The Nyueng Bao language is the mother tongue of the Nyueng Bao De Duang people, an ethnic minority that resides in the great river's delta swamps immediately west of Taglios.
According to their own oral history, the Nyueng Bao De Duang were similar to the Free Companies of Khatovar except they originated from the "Land of Unknown Shadows" (Hsien). Their language changed during the many generations they spent in the homeworld, but those Nyueng Bao like Uncle Doj who entered the Land of Unknown Shadows at the end of Water Sleeps were still able to verbally communicate with the people of Hsien – known as the Children of the Dead. In fact, Murgen would eventually reveal that the words "Nyueng Bao De Duang" originally translated to "Children of the Dead." In modern times the Nyueng Bao themselves interpret the phrase to mean ‘The Chosen Children.’
Since the Nyueng Bao were exposed to the ethnic Gunni majority in Taglios and in the Vinh Gao Ghang Temple of Ghanghesha, the Nyueng Bao language absorbed some vocabulary from the Taglian language (and their religion also switched to the Gunni pantheon).
The language was used by the Nyueng Bao swordsmen that acted as bodyguards of the Black Company's Old Crew to prevent outsiders from understanding what was said during the Siege of Dejagore. Even Murgen, who married Ky Sahra, couldn't understand all of the words when they spoke it quickly.
Vocabulary[]
Examples of Nyueng Bao words and phrases are:
- jengal: the term for foreigner, namely anyone not belonging to the Nyueng Bao race; it carries heavy pejorative connotations
- tooga: the word for "Stranglers" in both the Nyueng Bao and the Taglian language