As it stands now, there are three language families on the Llof: The Rykaic family, consisting of (Capital) Ryka, Balconian Ric, and whatever dialects I have played around with (Black Ryka, White Ryka, etc.), all descendants of Old Ryka, the code language invented by the Asiuluiam to free themselves from Dakiuzen rule. Then the Konoic family, consisting of Asiul, Nyirvón and Siidde (or Underground Nyirvón), descendants of the auxiliary language Kono developed by the Yelluam to replace Ryka. Finally: The language isolate Quriil, only spoken by an ex-military sect in the underground of the Cloud Palace, a verbalization of the old logographic Rasvrisu script that was only written originally.

Quriil’s isolation has allowed me to play around with some more exotic phonological features not found in the languages of the two larger families, although the language is not much more than a draft, a collection of ideas at this moment. But I really like what I have come up with so far. Still, it bugs me that this is yet another language invented out of the blue, and it seems rather unrealistic to have so many people in my conworld inventing languages that actually survive and are spoken for hundreds of years.

So this morning I suddenly thought: What if Quriil was related to Ryka?

A short history of Ryka and Quriil

The original Rasvrisuam only spoke TONGUE and didn’t have a symbolic language. When their society grew more advanced though, they developed the need to record things, so they designed a script to write things down. As there was no spoken language associated with this script, it was logographic. After they were forced to leave the Llof because of the Sunfall, the knowledge of this script was lost everywhere except in the Ocean Dimension where it is still used today.

When the Asiuluiam and Dakiuzuiam, now separate, returned, the Dakiuzuiam more or less held the Asiuluiam as slaves. In order to communicate freely, the Asiuluiam invented a code very different from the TONGUE: The actual meaning of what they were saying was encoded in the sounds they made and could not be HEARD. On TONGUE level, they could say something completely unsuspicious, while in their code, they were organizing a rebellion. This is how Ryka, the first spoken symbolic language on the Llof, was born. It later gained a syllabic writing system, inspired by the old Rasvrisu inscriptions found in the caves on the Asiulvesacam, but highlighting the importance of pronunciation by its phonetic orthography.

Quriil was also developed as a code for secure communication, but much later, and by a Dakiuzen general called Tenyávi. He was the paranoid leader of special forces operating separately from the regular Dakiuzen army. After the group was no longer needed, he settled down in the underground of the Cloud Palace with his soldiers and founded the Utilitarian sect “Tenyávi’s Children”, whose members only speak Quriil among themselves. The language itself was a vocalization of the formerly mute Rasvrisu script, which means that its grammar is derived from the script’s grammar or at least from what grasp Tenyávi had of it at the time of Quriil’s creation. The phonology of the language featured a lot of unusual sounds and was very different from Nyirvón.

The issues with Quriil

Now there are several things that are not very plausible about Quriil. Why would someone base a code language meant to be unintelligible to outsiders on a historic script thoroughly studied by many scholars, in particular from the enemy side (the Asiuluiams), where all the original recordings of said script reside? Especially considering that the script was still in use in the Ocean Dimension almost exclusively populated by Asiuluiam! It would be rather naive to assume that nobody was going to note the similarities between Quriil’s grammar and that of the Rasvrisu script. Also, why make it overly difficult to use by native Nyirvón speakers by giving it a super-strange phonology? How did someone like Tenyávi even come up with weird stuff like the three vowel lengths, the complex vowel assimilation to surrounding consonants and the uvular or retroflex consonants not used in any of the existing languages? As a soldier, he most likely didn’t have a sophisticated linguistic education.

What if Tenyávi did not invent Quriil, but it was his native language? What if… the Asiuluiam had actually based Ryka on the Rasvrisu script and Quriil is a descendant of Old Ryka?

How things could have gone differently

Exploring the Asiulvesacam, the old Dakiuzuiam discover the Rasvrisu caves and ruins and, inside them, their inscriptions. They study them, trying to grasp what these strange pictures might mean, and they bring their Asiulen slaves with them for assistance. Some smart Asiuluiam decode the script and grasp its potential: Transferred to spoken form, they could use this ancient language to communicate without the Dakiuzuiam overhearing. So they verbalize the Rasvrisu script into Ryka and manage to drive off their oppressors.

Now we need a handful of Dakiuzuiam to learn the language. I see several options here:

1. The Asiuluiam now in turn hold some Dakiuzuiam hostage for a longer time and they learn Ryka. Set free later or having escaped, they continue to use it within their community and it evolves into Quriil. Maybe they settle down outside the Cloud Palace and stay among themselves or they remain outcasts as the Dakiuzuiam fear they are spies.
2. There is a period of peace between the two peoples during which they trade. Some Dakiuzuiam learn the Asiuluiam’s language to communicate with them. As the conflict reemerges, they are shunned by their fellow Dakiuzuiam due to their former proximity to the Asiuluiam and stay among themselves.
3. Some Dakiuzen scholars or military experts study the Asiuluiam’s communication and learn Ryka. They continue teaching it to their special forces to give them an advantage against the Asiuluiam. Although this makes it implausible that their Ryka evolves into a separate language, and also, they would likely discontinue the teaching once the Asiuluiam drop Ryka in favor of Asiul.

I think the first two options are most plausible. Which of the two could become canon depends on whether we assume a period of peace and trade or not. Either way, this would mean that there is a small, isolated Dakiuzen population of native Quriil speakers. Some of them will inevitably venture into the Cloud Palace and one of them could join the military, becoming our general Tenyávi (or whatever he would be called in Quriil). He might then not use Quriil as a code language for his military operations, but he might be a crazy charismatic leader founding a sect in the underground after the war and teach his native language to his followers there.

Why I like this idea

I feel like this solves or at least eases several issues I have with the evolution of my languages.

First of all, it makes the existence of Quriil in all its strange glory much more plausible and comprehensible. On top, it would give me an additional society to play around with, namely Tenyávi’s original community. If they kept so isolated that they developed Quriil into such a distinct language, they surely also have some unique customs and beliefs.

Then this also opens new possibilities for Ryka: I have long been struggling with Old Ryka. I invented Modern/Capital Ryka before even thinking about giving it relatives and a linguistic history and now I have to reverse-engineer its ancestor. My previous attempts at this were usually based on the old Ryka script that already functioned like the current one, only with less polished glyphs. This pretty much restricted me to use Modern Ryka’s phonology or something very similar to it, which usually led to Old Ryka being almost identical to Modern Ryka apart from the grammar where I had more freedom to vary things. This was pretty frustrating, but I have so much pride in the Ryka script that I didn’t feel like I could alter it for Old Ryka.

Now if we assume that Very Old Ryka was written with the Rasvrisu script and that the Ryka script is a simplification of this, anything is possible again when it comes to phonology and morphology. The Ryka script very likely was only invented after Ryka’s phonology was restricted by consonant assimilation and the regularity of the five consonant bases and their three modes. There should also be plenty of time for it to develop these quirks, as Quriil needs to split off beforehand. Ryka and Quriil would then be two very different languages, their genealogical relationship only visible under careful examination, similar to how Finnish and Hungarian seem very distinct at first sight (or even more so).

Finally, it just feels good to have Quriil placed within a proper language family instead of introducing it as an isolate. Makes it seem less alien and more like a proper part of my conworld.