"Ankuese" is a catch-all term for any ethnic language spoken by Anku, excluding Neptunian. almost all are put into the Ankuic branch of the Khingan macrofamily; some linguists argue this connection is geographic rather than genetic.

The Ankuic languages are a subgroup of languages spoken primarly by the Anku species of Pluto. All languages/dialects are highly synthetic with large phonotactic inventories. their ancestor, Old Ankuic, is believed to have over 100 consonants.

Common Ankuese is a Northern Ankuic languague¹ and the most common and widely understood dialect, spoken natively by around 50% of the entire Anku population. the combined percentage of L1 and L2 speakers comes to about 75%. it is known for its rich set of consonants, including the Anku-exclusive branchial consonants, sounds made by pushing air through gills. it is highly synthetic and has a long list of evidentials, a few being "ṙukh" (i saw it happen but it was a long time ago), wğu (i've heard this is the case, but i know it not to be true), and jji (i have inferred this from personal experience). it has a shocking 93 consonants. as to why the Ankuic languages have such large phonological inventories is unclear, however it may be due to the Anku's exceptional hearing.
pharyngealization of consonants and vowels is common, particularly next to branchial consonants, however they aren't contrastive with non-pharyngealized sounds.

Common Ankuese has a four-way vowel length distinction: short [a], half-long [aˑ], long [aː], and overlong [aːː]. Rarer lengths include extra short [ă] (mostly dropped), over-overlong [aːːː], hyperlong [aːːːː], over-hyperlong [aːːːːː] and ultralong [aːːːːːː]. The latter four are extraordinarily rare, with an ultralong vowel existing in only one word, Wa̋-a̋-a̋ [wəːːːːːː], the name of the sixth of the Six Gods in traditional Anku animistic beliefs. their name is meant to be pronounced as long as six syllables. (More narrowly transcribed: [ɰəːːːːːː˥˥˧˥˥˩].) occasionally, specific religious words will be extended to ultralong, though this is uncommon and mostly appears in conservative pronunciation of ancient texts.

less common but still widely recognized is Natlel Ankuese, spoken in the Plutonian capital Natlel. it has had a very noticeable amount of influence from Neptunian. Neptunian has a very high number of bilabial sounds (since the dominant species on Neptune, ngMoww.wuf [ŋʘɒɔuʬ˥˥˩˩˧.wɨÿf˩˨˩], does not have tongues), including a phonemic bilabial percussive, [ʬ], also known as a lip smack; Natlel Ankuese has gained some unusual phonemes from this: it differentiates between the voiceless and voiced bilabial trill, [ʙ̥] and [ʙ], and also has the voiced labiodental flap [ⱱ] and voiceless and voiced bilabial fricatives [ɸ] and [β]. it only has around 60 consonants, which is still a large amount, but significantly less than Common.

Natlel Ankuese has a noticeable lack of branchial consonants. Since Anku conversing in a way Neptunians cannot understand is seen as a hazard, Anku in Natlel are required to wear neckpieces restricting their gills to prevent them from using Gillspeech, a language "spoken" by air pushed exclusively through the gills. this inhumane practice is disallowed in every non-Neptunian area.

an Anku language whose place in the Khingan macrofamily has been subjected to numerous heated debates is Tenzing Montes Ankuese. spoken in the Tenzing Montes mountain range, it is "absurdly" tonal, with anywhere between 8 and 24 tones with up to six pitch registers, depending on where in the range it is spoken. there is almost zero mutual intelligibility between TM-Ankuese and any other dialect. the history of the language is further obscured by the fact it was historically unwritten. a common name for it is Mountain Ankuese, East, to differentiate it from Mountain Ankuese, West, also known as Hillary Montes Ankuese, which is much closer (albeit still quite distant) to Common and Natlel.

Hillary Montes Ankuese is an Eastern Ankuic language. unlike Common Ankuese, it has contrastive pharyngealization.