Languages/Amalj'aan

See also: Languages and Amalj'aa

Much to the disbelief of many an Eorzean, the Amalj’aa have a highly complex, if not decidedly unique, tongue that belies their brutish outward appearances. While most standard languages call on the speaker to arrange linguistic building blocks into an order that will effectively relay information, Amalj’aan consists mainly of the speaker selecting, from literally thousands of situation-specific four-part metaphoric compounds, and stringing appropriate examples together to paint a coherent, yet wholly abstract, picture of what he wishes to convey. As interpretation of these idiomatic phrases continues to expand, so do the number of situations in which they can be applied, meaning that each one is potentially loaded with connotations that can be emphasized or cancelled out by other phrases used in tandem. One Lalafellin scholar compares the experience of communicating in Amalj’aan to “standing amidst a score of surly septuagenarians slinging about age-old adages sans abandon.”

Though grammar and syntax are quite dissimilar, distinct phonic similarities between the Amalj’aa and Mamool Ja tongues suggest their roots may be similar. The pronounced and decidedly abundant glottal stops prevalent in Amalj’zan (denoted in script with apostrophes), however, are almost nonexistent in the latter.