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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 2031900" data-attributes="member: 87">The purposes of the languages throughout the Dusk setting isn't so much to present them in any finished form but to highlight the inter and intra racial changes of the setting.  Way too many settings forget that language is an ever evolving thing, particularly when writing is largely absent.  I'm not so much interested as in what words are in use but how each language has arrived to be in use and why.In play I use this by making players keenly aware that pronounciations change with area.  I allow players to make untrained knowledge checks to note when they might have encountered an odd pronounciation of a word.For instance, Dalze - capital of Dalsundria.  People born in and around the city pronounce it "Dolls"  Those to the north say it as "Dollz"  To the west it's Dollzuh, and Duhlzee, Dahulzee, Dahlsee and so on aren't unknown.How can this be important in a campaign?  Well, if an NPC claims to hail from Ultan, but pronounces the word Dahlsee which is the manner used by Milicsundrians in the north, then the players should be suspicious.Someone asked about Celestial, Draconic, Infernal and whether Liternanin was to be found along them or if it supplanted them.  The answer is the latter - they are supplanted and further aren't to be found in the setting.  Clerics and wizards each know Liternanin at the beginning of play because spellbooks and religious texts are written entirely in this language. Indeed, the presiding "common tongue", Dalsundri, doesn't even have it's own alphabet and must borrow Liternanin characters when it is transcribed.Racial languages follow a similar fate.  There is no "Elven." There is "Silvani", and this is a beautiful flowing language devoid of gutteral constanants - it's only constants are b, p, s, t, n, m and c. Tolnen is the language of dwarves, hon-raesa is a blended language between silvani and dalzendri used by half elves of the kingdom of Hone Rae.Language also denotes social strata.  The Telzoan islands where conquered by the Dalsundrians 1000 years ago and invaded by the Malchani a century later.  Most of the nobles still speak Malchani not unlike the Norman nobles of England spoke French for nearly 400 years in preference to the tongue of the rabble.Cuolshan is an unusual case.  This is the "secret" language of druids in Telzoa, though the truth is it isn't so much secret as lost.  It also has written runes which are uncovered from time to time throughout Telzoa.  These runes and what they mean are somewhat well known to outside groups, but no one knows what the language actually would have sounded like - except the druids.</blockquote>

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