Shikkri, the language of the Shapeshifters, had remained largely unchanged for untold thousands of years, probably due to the promotion of literacy and a written language in around 50,000 BBY. The use of Shikkri was primarily restricted to Shapeshifters because of the race's isolationist nature, though it became more widespread when the Pureblood Shapeshifters unintentionally moved into the Outer Rim planet of Kowak V. Its use in the known part of the galaxy mostly died out with the eradication of nearly all of the Pureblood Shapeshifters in 3953 BBY. Because this incident drew the Lorsanan Shapeshifters away from the galaxy as a whole for fear the same would happen to them, only a few remaining Purebloods were known to use this language, and then only with each other.