What language is the Common of our world?

[Jürgen Hubert]

The D&D cartoon was translated in other languages?

I know that it has been translated to German, at the very least.

 

[Aries_Omega]

Common is too common

In my campaign world there is no "common". Each human culture has it's own language. Granted it takes place in a "western" setting and even though the various human languages speak different languages they have one alphabet. But this alphabet means nothing unless you speak the language. This is like how in English, Spanish and say...French. They all use the same characters but c-a-t is cat in English but has no meaning in the other two. In Spanish it would be gato for example.

Other races do not have it so hard though. I make a "high elf" make an Intelligence check to understand complex phrases said by a "wild elf" for example. Same language but different words for the same thing and so on. Kinda like a Californian speaking with a New Yorker...like what happened to me when I tried to get on a train going into the city and ticket booth woman was telling me the finer points of the city and that the next train departs to "ron-konk-ama" in 5 minutes. It took me about 5 minutes to understand anything about the city, yet alone about the train or what a "ron-konk-ama" was.

 

[rgard]

Fixed, sorry.

Heh, L337 as the new common?

http://www.expectnothing.com/pub/posts/attached/0002k1cc.gif

No worries. At least you know there is a Welsh accent. My wife is Welsh and it is amazing how many of my fellow Americans ask her if she is Irish. That and when she tells them she is from south Wales, some have asked, "That's in Australia?"...confusing the New South Wales territory (or is it a state?...showing my ignorance now) with the original one.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Turjan]

That might be true in England, but you'd have a pretty tough time convincing anyone what Standard English is. American Mid-West? There are more English speakers in India than in the rest of the world. Canadian English (which gets my vote). Aussie? Perhaps a Welsh accent ? Southern New Zealand?

Heh.

Heck, even BBC doesn't standardize it's newscasters anymore.

That's true with the BBC. Fortunately . Btw, the mother of that friend who took lessons was kind of a rebel. Although she had friends at Parliament, she always refused to speak Oxford or Queen's English. I suppose that it was this strong nonconformist attitude that her friends liked about her .

Anyway, you spoke of "a concept which has little or no meaning in English where there is no attempt to standardize the language". I just wanted to point out that there was an attempt made, though lastly unsuccessful and pretty much tied to a class conscious society.

 

[Gez]

English and French I think are required for international pilots, and both are considered to be the open sea languages.

Anyone out there know for certain?

Many international words used by ship and plane crews are derived from the French, such as "may day" which is in fact "m'aider." I must admit I can't repress a good chuckle when seeing things such as "see lonce fee nee"...

It used to be French (during the late 1700s - mid / late 1800's, I think). During much of the 1800s, if I recall correctly, French was known as the Language of Diplomacy because of its commonality. It was followed by English in part because of the British Empire and in part because after the Empire's dissolution America (another English speaker) happened to be on the rise.

Actually, French was the internation language of diplomacy until 1918. The Versailles Treaty was the first international treaty (between several countries speaking different languages) to be written in English, though it was also, of course, written in French.

That precedent opened the road to the use of English in diplomacy.

 

[Turjan]

So although English is very widespread, it isn't quite a lingua franca.

Just a nitpick: I don't think that the lingua franca (I mean that one spoken by mediterranean sailors) was spoken by everyone in the region where it was in use, either . In the general meaning of "lingua franca", English definitely qualifies.

 

[Troll Wizard]

It's English by far; everyone of my relatives in Peru learned english as their second language.
Working for a large corporation, our German offices hold their meetings in english, even when its just Germans in the meetings. We don't have a single italian speaker, but when we meet with our Italian government contracting officer to report on our contract status its in english.
The EU announced earlier this year (or last year) the judicial language of the EU would be in english; much to the disappointment of the French.

An article on PBS about language http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/globalamerican/

 

[Banshee16]

Having said all that, Chinese is important in the far east to this day but elsewhere in the world it will avail you not. Spanish is king in terms of countries where it is first or second language, but most of them are in Americas. In the rest of the world - outside of Spain and a few islands - it will avail you not. French is common in most islands in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans due to early explorations and its commonality (as the language of diplomacy) at the times of the explorations, but outside of France and those islands (and a few other places, like French Guina in S. America and Quebec in Canada) it will avail you not. English is the first language of America, Britain, Australia, and co-first language in Canada (with French). Its claim to fame and fortune is - no pun intended - as a trade language.

I can at least speak with respect to Canada here....French "avails" you in far more than just Quebec....Ontario and New Brunswick have significant francophone and bilingual populations, and there are French towns/areas in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

My experiences travelling internationally (which have been limited) have been that in the main cities, and the tourist areas of main cities, English will help. But venture into the country, or out of the tourist areas, and it becomes a lot harder to find English speakers. I found that in both France and Italy.

Even in Quebec, if you want to speak English, you're looking at the West Island of Montreal, and parts of the Outaouais, but go north, or go east, and most people don't speak any English.

Banshee

 

[Torm]

I know that it has been translated to German, at the very least.

Doesn't matter, though - that's a translation. Those kids, and almost everyone else in Faerun, were speaking good ol' American English.

 

[Turjan]

But venture into the country, or out of the tourist areas, and it becomes a lot harder to find English speakers. I found that in both France and Italy.

At least in France, it was more of the problem that the people would not speak English, even if they could. I still remember a conversation in a bank in Calais, where I spoke English and all answers came in French. The guy understood me perfectly, but he would have never used a single English word. In my experience, it was a good strategy to try your luck in French first. If the people got the impression that you mutilated the French language in a way that they felt physical pain, they were much more open to converse in English.

Nowadays, this has changed a lot, though. The younger generation in France doesn't object to talking English.