- "Tho Fan", or The Old Tongue, was the native language of one of many kingdoms struggling for supremacy before the Empire was unified by Sagacious Tien, our first Emperor. As the wars raged, constant shifts in territorial leadership spread the use of the Old Tongue. By the time Sagacious Tien formed the Empire, the Old Tongue was so widely spread that it became a second official language of the Jade Empire.
- –The Old Tongue, Volume 1, bookstand at Two Rivers School
Tho Fan, the Old Tongue, is a language spoken in the Jade Empire. Many people spoke it, but it was concentrated in the Prosperous East.
In the game, Tho Fan is spoken by certain people the protagonist encounters, and is translated by them into english subtitles (english, for obvious reasons, plays the role of the primary language of the Empire, while Tho Fan is the "Old Tongue").
Tho Fan is fairly unique amongst fictional languages in electronic games (or was at the time) because it was developed for BioWare by then Ph.D. candidate and linguist Wolf Wikeley specifically for the game. While it contains sounds similar to those found in Chinese and Japanese, it is a wholly independent language with its own grammatical structure and vocabulary.
Notable Speakers of Tho Fan[]
- Chai Jin
- Chai Ka
- Debtor
- Elder Tanner Fong
- Forest Shadow
- Gujin the Weapons Master
- Merchant Cheung
- Merchant Jiang
- Master Radiant
- Old Ming
- Peasant Yijin
- Pretty Li-Li
- Purveyor Shouji
- Song Gan
- Yeung Yifong
- Third Brother Renshan
- Two Rivers Boy
- Younger Tanner Fong
- Player character (Translating)