Languages
Cryptonicists and cryptonic linguists have long struggled to catalog all the galaxy’s languages. This task, while easy on a macroscopic --- perhaps myopic --- level, proves an Atlan feat once one learns the intricacies of locality and culture.
Marthiflex
Marthiflex is the language of the Ur-Kingdom. In the Other Tongue, the word Marthiflex means “the Mother’s tongue” from “Marthia” for mother and “flexon” for language or tongue. It is the language of the Clerisy, the Burghership and many Citizens within the Ur-Kingdom. Marth knows two registers: The formal, ceremonial register is often reminiscent of poetry and song. A great effort is taken to stick to a meter and rhyme schema and the voice is allowed to ascend and descend the mounds of melody. When spoken in the common and business register, Marth becomes long-winded and technical but never loses its flourish. Some linguists define a third register spoken by native Contra speakers when they learn Marth later in life. This way of speaking is often dominated by Contra sentence structures mapped directly onto Marthiflex vocabulary and the absence of melody. While the immense flexibility of Marth allows for this grammatically, it does invite stigmatization on a practical level.
Contraflex
Outside of the Ur-Kingdom, the common tongue is Contraflex. The name of this language is a Marth word that translates into “the Other Tongue” from “Contraion” meaning “the other one.” It is the most widely spoken language of the galaxy. Compared to Marth, it is usually perceived as ‘normal,’ no doubt through its immense spread. It follows simpler but more strict sentence construction rules and serves many more purposes, so it has a larger, if less sophisticated, vocabulary than Marth. Contra exists in thousands upon thousands of variations, all shaped by local cultures and circumstances. In the early Empire, the threat of a linguistically divided Empire led to the creation of the Imperial Cryptonic Linguistics Board. This institution would mandate and enforce a level of commonality that ensures to this day that all dialects of Contra are mutually intelligible.
Confound Parsiflex
Confound Parsiflex is the language spoken almost exclusively on the Norfodl moon Sobel, the Anapareesa sanctuary. Many argue that this is a dialect of Marth, but the prevailing consensus among cryptonic linguists defines it as a distinct language. Compared to Marth, it seems clipped and monotone, often spoken in a low register, believed to originate from the moon’s higher than normal gravity. When heard by anyone outside of Sobel, it often incites immediate fear and flight, which has made study of the language difficult. The name is descriptive as the language confounds linguists to this day, and the word “Parsemon” is the Marth term to describe a preacher or parishioner.
The Baranis Luger
Within the Heartlands of the Baran Alkhana, including Baranis and Polaris, the dominant language is The Baranis Luger. Compared to the imperial languages, this is an entirely foreign experience. Many guttural phonemes make the language hard to learn for speakers of Marth and Contra. For reasons that still elude imperial linguists, the Luger has evolved an extremely high density of meaning. This means that utterances that require sentences or even paragraphs in Marth and Contra can be expressed by a single word or a small sentence in the Luger. The Baranis Luger (where one must be careful to include the article ‘the’) is called Baranivy Lugeral Ulyal Fushal which translates roughly to “the most eloquent mainly spoken language of the Baran Alkhana” but the term is often shortened to Baranivy Lugeral.
Greater Taurus Creoles
The border region between the Nuclear Empire and the Baran Alkhana is the Great Taurus Expanse. Within it, Contra and the Luger mix to form many thousands of Greater Taurus Creoles (called “Torusivy Lugerat” in the Luger). Because of limited imperial influence, the aforementioned ICLB has failed to prevent the emergence of these languages. Describing them all here would be frivolous and quite futile, but one prominent Creole has emerged on the border world Gors-Velen, where Contra mixed with the Luger to form the local language known as Velenivyflex.