Englisc? Dost þú bespricest hit?

[gridlore]

This video exemplifies one of my arguments against "common tongues" in RPGs. There are so many ways for languages to mutate and evolve. Regional dialects, ethnic patois, loan words and the like will mean that crossing every river brings the chance of having to deal with the locals being nearly unintelligible.

Imagine a human settlement near a forest held by several elf tribes. The humans may well speak the dominant local human language but after decades of contact with the elves, there will be changes in pronunciation, adopted words (I'd imagine the humans would have started using elvish words for natural things like tree or river,) and yes, vowel shifts.

It gets worse in SF RPGs. Traveller's Galanagic might be the official language of the Third Imperium, but outside the Imperial armed forces, noble councils, and the starport authority, the only people who are going to be using it are those who regularly deal with the above entities. Sure, they'll speak Galangic at the starport, and most of the places in Startown, but beyond that? There are about 4,500 languages in regular use on this planet, with another 2,000 or so still in existence but having fewer than a thousand speakers. Oh, add in about a hundred different written forms, and you begin to see the problem.

My solution is to ease up on the known languages rule. It wasn't uncommon for our ancestors to learn several tongues out of necessity, even if they couldn't read or write some of them. And kill common. Unless it's a language used by rulers or by the church (Latin fits both cases,) or a trade patois useful for conveying simple information but no real detail.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[marycatelli]

My worlds always have only one language.

It's magic.

[feyandstrange]

I've always liked the idea of language families. So like, you speak your own local tongue, you can guess at anything related or from nearby at half your skill rate, or a -2 or something.

I'm also fond of a lingua franca or a Latin equivalent, where The Edumacated may all speak it (with varying degrees of local accent) or can read it but not speak it. Bog-standard adventurer won't know that stuff, but folks who can read (wizards, some bards, some clerics) can.

[isomeme]

I'm glad you're a History Guy fan. His videos are always both fun and informative.

On language diversity, I agree with you entirely for fantasy settings. In SF, it's a bit different. Over the last century on Earth, language diversity has plummeted thanks to recorded and broadcast media coupled with increased trade and other contact between regions. I imagine this will remain the pattern wherever you have that combination. If (to take your Traveller example) everyone is watching holo series produced on Capital, all the military personnel mustering out across the Imperium have spent their time in service speaking Capital's version of Galanglic, and speaking Capital-ese increases your ability to trade with locals across the Imperium, that will tend to exert pressure on nearly all worlds to sound like Capital, or at least keep their dialect mutually intelligible with that standard. The only exceptions would be worlds that actively limit outside contact.