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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8823273" data-attributes="member: 6915329">Just for the record, I like having multiple languages in a setting. My table has had fun messing around with languages. I was running a Ravenloft game once (using GURPS, which has different levels of language proficiency) where we had two PCs from Tepest and one from Lamordia, and they were speaking to someone in Darkonese. The Lamordian character was well-educated and had a Native understanding of Darkoneses, while the Tepestani people were basically hicks and had only a Broken level of understanding in Darkonese. The conversation went something like:Lamordian PC, in Darkonese: Don't mind those two; they're idiots.Tepest PC, in Tepestani, to Lamordian: What is <switches to Darkonese> "idiot"?Lamordian PC: It means good person.Tepest PC, in Darkonese: Yes, we are idiots!A good time was had by all. (We use ASL fingerspelling signs to indicate what language we are using--a bit harder, now that we meet only via Discord because of camera angles, but easy at the table.)But...Actually, would all of these races have that many languages? Many of them live a long time and would be able to remember their languages for centuries or even millennia. There wouldn't necessarily be as much drift with elves, dwarfs, and gnomes as there would be with humans and orcs. Plus literacy and writing seems to be much more universal in most D&D settings, thus providing another link that would keep language the same. And that's not even considering teleportation and long-distance magical communication which would help to keep far-distant communities in touch.There likely would be different terminology, maybe even enough that "high elf" is a fairly different from "wood elf," but I don't think that they would necessarily be separate languages. More like modern regional differences, like the differences between American English and Australian English.Depends on the setting. If one pantheon made all the humans, they may have made it so that all humans speak Human. If one pantheon made all the humanoid races, then they all might speak a single language, with only minor regional differences. If other languages are commonly spoken by humanoids, then they would probably be heavily influenced by non-humanoid languages, or be conlangs, or have been gifted by gods who are part of the pantheon but wanted some language differences for some reason.</blockquote>

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