Desdichado
Hero
Also a great name for a band...
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What Do The languages Sound Like?
- Thread starter Diamond Cross
- Start date
tuxgeo
Adventurer
Personal preferences:My take on D&D languages:
Common: Whatever your language and accent is.
Draconic: German accent. It's a bit sibillant, and you know, nazis.
Dwarven: The typical scottish accent. If you're scottish it probably doesn't work
Elven: French. I think the stereotype is similar to french people and elves
Giant: hm... there's giant? Well, just speak as loud as you can (you know, 'cause they're big)
Supernal: An angelical choir sounds in the background, anytime you speak
Abyssal: Speak like goth singers. If your throat can handle it.
Deep Speech: Russian?
Goblin: For me they sound like the old ugly witches from children's movies.
Primordial: This one's interesting. I imagine it as several people speaking at once. Or Saruman at the top of his tower invoking that storm on LotR.
Dwarven: Old Norse
Elven: Finnish
Supernal: [angelic choir, as quoted]
Abyssal: Several people speaking at once
Deep Speech: White noise, with the meaning found in the pitch and tonal changes and rhythms
Goblin: Tolkien's Black Speech
Primordial: Mouth music imitating an orchestra -- mostly instruments with variable pitch, such as violins and tympani, bowed handsaw, washtub bass, triangles, gong, but also wooden blocks and tubular bells. (Imitating that verbally should be difficult.)
Wik
First Post
You know, I never really think much about what the languages sound like, except in general terms - dwarvish uses hard consonants and is very multisyllabic (I would say like Sumerian), elvish is designed to be musical with many nuances, halfling is a pidgin of other languages, etc.
Instead, I like to think of the history of the languages, and how they are related to one another - how phrases are adopted by one culture by another, and how names are constructed, etc.
I'm also very interested in how the languages portray thoughts and ideas. I was an anthropology student, and linguistic anthropology is FASCINATING. A lot of people think languages are just a way to communicate, but they are actually a way of viewing the world around you. if your culture does not have a word for something - say, an emotion - it may have a hard time understanding said emotion. But what about verbs, adverbs, and the like. Do they come before the noun, or after? We might say "red chair" but other languages see the object as more important - "Chair red".
A bit more to the point, some languages are vague (Russian - I believe - only has the word "Arm" - "Finger", "Hand", "Wrist" are all covered by the same word in common usage). Others can get remarkably precise (the oft-repeated but untrue "three hundred words for yellow snow"). Knowing these little bits about the language, to me, is much more interesting than what it sounds like (since the PCs will probably just substitute their own preconceptions anyway).
Languages can also reinforce the history of your setting. As an example, from my own campaign:
When the Imperial Tief nobles ruled over the Kaellian Empire, they spoke "high imperial", which was the language of the nobility, and a "lower imperial" which was the language of the lower classes and the "Common Tongue". While the languages were very similar (one could understand the other), the high imperial had elongated nouns which changed depending on the usage of the sentence (ie, like modern-day french). The lower imperial tongue, meanwhile, shortened many of these words, and compounded small words together to widen meanings (as in English).
Meanwhile, the numerous mercenaries in the kingdoms spoke their own languages, and used a pidgen to speak Lower common (which was easier to understand). This meant that there was a so-called "army language", which was lower imperial mixed with various goblin tongues. While all this was going on, the High Imperial language began to borrow from Fiendish lexicons, as the Tief nobles made deals with Devils.
When the Kaellian empire fell, those who were not cursed into Tiefling form fled the onslaught of devils and daemons, to the Shattered Isles (an island chain). Most of the survivors were slaves of various races, and Lower Imperial turned into "Slave Speak" - a mixture of "Lower Imperial" and the foreign languages of slave races.
Now, the common tongue is "Slave Speak", with a few borrowed phrases from dwarven merchants and Eladrin diplomats. The mercenary armies of the various Kaellian hold outs speak an updated form of Army Speak. Tieflings speak High Imperial, that has a very demonic cast to it - but they also know Slavespeak, because it's in common usage.
I generally find, when you start thinking like this, it really helps your campaign take shape in a way that "what does it sound like?" really doesn't.
Instead, I like to think of the history of the languages, and how they are related to one another - how phrases are adopted by one culture by another, and how names are constructed, etc.
I'm also very interested in how the languages portray thoughts and ideas. I was an anthropology student, and linguistic anthropology is FASCINATING. A lot of people think languages are just a way to communicate, but they are actually a way of viewing the world around you. if your culture does not have a word for something - say, an emotion - it may have a hard time understanding said emotion. But what about verbs, adverbs, and the like. Do they come before the noun, or after? We might say "red chair" but other languages see the object as more important - "Chair red".
A bit more to the point, some languages are vague (Russian - I believe - only has the word "Arm" - "Finger", "Hand", "Wrist" are all covered by the same word in common usage). Others can get remarkably precise (the oft-repeated but untrue "three hundred words for yellow snow"). Knowing these little bits about the language, to me, is much more interesting than what it sounds like (since the PCs will probably just substitute their own preconceptions anyway).
Languages can also reinforce the history of your setting. As an example, from my own campaign:
When the Imperial Tief nobles ruled over the Kaellian Empire, they spoke "high imperial", which was the language of the nobility, and a "lower imperial" which was the language of the lower classes and the "Common Tongue". While the languages were very similar (one could understand the other), the high imperial had elongated nouns which changed depending on the usage of the sentence (ie, like modern-day french). The lower imperial tongue, meanwhile, shortened many of these words, and compounded small words together to widen meanings (as in English).
Meanwhile, the numerous mercenaries in the kingdoms spoke their own languages, and used a pidgen to speak Lower common (which was easier to understand). This meant that there was a so-called "army language", which was lower imperial mixed with various goblin tongues. While all this was going on, the High Imperial language began to borrow from Fiendish lexicons, as the Tief nobles made deals with Devils.
When the Kaellian empire fell, those who were not cursed into Tiefling form fled the onslaught of devils and daemons, to the Shattered Isles (an island chain). Most of the survivors were slaves of various races, and Lower Imperial turned into "Slave Speak" - a mixture of "Lower Imperial" and the foreign languages of slave races.
Now, the common tongue is "Slave Speak", with a few borrowed phrases from dwarven merchants and Eladrin diplomats. The mercenary armies of the various Kaellian hold outs speak an updated form of Army Speak. Tieflings speak High Imperial, that has a very demonic cast to it - but they also know Slavespeak, because it's in common usage.
I generally find, when you start thinking like this, it really helps your campaign take shape in a way that "what does it sound like?" really doesn't.
Desdichado
Hero
Totally agree. I've gone a similar direction with languages and linguistics in my campaign. To whit: http://modular-dnd-setting.wikispaces.com/Language
[sblock]Dungeons & Dragons has some assumptions about languages that, frankly, I find somewhat insulting as an amateur linguist. Be that as it may, as a principle of game design, they've probably done pretty well. So, I'm hoping to hit a middle ground; not make an absurdly simply linguistic picture, yet not add tons of needless complexity to the mix either.
The following languages can be found throughout the setting as described in these pages (note; the setting is explicitly much bigger than described in these pages, hence this linguistic picture is merely a snapshot of a geographically constrainted local area.)
Terrasan: This is the official language of the Terrasan Empire (surprising, I know) and as such is widely spoken in all the areas of the map shown on this site. In origin, it is based on the southern shores of the Mezzovian Sea, and it is there that its penetration is most thorough. That said, since no land shown on the map has failed to undergo a fairly severe "Terrasification" culturally, this is a common trade language, at least, if not native language of most people in the area.
Real life similarities: Most place and people names here come from this language. To represent this, I've used mostly Occitan and Catalan names and words, with a few that I draw or manually revise from Romanian, Spanish and various Italian and other Romance languages as well, such as Sardinian, Asturian, Aragonese, Piedmontese, Corsican, Sicilian, etc.
North Terrassan (Balshatoi): The Terrasan Empire was cobbled together over the course of many generations, and from many cultures. The northern rim of the Mezzovian Sea was originally populated by a completely different cultural group. Due to the many years that they have been part of the Empire, their language had largely faded, to be used only by lower classes (particularly, isolated rural populations) and scholars who read the ancient records of the region. As the strength of the Empire has faded in recent decades, however, North Terrassan has undergone a bit of a linguistic renaissance. More and more people of the northern cities: Razina, Iclezza and their surrounding lands, are trying to reclaim the language and bring about its greater prominence. This effort is still nascent; a person who speaks only Terrassan and not North Terrassan will get along fine in these cities, although more and more certain officials, merchants and others will view them as worthy of scorn or even resentment for attempting to "stamp out" their own native culture. Despite the name, North Terrassan is related to Terrassan only by way of geography. Linguistically the languages bear little resemblances that aren't obvious recent borrowings.
Real life similarities: Names in North Terrassan can be picked from Scandinavian and Slavic namelists, particularly Old Norse and Polish or Russian.
Common: Common in this setting is not like Common in a typical D&D setting. Common is a patois or Creole type language formed from Terrassan and various other substrate languages, and it has never achieved anything like a legitimate status. Although a few people write glosses and other short passages in various alphabets, especially Terrassan, this is merely an accomodation; Common actually has no written form at all. Speaking in Common is certainly possible over a wider audience than Terrassan, but it is limited in what it can convey; it lacks the robustness of a naturally occuring language.
Roleplaying note: Realistically, anyone roleplaying in this setting can use Common to get by (although there is no written form of it) without any penalties. For added flavor, anyone trying to conduct any social skill check (Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, etc.) in Common takes a -2 penalty due to the simplistic and sparse nature of speaking in Common.
Kvuustu: Kvuustu (or Cavusto) is a language that originates in the northeast corner of the map, and is most closely associated with the orc population. It's too simplistic to simply say that Kvuustu is the equivalent of the orc language, however; many humans who live in proximity to that area speak Kvuustu as their native language as well. Many scholars believe that this language was once much more widespread over this area, long before the rise of the Terrassan Empire, and that ironically it was humans from the shores of the Mezzovian Sea who first brought an ancient form of this language to the orcs... who now bring it back with their foederati army legions and settlements. Many orcs who are recently arrived in the Empire speak only this language, or at best, Kvuustu and Common. Kvuustu does have an ancient written form, but today few people can use it and most native speakers are illiterate.
Real life similarities: I actually have a word generator program, with custom parameters, that generate my Kvuustu words. It is notorious amongst Terrassans for its difficult consonent clusters and long "doubled" vowels, as well as having fewer phonemes than some other languages. In fact, the more difficult consonent clusters compensate for this lack of phonemes, so that k-, kv-, ksv-, etc. serve as different letters from each other, effectively.
Kurushi: The language of the Kurushat khaganate, this language is commonly known by its association with the hobgoblins, who speak it as a native language. Unlike Kvuustu, this language is quite cultured, and the hobgoblins themselves can claim to have a growing, vibrant, powerful state that is a legitimate rival to Terrasa and other states in the region. In any case, Kurishi has a rich literary history, at the very least, and its use, especially on the southern rim of the Mezzovian, is fairly commonplace.
Real life similarities: If the Terrassan empire is often compared loosely to Rome, then the Kurushi have to be compared loosely to the Sassanian Persians, at least in terms of role in the setting, if not actual linguistic similarity. The fact that the goblins who remain here are isolated from their motherland, and have been for a long time, does not mean that they have forgotten their heritage. Although many serve as foederati for Terrassa, their primary allegiance is to themselves. The names I've created for Kurushat are often Leigh Brackett Martian names that have been modified and malformed to scrape the serial numbers off. In addition, a pseudo-Asian vibe has been applied to some names, although this is too vague and generic to be binned to any specific Asian culture.
Sylvan: This language comes from the woods and wilderness areas on the western borders of the Empire, and is still common amongst the rural mining towns in Caurs Mountains and the woodlands of the southern Bisbal Forest especially along the banks of the Erau River. Because many Imperial citizens only know it from the shifters who live in that region, it is informally called "shifter" or Vucari by many. Another branch of this language exists deep in the Shifting Forest, but since the inhabitants of those lands are extremely xenophobic and don't maintain relationships of any kind (other than "kill on sight") with their neighbors, this dialect has diverged from that spoken in the Caurs region significantly.
Real life similarities: Most Sylvan names are ones that I've grabbed from namelists from Georgian (the country, not the state in the southeastern United States) and Turkish. I might have grabbed a few Abhkhaz names just for fun as well.
Qizmiri: This language came from across the ocean with the jann. The version of Qizmiri today is heavily influenced by a substrate language of the humans who lived there, who spoke a language distantly related to Terrasan. That language is now extinct, and everyone from Qizmir speaks Qizmiri.
Real life similarities: Most names and words from Qizmiri are borrowed and adapted from either Farsi or Arabic, and should have a similar "feel" to those languages.
Tarushan: Tarushan is mostly a substrate language of the northern reaches of the map, distantly related to North Terrasan. It's mostly extinct except as a source of ancient inscriptions, placenames and loanwords. However, it does remain an active and vibrant language in one region: Tarush Noptii. It is speculated that it is the original native language of the Primogenitor vampires. The linguistic conservatism of effectively immortal creatures has ensured that it remains mostly as it was many generations ago, and today Tarushan is one of the most archaic and conservative languages in the region.
Real life similarities: Tarushan names are borrowed from Hungarian.
Infernal: This is the primary language spoken by those from the Realms Outside, although myriad other tongues exist amongst this diverse breed as well. In addition, this is the language of magic, so a smattering of it, at least, is known by any practitioner of the arcane arts. True fluency in this language, on the other hand, is almost impossible for any mortal to achieve. However, in the waning days of Baal Hamazi, it was seen as a sign of distinction to be a native speaker of this language, as much as possible, and many noble families taught it to their sons and daughters before they could learn another more practical language, and spoke it in the home as much as possible. Many of the placenames and personal names in the successor states to Baal Hamazi remain in this language.
Real life similarities: Most of the names are borrowed from the slightly more obscure cultures of the ancient middle east: Elam and the Hurrians, in particular.
Dagonic: This is a bizarre pre-human language, remnants of which float around on isolated and moldy standing stones and other areas. Intriguingly, it appears to have originally been a underwater language. Few people on the surface can even make an attempt to learn it, due to the challenges of speech that an underwater language had to have overcome, and the language itself is only known from very scanty and fragmentary remains, making fluency all but impossible for even the most dedicated scholar.
Roleplaying note: Because of the difficulty in learning this language, it takes three skill points rather than one to do so. Also, for all intents and purposes, it is a written language only, not a spoken language, since there are no speakers that anyone knows of at all, and how to pronounce the language is anyone's guess. [/sblock]
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
...Elven: French. I think the stereotype is similar to french people and elves...
How does one say "We Surrender", in Elvish?
Aeolius
Adventurer
Ixitxachitl - popping one's lips together, to simulate the ray-like maw of a stingray
Kuo-toan - a bubbling language... just start saying Blip-dool-pool-p over and over and have fun with it
Locathah - speaking klingon while gargling
Yes, my players are lucky that my online game is typed in a chat-room, instead of using voice chat.
Kuo-toan - a bubbling language... just start saying Blip-dool-pool-p over and over and have fun with it
Locathah - speaking klingon while gargling
Yes, my players are lucky that my online game is typed in a chat-room, instead of using voice chat.
Pseudonym
Ivan Alias
So they're American tourists?
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Laeli. It's also, not coincidentally, the word for "Hello."
Achan hiArusa
Explorer
Dwarves really ought to sound like Icelanders, as that's as close to Old Norse as you're going to get, but no one ever seems to want to do that. (Of course, there probably aren't many gamers who speak Icelandic who don't live there!) Common, of course, sounds exactly like whatever form of English you happen to use normally.
Funny, a friend of mine was studying Old Icelandic and told me they had about 50 words for different types of axe strokes. So that's incredibly appropriate.
ffanxii4ever
First Post
Quite frankly it is usually the most stereotypical accents for the languages (Scottish for the Dwarves, Stupid for the Orcs, "hiss-y" for Draconic, effeminate for the Elves).
Though I will never live down one (bad) joke I made when a party member was trying to eavesdrop on conversation between my character (a heartless, chaotic dwarf) and the wizard that he was interrogating a prisoner with. Long story short, the two of us were speaking in Dwarven (so the prisoner couldn't understand) and when the DM told the other player that she couldn't understand us, I just went "so all you hear is rock, rock, grumble, grumble, STONE"
So in my group, Dwarven is now reduced to random earth-related nouns. As is every other language. Elven is nature and magic related, Draconic is all about money and treasure, and etc.
Though I will never live down one (bad) joke I made when a party member was trying to eavesdrop on conversation between my character (a heartless, chaotic dwarf) and the wizard that he was interrogating a prisoner with. Long story short, the two of us were speaking in Dwarven (so the prisoner couldn't understand) and when the DM told the other player that she couldn't understand us, I just went "so all you hear is rock, rock, grumble, grumble, STONE"
So in my group, Dwarven is now reduced to random earth-related nouns. As is every other language. Elven is nature and magic related, Draconic is all about money and treasure, and etc.
