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<blockquote data-quote="Dr Simon" data-source="post: 3019714" data-attributes="member: 21938">I think a mis-assumption that seems to be being made is that all creatures that speak Common can speak it to the same degree.&nbsp; Probably not helped by the fact that D&amp;D languages are either/or in your ability rather than graded.Sure, an orc can speak Common, but he's more likely to say &quot;Me smash&quot; than &quot;Allow me to disagree with your initial hypothesis.&quot;&nbsp; This, to me, is much like the ability of large portions of the world's population to say &quot;Hello&quot;, &quot;You buy, five dollar?&quot; and &quot;David Beckham okay!&quot;.&nbsp; That's &quot;speaking English&quot; but it doesn't make for much conversation.&nbsp; In my opinion, though, one can get by reasonably well with knowing a few pleasantries, counting to ten, yes, no, and the question words in *any* language.&nbsp; Or failing that, speak English.Something I haven't seen addressed yet (although I have skim-read) is what the origins of Common are in D&amp;D settings.&nbsp; If the source is Tolkien (&quot;...in the Common Tongue it reads...&quot;), then his Common language was a sort of watered down Numenorean, itself a sort of watered-down elvish.&nbsp; And the Elven langauges were 'true' in a certain sense, in that elven names and words had magical power through being such an accurate description or way of talking that you could make what you were talking about obey you.&nbsp; (I don't recall the source exactly but either LOTR Appendices, Letters of JRRT or Lost/Unfinished Tales).So, from a point of view that Common = Numenorean then you have a language that is widespread due to prior conquest, where the Sea Kings ruled most of western Middle Earth and taught their language to their happy, willing subject peoples.&nbsp; This langauge remained even when the originators had gone.&nbsp; That to me says English.&nbsp; A case could be made for other languages such as Spanish, Dutch and Mandarin Chinese for similar reasons but English was initially the most widespread because (a) we got everywhere, (b) that included some of the largest populations like India and parts of China, (c) it emerged as the primary language of America who are also now everywhere on satellite TV.&nbsp;&nbsp; Further, English is quite inclusive of langauge and very flexible in it's application compared to other possibilities like German or Latin.&nbsp; You don't need to decline your noun endings for a sentence to sense be making, and you all sorts of ways the sentence may arrange and tenses be changed and still it is reading mainly with some intelligibilitiness.There are other possibilities for the origins of Common, however.&nbsp; A pidgin tongue, like Tagalog.&nbsp; Can't portray very complex ideas.&nbsp; A standardized variant, perhaps Latin as a very formalised set of grammatical rules from which off-shoots can apply.&nbsp; Perhaps it is even a written language common to sub-tongues, like Chinese pictograms which mean the same when read my a Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong as by someone from Inner Mongolia, but pronounced in hugely different ways.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dr Simon, post: 3019714, member: 21938"] I think a mis-assumption that seems to be being made is that all creatures that speak Common can speak it to the same degree. Probably not helped by the fact that D&D languages are either/or in your ability rather than graded. Sure, an orc can speak Common, but he's more likely to say "Me smash" than "Allow me to disagree with your initial hypothesis." This, to me, is much like the ability of large portions of the world's population to say "Hello", "You buy, five dollar?" and "David Beckham okay!". That's "speaking English" but it doesn't make for much conversation. In my opinion, though, one can get by reasonably well with knowing a few pleasantries, counting to ten, yes, no, and the question words in *any* language. Or failing that, speak English. Something I haven't seen addressed yet (although I have skim-read) is what the origins of Common are in D&D settings. If the source is Tolkien ("...in the Common Tongue it reads..."), then his Common language was a sort of watered down Numenorean, itself a sort of watered-down elvish. And the Elven langauges were 'true' in a certain sense, in that elven names and words had magical power through being such an accurate description or way of talking that you could make what you were talking about obey you. (I don't recall the source exactly but either LOTR Appendices, Letters of JRRT or Lost/Unfinished Tales). So, from a point of view that Common = Numenorean then you have a language that is widespread due to prior conquest, where the Sea Kings ruled most of western Middle Earth and taught their language to their happy, willing subject peoples. This langauge remained even when the originators had gone. That to me says English. A case could be made for other languages such as Spanish, Dutch and Mandarin Chinese for similar reasons but English was initially the most widespread because (a) we got everywhere, (b) that included some of the largest populations like India and parts of China, (c) it emerged as the primary language of America who are also now everywhere on satellite TV. Further, English is quite inclusive of langauge and very flexible in it's application compared to other possibilities like German or Latin. You don't need to decline your noun endings for a sentence to sense be making, and you all sorts of ways the sentence may arrange and tenses be changed and still it is reading mainly with some intelligibilitiness. There are other possibilities for the origins of Common, however. A pidgin tongue, like Tagalog. Can't portray very complex ideas. A standardized variant, perhaps Latin as a very formalised set of grammatical rules from which off-shoots can apply. Perhaps it is even a written language common to sub-tongues, like Chinese pictograms which mean the same when read my a Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong as by someone from Inner Mongolia, but pronounced in hugely different ways. [/QUOTE]

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