D&D General Which D&D Words and Things are Post 1608?

[EzekielRaiden]

The everyone understands everyone else Common is a D&D nonsense.

Wellll....not complete nonsense. It just requires a relatively constrained area of consideration and at least one of three things:

1. An important, usually simplified, trade language which is spoken relatively widely across the region in which trade occurs. Consider Koine, which was an Eastern Mediterranean trade language for something like 650 years (from roughly 320 BC to 330 AD.) If you count things from Magna Graecia in Italy to the eastern edge of Anatolia (modern Turkey), and from Lower Egypt up to Crimea, it was widely spoken in nearly all coastal areas, and would have been at least useful even outside of that range because, y'know, trade.
2. A hegemonic culture rules over a region, and thus can enforce a single language through bureaucracy and administration. Consider Latin in Western Europe and north Africa, which was the common language spoken from what we would now call England in the northwest to the Arabian Peninsula in the southeast and almost everything between the Danube and the Sahara, and this importance continued (even if it waned)
3. A central religious core around which the various nations build their center. Catholicism has already been mentioned, but Islam brought Arabic and ensured that it was extremely prolific--to the point that, for example, modern Spanish is heavily influenced by Arabic, and we even have Arabic-origin words in English as a result (e.g. "algebra," from the Arabic al-Jabr, "reunion of broken parts," that is, from the Al-Kitab al-muhtasar fi hisab al-gabr wa-l-muqabala, "The Compendious Book of Calculation by Completion and Balancing," or "algorithm," derived from the name of an Arabic mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi.)

Many fantasy settings, for example, have a common henotheistic pantheon, where everyone recognizes that there are multiple gods but only truly worships one of those gods, just giving small/propitiatory reverence to the others. That could be the result of a single religious doctrine taking hold and spreading a common language. Alternatively, many settings have a relatively recent major imperial collapse (that is, within the past 2-3 centuries at most), which should leave most areas sharing a common language just beginning to diverge. And, finally, even if all of that fails, there's still the implication of relatively meaningful trade between the various parts of the local region.

So, while the idea of having a truly universal language is certainly a bit silly, D&D settings are typically small enough and interconnected enough that a trade language, administrative language of the current/relatively-recently-fallen empire, or common-religious-root language could do the trick. Pair up any two (or even all three) and you get quite an easy explanation for things.

Unless, of course, you have a setting like the Forgotten Realms, where you're trying to articulate stuff for literally the whole world, no exceptions, in which case yes, a truly universal "common tongue" is silly. But most settings aren't bothering with THAT comprehensive of coverage--it's a lot of work, and squeezes out a lot of the places where player agency and alternative concepts could be usefully inserted.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

An important, usually simplified, trade language

The idea that everyone is speaking a trade language/second language makes a lot more logical sense, but this should make conversations stilted and largely without idiom. Which rather runs against the "fun" aspect of D&D.

D&D settings are typically small enough and interconnected enough

Not really my experience. Most D&D settings I've experienced are pretty much like FR. Exandria for example. Or Spelljammer, Krynn or Greyhawk. They are all quite extensive, and most don't have the communication/transport networks of Eberron.

It would probably make more sense to invoke universal translators, babel fish or Tardis telepathic circuits.

 

[Oofta]

I just handled everybody speaking common as a blunder.

Long ago a powerful wizard and then lich who's name and original goal have been lost to the sands of time travelled the world seeking knowledge and ever greater power. They were going to bend reality to their will and create the most powerful version of the wish spell ever created. This spell, a ritual based on a singular focus of a centuries of work and toil and unimaginable sacrifice, would not be a normal wish. No, this version of wish, his all-powerful wish would allow him to finally, and permanently, shape the world to their liking.

They had been frustrated at times, having to learn a new language which took time or constantly use magic to comprehend everyone's language which could have been channeled to his all-powerful spell. But that was the price they were willing to pay, one of the lesser sacrifices for the greater goal.

At the penultimate moment, the wish spell ritual that had been constructed over a millennia was ready. Having carefully conserved all of their energy for this moment, not bothering to cast a spell that let them speak other languages they started speaking the words to enact the spell.

A servant interrupted them with a message in a language the wizard had not bothered to learn. Frustrated, he spoke the words that would change history "I wish everyone spoke a common tongue".

 

[Flamestrike]

I for one hope the next edition is written entirely in Olde Anglo Saxon:

Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon...

 

[Celebrim]

"Crow's Nest" - 1818
"Adventurer" - Arguably about 1660. Before 1660, meant nearly the same as modern "entrepreneur". Before 1500, meant nearly the same as modern "gambler". Even after 1660, still often meant closer to the modern "tourist" than the "soldier of fortune" meaning in D&D.

 

[SanjMerchant]

EDIT: <I don't know how to outright delete posts>

 

[Paul Farquhar]

EDIT: <I don't know how to outright delete posts>

The D10 is the only one that isn't a Pythagorean solid, and thus deriving from pure maths. The D10 is a contrivance based around our decimal counting system, and the faces are not regular polygons.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Even after 1660, still often meant closer to the modern "tourist"

Being a tourist 1661 generally involved rather more peril and hardship than we expect on our holidays these days.

 

[SanjMerchant]

The idea that everyone is speaking a trade language/second language makes a lot more logical sense, but this should make conversations stilted and largely without idiom. Which rather runs against the "fun" aspect of D&D.

Yeah, a language barrier might be interesting the first, maybe the second time you spring it on your players, but after that it's just annoying that we can't so much as go shopping without Terry. And then after a few levels magic turns the whole language barrier problem into a simple spell slot tax anyway.

Of course, it doesn't help that (again as you suggest), D&D treats language as entirely Boolean. You're either entirely fluent and understand everything or you understand absolutely nothing and probably need to role a check just to identify what the language is. There's no "Well, I can ask for directions and order dinner in Halfling, but don't ask me to teach an anatomy class or direct a light opera."

Not really my experience. Most D&D settings I've experienced are pretty much like FR. Exandria for example. Or Spelljammer, Krynn or Greyhawk. They are all quite extensive, and most don't have the communication/transport networks of Eberron.

It would probably make more sense to invoke universal translators, babel fish or Tardis telepathic circuits.

Which D&D eventually does, once spells like Comprehend Languages and Tongues become available.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Which D&D eventually does, once spells like Comprehend Languages and Tongues become available.

Which, by the time the PCs get them, it's already been established that everyone speaks Common, so it's not worth the spell slot.