D&D General Languages suck in D&D.

[azabaro]

I seem to recall one of the OSR blogs suggesting an easy way to get the feel of limited proficiency in a language was to communicate with only nouns - no verbs, adjectives, prepositions, etc. (though I imagine you could include interjections and pronouns without altering the feel any). This might be a way to help players get a feel for the limited expressiveness of something like Common.

You probably wouldn’t want to overuse this, and it seems to me that the Conan types don’t seem to suffer from linguistic barriers very often despite traveling all over the world, running into lost cultures, etc. If you want to emulate that feel, you could maybe say that every session around a culture increases your ability to communicate with them by 1 step along the scale:

1. No shared language (gestures, grunts etc.)
2. Limited expressiveness (communicate with nouns only; start here if both parties know Common)
3. Fluency

That lets groups who don’t want to get too into the weeds on linguistic families etc. still bring them different languages into play for just long enough to be be interesting before moving on.

 

[Corinnguard]

Does Sign Language exist in a D&D setting? And what makes them different from the somatic spell components used by spellcasters?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Does Sign Language exist in a D&D setting? And what makes them different from the somatic spell components used by spellcasters?

In 5.5 it does, there's "Common Sign Language" in the PHB as something that you could learn.

 

[Corinnguard]

In 5.5 it does, there's "Common Sign Language" in the PHB as something that you could learn.

Thanks. It also exists in Level Up.

 

[Steampunkette]

Oh, my, yes... Sign should -absolutely- be a thing. And probably something several cultures do in their own way.

There are -300- Sign Languages in the world, spoken by more than 72 million people. And what's more, even closely linked cultures, like England and the US, have their own distinct sign languages that don't actually carry over much, if any at all!

Compare American Sign Language's signs for the Alphabet compared to British Sign Language's signs for the same letters!

America and England. Two countries separated by a common language and an entirely uncommon one, too!

 

[Azzy]

In 5.5 it does, there's "Common Sign Language" in the PHB as something that you could learn.

There also used to be the drow silent language from 1e/2e, but that seems to have gone the way of the dodo.

 

[Jensaarai]

In the "Tolkien did this" sense, he didn't quite go as far as you could maybe logically take this idea if it were real, since Gondor, separated by a few hundred miles and more than several hundred years of cultural/linguistic separation, still functionally speaks the same Westron as the Shire hobbits. Elvish makes sense, cause you can learn it straight from the 10,000-year-old horse's mouth, but most of the Man and adjacent tongues should probably have a lot more drift than shown.

Which isn't to say he didn't hammer out some incredible languages and histories; it's just that he was telling a story as well.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In 5.5 it does, there's "Common Sign Language" in the PHB as something that you could learn.

Level Up has sign language as well.

 

[Steampunkette]

In the "Tolkien did this" sense, he didn't quite go as far as you could maybe logically take this idea if it were real, since Gondor, separated by a few hundred miles and more than several hundred years of cultural/linguistic separation, still functionally speaks the same Westron as the Shire hobbits. Elvish makes sense, cause you can learn it straight from the 10,000-year-old horse's mouth, but most of the Man and adjacent tongues should probably have a lot more drift than shown.

Which isn't to say he didn't hammer out some incredible languages and histories; it's just that he was telling a story as well.

PERSONALLY... I don't think a 10,000 year old life span would result in your language being the same from your youth to the end of your life.

I think it'd wind up really freaking weird. Like this:

Constantly picking up new variations through use is a hallmark of every language that is used. Only truly dead languages are unchanging...

Of course, you could have a society of 500 year old grammarians that backhand anyone younger than them who doesn't use -specifically approved- grammar and vocabulary... which is probably the only way the Elven tongue would remain unchanged.

 

[Lord Shark]

Oh, my, yes... Sign should -absolutely- be a thing. And probably something several cultures do in their own way.

There are -300- Sign Languages in the world, spoken by more than 72 million people. And what's more, even closely linked cultures, like England and the US, have their own distinct sign languages that don't actually carry over much, if any at all!

ASL is much more derived from French Sign Language than BSL, thanks to Laurent Clerc's influence in American deaf education in the 19th century.

And of course it's not just a deaf thing. Many Native tribes have their own forms of sign language.