Human Languages

Languages of the Seven Cities

Tyrian (Tyrian Alphabet)

The language of Tyr, Tyrian is understandable to most denizens of the Tyr Region and is
therefore used as a trade language - a relationship solidified by Tyr's role as the primary
producer of metal in banana Athas, cementing its importance. (Tyrian Alphabet)
Balican: The language of Balic is common in the Tablelands because Balican traders ply the
shores of the Silt Sea. Like Tyrian, Balican still resembles High Tyrian and bears a closer
resemblance to the trade tongue than many other city-state's languages. Balican speakers
from Altaruk have a notable "provincial" accent.

Urikite (Hamanu's Alphabet)

Urik's language has harsher, clipped tones than most of the other city-states, and many of its
words are descended from military terms in High Tyrian. Literacy in Urik is particularly
controlled, with the templars actively investigating rumors of non-nobles being taught to read
and write.
Raamish: The language of Raam, Raamish is a lyrical language full of allusion and
metaphor. Its vocabulary varies slightly by the caste of the speaker; outsiders almost always
learn the idiom of the Caste of the Merchant, sometimes sprinkled with metaphors from the
Caste of the Warrior. Though it possesses a hieroglyphic alphabet of its own, it is almost
always written using Tyrian transliterations. (Tyrian Alphabet, Hieroglyphics of Badna)

Draji (Moon Script)

Draj's mad sorcerer-king gave the Draji language to his subjects whole-cloth, declaring it the
tongue of the Two Moons. Scholars, however, can detect in it the strains of High Tyrian - it is
more as if Tectuktitlay wished to create a new language but lacked the creativity, choosing
instead to just alter High Tyrian to create a mad pig-latin mongrel tongue. (Moon Script)

Nibenese(Tyrian Alphabet)
Nibenay's ancient city holds itself apart from Athas, considering itself civilized in a world of
savages - and its language reflects its ancient lineage and elitist image, hewing most closely
of any tongue to High Tyrian.

Gulgan (Oba Script)

Like Draji, Gulgan is a created language, the divine language of the Oba - but it is truly
unique, bearing no resemblance to High Tyrian or any of the other city-state's languages,
though some scholars suggest a relationship with the tongue of some halfling tribes. It is
characterized by its many modifying prefixes and suffixes, attached to a relatively small
number of core words.

High Gulgan (Oba Script)

While common Gulgan has adapted over thousands of years of use, the Oba still demands
that those entreat her personally speak Gulgan as she first delivered it to her people.
Consequently, only the nganga and the most senior scribes speak the tongue, though no
few juganda warriors have had to hastily study it when called before the Forest Goddess.

Dwarven Language (No script/Davek*)

The Dwarven language is dying: while traditional dwarven families still teach their children
their racial tongue, it is not really spoken outside of Kled or the largest dwarven ghettos, and
the dwarves have lost the Dwarven script entirely. Dwarven is also spoken by certain desert
monsters, such as the mutated hejkins

Elven Languages (Rellanic)

The elven tribes of the desert share a common tongue, though tribal dialects are so strong
that one tribe may be able to barely understand the words spoken by another. The Elven
language remains united only because of elves' relatively long lifespan and the elven
tradition of raiding other tribes for mates. Elven dialects are deeply ingrained in their
speakers, however: an Elven character cannot shed his dialect unless he purchases a
separate language for the other dialect he seeks.

Halfling Languages
The halfling language is a complex collection of what others might consider to be insect-like
noises and grunts. It is rarely heard by outsiders, and usually a band will have a speaker that
excels in the language of another group for trade purposes. It is unheard of for anyone
outside of the Halfling community to learn even a few words of their tongue.

Tribal Dialects

Ogo Dialects (No script/Tyrian Alphabet)

The Ogo dialects are spoken by halfling tribes in the northern part of the Forest Ridge,
including Ogo itself. Because Ogo sends a mercenary contingent to Urik each year, the Ogo
tribal languages tend to have the most loan-words from other languages and the Ogo dialect
itself is the halfling language most commonly learned by outsiders. Halflings have an oral
culture, but when Ogo is written down it is usually in the Tyrian Alphabet.
Kol-Tokulg Dialects (No script/Rellanic)
The Kol-Tokulg dialects are spoken by halfling tribes in the southern part of the Forest Ridge
around the great volcano of Kol-Tokulg, where the halfling priesthood who tends the volcano
help keep the local tribes' langauges somewhat homogenous. Like all halfling languages, the
Kol-Tokulg dialects have no written form, though the volcano priesthood preserves some
documents in Rellanic.

Rul-Thaun (Ghesh-Sach)
The halflings who live in the vertical cliffside jungles of the Jagged Cliffs have a unified
language that bears little resemblance to the tribal languages of Ogo or Kol-Tokulg, as the
feral halflings of the Forest Ridge have had almost no commerce with the Rul-Thaun for
thousands of years. Unlike feral halflings, the Rul-Thaun have preserved written language,
using their own script.

Other Languages
Aarakocran: This language consists mostly of chirps and squawks and seems to be the
unifying tongue for the Aarokocra tribes scattered throughout the Tablelands. It is a difficult
tongue for humans to understand and replicate, though it is not impossible. If there are any
dialects of the language, the differences between them are so subtle they would be lost on
non-native speakers. (No script)

Ancient Giustenal: The language of destroyed Giustenal, this ancestor-language of Dray is

sometimes seen in magical texts looted after the sorcerer-king Dregoth was killed.
Characters cannot learn Ancient Giustenal unless they are already literate in one of its
scripts. (Tyrian Alphabet, Iokharic*)

Druidic: The secret unifying language of the druids of Athas. Few outside of the enigmatic
druid groves can speak it, let alone understand it. (Druidic Runes)

Giant: The giants who walk the Sea of Silt have their own language, though many of the
tribes in the Estuary of the Forked Tongue or the mudflats around the Sea of Silt have
adopted Giant dialects as their own. It is a slow, sonorous speech that retains some of its
gravity even when spoken by smaller-voiced races. Some monstrous species in the desert
speak related languages. (Barazhad)

Gith: The language of the desert-dwelling Gith has no connection to any Athasian language,
though certain beings summoned from the Astral Sea speak a related language. (Barazhad)

Kreen: The Thri-Kreen language can only be fluently spoken by the mantis warriors, as it
includes clicks and whistles that humans cannot accurately replicate. Other creatures can
learn to understand Kreen, however, and approximate it sounds well enough to be
understood in turn. A related language is Imperial Kreen, spoken by the Tohr-Kreen
khanates of the Crimson Savannah. (No script/Chachik*)

Primordial: The language of the elementals, Primordial is spoken primarily by summoned

creatures; it has a guttural quality reminiscent of Giantish, with whom it may share some
distant connection.

Ssurran: The language of the Athasian lizard-men, Ssurran is sibilant, full of hisses and
growls. Characters without forked tongues can never speak the language perfectly. Silt
Runners speak a related language, as do several other reptilian creatures. (Barazhad)

Yuan-ti: This language is rarely heard or seen outside of the cavernous depths in which the
Yuan-ti of Athas call home. It is gutteral and vulgar-sounding, and many often mistake it for
some dialect of Ssuran upon first hearing it. (Barazhad)

Scripts and Alphabets

Tyrian Alphabet
The most common alphabet in the Tyr Region, Tyrian is a true alphabet with twenty-nine
phonetic symbols resembling Ancient Phoenician. Even those languages that do not use the
Tyrian Alphabet are sometimes transliterated into its letters. The origin of a writer can be
determined by his script; proper, High Tyrian letters are more common in Tyr and Nibenay,
while the flowing Balican script used in Balic and Raam adds two more letters but omits
some strokes from existing letters.

Hamanu's Alphabet
The Lion God of Urik discourages literacy, but his templars and educated elite use the
cuneiform Alphabet of Hamanu, the script which the King of the World used to deliver his
Code. It resembles Sumerian cuneiform writing and contains approximately 400 symbols.

Hieroglyphics of Badna
When Abalach-Re abandoned her crown and declared the supremacy of the omnipotent
four-armed deity Badna, the new god's priesthood crafted a new pictographic alphabet to
accompany the city's religious transformation. Resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics, the
Hieroglyphics of Badna - much like the worship of the four-armed god - have never really
caught on, and are largely relegated to use by Badna's dedicates.
Moon Script
A pictographic language like the Hieroglyphics of Badna, Draj's Moon Script is heavy on
images of blood and animals. It is rarely used outside of Draj, and even among Draji
merchants prefer the Tyrian Alphabet.

Oba Script
Another ideographic script, the Oba Script of Gulg sees wider use - even the Forest
Goddess' spirit-worshipping enemies in the Crescent Forest have adopted the Oba Script for
their tribal languages.

Rellanic
The Elven script, Rellanic has graceful, flowing curves like the dunes of its writers. Its
internal structure bears phonetic similarity to the Tyrian Alphabet, though with more letters
and sounds. Some scholars believe Rellanic may have been the original model for the
Tyrian script.

Chachik
The Thri-Kreen script sees no use among the Kreen of the Tyr Region, who are universally
illiterate. It is used only by the Tohr-Kreen khanates of the Crimson Savanna.

Barazhad
The alphabet of the giants, Barazhad is a crude, heavy-stroked script suitable for scratching
into mud and stone. Consequently, it is often used by desert tribes to transcribe the trade
tongue where the Tyrian Alphabet would be difficult to inscribe, as well as by desert races
with no script of their own. Barazhad was almost certainly adopted by the giants from the
script of the Elemental Chaos, who also use it for their rare writings.

Ghesh-Sach
The Halfling alphabet of the Jagged Cliffs - literally called "wisdom teaching" - is a phonetic
alphabet that bears a strong resemblance to Rellanic, the elven script.

Davek
The Dwarven script, Davek, is unknown to Athasians: while inscriptions in Davek have been
discovered in certain ancient dwarven ruins, it has been lost to the dwarves of modern
Athas.
Iokharic
Also called the Draconic script because certain tributes sent to the Dragon are inscribed with
it, Iokharic is the script of magical runes and writings. Knowing Iokharic automatically places
a sage under suspicion of being a mage.