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Is there such a thing as power gaming knowledge of languages? There absolutely is.
In fact, knowing many languages is one of the hallmark characteristics of a Mary Sue. As Ryciera put it those characters who speak "Common, Elven, Orc, Maiar and Giraffe" are often very jarring and use their sudden language to conveniently be able to listen in on a conversation, or worse yet, have a shady conversation about people who are right next to them without offering any form of return roleplay. This thread aims to look into the matters of language and the various dialects in Aloria.
Common exists. Why?
Common as a language is obviously an exact translation of English. It makes roleplay easy without obliging people to learn a completely new language and it makes sense. As a person who is a polyglot IRL, English is the easiest language I have learned and it is my "main" language, simply because expressing in it is easier than any other language. Most if not all dialects of English are perfectly mutually intelligible, unlike many other modern languages and in terms of grammatical rules, English mostly relies on word order more than anything. Common is easy for all races simply because it's a pragmatic language with a simple construction. When someone who speaks primarily common tries to learn another language however, problems are abound. To help players understand language acquisition in Aloria, the following explanation might help. Common can be learned by any character in the time span of a year if not two with intensive usage.
Proto-Humanum
All Human languages one way or another are traceable back to Proto-Humanum, except for Qadir and Ch'ien-ji dialects and languages. The "uhr" language of the Humans is Proto-Human, though this language is completely dead and cannot be traced back. This mother of all mother languages eventually gave birth to the North and South Human languages. The North Human language would eventually develop into Regalian, Ceardian and Northerne, while the South Human language would eventually develop to Daendroque and Ithanian and then by extension Dressolini and Lusits.
Elven is a lot more simple than Human in terms of language evolution. Elven formed very lineally, starting from Ancient Elven which eventually evolved to middle Elven (or High Elven) around 1500 BC, which eventually collapsed into modern Elven (around cataclysm). The evolution of Elven was related less to the movement of people or new cultural impulses, but more so by the state of mind of the Elves. None of the Elven languages are inter lingual. Middle Elven and Modern Elven may be understood but Modern Elven underwent the Metaphorical speech shift which means that Modern Elves can understand the specific words that those speaking Middle Elven say, but their meaning when put together makes no sense to them.
Vashkularr being the Orc language, which in itself is a unique language in that it uses body language and gestures to indicate the severity or time definition of a sentence. Having to learn the Orc language is like needing to learn both the actual words as well as the gestures. A wrong gesture in the wrong location may cause an Orc to rip you apart as the meaning of a phrase may radically change from friendly to hostile. There really only is one Orc language as Orcs never found the need to change their language nor does their intellectual class (for as far as one exist) see a need to create separate languages. Tribes change membership so frequently that no specific dialect can truly remain settled.
Orc is similar to Elven in that it uses a certain "weaving" word class, though it omits grammar almost completely. For example a Human would say "Enemy ahead of us!", while an Orc would say "Khrukh dahkharr!" (enemy see) while bashing both fists onto the chest and then raising them up. If the fists were swung backwards, it means behind, and if one fist was raised on either side it would mean left or right. Sometimes gesture confusion may cause great offence. For example "I will see you later" being "Okh tharr khruul" (Me see late) is accompanied by a fist bump on the chest and then a flat hand near the left heart. This is a friendly gesture. If however the gesture is a fist bump on the chest followed by the fist resting at the side, it means "I'm going to kill you later when I see you".
Orc cannot simply be learned by "watching or listening". In order to learn Orc from indeed any other background, one would have to find a scholar that actually researches Orcs and even so this may take almost a decade. These tend to be rare as field examinations by Human scholars in Orc traditions tend to end in death. Extremely few Humans are fluent in Orc, being able to speak the language alone is half the struggle. The difficulty besides the fact that this language sounds nothing like any other language, is that the gestures are extremely strict and often also very similar. Similarly also, it is difficult for Orcs to teach their language to anyone who doesn't already speak it because they cannot properly express the meaning of slight intention differences. Things just "are the way they are" and if you don't understand it they can't explain the difference since they don't have a means to describe their gestures. The gestures to them are as much words as the words they speak. After all, how would a Human describe the word "Hello" to a foreigner without using their own language.
Inversely, Orcs have difficulty speaking any other language correctly because they don't see the point of grammar. Grammar over complicates phrases for them and adds unnecessary things that don't add anything to the value of a sentence. One could say that Orc is effectively a "dumb" language as it has a lot less words than any other language, mostly relying on gestures to define the differences between similar phrases. The phrase "I eat meat" can be interpreted as "I like eating meat" "I will eat your meat after I kill you" "I will eat no meat" "I am a hunter" "I am better than you" "I like turtles" all because of slightly differing gestures.
Mekett, Maiar
Mekett and Maiar are not learn able by any other race besides their own species. Maiar use a form of sonar communication that is only audible underwater. They sound like whale singing or dolphin screeching, but above water it sounds like scratching nails on a blackboard. Mekket have various unique appendages in their mouth which produce the various clicking noises within their language. Since literally every other race lacks these parts, only Mekett can speak their own language.
Dargan
The various Dargan languages are similar to trying to learn Finnish or Hungarian as a modern Englishman. These languages share no common ancestor so you have to start from square one in terms of phrasing, sequence and grammar. It can take upwards to 6 years to gain a decent understanding of any of them, and they are not mutually intelligible. Furthermore one will never be able to fully speak the Tigran or Thylan languages as they involve a lot of body language, howling and purring as well.
In fact, knowing many languages is one of the hallmark characteristics of a Mary Sue. As Ryciera put it those characters who speak "Common, Elven, Orc, Maiar and Giraffe" are often very jarring and use their sudden language to conveniently be able to listen in on a conversation, or worse yet, have a shady conversation about people who are right next to them without offering any form of return roleplay. This thread aims to look into the matters of language and the various dialects in Aloria.
Common exists. Why?
Common as a language is obviously an exact translation of English. It makes roleplay easy without obliging people to learn a completely new language and it makes sense. As a person who is a polyglot IRL, English is the easiest language I have learned and it is my "main" language, simply because expressing in it is easier than any other language. Most if not all dialects of English are perfectly mutually intelligible, unlike many other modern languages and in terms of grammatical rules, English mostly relies on word order more than anything. Common is easy for all races simply because it's a pragmatic language with a simple construction. When someone who speaks primarily common tries to learn another language however, problems are abound. To help players understand language acquisition in Aloria, the following explanation might help. Common can be learned by any character in the time span of a year if not two with intensive usage.
Proto-Humanum
All Human languages one way or another are traceable back to Proto-Humanum, except for Qadir and Ch'ien-ji dialects and languages. The "uhr" language of the Humans is Proto-Human, though this language is completely dead and cannot be traced back. This mother of all mother languages eventually gave birth to the North and South Human languages. The North Human language would eventually develop into Regalian, Ceardian and Northerne, while the South Human language would eventually develop to Daendroque and Ithanian and then by extension Dressolini and Lusits.
- North Human
- The first language shift that occured in North Human was the transformation of North Human to Auld-Ceardem, an almost dead language that predates Common. Auld-Ceardem sounded something along the lines of cyninga/King helpad/to help fliogad/to fly. Auld Ceardem split to a more modernized simplified Ceardian but also developed the Alt-Regalian when Regalian tribes developed the vowel shift in which their vowel inventory doubled. Alt-Regalian further developed away from Auld Ceardem when gender sensitive grammar became a thing. Northerne partially developed out of Alt-Regalian in that it overly simplied the language again, but with a more strict pronunciation to written form. Many of the soft pronunciations disappeared but eventually so would the vocabulary change radically.
- Alt-Regalian may be difficult to learn for those speaking common because it distinguishes gender sensitive grammar as well as an expanded vocacublary. For example: The boat /Das Boot, The dog / Der Hund, The woman / Die Frau. You can see in all three words in common the article is the same, but in Alt-Regalian it has a different word in all situations due to gender (or lack thereof) of the word. Furthermore, these additions also cause the further grammatic usage to complicate itself, especially when speaking posessively. Whereas common exists with I/me/mine, Alt-Regalian knows ich/mir/mein/meine/meiner/meinem/meines. Furthermore Alt-Regalian has an extended vowel vocabulary. For example: mouse/Maus, robbery/Raub. In these instances, you don't pronounce the word as "Ma-ou-s" but "M(ou)s where the (out) stands for the start of "out". This vowel expansion also concerns: aa, ai, eu, oe, ij, ei, ee, uu and some more. Finally, devoicing also happens a lot in Alt-Regalian where vowels simply disappear. For example: Reading/lesen saying/sagen. Pronounced as les (as in lesser) immediately followed by an n (from never). The second e vowel is completely not spoken. Similar to sagen, sag (as in saggy) immediately followed by an n (from never). Alt-Regalian is a difficult language to master without direct tutelage, it would take a common speaker roughly 4 years to become somewhat fluent in the language with twice weekly tutelage.
- Proto-Regalian is a sub variety of Alt-Regalian which underwent "the Elven shift". Before cataclysm, Elven was still a court language and Alt-Regalian developed its own high class court language called Proto-Regalian despite the fact that it actually did not originate before the formation of Alt-Regalian. Proto-Regalian as a language is almost dead today except when it is spoken by the clergy. It is a mostly clerical language as the holy scriptures of Unionism are all written in Proto-Regalian. The vocabulary of Proto-Regalian and Alt-Regalian is identical, except that Elven grammar rules as well as metaphorical speech is applied to it, making it not inter lingual to Alt-Regalian speakers. In order to learn Proto-Regalian, one would have to undergo almost 8 years of clerical training in which Proto-Regalian is included.
- Simplified Ceardian is a more archaic form of modern English. Think Anglo-saxon and Shakespeare English. There is no real point in learning this language, most people consider it dated and Common is much more superior. In order to learn simplified Ceardian, one would have to study this dying language as a university or college as part of a history study or archaeology.
- Northern is very similar to Alt-Regalian but differs in word order and has a more simplified grammar and pronunciation. In general, northerners pronounce words exactly the way they are written. Northern does not have an extensive vowel inventory like Alt-Regalian, though it is added to by Å, Ø, Æ, Ö. The biggest problem for non Northerners in terms of understanding Northern is the grammar or the word order. For example: How do I know that my dog is red / Hvordan vet jeg(jäg) at(att) hunden min er rod(röd). The word order can best be described as "How know I that dog mine is red" Those learning Northern from Alt-Regalian have a much easier task ahead of them, sometimes even shortening learning times to a year down from four.
- Alt-Regalian may be difficult to learn for those speaking common because it distinguishes gender sensitive grammar as well as an expanded vocacublary. For example: The boat /Das Boot, The dog / Der Hund, The woman / Die Frau. You can see in all three words in common the article is the same, but in Alt-Regalian it has a different word in all situations due to gender (or lack thereof) of the word. Furthermore, these additions also cause the further grammatic usage to complicate itself, especially when speaking posessively. Whereas common exists with I/me/mine, Alt-Regalian knows ich/mir/mein/meine/meiner/meinem/meines. Furthermore Alt-Regalian has an extended vowel vocabulary. For example: mouse/Maus, robbery/Raub. In these instances, you don't pronounce the word as "Ma-ou-s" but "M(ou)s where the (out) stands for the start of "out". This vowel expansion also concerns: aa, ai, eu, oe, ij, ei, ee, uu and some more. Finally, devoicing also happens a lot in Alt-Regalian where vowels simply disappear. For example: Reading/lesen saying/sagen. Pronounced as les (as in lesser) immediately followed by an n (from never). The second e vowel is completely not spoken. Similar to sagen, sag (as in saggy) immediately followed by an n (from never). Alt-Regalian is a difficult language to master without direct tutelage, it would take a common speaker roughly 4 years to become somewhat fluent in the language with twice weekly tutelage.
- The first language shift that occured in North Human was the transformation of North Human to Auld-Ceardem, an almost dead language that predates Common. Auld-Ceardem sounded something along the lines of cyninga/King helpad/to help fliogad/to fly. Auld Ceardem split to a more modernized simplified Ceardian but also developed the Alt-Regalian when Regalian tribes developed the vowel shift in which their vowel inventory doubled. Alt-Regalian further developed away from Auld Ceardem when gender sensitive grammar became a thing. Northerne partially developed out of Alt-Regalian in that it overly simplied the language again, but with a more strict pronunciation to written form. Many of the soft pronunciations disappeared but eventually so would the vocabulary change radically.
- South Human
- South Human developed under the Elven rule of Human slaves.
- Daendroque was first to spawn, simply by adapting Elven words in their most rudimentary form, stripping all the various extra vowels and word splitting and merging various words together to form new whole words. For example from Common to Elven to Daendroque: King/Re'ïyya'ï /Rey or Life/lafviya'olma/Vida. Daendroque still retained more human grammatical constructions however so they didn't become subject to complex Ancient-Elven metaphorical speech.
- Ithanian slowly formed out of Daendroque as did Lusits, both languages are very similar except that Lusits gained a more back throat pronunciation of the same words where Ithanian formed a more formal and longer pronunciation. Still, many vocabulary changes occured in Ithanian that make it really jump out. For example from Common/Elven/Daendroque/Lusits/Ithanian: Dog/Perrï'oalai/Perro/Cão/Cien or Hello/Aullo'ïello/Hola/Olá/Salut(sometimes shortened to "lut").
- Any of the South Human languages usually take about 4 years to master. When one knows one already, that time is usually halved for the others.
- Leutz-Vixe classifies technically as neither South nor North Human in language origin since it is a cross breed between Ithanian and Alt-Regalian, but it shares vocabulary similarities with Ithanian which is why for ease of use it is classified as a Southern Language. Leutz-Vixe can be understood by anyone who speaks Ithanian, but truly mastering the language is difficult as it is a close sister language that does everything just slightly different, meaning one has to abandon their old knowledge and try to look at it as if learning their native language anew. Leutz-Vixe usually takes about 5 years to learn due to the non-related vocabulary, that means to say you have the fun of learning Ithanian vocabulary as well as Alt-Regalian grammar.
- South Human developed under the Elven rule of Human slaves.
Elven is a lot more simple than Human in terms of language evolution. Elven formed very lineally, starting from Ancient Elven which eventually evolved to middle Elven (or High Elven) around 1500 BC, which eventually collapsed into modern Elven (around cataclysm). The evolution of Elven was related less to the movement of people or new cultural impulses, but more so by the state of mind of the Elves. None of the Elven languages are inter lingual. Middle Elven and Modern Elven may be understood but Modern Elven underwent the Metaphorical speech shift which means that Modern Elves can understand the specific words that those speaking Middle Elven say, but their meaning when put together makes no sense to them.
- Ancient Elven is a long dead language that predates almost any official form of scripture. Only various ruins and the oldest most sacred scriptures of the Elves which may have been long lost since the Cataclysm were written in Ancient Elven. Most Humans have to spend an entire lifetime piecing together the various snippets of Ancient Elven and then still only have a rudimentary understanding of the language.
- Middle Elven (or High Elven) developed when the Empire rapidly expanded. Middle Elven is difficult to truly call a language as throughout this period the Elves communicated with metaphors instead of direct speech. For example if a Human were to say "The dog is walking" a Middle Elf would say "The creature feral yet poised in stature preying on the children of the low ground forest walking on grass as it would wind with speed of fortitude. It goes to such ridiculous lengths that Elven debates often lasted whole days with hours of breaks in between since a simple plea by one person could take up to three hours. This seems outer worldly to non Elves, but for Elves the ability to weave sentences with complex formation and metaphors is a high form of art, like a Human would listening to music.
- Middle Elven quickly lost its relevance after the Cataclysm due to the shattering of the Elven lands. Elves were pressed into a corner with Human and Orc encroachment, and suddenly cumbersome slow communication was no longer in their favor. For example if one were to see five Orcs and warn the other Elves, one would say "Five green skins ahead" instead of the Middle-Elven "The number equal to stars of the el'üe'ala of those who would destroy our legacy and glory in the direction that one must always face for the faith and fate of the children of val'üaye". By the time that phrase has been uttered, the Orcs would have likely already ambushed the Elves and killed them. For that simple reason, most non Talar Elves adopted modern Elven which simply uses a more direct speech. In modern times, only the Isldar and some Talar communes speak Middle Elven.
- Drow speak a more simplified form of Modern Elven that developed differently. Their statements are understandable to those speaking Modern Elven, but it always seems like they omit grammar and end words halfway. For example the Elven word Nchl¨'ylyenä would be shortened to Nchlye.
- In order to learn Modern Elven as an outsider, someone would have to spend almost 10 years studying from a tutor or school. Elven cannot be learned from "just listening" as the language is so radically different from any other language on Aloria. In many cases, Elves also have a tendency to take breaths in between phrases thus an entire phrase could sound like a single word. It takes just two years to even be able to understand where one word ends and the other begins. "Mhaï-uyleh 'yla¨olweya auwlïe'üe'a'ii lyalo'-awliye" is pronounced as nearly an entire word, yet it is an actual phrase.
Vashkularr being the Orc language, which in itself is a unique language in that it uses body language and gestures to indicate the severity or time definition of a sentence. Having to learn the Orc language is like needing to learn both the actual words as well as the gestures. A wrong gesture in the wrong location may cause an Orc to rip you apart as the meaning of a phrase may radically change from friendly to hostile. There really only is one Orc language as Orcs never found the need to change their language nor does their intellectual class (for as far as one exist) see a need to create separate languages. Tribes change membership so frequently that no specific dialect can truly remain settled.
Orc is similar to Elven in that it uses a certain "weaving" word class, though it omits grammar almost completely. For example a Human would say "Enemy ahead of us!", while an Orc would say "Khrukh dahkharr!" (enemy see) while bashing both fists onto the chest and then raising them up. If the fists were swung backwards, it means behind, and if one fist was raised on either side it would mean left or right. Sometimes gesture confusion may cause great offence. For example "I will see you later" being "Okh tharr khruul" (Me see late) is accompanied by a fist bump on the chest and then a flat hand near the left heart. This is a friendly gesture. If however the gesture is a fist bump on the chest followed by the fist resting at the side, it means "I'm going to kill you later when I see you".
Orc cannot simply be learned by "watching or listening". In order to learn Orc from indeed any other background, one would have to find a scholar that actually researches Orcs and even so this may take almost a decade. These tend to be rare as field examinations by Human scholars in Orc traditions tend to end in death. Extremely few Humans are fluent in Orc, being able to speak the language alone is half the struggle. The difficulty besides the fact that this language sounds nothing like any other language, is that the gestures are extremely strict and often also very similar. Similarly also, it is difficult for Orcs to teach their language to anyone who doesn't already speak it because they cannot properly express the meaning of slight intention differences. Things just "are the way they are" and if you don't understand it they can't explain the difference since they don't have a means to describe their gestures. The gestures to them are as much words as the words they speak. After all, how would a Human describe the word "Hello" to a foreigner without using their own language.
Inversely, Orcs have difficulty speaking any other language correctly because they don't see the point of grammar. Grammar over complicates phrases for them and adds unnecessary things that don't add anything to the value of a sentence. One could say that Orc is effectively a "dumb" language as it has a lot less words than any other language, mostly relying on gestures to define the differences between similar phrases. The phrase "I eat meat" can be interpreted as "I like eating meat" "I will eat your meat after I kill you" "I will eat no meat" "I am a hunter" "I am better than you" "I like turtles" all because of slightly differing gestures.
Mekett, Maiar
Mekett and Maiar are not learn able by any other race besides their own species. Maiar use a form of sonar communication that is only audible underwater. They sound like whale singing or dolphin screeching, but above water it sounds like scratching nails on a blackboard. Mekket have various unique appendages in their mouth which produce the various clicking noises within their language. Since literally every other race lacks these parts, only Mekett can speak their own language.
Dargan
The various Dargan languages are similar to trying to learn Finnish or Hungarian as a modern Englishman. These languages share no common ancestor so you have to start from square one in terms of phrasing, sequence and grammar. It can take upwards to 6 years to gain a decent understanding of any of them, and they are not mutually intelligible. Furthermore one will never be able to fully speak the Tigran or Thylan languages as they involve a lot of body language, howling and purring as well.
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