What language is the Common of our world?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I still say that if the real world has any equivalent, it's definitely NOT English, despite its prevalence in Europe. Europe has what, 10% of the world's population. Let's be a little less Euro/Amero-Centric, shall we?

I was actually suggesting multiple Common languages for Earth, with English being Common in Europe, Arabic in the Islamic world, etc.

 

[wingsandsword]

Campaign settings, however, really should strive to add a little more complexity to the situation, if only for cultural flavor. I mean, really, what is the chance that someone from Durpar (Forgotten Realms) speaks the same Common as someone from Waterdeep??? It's a pseudo-medieval setting, after all, so the sorts of mass-communication or travel technology that would permit consolidation of language are largely nonexistent.

Actually, somebody from Durpar would be speaking Durpari as their first language, and somebody from Waterdeep would be speaking Chondathan as their first language. Forgotten Realms does make a point that there are local languages not tied to a race or species that are widely used, and "common" is a trade language used as a second language. The Players Guide to Faerun even specifies that it's Player Characters that all known Common, not all characters. Your typical peasant in the Dalelands might speak only Chondathan, so if he ended up goibng north to the Moonsea area and tried to visit Phlan, the locals would be speaking Damaran, so unless he learns Common or Damaran he's going to be quite lost.

Being realistic, English really is the common language of Earth, it's not being Eurocentric or Ameri-centric, it's being realistic. Many good arguments have been put forth here for it. It might not be the first language of the majority of people, but it is a dominant language of trade, science, and diplomacy. If you were lost at some unknown place in the world, and you could speak either only Chinese or English, which would you choose? If it's Chinese, if you're in China you're in luck, but outside of there not so much, if it's English, you're likely that you'll run across somebody pretty quick who can at least understand you, it might not be their first language but it's understood.

I know if I was lost somewhere in the world, not knowing where I was, and I could put up a sign that said "Help" or a sign that had the Chinese symbols for "Help" or any other language, I'd go with English, because I believe that's the one that would most likely result in somebody realizing it was a distress call and sending help. Reasons like that are why it is the Common language.

It also depends on how you defiine "common", I see it as a widely used de-facto standard language that can be used at least crudely to allow people from widely scattered backgrounds to communicate. It might not be most people's first language, but it's something that most people can understand, at least a little, and if you're a world traveller it's probably the most important language to know.

 

[Gez]

Until you watch a foreign DVD, and hear the characters who are speaking Mandarin, or Japanese, or German, suddenly say English words and phrases as they speak. Watch any Toho Gojira/Godzilla movie to hear words like "time warp," "teleportation," or my favorite - "Let's go!"

I can't recall any popular media using Mandarin words, unless you count ordering Kung Pao chicken as speaking Chinese.

And who told you they weren't ordering a "Time Warp" sandwich in that Godzilla movie?

 

[frankthedm]

It also depends on how you defiine "common", I see it as a widely used de-facto standard language that can be used at least crudely to allow people from widely scattered backgrounds to communicate. It might not be most people's first language, but it's something that most people can understand, at least a little, and if you're a world traveller it's probably the most important language to know.

In my own game I run it is a dumbing down of the "High speech"* with many contractions and borrowed words from other languages, most vulgar terms and insults are taken from orcish, notably the “F” word and “Baka”. Common works well enough across the continent, but using it inflicts a 2 point circumstance penalty on most negotiations except with the ‘common’ folk.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I remember growing up in the 80s they tried to get us to learn French, because it was the language of the world (trade), now other countries are learning English for the same reason.

I would think that taking a cue from the Geneva Convention would be most helpful as they regulate all world trade, events etc. (to some extent anyway). Using the Olympics as a guide, the three languages used for announcing events are (in order) English, Chinese (Mandarin) and French (recently changed from E, F & C and changed from 10 yrs ago from F, E & C). The United Nations prints eveything (Official) in English & French.

Part of the reason English is so popular is because America invented the telephone - laugh if you want, but when we showed others how to use it, we said you pick up this thing (the reciever) and say "Hello". If you have ever done any transactions with other countries, most of them still say "Hello" (or a local variation) when the answer the phone. With the exception of France, I would say most countries do so (to include the Asian, Slavic, Arabic, Hindi and Latin countires to name but a few.) I can't give statistics (and who would believe them if I did) but it's out there, just dial and find out. In that same vein a lot of our "inventions" end up as the "watch words" of the world.

Telephone, television, computer, postal, etc. (Of course England has a lot to do with this to, but as an American I am a bit biased. )

 

[Turjan]

Telephone, television, computer, postal, etc. (Of course England has a lot to do with this to, but as an American I am a bit biased. )

Well, television is not an American invention, but I suppose you mean the overall influence of Hollywood in the world. And the international postal language is French (or did they change that recently?). If you don't know the name of your destination country in the language of the country you are at the moment, you can always put the French name on mail.
The influence of the old British colonial empire on the spread of the English language should not be underestimated, indeed.

 

[Barak]

That requirement sounds very campaign-specific.

I assumed this conversation assumed RAW, which means every human, dwarf, elf, half-orc, gnome and halfling speak common. Not to mention other races, many of which are assumed to speak common as per RAW.

So not so campaign-specific, and actually more stringent than my original post.

 

[Hussar]

An interesting side note about standardization of language.

Edo period Japan saw laws which told local lords that their children had to be educated in Edo. So, all the lords sent their kids to the capital for several years. When they came back, they spoke Edo Japanese, not the local dialect. Thus, the nobility actually spoke a distinct language from the common people. To this day, Tokyo Japanese is considered "standard" Japanese, a concept which has little or no meaning in English where there is no attempt to standardize the language.

I think perhaps one of the most telling statistics about English is the fact that non-native speakers of English outnumber native speakers by a very large margin. Sure, lots of people don't speak English as their first language, but, in most countries, their second language is English.

English is the closest thing we have to common in the real world.

I think I realized this when I watched a Japanese car dealer speak with a Russian buyer in English while sitting in a Starbucks in a backwater city in Japan.

 

[Tonguez]

The idea of a Common language in D&D is an artificial (and not a very realistic) game convention meant to get around the in-play difficulties that would result from characters of different nationalities/races speaking different, mutually unintelligible tongues.

Actually prior to the colonial expansion of Europe into the southern hemisphere various dialects of a common Austronesian language were spoken over 1/5 of the Earths surface extending as far west as Malagasy (Madagascar) and eastward across SE Asia and on into the Pacific. Admittedly the land area here is small and the population low but the fact remains that there was in the southern hemisphere at least something approaching a near-homogenous language group

Even today the languages of Polynesia remain mutually intelligible (albeit split into two major groups) and there are even certain dialects spoken in island Indonesia that can generally be understood by native speakers of a Polynesian language (say Cook Island Maori for instance).

To this day, Tokyo Japanese is considered "standard" Japanese, a concept which has little or no meaning in English where there is no attempt to standardize the language..

I agree that if there is a modern common then it is English

There is also a 'standard' English which was the RP of Southwest England

however I think Microsofts spell checker may be changing written english to the common standard of US English with the way in insist on changing the s to a z in things like specialisation!!!

 

[Barak]

That is still nowhere as pervasive as common is in the RAW D&D world, in which every race speaks it, without exception.