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Old 05-29-2021, 05:31 PM   #1
Sam Baughn
 
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Default [Banestorm] Is there a more comprehensive list of languages anywhere?

Banestorm p. 33 lists:
  • Anglish (with Northland and Aralaise as dialects)
  • Old Aralaise
  • (Classical) Arabic
  • Latin
  • Ladino
  • Hebrew
  • Tredoy Patois (mix of Arabic and Anglish)
  • Elvish (Elven trade tongue)
  • an unnamed (universal) dwarf language
  • 'most nonhumans' have their 'own languages' (presumably at least one and probably more per race)
Fantasy: Tredroy adds:
  • French (descended from the medieval version, possibly the same language as Old Aralaise)
  • Italian
  • Chinese (with Maimaiyu as the main dialect spoken in Tredroy)
Is there anything more detailed out there? Official or not. I'm especially interested in whether any of the non-human languages actually have names other than 'elvish', 'gnomish', 'reptile-man language', etc.
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Old 05-29-2021, 05:54 PM   #2
Polydamas
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Is there a more comprehensive list of languages anywhere?

Elvish, gnomish, etc. presumably have names in their own language.

Realistically there should be hundreds of languages scattered around in pockets depending on who the Banestorm brought and who ended on top a hundred years later. The only events which could drive the spread of a single language in the last thousand years of Yrth history are the rise of the Megalan empire and the similar events that created the three (now two) Moslem states. And those were so long ago that Arabic and Anglish should be splintering like Arabic and the Romance language and the Sinitic (Chinese) languages in our world! I doubt any mortal on Yrth could list them all.

Maybe the colonization of Caithness since the indigenous (Orcish) population was exterminated or forced away.
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Old 05-30-2021, 05:43 AM   #3
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Is there a more comprehensive list of languages anywhere?

Banestorm, p.9: "...even today travelers can find isolated villages where almost all the inhabitants have black skin, worship Krishna and Vishnu, or speak undiluted German."

So a definitive list of languages would contradict the spirit of the book. Anything that could be there, might be there.
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Old 05-30-2021, 09:58 PM   #4
Polydamas
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Is there a more comprehensive list of languages anywhere?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters View Post
Banestorm, p.9: "...even today travelers can find isolated villages where almost all the inhabitants have black skin, worship Krishna and Vishnu, or speak undiluted German."

So a definitive list of languages would contradict the spirit of the book. Anything that could be there, might be there.
Thanks for providing the page reference!

GURPS 4e Banestorm reads like a toolkit not a setting bible. It seems written to let the GM tweak it in whichever direction she wants, not to constrain the GM.
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