Ancipan

The language of Acadia is laden with allusions to religious events and sayings. Their words are not so different from Jorvian, but a deep and immediate knowledge of their faith is needed to communicate effectively. Ancipan is a deeply emotional language well suited to song.

The people of Acadia have songs and rhythms for every task: baking bread, hauling in the nets, weaving a basket, walking, fighting. The songs are to keep a pace and pattern in the work, and are not often related to the task at hand. However, the words which align with a particular part of the job have come to symbolize it in the language.

Since there's no correlation other than that such-and-such a word is what you're saying when you're doing so-and-so, Ancipan can sound like a string of sing-song gibberish to a non-native, even if they know the individual words. The tone and pairing of words sometimes affects their meaning as well.

Many of these songs are hymns or ballads, layering in more allusion. In this way the Acadians weave worship into their every action.

The songs can be very specific. There are different songs for distinct tasks on every size of boat.

Since not everything one does can be broken into perfect rhythms and may be reactive, some songs are really more collections of stanzas or verses the singer/worker rearranges as appropriate.

Co-operative jobs often have call-and-response or round-style songs.