- English - Byntic
Travellers can get along quite well in Uriania if they know some English, because nearly one third of the population has English as its native language, and everyone else learn English in school. The Byntic dialect prevalent in the southern part of the country may be difficult to understand at first, particularly in the west, but you will soon get used to it. In the bigger cities, and Southend in particular, you will find many people using a more standardised English nowadays.
- Azurian
Azurian belongs to the Scandinavian subfamily of languages and if you are visiting from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, or the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland, you may be able to communicate with the Azurian-speaking people in the west, northwest, central and southestern parts of the country. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish speakers will get along better in the east, while Icelendings will get along better in the northwest. Danish is no longer taught in Urianian schools as a standard, but you will find many elderly people with a Danish education and be able to communicate with them in Danish. Note however that they usually will have a very literal pronunciation which in fact will be easier for a Norwegian to understand than a Dane.
- Urianian
Urianian is spoken along the north, northeast, east, and in the central northeastern region. Its current writing system developed in the 19th century is based on the highland dialects around the university town of Uria. These dialects are barely intelligible to lowlanders, so if you pride yourself of knowing any Urianian, you may need to rethink if you visit the western lowland towns Urduk and Little Urduk, or the more easterly Xeria and Zirtu. However, the northern town of Jurian belongs to the highland dialect area. The lowland dialects in turn are divided into eastern and western branches, both barely intelligible to each other. Scollerinian, the language of our neighbouring republic, belongs to the eastern branch, and has its own writing standard. Apart from the mentioned regions, some knowledge of Urianian has been preserved in scattered communities, particularly in the southwest and northwest.
- Minor languages
Scots Gaelic is all but extinct in Uriania, but Irish immigrants in the 19th century brought with them their beautiful Irish language, which is still vibrant in many of our Irish settlements and communities. In the eastern Muna valley there is an isolated language with no known affiliations, spoken by tribal people. Linguists have attempted to prove that it is connected to the non-Urianian placenames known from historical writings, and are seeking evidence of a Muna substrate in Urianian. Lately, immigrant populations have been able to set up communities speaking their native languages beside the local ones, starting with the Polish settlement in the southern mining town of Polonia in the late 18th century, and continuing today with immigration from Turkey, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other more or less remote locations, enriching our linguistic diversity with their presence.
- Historical languages
For earlier stages of English, Gaelic, Azurian, Urianian, Muna, Romani, etc., see the pages for the respective modern languages. Before the early stages of Muna, the Suraetua and the Amhanara languages, we have a still earlier stage, which may be related or not. We don’t know, as the only material we have is the Tubenian king list and some symbol stones which may or may not contain writing. For a linguistic analysis see the Tubenian pages.