Chotarian language

The Chotarian language was used by the Chotarian civilisation, first as its primary spoken language, and later as the language of liturgy and written administration. Three main periods of Chotarian are distinguished: Old Chotarian, which was used in the First Empire until the start of the first millennium BCE; Middle Chotarian, in currency in the Second and Third Empires but increasingly displaced in the latter as the spoken language of the elite by Old Lacrean; and Late Chotarian, the common written language of the Fourth Empire. Late Chotarian was then eclipsed in general spoken usage by Old Lacrean, and as a native language Chotarian seems to have died out entirely by the 5th century CE. It remained in use as a liturgical and administrative language until the end of the Chotarian Empire, and, in disparate parts of southern Outer Joriscia, for up to two centuries thereafter. Two writing systems were used for Chotarian: cuneiform, which emerged as a logographic script in the First Empire and was complicated by the development of a parallel syllabary system by the middle of the Second Empire; and the Chotarian alphabet, which was introduced towards the end of the Third Empire by Qundi traders and came into wider usage for the transcription of the Neo-Chotarian vernaculars.

Alphabet

The Chotarian alphabet was introduced in around 200 BCE to transcribe Middle Chotarian, and retained for the increasingly literary Late Chotarian of the Fourth Empire.