Nue Dorfspak (New Dorfish)

"Dörfspak is an old and inflexible language. Rigid construction, precise meanings, and heavily analytical grammar. For the Dörfs it is a ready too, rich in meaning and sophisticated construction. Poems and stories become like Dörfish architecture, marvels built stone upon stone. Like the stone faces of their fortress-homes, Dörfspak is often impregnable to the "himildwerter" or skydwellers as they refer to non-dwarfs and outsiders."

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Of all of the "new" languages Dörfspak inarguably retains the most of it's pre-Covenantal identity. While some elements such as those relating to religion and diplomacy have shifted considerably; most nouns, verbs, grammatic structures, and conventions remain identical to examples found dating back as far as the Late Giantsfell Period. Because of this unique trait Old Dörfish is often used to assist in translating the much more variable runes of Old Mannish and Elvish tongues. It has also retained an enormous amount of constancy across the wide geographic distribution of the Dörfish people. Particularly in its written form. Old Dörfish of both Gesteiner and Eisnblut culture groups remain entirely legible to the other group barring small idiomatic differences. However, in its spoken form, there is a great deal more geographical variation and mutual inteligibility is much lower. Some scholars propose that Niu Dörfish be divided into two separate language classifications Nordörfish and Sutdörfish to reflect this growing variance, however, more conservative scholars and in particular the Covenantal Church has resisted these calls.  

Hoctdorf and Niededorf

  The Dörfish language has a strong distinction between High and Low Dörfish. These languages while mostly mutually intelligible are dramatically distinct. High Dörfish is the language used by the high castes and is the Lingua Franca that unites most dwarfs as well as the language most commonly studied and spoken by non-dwarfs. Whereas Low Dörfish is much more variable and is spoken between lower Caste Dörfs. In general, all Dörfs speak High Dörf, but only some will speak Low Dörf. Low Dörf often faces persecution, especially in the North, and is occassionally prohibited, forbidden out of a belief that it corrupts the purity of High Dörf and in part because it is believed that it is used by lower castes to scheme and plot against the upper castes. Despite this Low Dörfspak is by far the most commonly used and spoken by other races and "skydweller" dwarfs, this is in part because it is often written in the Covenantal Script and so is easier to learn.