The common tongue of the Aeskhonae is not, as many mistakenly assume, the native speech of their home continent. Rather, as communication between peoples was held as a divine aim in their great work, they created a language, both to unify their own diverse tutve and to allow all Mortality to speak freely.

This tongue, crafted for clarity and ease of learning, was the first gift the Aeskhonae brought to Mortality in the era of Contact. Among all scholars, the arrival of common speech is regarded as the event that elevates a land from antesermal times to the enlightened ages.

As to the question of the languages of the Aeskhonae themselves, not only do they not natively speak the language that bears their name, but in fact at least two entire families of distinct Old Aeskhonae tongues exist on their home continent.

Though crafted as a pure tongue, common to all Mortality and native to none, Aeskhonan is rarely pure in practice. It is all Janspar’s tongue for commerce, diplomacy, and scholarship, but most will speak it adulterated by the languages of their own native lands. In the Age of Withdrawal, then more lately and most grievously after the Sin of Amuhlin, Aeskhonan dialects around Janspar became more diverse and isolated, and some became mutually incomprehensible.

An extract from Darion’s incomplete A History of Janspar, Volume the First.