It makes no real sense that Humans in
the Ostschild setting would speak Dwarf, or Goblin or Elfin or any of
a dozen or more other fantasy languages common to D&D. This is a
more historically based setting, so I thought I'd toss in some
historical languages. All PCs are going to speak the common language
of Humans in Ostschild, which is Frankish, by a nose over Wendish.
Dwarfs will speak Dwarf, which is said
to be similar to the tongue of the Northmen. Elfs will speak Elfin,
the language of the courts of Faerie. Halflings have no special
tongue of their own, but speak the tongues of men in their vicinity.
The Languages of Men
Local Languages
Frankish, Wendish.
Frankish not only hangs on in Ostschild
as a prestige language, even as it evolves into French to the west;
but it prospers, replacing the Wendish tongue in the region. Frankish
is a Germanic language, with a lot of Latin loan words, not unlike
modern English in that regard.
Wendish is a Slavic language, the
ancestor of modern Czech and Slovak, it is the language of the
population that was conquered by Charlemagne.
Nearby Languages
To the North – German, Norse.
To the East – Polish, Russian, Cuman.
To the South – Italian, Romanian,
Serbian, Magyar.
To the West – German, Wendish.
Further afield – Greek, English,
Breton, Bulgarian, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, Occitan, Turkish,
Arabic, Farsi, Dutch, Finnish, Basque. All of these languages have
lots of dialects and regional variants, D&D isn't a language
simulator though, and adding that kind of complexity seems kind of
pointless, so I have made some arbitrary decisions about languages
here. Hell, maybe this is already too complex.
Religious Languages
Latin,Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic.
The languages of the old and new testaments, plus the Koran. There
are other holy languages in the world than these ones obviously,
Sanskrit comes to mind, but these are the languages that are likely
to be seen in the Ostschild setting.
Magical Languages
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic,
Sumerian, Demotic, Coptic, Etruscan, Minoan, pretty much any ancient
language will work. I am adding this category, because I am always
tinkering with the game, and my current thinking is that Magic-Users
keep their Grimoires (Spell Books) written in some ancient tongue
rather than in some special esoteric “magical” language.
Non-Human languages
Dwarf and Elfin are the two key
languages here. I am unsure whether or not the campaign really needs
any others. My current thinking is that Goblins and other Fey
creatures probably speak some lower class dialect of the Elfin
tongue. Dwarfs speak their own elder Nordic tongue. I honestly don't
see any need for a “Draconic” language, or really any other
fantasy languages. In folklore the odd creatures all speak the
tongues of men anyway.
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