tetrapod's Lore Corner (4)
-x-
On the Languages of Man
by Nomoius Plethon
-x-
There are many different languages presently spoken throughout the territories of the Mede Empire, each widely varied in their provenance and qualities. Although their geographic distribution, political recognition, and lexical attributes have changed continuously and considerably over the Empire's long history, they can each boast proudly that they've survived into the third century of the Fourth Era with a sufficient number of speakers to be considered worthy of documentation by the census-registrars of the Imperial City. Herein lies a brief history and overview of these tongues and the Men who speak them, whether they be haughty Imperial lords, industrious urban artisans, or rustic tribesmen who know naught of the name Titus Mede.
-x- -x-
Imperial Tamrielic
Also called Imperial Common, Imperial Standard, or informally Cyrodiilic. This is Tamriel's most widely-spoken language both historically and in the present despite its noticeable decline in certain regions of the continent during the Fourth Era. It's also the language in which this manuscript has been penned, as the reader is presumably aware.
The earliest recognizable forms of Imperial Tamrielic have their roots in the Old Cyrodiilic language, also known as the Slaves' Cant, which was itself a direct derivative of Ayleidoon and High Elvish. Old Cyrodiilic was originally spoken by the conquered nations of the Nedes that were enslaved by the Ayleid Elves during the Merethic Era and the early First Era. At one time the Nedes spoke their own native languages, most likely cousins of the archaic proto-tongue of Atmora from whence they hailed long ago, but these were subsumed by the language of their oppressors and survived only as distant substrates. It's for this reason that Old Cyrodiilic and its modern daughter, Imperial Tamrielic, are technically classified as Elvish languages despite being spoken by the races of Men.
But the Elves couldn't remain dominant in the Tamrielic heartland forever, for they were not a numerous folk in those days and they underestimated the irrepressible desire for freedom that their slaves held firmly in their hearts. And so the Ayleid hegemony over Old Cyrod was inevitably shattered by the Alessian Rebellion in the fourth century of the First Era, giving rise to the glorious First Empire of Men. Although High Elvish remained the official language of the Empire until the late First Era, it was Old Cyrodiilic and later Imperial Tamrielic that became the everyday language of Cyrodiil's human inhabitants during this time.
In addition to its Nedic and Elvish origins, Imperial Tamrielic is also descended from Tsaesci and other less well-attested Akaviri languages such as Kamal. The long history of Akaviri intermingling with the native Tamrielic languages and cultures first began in the year 1E 2703, in the opening days of the Second Empire when Reman Cyrodiil achieved his greatest victory over a host of Akaviri crusaders in the Battle of the Pale Pass. Despite their defeat, the Akaviri soon gained an inordinate amount of influence in northern and central Tamriel after their decision to swear fealty to Reman Cyrodiil as his new Dragonguard. Many of them subsequently rose to lofty heights of political power in the Imperial City and became renowned across the entire continent as warriors, governors, and magisters without peer. Thereafter, the proliferation of Akaviri loanwords into Imperial Tamrielic and the impact of their alien phonology led to a noteworthy shift from the Old Cyrodiilic language of the Alessian and Reman empires to the modern form of Imperial Tamrielic that we know today.
Taking these historical facts into account, modern Imperial Tamrielic can be accurately described as a complex amalgamation of Nedic, Elvish, and Akaviri elements that were blended together at various points over the course of the Empire's long and tumultuous history. A fitting tongue for a nation that once spanned across entire civilizations, continents, and seas.
Today, the most widely-spoken dialect of Tamrielic is that of the Imperial City, which is the official language of the Third Empire and the basis for its written standard. It's the favored tongue of politicians, academics, and merchant elites throughout all of Tamriel and comprises the largest corpus of Imperial literature by far.
Other variants of Tamrielic spoken within the borders of Cyrodiil include the regional vernaculars of Nibenay, Colovia, the Jerall Mountains, the Weald, and the Abecean coastlands.
Colovian is a harsh and austere language in comparison to other Imperial dialects – which is rather fitting when one considers the harsh and austere character of the undulating highlands that the Colovians call home – and exhibits little of the elegance or flamboyancy so evident in Nibenese. It's more closely aligned with the Nedic and Nordic tongues of the Cyrods' distant ancestors and resultingly lacks the same degree of Elvish influence seen in most other Tamrielic vernaculars. However, it's still classified as an Elvish language due to its underlying Ayleidoon phonology. In addition to the highlands of Colovia, this dialect is also spoken in neighboring areas of Hammerfell, Skyrim, and to a much lesser extent in northern Valenwood.
Nibenese is less of a single dialect and more of an umbrella term used to classify the innumerable vernaculars spoken throughout the fertile basin of Nibenay. There are many interrelated but simultaneously individualistic clannic lineages and insular cults scattered throughout the temperate rainforests, verdant grasslands, and waterlogged wetlands of eastern Cyrodiil, and each of them boast their own household parlances spanning hundreds or (supposedly) thousands of years into the past when Saint Alessia first granted their predecessors plots of land as a reward for their service during the Alessian Rebellion. Nibenay is the heartland of the Empire, and as is often the case, the geographic nucleus of a language is where it experiences the most profound mutations. The Nibenese speak with pretension and verbosity as a matter of course, and the many celebrated battlemages and philosophers they've produced throughout history have each left their mark on the language of their homeland. In addition to their avowed pomposity, the clans of Nibenay are also known for manufacturing ancestor-silk textiles and cultivating vast paddies of Akaviri rice to feed the voracious mouths of the Imperial City, the latter of which is an incomparably important responsibility that earns them significant autonomy within the Empire as an agriculturalist elite. The hundred tributaries of the mighty Niben River tumbling down from the Valus Mountains each act as arteries of commerce and language, with towns thriving along their shorelines being more likely to speak the same Nibenese subdialect than comparatively closer settlements in the thickly-wooded interior.
Cyro-Nordic is spoken primarily in northern Cyrodiil, especially in the city of Bruma, and also has a strong presence in the Hold of Falkreath on the opposite end of the Pale Pass. As its name suggests, this dialect is characterized by a heavy Nordic substrate that arose from millennia of cultural contact between Skyrim and Cyrodiil up to and including the supremacy of the First Nordic Empire during the early First Era. Although still a fundamentally Elvish language, the Nedic and Nordic elements of its phonology are much more exaggerated than the norm. Imperial scholars sometimes remark that the inhabitants of Bruma can barely be understood by travelers from elsewhere in Cyrodiil.
The Tamrielic dialect spoken in the Weald is particularly noteworthy for being a creole formed over a long period of time by interaction between adjacent Imperial Colovian, Imperial Nibenese, Bosmeri, and Khajiiti populations. The Weald is a borderland in the strongest sense of the word, and its denizens and political boundaries have been altered significantly at different points in history by many momentous events including the Anequine Conquests, the War of Righteousness, the rise of the Reman and Septim empires, more conflicts between the Bosmer and the Khajiit than anyone could care to count, the expansionism of the Third Aldmeri Dominion, and the Great War. While this dialect possesses an undeniably Tamrielic lexicon, it also retains many Bosmeri and Khajiiti loanwords that set it apart from other vernaculars.
The Abecean variant of Imperial Tamrielic is usually classified as a branch of Colovian that grew increasingly divergent over time due to various political, cultural, and economic differences. It's primarily spoken in the Gold Coast, a rich commercial crossroads located between the Cyrodiilic heartland, Hammerfell, Valenwood, and the Summerset Isles. It shouldn't be confused with Abecean Pidgin, which is a trade language comprised of Tamrielic, Yokudan, and High Elvish adstrates that shares few characteristics with Abecean Tamrielic. These two confusingly-named tongues coexist across the Gold Coast, the numerous islands dotting the Abecean Sea, and nearby trade-cities in neighboring provinces.
Outside of the Imperial Province, there have historically been pockets of Cyrodiilic settlement throughout Tamriel that were established by the Reman and Septim Empires. Most recently, there were new colonies of Cyrods founded in every province except Summerset during the height of the Third Empire's power, which facilitated the spread of Imperial Tamrielic to populations that previously had no linguistic affiliation with it whatsoever. Networks of colonies in different provinces typically spoke their own varieties of the language.
In Valenwood, the cities of Arenthia, Woodhearth, Southpoint, and Haven were either founded or refounded during the Second Empire as Imperial coloniae to govern over the densely-jungled homeland of the Wood Elves. Tamrielic became widely-spoken during the Second and Third Eras in the vicinity of these cities, which hosted large populations of Cyrodiilic migrants in addition to the native Bosmer. However, in the modern day this is no longer the case due to the ascendancy of the Third Aldmeri Dominion and the eviction of the Imperial Legion by the Thalmor in 4E 29, an event that changed Valenwood forever.
The cities of Gideon, Blackrose, Lilmoth, and Stormhold in the province of Black Marsh were each either founded during the Second Empire or were preexisting settlements that underwent state-sanctioned colonization by speakers of Imperial Tamrielic. The cities of Soulrest and Archon also experienced an influx of foreign influence, but of a slightly different flavor. Both became autonomous havens of piracy that were only absorbed into the Empire with great difficulty, and the nature of their inhabitants and the languages they spoke were divergent as a result. Only in the cities of Thorn and Helstrom was Imperial Cyrodiilic unable to make significant inroads, though for very different reasons. The ethnic landscape of Thorn was substantially altered by the presence of Dunmer slavers and periodically fell under the direct control of House Dres of Morrowind, resulting in the formation of a predominantly Dunmeri and Argonian city. In contrast, Helstrom is the shadowy heart of the Argonian nation and has never been conquered nor besieged by outsiders. Few have survived the disease-ridden wilderness long enough to journey there and return to report of their findings.
In Hammerfell, the cities of Sentinel, Gilane, Rihad, and Taneth are under the control of the Forebear cultural faction and thus predominantly speak Imperial Tamrielic. Despite being a Crown-controlled city, Elinhir was a part of Colovia in all but name during the Third Era and is the most solidly Tamrielic-speaking of them all. Dialectal subregions of Imperial Tamrielic in Hammerfell include the vernaculars of the Iliac Bay, Khefrem, the coastlands of Taneth and Rihad, and Sunforge. Dialects around the Iliac Bay tend to share similarities with Bretic due to trade connections and frequent political intermarriage.
But as with all things, the expansion of Imperial Tamrielic as a continental lingua franca was not to last forever. With the beginning of the Fourth Era and the innumerable hardships heralding its arrival, the illustrious tongue of Alessia, Reman, and Tiber Septim finally entered into a period of widespread decline and vanished entirely from many regions. The Aldmeri Dominion and the An-Xileel of Argonia have both sought to suppress the Tamrielic language in pursuit of nationalist homogeneity, as they seemingly share the opinion that the tongue of their former overlords is an overt symptom of nefarious Imperial manipulation. Almost every single formerly-Cyrodiilic city on the coasts of Valenwood and Black Marsh has been forcibly and sometimes violently un-Cyrodicized in pursuit of this goal, and as a consequence the Tamrielic tongue is no longer as prevalent as it once was. The same could be said for many things in these dark days, when the Dragonborn Emperors of Man no longer reign unchallenged over the lands and seas of Tamriel with benevolent grace as they did in brighter times. All true Men weep bitterly for their passing.
-x- -x-
Bretic
The Bretic language is a dialect continuum spanning the length of High Rock, the homeland of the Bretons and the northwesternmost province of Tamriel. It's comprised of several mutually-intelligible vernaculars that share common origins and have been linked by political, cultural, and religious ties for many centuries. They can be loosely divided into dialects corresponding with the kingdoms of Daggerfall, Camlorn, Northpoint, Wayrest, Evermore, and Farrun.
Bretic is a somewhat difficult language for the scholastic community to classify due to its circuitous and confusing history – though it isn't much different from Imperial Tamrielic in that regard, I suppose.
The origins of modern Bretic are believed to be twofold. The first element is an ancient language that today's scholars have creatively termed 'Old Bretic,' which was most likely a regional derivative of Nedic. The second element is classical High Elvish.
Between the Nedes and the High Elves, it's unknown who settled High Rock first. Rival sources provide differing theories and explanations, none of which can be fully confirmed. All we know for certain is that during the Middle Merethic Era, several clans of High Elves set sail from the Summerset Isles and made landfall in the Iliac Bay, where they established coastal strongholds in what would later become known as the province of High Rock. Sometime shortly before or afterwards, roving tribes of Nedes also entered High Rock and began to disperse across the region despite the presence of indigenous beastfolk. The ultimate fate of these mysterious beastfolk hasn't been recorded.
Unsurprisingly, the near-simultaneous colonization of maritime High Rock by the Elves and the arrival of the Nedes resulted in these two very different cultures coming into close contact with one another. As the Elves were scions of a much more advanced civilization than the hide-clad and stone-wielding Men, they were easily able to establish themselves as feudal overlords of the tribal Nedes and forcibly organized them into a lesser class of serfs. It became common practice for the Elves to take concubines from among the Nedes, and before long a new feudal class had arisen in the Elven hegemony of High Rock – the 'Manmeri,' half-elves who later became known as the Bretons.
Concurrent with the advent of the Breton race was the formation of their eponymous language, derived from both Nedic and High Elvish in precisely the same manner as the bastard sons and daughters of High Rock's Elven lords. The Elvish component of this mixed vernacular proved to be the stronger half – this is the reason modern Bretic is considered to be a lexically Elvish tongue – but elements of Old Bretic persisted and still persist today as a distinctly Mannish substrate.
Of the multiple Elven dynasties who colonized High Rock, those of Clan Direnni are the most notable for both settling the Isle of Balfiera – where the Adamantine Tower stands tall and proud even to this day – and for eventually gaining ascendancy over their neighboring clans in the early First Era. This led to the expansion of the so-called Direnni Hegemony, in which the province of High Rock and the early speakers of Bretic were politically united in their entirety for the first time in recorded history. This is arguably the single most important event in the foundation of the modern Breton nation as we know it today.
Bretic was later heavily influenced by Imperial Tamrielic during the Third Era, when the Septim Dynasty sought to solidify their control over distant High Rock through extensive intermarriage with the provincial aristocracy. Cyrods or Bretons who adopted Cyrodiiic culture became the rulers of many native kingdoms and principalities during this period, and many Tamrielic loanwords were proliferated into the Bretic language. Bretic and Tamrielic are similar in some ways since they both have dual origins in Nedic and a High Elvish tongue, but their geographic separation and a lack of historical interconnectedness before the Third Era ultimately led to a natural divergence. The intermingling of Tsaesci Akaviri and Tamrielic only served to worsen this linguistic divide, and if Breton and Tamrielic were ever mutually intelligible, they certainly aren't today. Cyrodiilic speakers of Tamrielic often complain that the grammar rules of Breton make no sense to them and vice versa.
Old Bretic might be a moribund language, but it hasn't been entirely forgotten. It's still preserved in the Fourth Era by druids and bards as an important part of Breton culture, who use it to recount the ancient lays and sagas of their people during holidays, coronations, and other events of public significance.
One of the more divergent dialects of Bretic is a variety sometimes called Breto-Nordic, which is spoken predominantly in the city of Jehanna on the Sea of Ghosts. It's also used by isolated fisherfolk dwelling along the sparsely-populated coast of western Haafingar, although they're few in number.
-x- -x-
Reachspeak
The language of the Reachmen is spoken primarily in their craggy homeland nestled in the Druadach Mountains, consisting of the Nordic Hold of the Reach, the Western Reach in High Rock, and a few remote areas of Upper Craglorn. Reachmen can also sometimes be found in the sheer-sloped valleys of southern Haafingar and the westernmost fringes of Whiterun Hold.
Reachspeak is a quintessentially Nedic language at its core. It's distantly related to Bretic and to a lesser extent Nordic, bearing many signs of historical interaction with both, but it notably lacks the prominence of High Elvish phonology seen in Bretic and the oddly divergent lexicon of Nordic – the latter of which we shall address in an upcoming entry.
The Reach is something of a geopolitical junction in northern Tamriel, forming a resource-rich yet perilous borderland wedged between the provinces of Skyrim, High Rock, and Hammerfell – all of which have hosted expansionist kingdoms and civilizations at multiple points during the region's history. In particular, the large deposits of silver and other precious metals that can be found in the Druadach Mountains and the Karth River Valley have always been an irresistible draw for foreign conquerors, as the potential for wealth they represent is frankly obscene. By an unfortunate quirk of history and topography, the Reachmen have eternally been damned to suffer from the depredations of their more numerous and technologically advanced neighbors, who view them not only as mud-scrounging barbarians but also as heretics of the worst kind – Daedra worshipers – and are thus unwilling to show them even the barest hint of mercy.
Many are the kings and emperors who have sought to subjugate the perfidious Reach, from the Direnni Hegemons and the Alessian Emperors to the Akaviri Dragonguard and the Septim Empire, and each of them has left their mark on the region's inhabitants. This could be the subject of an entire treatise all on its own, but for the purposes of this essay I shall touch only upon the development of the Reachmen's language.
Not only does the Nedic core of Reachspeak bear linguistic scars left behind by the Bretons and the Nords, but it also displays traces of Elvish, Cyrodiilic, Akaviri, Yokudan, and even Orcish as well. It isn't without reason that the Reach was regarded as one of the most ethnically and culturally cosmopolitan regions of Tamriel during the Septim Empire. Its native inhabitants are often characterized as a mongrel race of diluted blood by their detractors, and whether or not there's any truth to this claim, it isn't inaccurate to say their language is one of mongrels in its own right. A single mundane sentence in Reachspeak might contain words of Nedic, Nordic, Elvish, and Orcish origin, each wildly different from all others in pronunciation and structure, and the Reachman speaker wouldn't bat an eye.
Despite being such a unique tongue, there are two other languages in northern Tamriel that are closely related to Reachspeak. These are called Bjoulsaean and Jerallic.
-x- -x-
Bjoulsaean
This is the language of the River Horse Bretons, a nation who have dwelled along the banks of Bjoulsae River in eastern High Rock since time immemorial. Despite their geographic proximity to the much more numerous Bretons, their language has remained mostly distinct for primarily social and cultural reasons. Bjoulsaean is a predominantly Nedic tongue in the same manner as Reachspeak, but it features loanwords from both Bretic and the languages of the Redguards on the southern bank of the Bjoulsae River.
The Bjoulsaean horse-tribes are a stubbornly nomadic people who cloth themselves in fearsome garments of fur and bone similarly to their Reachman cousins. But unlike the Reachmen, they're also masters of mounted warfare unparalleled by any other race in northern Tamriel, not even by the Redguards of the Alik'r and their formidable light cavalry. They prefer to fight with the bow, shield, and lance, and are particularly noteworthy for the manner in which they feign retreat from their enemies while simultaneously pelting them with a continuous hail of arrows – the so-called 'Bjoulsaean shot.' This tactic has been the bane of many an infantry-centric host.
But it should be clarified that the Bjoulsaeans aren't cowards no matter how disdainful their pragmatism in warfare might be. A Third Era chieftain by the name of Mindothrax has been immortalized as a swordsman without equal in Berdier Wreans' far-famed report on the nature of intertribal Bjoulsaean conflict, titled 'The Mirror,' in which he praises the River Horse Bretons for their unyielding dispositions during battle. Whatever the case, they're certainly unyielding in their incessant feuds with neighboring Breton farmers, pastoral Redguards, and marauding Orcs. The sedentary inhabitants of southeastern High Rock have learned through bloody trial and error to avoid trespassing upon the claimed territory of the horse-tribes in the flatlands of the Bjoulsae valley, which they delineate using standing stones carved with the faces of their ancestors.
Despite being semi-barbarous nomads, the Bjoulsaeans are famous in northern Tamriel for their metalworking and other forms of art, especially for their jewelry. Elegant crafts of intricate wrought gold, silver, and electrum are practically synonymous with the name of the Bjoulsaeans in many places, and something similar can be said for their elaborate crested helms and lamellar armor with golden filigree. Indeed, although their language is rugged and coarse to the ears of more civilized peoples, their skill in matters of war and craftsmanship cannot be understated. They prefer to speak with their hands rather than their tongues.
There's a small minority of the Bjoulsaeans who have willingly forsaken the path of the horse-lord and settled along the banks of the Bjoulsae River as sedentary agriculturalists with gardens of wheat, millet, lentils, onions, and garlic. These are sometimes called the Royal Bjoulsaeans, as they dwell within the borders of the Kingdom of Evermore with the king's express permission in return for providing their best mounted warriors for his armies. Some scholars call their nomadic cousins the Free Bjoulsaeans when specifying between the two factions.
Bjoulsaean was once the primary language of the city of Evermore, but it was overtaken completely by Bretic and Imperial Tamrielic during the Third Empire. Now it's only spoken by the equestrian horse-tribes of the Bjoulsae River and the surrounding moorlands, who cling doggedly to the ways of their ancestors and answer to no lords except the mightiest among their own people.
-x- -x-
Jerallic
Jerallic is a Nedic tongue spoken by the hill-tribes of the eastern Jerall Mountains and the Valus Mountains. It bears some signs of Cyro-Nordic influence but is nonetheless distinctive, sharing few documented similarities with any other tongue. It's most likely an isolated descendant of the old Nedic languages and is thus considered to be an extremely distant cousin of Reachspeak and Bjoulsaean.
The Jerallic hill-tribes have inhabited the high valleys and precipitous slopes of the snowcapped border-mountains between Skyrim, Cyrodiil, and Morrowind for as long as history has been recorded by their lowland neighbors. They're a little-know race of reportedly great stature and beauty, with yellow hair and fierce eyes in the manner of Atmora the Old. These are the words of the esteemed Ammian Marcellus who dwelt among them for many years, and I am inclined to believe his assessment.
The most commonly accepted theory is that the Men of the Jeralls are descendants of Nedic slaves who escaped from the flesh-gardens of their cruel Ayleid masters and fled into the inaccessible mountains during the Merethic Era, in a time when the Nedes hadn't yet lost their mother tongue to their oppressors. They built for themselves lofty fastnesses and hidden tower-villages where they could be safe from their hostile overlords in perpetuity, and even when the Alessian Empire arose in Cyrodiil they still tenaciously refused to return to the world below.
So it was that at least one bastion of the ancient Nedic dialects of Old Cyrod survived beyond the end of the Ayleid Empire, but not only into the First or even the Second Era. Even today in the Fourth Era, this exceedingly ancient tongue is still spoken in the alpine haunts of the Jerall and Valus Mountains by tribesmen clinging to the legacy of their primeval ancestors who once roamed the wildernesses of Tamriel with naught but spears of stone and axes of bronze to guard themselves. They are suspicious of foreigners and generally keep to themselves, but they aren't entirely isolated from the outside world. Indeed, they're known to regularly trade with the Nords of the Rift whom they view favorably as kinsmen long-sundered by the passage of time. Intermarriage between the hill-tribes and the Nords isn't unheard of, and travelers in the city of Riften can expect to hear sentences of guttural Jerallic, bold Nordic, and exotic Dunmer mixed up together in its multicultural marketplaces and bustling fisheries.
In much the same fashion of the River Horse Bretons of the Bjoulsae, the Jerallic hill-tribes recognize the authority of no emperor nor king – not even the High Kings of Skyrim – and keep their own council where political matters are concerned. But all hasn't been well for them in recent decades. With the arrival of numerous clans of Orcs from High Rock and Hammerfell following the destruction of Nova Orsinium in the aftermath of the Oblivion Crisis, several new Orc-holds have been established in valleys and vales that the Jerallic tribes once regarded as their own. Conflict between the two groups swiftly ensued and no amount of honeyed words or diplomatic overtures from the Empire succeeded in lessening the bloodshed. Only with the beginning of the Civil War in Skyrim has the intensity of this intercommunal conflict finally waned, but only because many Orcs have been contracted by the Empire to slay new foes on different battlefields. The hill-tribes have backed off for now as they bide their time and marshal new warriors from their far-flung cantons, but it's clear that their desire for vengeance hasn't yet faded. They have long memories and do not ever forget past slights, no matter how much time has elapsed.
The Jerallic tribes have historically vacillated between worship of the Imperial Divines and the old Nordic faith, and they've sometimes been sharply divided between the two. They also have a well-deserved reputation for producing capable mercenaries and even supplied the Imperial Guard with soldiers during both the Akaviri Potentate and the middle years of the Septim Dynasty, when they were favored by the Emperors for their lack of involvement in Cyrodiilic politics. For these reasons, the Jerallic language has picked up a few Tamrielic and Nordic loanwords over the years.
-x- -x-
Nordic
Nordic is one of northern Tamriel's oldest and most lexically conservative languages, with a written tradition stretching back as far as the landfall of Ysgramor the Returned during the Merethic Era. It's the most direct known descendant of the hypothetical Atmoran proto-language from which all Nedic languages are derived.
Dialects of Nordic are spoken across the entire breadth of Skyrim, on the island of Solstheim, throughout Upper Craglorn, and in the mountainous regions of eastern High Rock. These can be loosely divided into eastern, central, and western groupings. The first is an extremely conservative variety spoken in the Old Holds, on the high plains of Whiterun Hold, and in isolated montane regions of Haafingar and the Hjallmarch. The second is a variety with more Imperial Tamrielic influence spoken in Solitude, the Reach, parts of Falkreath, the Hjallmarch, and Whiterun. The third is a variety spoken by dispersed Nordic populations in High Rock and Upper Craglorn, many of whom can trace their lineage back to colonists from the War of the Bend'r-mahk when Skyrim conquered the Western Reach and Craglorn during the Imperial Simulacrum. Finally, there's also a highly-divergent subset of western Nordic spoken by the Skaal of Solstheim.
With the exception of the Skaal, each of these dialects is mutually intelligible with the others. A Nord from Windhelm might have a hard time understanding a Nord coming straight from the mountains of Craglorn, but they'd still be able to hold a simple conversation. This is generally true for Nords from any region of Skyrim other than Falkreath, where the local vernacular has been so heavily tainted by Colovian Tamrielic that it's now classified as a variety of Cyro-Nordic Tamrielic instead of native Nordic.
One of the strangest features of the Nordic language is that it exhibits quite a few phonetic irregularities which can't be easily explained and aren't attested in any other Nedic dialects, including apparent loanwords with no identifiable origin and exceedingly odd vowel combinations. Most reputable scholars attribute these differences to the Nords' Atmoran origins, which is a murky topic in and of itself.
There are two competing theories regarding the ancestral homeland of the Nords, both of which have large followings in the Imperial academic community. The first – which is popularly called the 'Out of Atmora' theory – postulates that the Nedes and Nords both originated in Atmora as a single people, the Atmorans, and relocated to Tamriel in multiple waves of migration widely dispersed across the entire Merethic Era. This would've resulted in various tribes arriving during different periods of continental history, allowing sufficient time to pass for their languages to diverge and effectively turning Tamriel into a great mixing cauldron for their culture. The second theory – and the one espoused by most traditionalist Nords – is that the first Men were created atop the Throat of the World at the beginning of days and that Skyrim is thus the Fatherland of the Nedes and Nords. The Nords migrated to Atmora at some point in history and later migrated back to their homeland under the leadership of Ysgramor and his Five Hundred Companions only to find that their Nedic cousins had been subjugated by the Elves in the meantime. According to proponents of this view, the 'Out of Atmora' theory was created by propogandists of the Third Empire who sought to historically link the Septim dynasty to the Nordic nation in order to gain their support, erasing any mention of the existence of Men in Tamriel before the coming of Ysgramor.
All that to say, most scholars believe the Nordic language's documented oddities are the result of natural divergence between Nordic and Nedic during the early history of Tamriel. There are others who think these differences are evidence of a possible Snow Elf substrate, a language only attested by indecipherable fragments of ancient inscriptions. Yet others propose a Dwemer or Akaviri substrate instead, neither of which are implausible.
However, there are a rare few scholars of greater eccentricity than the rest who postulate that these inconsistencies are evidence of some sort of hypothetical 'Dragon' language from an age when Dragons ruled over the Men of Skyrim, citing the inexplicable nature of the Nordic tongue's idiosyncrasies. Most rational individuals dismiss this out-of-hand as rumor and hearsay, but I shall leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions on the subject.
Whatever the case, Nordic has been heavily influenced by Tamrielic over Skyrim's many centuries of Imperial rule – as is the case for many languages – but it nonetheless retained its unique quasi-Nedic character. There are some who accuse the Mede Emperors of seeking to replace the Nordic language with Imperial Tamrielic through targeted policies of cultural assimilation and economic incentives, but that is a beehive this humble author wouldn't dare to touch with a ten-foot pole. I shall leave this matter to others who are more informed of its particularities than I.
-x- -x-
Yoku
The ancient language of sunken Yokuda, which is called Yoku by its native speakers and Old Redguard in Imperial sources, is presently spoken in several regions across northern Hammerfell as well as the Abecean archipelagos of Stros M'kai and the Chain. The islands of Cespar and Herne were once also bastions of Yoku, but they were colonized by merchants and political exiles from High Rock during the Third Era and are now culturally Breton.
Yoku is very different from all other Mannish languages and shares no relation to the Nedic-Nordic tongues whatsoever. It originated independently on Yokuda with a distinct phonology and a lack of foreign loanwords, which sets it apart from most of Tamriel's other languages. It's written using a unique script of flowing calligraphy.
Imperial Tamrielic has made substantial inroads among the Redguards ever since their earliest arrival in Tamriel during the First Era, and the Yoku language has resultingly been in a state of chronic decline since the Second Era. Today in the Fourth Era, the majority of Redguards now speak regional dialects of Imperial Tamrielic as their native tongue and have forgone the ways of their ancestors.
However, there are still some Redguards who hold fast to their distinguished heritage and continue to speak Yoku among themselves, mostly those who've made their homes in the trackless wilds or in regions controlled by the culturally-conservative Crowns. They mostly dwell in the rugged Banthan Jungle of north-central Hammerfell, the blistering Alik'r Desert to the west, and the dry steppe of Lower Craglorn to the east, in which are located the cities of Skaven, Hegathe, and Dragonstar respectively. These are the only major urban centers in Hammerfell where the Yoku language is still spoken by a significant portion of the native population. Elsewhere, Imperial Tamrielic has become predominant.
Dragonstar is a remarkable city for being one of the only localities in Tamriel where Yoku and Nordic are spoken side by side with regularity. This is one of the many lingering consequences of the War of the Bend'r-mahk, in which the Nords conquered Dragonstar along with the rest of Craglorn and inundated it with settlers from Skyrim. The city was politically divided for many years and was the site of brutal sectarian violence, but the two halves of the population have since come to terms with one another and found common ground. Today, it's just another example of Craglorn's extremely multi-ethnic character.
-x- -x-
Appendix A – Akaviri
The Akaviri languages were once spoken by the descendants of Tsaesci and Kamal crusaders who invaded Tamriel in the late First and Second Eras, were defeated by their enemies, and later disseminated throughout the Cyrodiilic heartland. Many of the survivors found themselves in the arid Rim Territories of Elsweyr, where they coalesced in large numbers and became known as the Rim-Men. But despite the cultural cohesivity of their newfound homeland, their indigenous language ultimately become extinct due to gradual assimilation into Imperial society over the course of the Second and Third Eras. It continues to survive as a literary language among eccentric magisters and constitutes one of the largest bodies of academic literature in Tamriel, but nothing more than that.
Akaviri might be better preserved than most moribund languages due to its scholastic value, but it's still in danger of being completely forgotten after the grim events of the Fourth Era. Of all the peoples of Tamriel, it was the Rim-Men who were most dedicated to preserving the wisdom and knowledge of their ancestors… but today, they are no more.
After the assassination of the Mane of Elsweyr in 4E 48, the province of Pelletine became embroiled in the throes of civil war. Control of the Rim was simultaneously seized by Cyro-Akaviri rebels who proclaimed their independence in the city of Rimmen under the rule of a native Potentate. The Rim-Mannish inhabitants of this new Potentate spoke a local variety of Imperial Tamrielic with a prominent Akaviri substrate, even more pronounced than that of the dialect of the Imperial City. The Mede Emperors used the Potentate of the Rim as a stepping-stone to exert influence in the increasingly-unstable Elsweyr Confederacy, as the conflict in Pelletine was especially troublesome to their interests.
This state of affairs persisted until the total collapse of the Elsweyr Confederacy in 4E 115, after which the Aldmeri Dominion divided the Khajiit homeland into the client states of Anequina and Pelletine. The meddling of the Thalmor directly resulted in the dissolution of the Potentate of the Rim, which marked the definitive end of the Empire's ability to project authority into Elsweyr. Echoing their strategy in Valenwood from several decades earlier, the Thalmor solidified their control of Elsweyr by pursuing the wholesale eradication of the Rim's Mannish population. The few surviving Cyro-Akaviri, a mere fraction of their people, managed to escape across the provincial frontier into Cyrodiil and gradually dispersed among the broader Imperial population. There they continue to live and work as a nation of refugees without a home to this very day.