After the formation of the Decepticon homeland of Polyhex and the migration of over ten million Liegeless into the new state, the Polyhexian government began a program of cultural consolidation, redefining the Liegeless - the remainders of the Valovincians and Persolidons, the Second War Decepticons and the Golden Age Relegons - into one united nation called Decepticon. This act of social engineering was accomplished on more than one plane by the deliberate creation of an entirely new language: Early Decepticon.

The Polyhexian government rejected the available languages of Cybertron, modern and ancient, and chose to create their own new language, starting from Primaltongue and simulating two million years of change, development and cross-language interaction. Although it is often reputed that the Early Decepticon was created by Shockwave and Starscream the truth is that it was formed by a team of linguistic experts, some hired from Nova Cronum. Starscream loaned his expertise in xenolinguistics, contributing vast swathes of comparative data on xenomechanical languages which profoundly influenced the grammatical development of the new language. Shockwave's role was to reduce complexity, editing out irregular structures and ensuring that the language made simple, logical sense.

Early Decepticon was unveiled in KV 908.962, being adopted as the primary language of the city-state within five vorns. Many out-of-state political commentators criticized the language, claiming it was uncouth and hideous and that its grammatical structures were wholly bizarre. It did, however, prove very easy to learn, being carefully constructed to fit with the existing basic rules of semiotic engineering. This led to the spread of Decepticon as a trading language in the Neutral Territories and as a fashionable fad in certain parts of the northern hemisphere.

Early Decepticon's clean, precise structure and carefully arranged sound-patterns were quickly adapted, broken in and made comfortable. Before the surrender of Kalis, Early Decepticon had evolved into Modern Deception. Modern Decepticon has continued to expand, absorbing words from other languages both Cybertronian and xenos and creating new ones of its own, but the fundamental structure has not changed significantly during the five million years of the Great War.

The trisounds of Modern Decepticon are:

• Drones
  • A - a, ma
  • R - ra, ru, re, ri
  • N - nu, n, aun, aun, ni, na
  • X - ix, ex, ox
  • L - lu, la, lau, lua
  • M - This trisound was never included in Early Decepticon.
• Clicks
  • K - ku, kru, kra, kre, kri, ka, kya, ki
  • T - te, to, do, du, do'ut
  • I - This trisound was never included in Early Decepticon.
  • CH - cha, ch, cu, co, cho, cau
• Tones
  • O - This trisound was never included in Early Decepticon.
  • U - yu, ya, vu, va, vau
• Voiced Sounds
  • V - This trisound was never included in Early Decepticon.
  • H - hu, ho, hou, hua, oa
  • OO - oo, oi, goi, ok, ek
  • D - gu, gru, bre, bru
  • B - nbo, bu, ba, mba, mbu, pa, pau
• Hiss
  • S - za, zo, zha, zhu, zhau, zhi, zi, zu, z, zau
• Squeals
  • E - ea, shea, sho, sha
  • AA - saa, sau, sah
  • EE - ip, eep, eeg, eiuk
• Soft Sounds
  • Xz - vla, vlu
  • F - tet, tot, tuut, tu'ut, ut, et, ta, tu
  • Q - qu, qe, qua, qa
  • Jh - jhi, jha, jhau, jhia

The conscious decision of the language development group to excise from Early Decepticon four entire trisounds was one of the most criticized parts of the language. Many felt that the language would be hobbled, that without the richness and variance that came from the full range of trisounds the Decepticon language was fated to become a meaningless slush of repetitive clicks and chirps. This possibility was predicted and planned for by the language development group who carefully included a wide range of forms each remaining trisound could take.

To Autobot or Murion speakers the grammatical structures of Modern Decepticon seem rather sideways-on. The Decepticon word ch'toqu, - which refers to a structure not unlikely an overlarge, heavily armoured French window - literally means "light striper", referring to the effect of the armoured struts on incoming light. The Autobot word for such a door - duvixa'a - literally means "slatted glass door". Many Autobots find the idea of referring to a door by what it does to light to be quite bizarre, and claim that Modern Decepticon is far closer to High Legion than its speakers would ever dare admit. This is refuted by Decepticon linguists who point out that the grammar of Modern Decepticon follows rules markedly at variance with those of the Legion family.