Posted by Chirstopher O'Regan on 18:57 10/4/01
In reply to: Munkhâshi Empire posted by epdiii on 21:31 10/1/01
Something I've been wondering about the Munkhashi/Dhekhnami toungues (I don't know, but I think those names sound a little Indo-Iranian: Munkhashistan? :-)
I assume that Dhekhnami is a human language, as it is spoken by humans. But is it a natural human language? ie. the language of Demoshimor, for example extended over the whole empire, or is it a lingua franca made of different linguistic elements from conquered peoples?
Or, on the third hand, is it artificially engineered by the ktuvoki themselves or by their subjects? Very much like Sauron's Black Speech. If this is the case, does it contain elements of the ktuvoki's own language(s)?
Dhekhnam seems to have caught people's imaginations . . . i wonder if it is a good tourist destination for terrestrials . . . :-)
--regards
Rhisto Filipei
Tourist destination? You really want to match wits with the ktuvoki? These creatures held off the ilii for a few thousand-year wars, you know...
Anyway, ancient Munkhâshi was a 'normal' human language. To be precise, the Eynleyni family of languages was spoken, and Munkhâshi was an imperial lingua franca. Over the centuries it divided into daughter languages; one of them is Dhekhnami.
Ironically, if the ktuvoki's own language is like any other, it would be like that of the ilii, since both have the constraint that they must be communicable underwater. That would, I think, eliminate one of the most productive sources of human language-- places of articulation. (I don't think you could count on a /t/ sounding different from a /k/ underwater.) The language of the ilii relies largely on pitch-- humans describe it as sounding like music. That of the ktuvoki relies more on percussive effects-- humans describe it as discordant.