Old Worlder is the name given by scholars to the original root language spoken by many of the tribes of Men who inhabited the continent of the Old World in ancient times. This common tongue eventually diverged into the highly specific languages spoken by the people of the present-day nations of much of the continent.
The Old World is home to many different Human cultures which speak different forms of the root language called Old Worlder. Despite the large number of differences between these present-day languages, people from different realms of the continent can understand each other at least partially to some extent. The languages spoken on the continent which derive from the original Old Worlder tongue are listed below.[2a]
Notable Old Worlder Languages[]
Notable Non-Human Dialects[]
- Halfling - The Old Worder dialect spoke by the Halflings of the Mootland when dealing with Humans; it is a variant of Reikspiel.[2a][4a]
- Wood Elvish - The Old Worlder dialect spoke by the Wood Elves when speaking to Humans.[2a]
Italics[]
In Old World typography used in printing, italic type is a cursive font originally based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting common to all the present-day languages of the Old World that are derived from Old Worlder.[3a]
Trivia[]
The term "italics" comes from the fact that calligraphy-inspired typefaces were first designed in Italy, to replace documents traditionally written in a handwriting style called "chancery hand." Aldus Manutius and Ludovico Arrighi in the 15th and 16th centuries were the type designers most involved in this process at the time.