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Kendane͡ivash is the language of the Threadwielders. Part of the Threadwielder Commons, it acquires vocabulary whenever someone adds to said vocabulary. Conflicts are possible:
- someone might define a word for a widget in one part of the universe and someone else might define a word for the same kind of widget in another part of the universe, in which case both words will be used
- someone might define a word for a widget in one part of the universe and someone else might define the (coincidentally) same word for a different kind of widget in another part of the universe, in which case standard practise is to use the word for both things if possible, either by respecting 'regional' meanings or by, should it be ambiguous in a given area, clarifying in some fashion.
New vocabulary is rarely added to the Commons, though, and Threadwielders are generally happy with Kendane͡ivash as-is.
A canonical dictionary can be found on the Tarnish website.
Nature
By inherent design, Kendane͡ivash is not a spoken language, but an encoded one. It's more comparable to UTF-8 Japanese characters than it is comparable to the rendering of said characters. Indeed, glyphal alphabets for Kendane͡ivash vary from place to place, and pronunciation often starkly differs between cultures, where Kendane͡ivash is spoken at all. It's just as likely someone might encode Kendane͡ivash into light pulses or gestures.
If the mode of communication is not clear, the person initiating a conversation will begin with a recital of the Kendane͡ivash numerals until the other party acknowledges (or the initiator begins to suspect the mode of communication chosen is so unclear that the other party isn't even aware that communication is being attempted (or the communication attempt is outright invisible to their sensors)).
Alphabet
There are 21 “consonants” in Kendane͡ivash and 11 “vowels”; these have separately defined alphabets.
The standard Latin transcription used by the author consists of all standard Latin characters, plus the extra character s̈ and minus c, w and x.
In other words, these Latin letters are used:
| a | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | s̈ | t | u | v | y | z |
The consonant alphabet is transcribed as follows:
| z | sh | s | r | l | h | b | p | n | m | v | f | th | t | d | j | g | q | k | ks | s̈ |
- f is more often rendered as ph
- k may be optionally rendered as c (such as in Valcen's name), usually when the author feels that using k would make the word look too much like someone slipped and fell into German.
The vowel alphabet is transcribed as follows:
| o | u | a | i͡u | e͡i | i | i͡y | y | a͡i | u͡i | e |
Spread
Threadwielders immersed in cultures tend to be multi-lingual, but since they cannot expect other Threadwielders to have the same background, their language tends to be maintained as a lingua franca between them, and they fall back to it whenever they visit one another for the first few times.
As such, the language is mostly used by Threadwielders themselves, though some words may sneak into sapient languages on worlds seeded by Threadwielders, because of their involvement.
kavkema
The most notable users of the language are the kavkema, for whom - due to Evenatra's extreme presence during their cultural genesis - the language was something of a baseline and now continues to be used as a form of 'weakest encryption': While regular conversation is usually in the lingua franca of the Nayabaru (Naya), conversing in their “ancient tongue” (formally called Kendane͡ivash) can, in a pinch, buy them a few minutes head-start while someone struggles to translate on-the-fly.
That this “ancient tongue” is still actively expanded by them (causing there to be a slew of kavkem-specific Kendane͡ivash words) does not make them refer to it as anything else. The Nayabaru may sometimes call it kavkemic, though. Or, you know, “the language those terrorists use”.
See also: kavkem glyphs
Draconics
<fc #ff0000>WARNING</fc>: The following material has not yet had a chance to become canonical.
Some Draconic subcultures use Kendane͡ivash, especially when interacting with Threadwielders (i.e. almost surely Zalaagra), but knowledge of the language is much more spotty than it is with kavkema, as it is usually not the main tongue of the respective culture. In most places that are aware of Kendane͡ivash at all, the language shares a status broadly comparable to Esperanto with humans.