Low Brecht

Low Brecht is a language of the Brecht. It is less formal than High Brecht, which is more commonly associated with the nobility due to its antiquity and ceremonial usage. Hence, Low Brecht is called such due its association with the lower-classes.

However, it is commonly used as a trading tongue and has become the standard Brecht tongue, so all levels of society in Brechtür tend to be able to converse in Low Brecht. After the spread of international trade through the Brecht League, it is also commonly heard in the cities and ports of other parts of Cerilia.

[hide][top]Linguistic characteristics

None of the canon Birthright publications provide any formal information about the Low Brecht language, but they do state that it is similar to the languages of Germany in its accents and grammar. While no specific language was identified as a base, Middle High German, which was spoken in much of Germany from about 1050 to 1350, is a good language to start with, though Early New High German (1350–1650) is also another possibility as that was when German started to be more standarised (i.e., less distinct dialects) and the printing press was developed.

[hide][top]Writing system

Low Brecht is written using the Brecht alphabet. There have been attempts by scholars to also record it using the Anuirean and Basarji alphabets, but these are rather ad-hoc as there is no standard notation of the phonetic elements that are particular to Low Brecht.

[hide][top]Naming conventions

Many common names for people and places were established before Low Brecht was developed, so relate better to words and pronunciations from High Brecht. However, many new names and nicknames are always being created and these are more likely to follow Low Brecht.