A pupil in the temple of Qunayir

The Charyan Languages

During the period I'm mainly concerned with here, the 'three hundred years of the three hundred Kingdoms', the living members of the Charyan language family included the following languages:

Archaic Charyan

Archaic Charyan, or Den'harulon 'temple language' was the most ancient Charyan language still in use. It was mainly used in temple ceremonies, as the name implies, but as new ceremonies, hymns and prayers were constantly written for the ever-increasing number of gods, the language was far from dead.

Classical Charyan

Classical Charyan or Den'wenray had been the language of administation and learning for over ten centuries when the Charyan empire finally collapsed. It was still in use at the court of emperor Rordal and at the Imperial Academy of Broi. In countless other states it held the same prestige. A simple variant, Den'wenray'qui, was used in popular literature, but the use of Den'wenray steadily diminished during the 'three hundred years of the three hundred Kingdoms' period. Still, it was considered a cultured language and as such people of standing made it a habit to infuse their daily language with a hefty dose of Den'wenray.

Old Charyan or Eastern Colloquial

Old Charyan or Den'yunilai was widely viewed as the language for lyrical poetry par excellence, especially in the western part of the empire. It is actually very close to the eastern colloquial language, and depending on the context is often termed thus. Also, many poetic words from Old Charyan are very close to the coarsest colloquialisms of Southern Colloquial.

Denden

Denden, literally 'language-language', was the lingua franca throughout the Charyan empire, for mercantile and military purposes mainly. After the fragmentation of the empire, it took on a secondary role as a literary language for the common people who didn't aspire to a civil service office, and it was used as a means of communication between the many refugees from all parts of the empire, and the even more numerous ethnicities in the incredibly culturally pluriform Charyan cities.

Southern Colloquial

The Southern Colloquial language, or Den'poim, literally 'people's language', was the native language of most ethnic Charyans in the much diminished empire of emperor Rordal. Some literature was written in it, but nothing considered important by the Charyans themselves. It was the language everyone learned at home, in one of the countless dialectal varieties, either from their parents or from the servants if the parents were cultured and spoke Denden or Den'wenray to their children.

Northern Colloquial

The north had always been one of the poorer regions of the empire and its population mainly consisted of farmers. As such, this language had little prestige. It was not native to the Charyan empire of emperor Rordal.

The Broyan stage language

The Broyan stage language (Den'Broi or Den'fenqar, an offspring of the Broyan Charyan dialect which was spoken in the north before the great exodus of the Charyan people from the south to the north, the Broyan language steadily lost its place amongst the vast numbers of speakers of southern varieties of Charyan. After a century or two it was only used on the stage, and during the golden age of the empire it reached a pre-eminent position, and from that moment on, there was no drama composed in any language but the Broyan stage language. There is a preliminary grammar available.

Of course, any cultured Charyan would have had to know all of these languages to function in society. On the other hand, people generally conceived of these languages not as different languages per se, but as different styles and dialects. Northern, Southern and Eastern colloquial were termed dialects, and it often sufficed to know only one of them - Broian was seen as a distinct language, and generally imperfectly understood. The others were considered to be stylistic registers, even though there are many grammatical and lexical differences between them.

Of more ancient stages of the language family almost nothing is known. A later stage of Denden is known as Late Colloquial Charyan, is characterized as a predominantly mono-syllabic, complex pronominalizing tone language.

A street girl and Classical Charyan