Languages

Many languages are spoken on the Avasan continent, created by its many races and cultures or brought in from afar.

Planar Languages
The following languages are predominantly spoken by the denizens of a particular plane.

Aquan
Aquan is the language of the Elemental Plane of Water and is spoken by the inhabitants of that plane as well as by the aquatic creatures of the Material Plane. It is a gutteral and throaty language, with shifts in meaning based on inflection and emphasis. Its written form is a wavy, cursive script with many affixes and diacritical marks to modify a word or phrase's meaning.

Auran
Auran is the language of the Elemental Plane of Air and is spoken by the inhabitants of that plane as well as some flying creatures of the Material Plane. It is a soft-spoken and breathy language, more sung than spoken. The written form of Auran is a loose, curling cursive script with long, trailing vowels and calligraphic flourishes.

Celestial
Celestial is the language of good outsiders such as angels and archons. It is a gently-spoken language with no harsh consonants and lightly-voiced vowels. On the Material Plane, Celestial is the language of choice for good-aligned holy scriptures and is spoken in many temples during worship. The written form of Celestial is thin and elegant, with gentle curves and understated flourishes.

Racial Languages
The following languages are spoken primarily by members of a particular racial group.

Aklo
Aklo is a strange, maddeningly-complex language believed to have otherworldly, eldritch origins. Spoken in isolated regions of the Underdark, its native speakers are universally inhuman and often insane, such as the drug-addled derro, degenerate serpentfolk, and the inscrutable aboleths. The written form of Aklo is sharp and twisted, more easily carved into a surface than written on parchment.

Draconic
Draconic is the language of dragons and reptilian humanoids, such as kobolds and lizardfolk. It is believed to be among the oldest languages on the Material Plane, and is used as the universal language of magical and scientific studies, due in no small part to the fact that many of the foundational works of those fields were penned by the dragons themselves in their native tongue. Spoken, it is throaty and imperative with many consonants, and is difficult to speak softly. The written form of Draconic is bold and sharp, with clear delineation between characters.

Dwarven
The language of the dwarves is a clipped, gutteral language descended from Terran. Dwarven is an extremely nuanced language, with fully developed concepts often represented by a single word. Due to the specificity of their native tongue ,dwarves have difficulty with languages that rely on implied meanings or innuendo, leading to the dwarven reputation for literal-mindedness. The written form of Dwarven uses the runic Terran alphabet, which is blocky and bold, well-suited for carving into stone or etching into metal.