| abstract | - Mendian (natively Mæ̂nda) is the language of the dragon-herding peoples in the mid-western lowlands. It is a Dentheric language, of the western branch. Beyond the native speakers, the Ø̂nnak peoples, it is also used as the lingua franca of the mid-western and western lowlands, as well as a trade language deeper into the mainland. It has a rich literary tradition and a long history of literacy. Mendian was the administrative lingua franca of the entire Dragon Imperium during the Fifth Imperium, and as such it has influenced many of the herder languages spoken in it, and has acquired a thick stratum of loanwords from various imperial languages. Mendian is a prototypical example of a Lowlander Sprachbund language, being starchly verb-initial and possessing a productive pitch-accent system.
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