tutelano

Tutelano is a fictional language and ethnolinguistic concept used in worldbuilding, speculative fiction, and role-playing narratives. It encompasses both the imagined community that speaks the Tutelano language and the linguistic system they employ. The name is commonly linked to tutēla, a Latin-root idea of guardianship or mentorship, which shapes recurring cultural motifs in Tutelano lore.

The Tutelano-speaking communities are placed on a central plateau of the fictional continent of Aurel, in the region called Tutela. In most depictions, speakers number in the tens of thousands, organized into dialect clusters such as Tutelano Proper, Lumen, and Valetan.

Tutelano is described as an agglutinative language with SOV word order. Its phonology centers on five vowels and a set of consonants that includes a glottal stop and aspirated plosives. The script is Latin-based with occasional diacritics. Grammatically, it employs a developed evidential system and an honorific register to reflect social relationships; pronouns mark inclusive and exclusive 'we'.

Core lexicon emphasizes education and mentorship; many terms relate to teaching, guardianship, and learning. Loans from neighboring fictional languages appear in trade terms but core vocabulary remains conservative.

The Tutelano civilization is depicted with a tradition of scholarly guilds and public libraries. The coming-of-age rite known as Tutelage involves apprenticeship to a tutor and the creation of a personal codex.

In contemporary worldbuilding, Tutelano is often presented as undergoing revival, with dictionaries, sample texts, and translated works used for study and storytelling.