Sendings

The Languages of Abode
by Howard Yune ("Kir")

ICEHOLTISH
(the Gotara Worshipers, the early Hoan G’Tay Sho, Bailon’s band)
Dialects known:
• East (the Gotara Worshipers – Original Quest and Siege at Blue Mountain)
• West (Hoan G’Tay Sho – Original Quest and Siege at Blue Mountain)
• South (Bailon’s band – New Blood and the “Windkin” story from Second Elfquest 4. This is a form of “late Iceholtish” as spoken 10,000 years after the time of the Original Quest; see below.)

The High Ones first made landfall on the continent of Iceholt – on the site where Wayfair was later founded – and all Elfquest stories up to Kings of the Broken Wheel 4 (in which Rayek uses the Palace to transport the Wolfriders across the ocean to Junsland) take place in this part of the world. From their earliest contacts with humans, the elves have heard their five-fingered neighbors speaking the Iceholtish tongue. This indigenous human speech first appears (in the story chronology, that is) in the two-part story “Swift-Spear”, from Blood of Ten Chiefs 3-4; in this tale the Wolfriders, then under the rule of Two-Spear, live near a human village controlled by the headman Kerthan.

Elves evidently find the language very grating to the ear (e.g. Skywise to Ehok, in Hidden Years 5: “Yes, I know your growling tongue!”); and the numerous examples shown in the stories suggests a certain lack of subtlety and variety in the Iceholtish speech, especially compared to the precision and clarity of spoken Junnish in the later stories.

It should also be remembered that, as early as the time of Siege, the eastern (the Shaman of Gotara, Aro) and western (Nonna, Adar, Olbar) dialects were already diverging; when Kohahn-Chief encountered another human, each had to sign with his hands to overcome the other’s unfamiliar pronunciation. By the time of New Blood the language evolved further, so that even the name of the god “Gotara” had morphed into “Gothar” or “Gotar”.

If Iceholtish-speakers were to encounter elfin-speakers in the course of the Final Quest - and if elfin-speaking humans were to become the founders of Wayfair - I think that Iceholtish would then fall into disuse, because of its lesser utility. Of the Abodean languages, this is the one least likely to have been reduced to writing; by Jink’s time it may be the province only of philologists.

A final word concerning the human influence on the elfin language

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