Volsic Languages

The mysterious Volsic Languages are an ancient language family of Elondor, connected to the equally mysterious Volsians. A presumed distant cousin of Avalian (see Peopling of Elondor), they were spoken throughout southern Celsond, and ostensibly at least as far east as central Nelkon, in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, but after centuries of conflict with the Marsic, Hyatti, Erenian, and Celdic peoples, only a single Volsic idiom survives, the Erkenmian language (an as of now unrealized project), spoken by the indigenous population of the Erkenmian desert in the northern Reknaya.

History

Only little is known of the Volsic languages other than Erkenmian, and what little has survived the numerous forced assimilations and genocides the Volsian people have been subjected to over the course of their mostly obscure history was without exception preserved by others, not uncommonly their enemies. The first mention of their language appears alongside the first mention of the Volsians in historiographic writing, in the Híneli Hûrind, a 9th century E.B. Aribelian account of the early conquests of the Celsondach. It is presumed to be a translation of earlier Celdic texts and ancient oral traditions, whose contents are usually dated to the mid- to late 8th century B.E.B., and speaks of

Volesi … lídrenya sal páhad démlarnis obin sel arni soy’al Míbar Hûrind, eydú sal anyassa túr perelmend.
‘the Volesians … as they call the people dwelling in the plains beneath the Míbar Hûrind, whose language is unlike those of the old lands.’

The people described thus inhabit the Celdic Steppes and repeatedly beat back the early Celdic settlers trying to gain lands but forced to retreat into their mountain forts. Later, the Celsondach successfully invade the steppes and the unknown language, presumably an ancestor to the later Erkenmian, disappears with its speakers. Even more vague are the mentions scattered all over Marsic and Hyatti writings, which generally speak of a people of the forest dwelling in the cold of Celsond but rarely mention their language, other than a few personal and place names and the fact that they spoke many dialects, some of which were seemingly intelligible (potentially even Erenian).