Sending and Language

[Turtlejay]

During our game on Tuesday, we used the Sending ritual a couple of times. During it's use, a debate arose about the '25 words' limit. Compound words and other things were discussed. One of the players brought up other languages. I only speak one language, so when he says that German works differently for compound words, and that it might effect that limit, I take it for face value.

How do other languages approach this? What is the most informationally dense language, and do they get 25 words too? Would an Ent get more? We have several bilingual posters here, I wonder what you all have to say about this?

Jay

 

[Cyronax]

Based on minimal study, I'd say German is indeed a very dense language. It might be the most dense major language I'm aware of. Its compound words are indeed phenomally complex and could really add up well in a sending.

Based upon more substantial study, I'd say that depending on how you view written language, Chinese (and by extension Japanese (ish)) is a very good language for sending. I say that because you can slap 25 emotionally or information-ally important concepts together to convey at least some meaning. It has connecting particles, but you can be grammatically incorrect in the written form and still POSSIBLY get a meaning across more easily than some Western languages. (In a pinch ... needs to be added to most of this post).

As for English .... our language at least is good at grabbing bits from others, despite its difficulties.

C.I.D.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Rather than 25 words, I've toyed with changing it to a number of syllables. This seems to circumvent players' attempts to squeeze 25 huge, information-rich German words into a spell that imho carries about 10 seconds of recording time.

I think 51 syllables woks nicely. That's 3 haikus.

 

[1of3]

Clever players will probably make up a code nevertheless.

The best candidates in natural languages would be the polysynthetic ones.

 

[Jhaelen]

I think 51 syllables woks nicely. That's 3 haikus.

Awesome idea! Sending messages must be haikus.

 

[Mark Chance]

Awesome idea! Sending messages must be haikus.

Or:

An awesome idea!
Sending haiku messages:
Fun with syllables.

 

[Joshua Randall]

The intent of the spell seems to be to convey a short message to another person, so I think rather than worry about wordcounts I'd focus on that. If the PCs are trying to send the text of War and Peace via sending, that's an obvious no-go. If the PCs are trying to send a message asking for help in fighting a demon, then it shouldn't (much) matter if the message is 20, 25, or 30 words long.

 

[Starfox]

I had a lot of fun with this in the Dragonstar setting. There were Soulmechs in Dragonstar who spoke Digital, a machine language. And in Digital, I judged words could be of an arbitary length. Needless to say, Soulmechs ran the isterstellar comminication service.

 

[delericho]

Since Common isn't English, and the other languages in the game aren't tied down (unless you're playing with JRR Tolkien), I would rule that it has to be "25 words in the language in which the game is being played". I would argue that the intent was that it could send a short message, and that the exact word count was only given because it isn't clear how short a "short message" is.

 

[Oldtimer]

Based on minimal study, I'd say German is indeed a very dense language. It might be the most dense major language I'm aware of.

Though my language, swedish, could certainly give them some competition in that area. Spårvagnskonduktörsuniformsjackedragkedja on you.