The Warcraft Encyclopedia/Thalassian

This article is a copy of "The Warcraft Encyclopedia," an official article by Blizzard Entertainment. It presented information about a variety of things in the Warcraft universe. The original article, formerly located at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/encyclopedia/index.xml, did not survive the overhaul of the World of Warcraft Official Website. (However, an archived version is hosted here).

Also known as: High Elven (nonstandard)

Thalassian is the primary language of blood elves and high elves. It has both written and spoken equivalents. Individuals who are unfamiliar with the language's proper name may refer to it as High Elven.

Like Nazja, Thalassian is derived from the Darnassian language. Hence, Thalassian is closely related to Darnassian, and there is some overlap between the two languages. Further Darnassian utterances may therefore have been preserved in modern Thalassian, in addition to those that are specified below.

So far, linguistic scholars have opted to err on the side of caution in documenting Darnassian terms and phrases that are also considered part of the Thalassian language. Certainly this issue, however delicate, merits further research. Nevertheless, addressing a high elf or blood elf with a Darnassian-specific word or phrase can be considered offensive or at the very least rather foolish, and so the speaker must handle the situation with care.