> Question: is Tradetalk limited to Orlanthi cultures (who worship
> Issaries)?
Tradetalk is widespread, though it originated in the pe-Dawn Theyalan culture. It spread with the early Lightbringers, whose merchants also ventured father than their culture ever attained.
> Or is a mutually intelligible magic language also found
I am not sure that Tradetalk is inherently more magical than any other language.
> elsewhere? (Even if it's not called 'Tradetalk', and is attributed to
> the local divine being of Communication rather than to Issaries).
It is certainly possible that a western creole exists (pidgins don't actually last too long), developed under the aegis of a Saint--no doubt a manifestation/worshipper of primeval Kachast.
> Assuming Tradetalk was either invented by or spread by the God
> Learners,
That is an incorect assumption. Issaries and his kin invented it.
> then it was either their version of a diplomatic language
> (in the second case), or their version of a pidgin dialect used to
> talk to Orlanthi savages (in the first).
>
> If Tradetalk is just a pidgin,
It is not. First of all, it's more like a creole, but one that is shaped for the particular purpose of trade and hence used by merchants rather than for other purposes. It is of couse quite possible that forms of it were developed for other purposes.
> then I assume that the Seshnegi dialect
> spoken in Jrustela would be the standard diplomatic language
> everywhere except Maniria, Prax and the Pelorian basin, although in
> the Third Age it may have fallen out of use in the East and South...
Rather than "would be" I'd suggest "would have been."
I don't believe that there is an international diplomatic language in Glorantha.
Issaries, Inc.
c/o Greg Stafford
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