The empire's trade tongue — a melodic dialect layered with amber-cant, a secret language of tide-prediction coded into metaphors about 'rising' and 'flickering.'
languagetradesecretculture
Spoken in every port and market, Tidesong borrows from old High Speech but infuses it with the astronomers' jargon — 'the star is high' means the tide approaches, 'glass breaks' warns of danger. The cant is jealously guarded by the Spire, who teach fragments to favored merchants. Common folk speak it without understanding its layers, while nobles hire Tidesong tutors to read between the lines.