	ფ	ქ	ღ	ხ	ჶ
/s/	/w/	/ʊ/	/p/	/k/	/ɣ/	/x/	/f/
ჼ				/◌˖/

Digraphs ⟨th⟩, ⟨qu⟩ and ⟨ae⟩ are used to represent /ð/, /kʷ/ and /ɛ/ in the steel-hand alphabet. The latter can also be written as a single letter ⟨æ⟩. /g/ and /ɣ/ are in complementary distrubution and are therefore written as ⟨g⟩. ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ý⟩ are used instead of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨í⟩ if there is a front vowel in the next syllable, showing a historical distinction that has since vanished. ⟨ჼ⟩ is a so-called "fronting sign", playing the same role as the acute accent in the steel-hand alphabet, which fronts the vowel it is after, turning /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ə/, /o/ and /ʌ/ into /i/, /ʉ/, /e/, /ɵ/ and /a/ respectively.

Dwarven Languages

Knalga Dwarvish

Knalga Dwarvish is spoken by the dwarves of the Heart Mountains and is one of the most well-documented languages of the Great Continent, along with the Wesnothian and Aethenwood Elvish languages.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Obstruent	p b	t d	t͡s	k g
Fricative	f	θ	s
Sonorant		ɫ	r	j

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a
Diphthong	ai̯ au̯

/ɫ/ is always a dark l and /r/ is always a trill.

Orthography

The dwarves use two writing systems: a native runic one, the usage of which goes back to times long forgotten, when dwarves still lived underground, and a steel-hand one, adopted fairly recently. Runes are usually carved into architecture and used on special occasions, while the steel-hand alphabet is used in the daily life and on paper.

Dwarvish alphabet (steel-hand)
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i
/a/	/b/	/k/	/d/	/ɛ/	/f/	/g/	∅	/i/
L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	R r	S s	T t	U u
/ɫ/	/m/	/n/	/ɔ/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/

Dwarvish alphabet (runic)
ᚠ	ᚢ	ᚦ	ᚨ	ᚱ	ᚲ	ᚷ	ᚾ	ᛁ	ᛃ	ᛈ
/f/	/u/	/θ/	/a/	/r/	/k/	/g/	/n/	/i/	/j/	/p/
ᛋ	ᛊ	ᛏ	ᛒ	ᛖ	ᛗ	ᛚ	ᛜ	ᛟ	ᛞ
/s/	/t͡s/	/t/	/b/	/ɛ/	/m/	/ɫ/	/ŋ/	/ɔ/	/d/

⟨h⟩ is only used in the digraph ⟨th⟩ to represent /θ/. /t͡s/ and /ŋ/ are written as ⟨ts⟩ and ⟨ng⟩ in the steel-hand alphabet. /j/ only appears in diphthongs and is represented by ⟨i⟩ and ⟨ᛃ⟩ respectively.

Drake Languages

Drake languages are spoken by drakes and ​​form a dialect continuum stretching from the volcanic islands of the Great Ocean (urheimat to the drake languages as a whole) to the eastern reaches of the Heart Mountains, with a fairly high level of mutual intelligibility in the Far North of the Great Continent.

Continental Drakish

The umbrella term "Continental Drakish" refers to all the varieties of drake languages spoken on the Great Continent.

Phonology

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

Drakish is most often written with the steel-hand script.

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/

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/.

Herpetic Languages

Herpetic language family includes two major branches: sauric and ophidic, commonly referred to as the "saurian" and "naga" branches respectively.

Saurian Language

Saurian language is spoken by saurians, close allies of drakes. While saurians do not have a centralized society like humans or elves, the saurian language can be heard all over the Great Continent, being particularly widespread in the swamps of the Far North.

Phonology

Notable phonological features of the saurian language include the presence of a voiced affricate as well as a high mid vowel.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Back
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p b	t d	k
Affricate		t͡s d͡z
Fricative	f v	s z	x ɦ
Sonorant		ɾ l	j

Vowels

	Front	Mid	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Non-High	e	a	o
Diphthong	ai̯

Orthography

Saurian language is not written natively. A steel-hand alphabet devised by the scholars of Wesnoth is used to write the language down for research purposes.

Saurian alphabet
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	H h	I i	K k	L l	M m
/a/	/b/	∅	/d/	/e/	/f/	/ɦ/	/i/	/k/	/l/	/m/
N n	O o	P p	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	X x	Y y	Z z
/n/	/o/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/ʋ/	/t͡s/	/ɨ/	/z/

Digraphs ⟨zz⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ are used to represent /d͡z/and /x/ respectively. /j/ only appears in diphthongs and is written as ⟨i⟩.

Naga Language

The naga language is spoken by nagas and is particularly widespread in the regions of the Sleepless Sea and the Bay of Clouds, far beyond the reach of the Kingdom of Wesnoth. Substantial naga populations can be found in the Far North as well, particularly in the Black Marshes and the river delta of the Bork River, where they consistently clash with the local merfolk.

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]. 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.

Language Isolates

These languages either do not belong to any known language family in Irdya, or are too unstudied to confidently group them together with other languages.

Troll Language

Troll language is spoken by the trolls of the Heart Mountains and the Far North.

Phonology

Uniquely, the language of trolls doesn't have any nasal consonants and has an asipartion distinction.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Obstruent	pʰ p b	tʰ t d	kʰ k g
Affricate		t͡s
Fricative	f v	s z ʃ	χ ʁ
Approximant		ɫ

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	u
Mid	ɛ	ʌ ɔ
Open	a	ɒ

Orthography

Trolls do not write their language down. The following alphabet was coined in Wesnoth for research purposes.

Troll alphabet
A a	Ä ä	B b	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	K k
/a/	/ʌ/	/b/	/d/	/e/	/f/	/g/	/χ/	/k/
L l	O o	R r	S s	T t	U u	Ü ü	V v
/ɫ/	/ɒ/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/ɔ/	/v/

⟨h⟩ after a stop consonant represents aspiration. Digraphs ⟨ts⟩, ⟨sh⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ represent /t͡s/, /ʃ/ and /ʁ/ respectively.

Gryphon Language

The gryphon language is spoken by the gryphons of the Gryphon Mountain and the surrounding gryphon populations nearing Knalga.

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 pronounced as [ɰ] by most of the speakers outside Gryphon Mountain, despite being analysed as a trill.

Orthography

The gryphons themselves do not write their language down. For the purposes 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⟩).

Wose Language

Wose language is spoken by tree-like woses. Anything and everything know about them or their language ultimately comes from their elvish allies.

Phonology

The only notable feature of the wose language phonology appears to be a series of pre-nasalized voiced stops, which do not appear in any other language on the Great Continent.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Obstruent	p b ᵐb	t d ⁿd	k g ᵑɡ
Affricate		t͡ʃ
Fricative	f	s	x
Approximant		ɫ r	w

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Orthography

Wose language hasn't been seen in written form, but based upon the sound inventory outline above, Wesnothian researchers hypothesize that both the steel-hand and elvish alphabets could be used to write the language down.

Wose alphabet (steel-hand)
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	K k
/a/	/b/	/t͡ʃ/	/d/	/ɛ/	/f/	/g/	/x/	/i/	/k/
L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	R r	S s	T t	U u	W w
/ɫ/	/m/	/n/	/ɔ/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/w/

Wose alphabet (elvish)
ა	ბ	გ	დ	ე	ვ	თ
/a/	/b/	/g/	/d/	/ɛ/	/w/	/t/
ი	ლ	მ	ნ	ო	რ	ს
/i/	/ɫ/	/m/	/n/	/ɔ/	/r/	/s/
უ	ფ	ქ	ჩ	ხ	ჶ	ჼ
/u/	/p/	/k/	/t͡ʃ/	/x/	/f/	/ⁿ◌/

See Also

• Races
• Campaign Dialogue