Banestorm language question - english?
 

Hi I am very new to Banestorm.

Reading page 33 in the book. There is a lot about different languages.
However something is unclear to me:

How well would a person with modern day english be able to understand Anglish?


The wording, with the "heavy norman-french influence" reference, seems to indicate that it closely resembles our-world English. But it's not stated outright.


I am planning on running a "people from our modern world ends up on Yrth"-game. However they will be Danish people with a mix of accented-level english in a weird mix of british/american english.
so how well will they understand Anglish?


...I know I could just rule anything from "not at all" to "somewhat" to "perfectly well", depending on what I want. But I am unsure what I actually want yet, so going with "how would it be per the rules" is as good a guideline as any.

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

From further down p.33, English won't help you. French might if you land in just the right place. Being able to read Classical Arabic and speak either Classical or modern Arabic is good in the Muslim places, and Church Latin is good in Christian lands - these will at least let you speak to scholars and other educated people.

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

Ok. I just thoguht part of the point of the setting was that "most people speak almost-english". So words, names, and so on will be "in character" if in english.

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

From GURPS Banestorm p. 33, "The Christian nations of Yrth speak Anglish, a language evolved from medieval English with heavy outside influences, mostly Norman-French." Keep in mind that the works of William Shakespeare and the (original) King James Bible are written in early Modern English.

If someone's doing a historical campaign set centuries in the past, the vignette on p. 5 has "His English had an odd accent." So an English speaker could understand the local English/Anglish.

In a modern campaign, keep in mind Niall of Fordham on p. 117. He is a native English speaker and writer, but spent full points for Anglish--there is no default between the two.

In a modern-day vignette in the current draft of my upcoming first GURPS book, GURPS Fantasy Folk: Elves, I have a Banestorm victim from Earth who's talked to but "can't understand a word of that stuff."

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

Since the Banestorm happened in 1050, the "medieval English" mentioned is Old English, just prior to the Norman Conquest.

How well do you understand this? https://youtu.be/oFX1nbD3dV0

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

The "heavy Norman-French influence on the language" makes me think Anglish is closer to the Middle English of Chaucer..

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

True, the first Banestorm did happen in 1050, which is before the (to me somewhat arbitrary) 1066 cut-off point between Old and Middle English.

But keep in mind this on p. 7 on Banestorm activity: "Most of this occurred between the years 1050 and 1200 A.D., the approximate time of the Crusades on Earth." (And yes, I know some would put a gray area from Old to Middle English through about 1150.)

As much of the more modern people (1150 - 1200) would be alive when the earlier ones were dead, and as people generally seem to be more oriented toward learning new words than leaning old ones, I would lean to Middle English as having been primary. But as in all things, it's the GM's call.

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

On both of these, keep in mind that we don't actually know how they pronounced words because there are, of course, no period recordings. Think of how differently two modern English speakers might recite the same modern paragraph.

I remember seeing a video of an acting troupe that included Patrick Stewart (the video was made before Star Trek: The Next Generation). The suspicion there was that Elizabethan English (around 1600) sounded less like what we might hear in Elizabethan movies and more like what we think of as "pirate talk."

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

I've heard Shakespearean English is most closely related to Appalachian mountain dialect (or something like that).

Don't have the link, so possibly remembering it wrong or the source was wrong.

Re: Banestorm language question - english?
 

I've read something like that too, although I think there is a strong Scottish and/or Irish influence there.