Kdaar
Kdaar is the aboriginal language found in the Marlheim and Pendang systems in what is now the Grand Duchy of Marlheim.
History and Roots
Kdaar, when it was first encountered by Caledonian traders after the end of the Long Night, was a linguistic anomaly; while most dialects of Reavers Cant are clearly formed from layers of pirate slang and jargon atop a base of Galanglic, Kdaar was Galanglic-based "cant" over a base of something else. Since Marhleim was, through the 800s, largely a Reaver-run society, academic study was difficult.
But linguists from the Royal University of Caledon, as well as Imperial scholars, had by about 850 formed a theory that traditional Kdaar shared certain linguistic markers with ancient Saie, including a grammatical structure with nothing in common with any current Human linguistic framework, as well as some vocabulary borrowed from humanized Aslan phonology.
Over this, of course, were layered dozens of dialects of Reavers Cant, making the job of determining the proto-dialect (the original version of the language) difficult, above and beyond the herculean task of getting Reavers - outlaws - to make time for academic inquiry into their various phonology, vocabulary, accent and grammar patterns.
Marldaar
In the 900s, with the rise of the paranoid kleptocratic government in the Duchy of Marlheim, the language itself became a tool of government control. The GRYMOV - the pseudo-religious political party that manages most aspects of daily life in the Duchy - adopted an official version of Kdaar, "Marldaar". This is the version taught in Marhleim general schools, and used in most of the military.
Political Objectives
The language taught to Marhleim students is full of imputed meanings intended - according to GRYMOV scholars and curriculum designers - to mold students' thinking to fit government objectives. Signally, Marldaar has no terms to express the ideas of "principled dissent", "individuality" or "opposition". The terms for "dissident", "individualist" and "reformer", to pick three examples, are given deeply pejorative subtext.
There is some controversy among Marhleimologists in the Imperium, the Principality of Caledon and the Confederacy of Duncinae as to how well the strategy of turning the language into a tool of domination is working; some scholars and intelligence operators note that there are occasional glimpses of dissent in the Duchy, while others note that they seem to be getting fewer and farther between.