Seonian language

Seonian is the language of the people of the Seonian Kingdom during the Second Age. From the Third Age on, it became a common language throughout Perama Eria.

After the people of Seonamun were forced to leave their kingdom, they spread throughout Perama Eria at the beginning of the Third Age. Those that survived the mass exile were typically priests, merchants, and other educated individuals, and they brought with them their language, customs, and culture. Because of their reception as learned people--many lands outside Seonastera had no written language--theirs was seen as the language of the educated. As such, the language survived even as the Seonian diaspora largely disappeared or integrated into various societies. The Seonian language, both written and spoken, went on to become a sort of common language for scholars, couriers, diplomats, and the like, through the later Third Age and beyond.

Many words and names for people, places, and things in the world are derived from Seonian. For instance, Perama Eria means "landmass post-flood," Denoadus means "blue world," and so on.

Characteristics
All but one of the letters are analogs of letters in English, and non-English phonetic sounds are seldom used.

The character sheth (the letter which looks like a backwards lowercase "ç") is unique, in that it is more like a diacritic than a letter unto itself. It is used in ligatures, in conjunction with other letters to make consonant sounds like "th", "ch", "sh", and so on. (Similar to how the letter "h" sometimes functions in English.) Sheth is also attached to zi (the "z" letter that looks like a funky N) to form the soft "z" sound, as in "azure" or at the end of "garage" (American English pronounciation).