Language in the Oceanykan Federation
  1. Notes

Language in the Oceanykan Federation

Social Context 🤝🏽


Language is the system of communication between people. Diverse as it is, multiple languages from wildly different cultures and families exist within The Oceanykan Federation. This article serves as a general overview of the most relevant languages in Oceanyka and what they might be useful for. Xenophobic as they are, most Oceanykans are more comfortable speaking in their mother tongue, even if they're fluent in a more "common" language. Additionally, while foreign languages are often only employed by a small minority of Australians (with the exception of the English language, which all British Australians and most of the continent know), they are extremely useful for dealing with the outside world. In Roleplay Mode, at least one party member with high CHA should seriously consider learning Russian, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese, Vietnamese, Malay, or any other language that could provide a serious strategic advantage.


Languages are divided into Families and Branches. Learning a language in the same branch as one that is already known is significantly easier than taking on a whole different branch. Refer to the Languages General Skill.



Aboriginal Languages

These are the languages of the Aboriginals, the people who settled Oceanyka approximately 51,000 years before our time. Most Aboriginal written and spoken language is, to some degree, intelligible, owing to millennia of standardisation. Much of this is thanks to the Order of the Rainbow, an ancient religious organisation of the Dreamtime faith.


Pama-Nyungan Family

Late Aboriginal Languages

  • Noongar
    • Also known as Nyungar or Standard Aboriginal, this language was once native to the western city of Edelia, but thanks to the efforts of the Order of the Rainbow, it became a continent-wide liturgical language and, by no mere coincidence, a "lingua franca".
  • Wudjari
    • Also known as Western Aboriginal, a language spoken in the western Oceanykan city of Bomnan and its surrounding regions. It is typically associated with both stuffy nobles and rural peasants.
  • Tiwi
    • Also known as Northern Aboriginal, a language spoken by the Aboriginals of northern Oceanyka, especially those in the Farenday Pirate Syndicate and its immediate sphere of influence. It is filled with profanity, Cantonese and Malay loanwords and double entendre, owing to its cultural background as the tongue of seamen and pirates.
  • Nyangumarta
    • Also known as Indo-Pacific Aboriginal, a language spoken by the Aboriginals of the northwestern coast of Oceanyka. Being borne from the pioneers who settled this harsh region following the Ferozen Invasion, it is considered particularly aggressive sounding.
  • Zakan-Til (lit. "Home Tongue")
    • Also known as Zerman Language, this is the language of the Zermans, and by extension, of the Zermanic Republic. It was said that, while enslaved by the Dow, some Aboriginals taught the Zermans their tongue so that they could communicate without their masters knowing. Regardless of myth, it is decidedly related to Aboriginal language in many ways.


Early Aboriginal Languages

  • Wati
    • Also known as Nomadic Aboriginal, a language spoken deep within the Outback by its inhabitants, the western Nomads. Wati is considered by linguists to be one of the oldest of the surviving Pama-Nyungan languages. It is melodic and soft-spoken.
  • Paman
    • Also known as Ancient Aboriginal, a language spoken by the Aboriginal peoples of northeastern Oceanyka, especially around the Cape York peninsula. It is the most closely related language to that of the continent's first settlers, and many of the oldest Tingari Cycle Songlines and Songsites can be understood by its native speakers. To other Aboriginal speakers, it is regarded as rural sounding and exotic.
  • Bidjara
    • Also known as Imperial Aboriginal, a language spoken far to the east, in what is currently the Ferozen heartland of the Murray-Darling Basin. It was once the language of the Second Ankeric Empire, destroyed by the Ferozen Invasion. Many of their ruins can be read by Bidjara speakers. However, because it has adopted many Ferozen loanwords, it has taken on a reputation as an aggressive sounding language.
  • Panyjima
    • Also known as Fey Aboriginal, a language spoken by the Forestfolk, the enigmatic and seclusive Aboriginal inhabitants of the Warren Greatforest. Despite being technically intelligible by other Pama-Nyungan speakers, those non-fluent in Panyjima might mistakenly believe these people are only physically capable of speaking in riddles.
  • Agni Khazad (lit. "Tongue of the Masters")
    • Also known as Dow Language, this tongue has been dead for nearly two thousand years, but thousands of ruins still bear its inscriptions across the Great Dividing Range. Its linguistic reconstruction is largely thanks to the Montagnards, who have incorporated much of it to their own post-Occitan language, Montagnard.




Ferozen Languages

These are the languages of the Ferozen, the mysterious descendants of a Homo Erectus migration hundreds of thousands of years before Homo Sapiens touched Oceanyka, yet inexplicably wiped out and trapped within Tasmania until their return to the mainland during the Ferozen Invasion. 


Pan-Tasmanic Family

Old Tasmanic Languages

  • Kurglasheprii (lit. "Tongue of the Rivers")
    • Also known as Riverine Ferozen, this language is the most widely spoken of the Ferozen tongues, thanks to Morlon of Toffia who standardised his court's education, administration and military on this language, as well as it being the one in which he wrote both "Holy Reflections" and "Worldly Reflections". Most other Ferozen languages branched out from Kurglasheprii.
  • Kurglagare (lit. "Tongue of the Volcanoes")
    • Also known as Tasmanian Ferozen, this is the original language of the Ferozen peoples, and has suffered relatively little change over thousands of years. For other Ferozen speakers, it is considered a very hick language and usually unintelligible, even for Riverine Ferozen speakers. It is of particular interests to linguists as it is the only existing Homo Erectus language ever discovered.
  • Gruhabhasha (lit. "Home Tongue")
    • Also known as Yaramayan or, pejoratively, Goblinspeak, this is the tongue of the small-framed Yaramayan peoples, native to the edges of the Tasmanian Highlands. Despite co-inhabiting Tasmania for hundreds of thousands of years, the Ferozen and the Yaramayans don't harbour any love for each other, and Gruhabhasha is entirely unintelligible to a Ferozen speaker, by design. 



Continental Languages

  • Kurglishari (lit. "Tongue of the Ocean")
    • Also known as Coastal Ferozen, a language spoken across the southeastern coast of Oceanyka. Since the colonial period, this language has absorbed a variety of English and German loanwords, helping cement its perceived tone as aggressive, an impressive achievement even amongst the Ferozen languages.
  • Kurglagaki (lit. "Tongue of the Mountains")
    • Also known as Range Ferozen, a language spoken across the length and width of the Great Dividing Range. It is perceived as sounding relatively mellow and soft-spoken, amongst the Ferozen that is.
  • Kurglarztoki (lit. "Tongue of the Bogs")
    • Also known as Wetland Ferozen, a language spoken in the swamps and wetlands of the northern Murray-Darling Basin and Carpentaria. Borderline unintelligible to other Ferozen, and its speakers are usually the butt of incest jokes.
  • Korgazmelikira (lit. "Tongue of the Pirates")
    • Also known as Pirate Ferozen, a language spoken in the northernmost reaches of Oceanyka. It is essentially a creole language composed mostly of an old Riverine Ferozen dialect, with heavy influence from Tiwi, English, Cantonese, Portuguese, Japanese and German, mostly by borrowing insults and pejoratives. Technically, it is intelligible, if one is familiar with all of those languages.
  • Aspedkurgel (lit. "Tongue of the Desert")
    • Also known as Nomadic Ferozen, a language spoken by the Ferozen Nomads who integrated into the Outback's pre-existing desert-dwellers after the Ferozen Invasion. As such, it is heavily influenced by the Aboriginal languages, particularly Wati.




Foreign & Australian Languages

These languages did not originate in Oceanyka, they are largely a result of the British Colonisation of Oceanyka and the subsequent waves of mass migration from across the world. Australians, a general term for immigrants of immigrant-descended populations, speak these languages, as does every other country in the world. It would be wise to learn at least a few of these to conduct international business.


Indo-European Family

Germanic Languages

  • English
    • The mother tongue of most Australians, who are in reality, British Australians. It is the "lingua franca" of the continent, and most people with a basic education know at least a speck of it. Being the national language of The United States of America, it is currently Earth's most diplomatically important language.


Romance Languages

  • Walloon
    • The language of Belgium, a constituent nation of The Union of Benelux. Spoken by many Belgian Australians.
  • Montagnard
    • Also known as "Lenga de Montanha", it is a creole language of Occitan origin, mixed with the reconstructed language of the Dow. Spoken by most Montagnards.
  • Spanish
    • The language of The Spanish State and its former Latin American colonies, including The United Mexican States. Spoken by many Spanish Australians, Mexican Australians, Colombian Australians, Cuban Australians, and a dozen other Latin American ethnicities.
  • Catalan
    • The language of Catalonia, a large region within The Spanish State. Spoken by many Catalonian Australians.
  • Galician
    • The language of Galicia, a large region within The Spanish State. Spoken by many Galician Australians.


Celtic Languages

  • Breton
    • The traditional language of Britanny, a large region within The Republic of France. Spoken by many Breton Australians.


Balto-Slavic Languages

  • Slovakian
  • Slovene


Greek Languages


Armenian Languages


Albanoid Languages


Iranian Languages


Nuristani Languages


Indo-Aryan Languages



Uralic Family

Finno-Ugric Languages

  • Hungarian



Kartvelian Family

Kartvelian Languages



Sino-Tibetan Family

Sinitic Languages

  • Mandarin Chinese
    • The language of government in both The People's Republic of China and The Republic of China. Spoken by many Chinese Australians. Thanks to the meteoric rise of the PRC in the world stage, it is increasingly gaining importance as a diplomatic language, especially in Asia.
  • Cantonese
    • The language of Guangdong, a large region within The People's Republic of China. Historically the dominant language of Chinese immigrants to Oceanyka, spoken by many Cantonese Australians.
  • Wu
    • The language of Shanghai and the wider Yangtze River Delta, a large region within The People's Republic of China. Spoken by many Shanghainese Australians.
  • Hokkien
    • A Min Nan language spoken across coastal Fujian within The People's Republic of China and widely through the Nusantara. Spoken by many Hokkien Australians and a common tongue among Southeast Asia.


Tibeto-Burman Languages



Japonic Family

Japonic Languages



Koreanic Family

Koreanic Languages



Mongolic Family

Mongolic Languages



Turkic Family

Oghuz Languages


Kipchak Languages


Karluk Languages

  • Uyghur
    • The language of Xinjiang, a large region within The Republic of China. Spoken by many Uyghur Australians.



Dravidian Family

South Dravidian Languages



Austronesian Family

Malayo-Polynesian Languages

  • Javanese
    • The language of Java, the most populous island of the Nusantara, and seat of power of The Republic of Indonesia. Much like Malay, this language is deeply intertwined with the culture of northern Oceanyka. Spoken by many Javanese Australians.
  • Tagalog



Tai-Kadai Family

Kra-Dai Languages



Austroasiatic Family

Mon-Khmer Languages



Afroasiatic Family

Semitic Languages

  • Amharic
    • The language of The Ethiopian Empire. Spoken by many Ethiopian Australians.


Chadic Languages



Niger-Congo Family

Bantu Languages

  • Swahili
    • The primary "lingua franca" of East Africa. Spoken by many East African Australians.


Volta-Niger Languages



Isolated Languages

  • Basque
    • The language of the Basque Country, a large region within The Spanish State. Spoken by many Basque Australians.
  • R'lyehian
    • The language of the R'lyeh, a diaspora of purple-eyed peoples inhabiting The Republic of Indonesia. Strangely enough, the moai of Easter Island, thousands of kilometres away, bears inscriptions in R'lyehian, as do many strange stoneworks within Oceanyka itself. The language may be more important than it seems at first glance.