Tartlan

Tartlan is a fictional language and cultural system created for speculative fiction and tabletop role-playing. In most settings, Tartlan is spoken by the Tartlan, a hypothetical ethnic group described as living in river valleys and highland plateaus. The term also appears as a broader label for associated rituals, myths, and social practices that define Tartlan-speaking communities across different works.

Origins and development. Tartlan originated as a constructed language concept in early game design and was later expanded through collaborative fan-created materials. Its grammar and lexicon are deliberately designed to convey social relationships, hierarchy, and ritual status, rather than to imitate any natural language. Because Tartlan is fictional, there are multiple mutually compatible variants rather than a single canonical form.

Language features. Tartlan is commonly described as an agglutinative, subject–object–verb language with rich nominal case marking through postpositions and suffixes. It employs vowel harmony and a modest consonant inventory including stops, fricatives, and a glottal stop. Pronouns distinguish inclusive and exclusive first person, and evidential markers indicate source of information. Word order is flexible but typically follows SOV in neutral clauses.

Writing and media. A Tartlan writing system exists in several versions; most depictions use a syllabary of around 40–60 signs that can be written left to right or in ceremonial inscriptions carved on wood or stone. Tartlan appears in dictionaries, grammar sketches, and game sourcebooks, along with novels and fan-made translations.

Cultural context. In-fiction, Tartlan expresses values of clan solidarity, reverence for land, and ritual practice. In fan communities, enthusiasts study its phonology, compile dictionaries, and create learning resources, sometimes while participating in games or collaborative fiction that features Tartlan-speaking characters.