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AABN:  29938
Title: a book titled "Languages of the World"

Below are brief descriptions of the major spoken languages of the world and
the alphabets they use. Languages without a written form are not listed.

Angelic - Celestial Sigils

Angelic is rarely spoken by creatures other than angels, though a few
demons are known to be fluent in the tongue. It is the spoken equivalent of
the Sigil Alphabet, which is used for cleric runecraft. Some djinn and air
elementals often speak this language. Jali humans use loanwords from this
language, assimilated from their jann neighbors.

Common - Dwarrow Alphabet

Also known as Mannish, Common is the daily speech of humans, dwarves,
halflings and gnomes throughout the world. Most demi-human races learn
Common in addition to their native languages. Long ago it had its own
alphabet, but knowledge of it was lost during the Great Wars. It is now
commonly represented using dwarven characters.

Demoniac - Demoniac Runes

Demoniac is a family of related dialects spoken across the various worlds
of the Demon Realms, Chaos and the plane of elemental darkness. Demoniac
runes are the written form of the language, It is generally the language
spoken in necromantic spell-casting. Fire and earth elementals capable of
speech are most likely to speak this language.

Draconic - Kanji Runes

Known for long vowel strings and booming consonants, Draconic is the
language of dragons. It is known both in Suboria and Ramanek, and even the
lower wurms of the deep Underdark have been known to speak it. The written
form is the basis of the Kanji Runes of the southern mage-craft traditions.

Dwarven - Dwarrow Alphabet

Dwarven is the native language spoken by dwarves. Most dwarven population
generally speak Common as well. A variation of Dwarven is spoken by derros.
Svirneblins and gnomes often speak Dwarven in addition to Elvish and
Common.

Elvish - Druidic Runes

Elvish is a family of closely related languages all based on older faerie
tongues. Forms of elvish are spoken by elves, gnomes, centaurs, satyrs,
pixies, merfolk and most faerie creatures. The drow speak a dialect of
Elvish, but use Demoniac characters to write it.

Giant - Druidic Runes

The language spoken by giants, ogres and trolls, it is harsh, low-pitched
and guttural. The language has a sing-song quality, as the pitch can convey
just as much meaning as the sounds themselves. It uses Druidic Runes when
written.

Goblinese - varies

This loosely related cluster of languages are derived from elements of
Giant, Demoniac and Elvish. It is mostly spoken by goblins, kobolds,
hobgoblins and bugbears. Variants of this tongue are sometimes spoken by
gnolls, ogres and trolls.

Murlock - Dwarrow Alphabet

Unrelated to the tongues of men, demons and faerie-folk is the thrumming,
rattling speech of murlocks. These languages replace several common
phonetic elements with throat noises. For instance, "M" and "N" sounds are
substituted by deep hums, while instead of "P" a loud click is made in the
back of the mouth. Lacking an alphabet of its own, it is written using
dwarven characters.

Nahuatl - Aztec Logograms

Nahuatl, spoken by the Aztecs, has no direct relation to other human
languages. It may be related to Giant, but if so it has become extremely
divergent. It is characterized by complex agglutinations, forming long
"word sentences" that make it challenging to learn. It has no phonetic
script, but is represented by logograms when written.

Orcish - Demoniac Runes

Orcish dialects are commonly spoken by tribes of orcs and ogres, though
some goblins may use it as well. It is based off of Demoniac, with numerous
loanwords from Dwarven and Giant. Orcish has poorly defined future and past
tenses, making it difficult for native speakers of the language to
articulate complex plans.

Quelese - Celestial Sigils

Though written using the angelic Sigil alphabet, spoken Quelese is a
combination of Elvish verbs and adverbs with Suborian nouns, pronouns and
adjectives. Quelese is known only by a small number of scholars and
highborn families in the Naginag Combine.

Suborian - Kanji Runes or Dwarrow Alphabet

Spoken in the Kurita Province and Suboria, this language is essentially a
version of Draconic modified so that humans can speak it. It is quick and
flowing when spoken fluently. It is traditionally written in elegant Kanji
script, however a purely phonetic version can be written with dwarven
characters.

Zulian - Dwarrow Alphabet

This language is unique to the island of Sloe and the colony of Nueva
Granada. It uses many of the same phonetic elements as Common and has many
words that appear to come from the same roots. It has a complex system of
gendered nouns and numerous verb tenses to convey different modes of
address depending on the subject of a sentence.