Arcél Languages

From Almeopedia

Arcél 3480

Arcél Cities

This map shows the human language families of Arcél, along with its major languages. Compare with the previous political map to identify regions which speak a different language from that of the rulers. Also compare with the map for -4000 which shows the prehistoric extent of each family.

I’ve tried to mix colors in areas of bilingualism, but it should be remembered that this map is very small scale (Arcél is almost the size of Africa) and the situation on the ground is more complicated than can be shown here.

The situation in the southwest is especially convoluted. Thanks to the Fananaki empire, Fananaki is widespread in the whole region, with differing degrees of creolization. The native cultures have never been centralized states, so there is a plethora of Kleʔmet’, Dnetic, and Itsenic languages. Nor are the boundaries between these neat; in the middle Itseʔ, for instance, one can travel up the river and pass Itsenic and Dnetic settlements seemingly arrayed at random.

In areas still populated by hunter-gatherers, the named languages are really subfamilies. There are actually dozens of Mnesesan languages, for instance, and well over a hundred Linaminče ones.

The commonest trade languages are Lé and Mau in the north, Nyanese and Uyseʔ in the south. In the western Bé, however, it’s possible for traders to mostly use their own languages, with minor adaptations depending on who they’re speaking to, since the western languages diverged from Lé only about a milennium ago; they’re about as far apart as German and Dutch.

Mɔłɔsɔu was settled much earlier, and its language is not mutually comprehensible with Lé. Similarly, the peripheral Uyseʔic regions, Nyandai and Hlüim, were settled about two thousand years ago; the family is comparable to the Romance languages.

Till a few centuries ago, only the Uyseʔic and Beic languages were written. The Tžuro brought their alphabet with them, and this was adapted to several native languages.

Rimasača first used Mɔłɔ for official business, but then adapted its script for writing Sunčan— in the process turning it into a syllabary.

Historical Atlas of Arcél

Terrain • -8000 • -4000 • -2500 • -750 • 300 • 600 • 782 • 950 • 1112 • 1300 • 1510 • 1690 • 1850 1997 • 2200 • 2370 • 2550 • 2700 • 2900 • 3050 • 3200 • 3314 • 3400 • 3480 • Languages • Cities