Khalani

Khalani was the language of the protoss, spoken through telepathy rather than aloud. Other races perceived Khalani being "spoken" only as meaningless sound, though the protoss themselves could translate it telepathically, and its written form was glyph-based. The language carried the names of the central concepts of protoss civilization, including the Khala itself, the "Path of Ascension" from which it took its name, and it was shared, with regional differences, by the Khalai, the Nerazim, and even the Tal'darim.

A telepathic tongue#

Khalani was not a spoken language in the manner of terran speech. The protoss communicated it through telepathy, and a member of another race who somehow heard it being conveyed perceived only meaningless sound. The protoss themselves possessed the ability to translate the language telepathically. In its recorded, written form, Khalani was a glyph-based script rather than an alphabet.

Both the Khalai and the Nerazim spoke Khalani, but the language was not uniform across the kindreds. Some phrases existed only in the vocabulary of one or the other, and certain phrases shared between them carried different meanings depending on the culture of the speaker. The Tal'darim appeared to speak their own variation of the language as well. The protoss would also at times use older, tribal tongues within their psionic communication. When terrans translated Khalani into their own languages, they tended to substitute these older tongues with Latin to preserve a sense of their antiquity.

Words of power#

Khalani gave its names to the deepest concepts of protoss culture. The Khala, the communal psionic bond that united the Khalai, took its name from the Khalani term meaning "Path of Ascension," and the figure of Khas, who first taught the protoss to follow it, bore a name meaning "He Who Brings Order." The Khaydarin crystals central to protoss psionics carried a name translated as "Focuser of the heart," and the Tal'darim bore a name meaning "The Forged." Other terms named places and ideals: Ehlna ("Haven"), Dae'Uhl ("great stewardship"), and Ihan-rii ("Great Teachers"), a name the protoss gave the xel'naga during the Aeon of Strife.

The honorific En Taro, meaning "in honor of," prefaced the names of revered figures, and the blessing Adun Toridas, literally "Adun hide you," was commonly interpreted as "May Adun give you sanctuary." Among the Nerazim, the farewell Korshala Adun, "Until we both meet Adun," was spoken by warriors going into a battle they did not expect to survive.

Speech in war#

Much of the recorded Khalani vocabulary belonged to the language of the warrior. Battle cries and declarations of duty filled the speech of protoss templar: "Khassar de templari," meaning "From order comes justice," and "Sha'zu du templari," "On the wings of justice." Statements of unity such as "Ki nala atum" ("We are as one") and "Uhn ore'ki atum" ("Our minds are as one") expressed the bond of the Khala, while "Uhn dara ma'nakai" ("Our duty is unending") and "Rautha sak ash" ("Duty is my shield") spoke to the protoss devotion to obligation. Many further phrases of acknowledgment and affirmation survived only as conjectured transcriptions whose exact meanings remained uncertain, a reflection of the difficulty other races faced in rendering a language meant to be experienced through the mind rather than the ear.