Old Imperial

The written and spoken language of Tibor Imperia, now considered a dead language. Originally called Imperial Standard. Standardized at the start of the reign of the Biblia dynasty (about 1275 BC), it has an older variant (Early Imperial) that dates back to the beginning of the Third Age.

Script and Alphabet

The (revised) script for Old Imperial is designed for easy learning and is entirely phonetic. Each of the 32 letters has a unique sound (independent of location within a word) designed to represent all "legal" phonemes. Foreign words that use "illegal" phonemes are transformed until all sounds are representable by morphemes consisting of one consonant and one vowel per syllable.

Current Uses

Although no populations use Old Imperial as their native tongue, Old Imperial is still a significant language in written form among the educated and governing classes of the Federated Nations. Much of the scholarship that comes out of the various sage bodies and schools is written in Old Imperial (although more has recently been published in other tongues, including Common) and many of the seminal works of philosophy, magic, and natural studies are only published in Old Imperial. In addition, many of the ruins of pre-cataclysm structures have significant records or writing in Old Imperial.

Language Family

Imperial Standard and Early Imperial are the founding languages of the Imperial language family, which includes languages such as Common.

Real Life Analogue

Latin