Dwarvish

Dwarvish or Dwarven was the name for a family of languages used by dwarves. The dwarves called their own language Dethek, but most other races used that term to refer to the runic alphabet in which the language was written.

Although a verbally dying language by 1400 DR, Dwarvish was still found all over Faerûn inscribed into weapons, buildings and mystical items.

The language followed dwarves all over Faerûn and beyond, making it an extremely widespread language. Communities and races that had been separated for some time evolved their own dialects.

History
Originating from the ancient Elder language, Dwarvish saw many incarnations and variations.

Although once a strong and exclusive language, actual Dwarvish words only make up a fraction of the words used by dwarves today. Many dwarves tend to speak common littered with Dwarvish words. Dwarven record-keepers and historians are among the few left that could speak whole verses in pure Dwarvish.

Dialects
Being such an old language, Dwarvish has been subject to various changes over the generations and has spawned numerous dialects. All of these dialects employ Dethek as their written alphabet.

Kurit
This dialect is used by arctic dwarves. The language is strongly influenced by Uluik, the language spoken by human colonies in the nearby Great Glacier.

Riftspeak
The dialect of the gold dwarves, Riftspeak is one of the oldest dialects and has barely changed in over 10,000 years. This is probably due to the great care gold dwarves take in learning languages. Gold dwarves are one of the most literate races of dwarf in Faerûn.

Duergan
Duergan originated from Shanatan, the dialect of the shield dwarves. Since the split Duergan has changed dramatically, leaving it as one of the most altered Dwarvish dialects. The drow and illithid influences in this dialect are hard to ignore, having altered its vocabulary and grammatical structure.

Shanatan
Used by western shield dwarves, this dialect could be traced back as far as the founding of Shanatar around −10,800 DR

Urdunnir dwarves used an older version of Shanatan, that more closely resembled the language in its early years.

Galenan
Eastern shield dwarves use a different dialect to their western cousins. Galenan is a form of Dwarvish strongly influenced by the human dialect Damaran.

Authalan
Wild dwarves use an ancient and simplified version of the Riftspeak dialect. Authalan also has noticeable Tashalan and Chultan influences. Literate wild dwarves are extremely rare.

Writing system
All Dwarvish languages use a runic script known as Dethek. Dethek runes are rarely written on paper or cloth due to the short life and fragile nature of such materials. Runes are usually carved or scraped into stone or metal, be it the walls of a building or the blade of a sword.



This example shows Dethek letters, symbols and punctuation.

Alphabet
The Dethek runic alphabet consists of 24 characters. This is because w, x and z are represented by the same character. This may be confusing for humans trying to translate into common.



Grammar
Dwarvish had similar grammatical constructs to common. This was no doubt due to the fact that both languages evolved alongside one another. These shared rules meant that speakers of common would have found it relatively easy to learn and translate Dwarvish.