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Old 10-24-2017, 08:50 PM   #1
draxdeveloper
 
Join Date: Sep 2017
Default languages of Ytarria

I would like some suggestions in how I could expand the languages of Ytarria.
The book says that have other languages, but don't say anything about then. Also, i can't get how the main languages should sound.
I know that i can just do whatever i want, but i just want some suggestions.
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Old 10-24-2017, 09:07 PM   #2
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

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Originally Posted by draxdeveloper View Post
Also, i can't get how the main languages should sound.
Anglish has been largely separated from English since half way between Beowulf and Canterbury Tales. That could be your starting point and then you just figure in 900 years of linguistic drift. :)

I'm afraid it would be more linguistic drift than seen in our timeline because they haven't had as much publishing and no recording or broadcasting at all.

It could be even worse than that because our English sort of put down anchors when Shakespeare and the King James Bible came out. Those are the two biggest sources of quotations in our language. If Megalos didn't do something similar there could not only be linguistic drift in a different direction but a much higher speed.

So logic and scholarship are not likely to help you. Do whatever you think is cool but I'm afraid that the most that's likely to be practical at your gaming table is to have yokels far from the capitol speak with a thick dialect.
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Old 10-24-2017, 09:33 PM   #3
whswhs
 
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
It could be even worse than that because our English sort of put down anchors when Shakespeare and the King James Bible came out. Those are the two biggest sources of quotations in our language. If Megalos didn't do something similar there could not only be linguistic drift in a different direction but a much higher speed.
Does Megalos even speak Anglish? I think of them as strongly influenced by the Byzantine Empire, and more remotely by the original Roman Empire. I would think their native language would be Greek, probably with an archaic upper class form (never having been conquered by the Turks, they wouldn't have seen Greek reduced to a peasant language) and a slangier working class form that still wouldn't be as worn down as Modern Greek. And the people in Caithness who do speak English probably have fewer French and Latin loanwords and many more Greek ones, including most of their legal and technical vocabulary.

One thing that might be worth a look is Poul Anderson's essay, "Uncleftish Beholdings." This is an essay on the philosophy of science written in an English that completely avoids non-Germanic roots. It may help give the flavor.

Really, though, there's not much point in trying to convey the sound of non-Anglish languages. Even if you're enough of a philological scholar to work them out, your players have very little chance of appreciating them. You could get just as much or little effect by playing a bit of Arabic at them, or Modern Greek, or Icelandic.
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Old 10-24-2017, 10:45 PM   #4
evileeyore
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

For some interesting language drift ideas I like to turn to Langfocus, a youtuber who digs shallowly into the hows and whys of languages, language drifts, and where words came from.

For example:
Anglish - Completely Germanic Version of English
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Old 10-24-2017, 10:53 PM   #5
David Johansen
 
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

Without looking at the book I can think of a number of likely dialects.

Anglish would probably be different in Western and Eastern Megalos. Attrere or whatever the TL 4 ring islands are would be different again.

Al Haz, Al Wazif, and the Djinn lands probably have their own dialects of Arabic. Cardiel probably has a pidgin mix that outsiders couldn't hope to understand.

Orcish is probably different in the orc and nomad lands.

Nomad tribes probably have their own dialects. The elves are probably fussy about their language and have only one dialect.

Goblins have their own language but individual communities probably have some differences relating to local matters. I think goblin merchants probably do a lot to keep the language unified.

I don't think Kobolds or Gargoyles cling to any native language but I suspect the dialog from one group to another would be pretty much unintelligible.

Reptile men have their own language of course, as do Dragons but I don't see them being diverse enough to develop dialects.

Centaurs probably have their own language and this may be true of other intelligent monster races. If ghouls still exist in their original form in your campaign they would have their own language as well.
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Old 10-25-2017, 06:53 AM   #6
Fred Brackin
 
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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Does Megalos even speak Anglish? .
Yes, that's p.33 of Banestorm says. Not even a hint of Greek linguistically beyond some word roots that are probably second hand through Latin. Latin is the Christian liturgical language too.

Most of the time the "legions" appear to be Republicans with gladii rather than cataphractoi too.

The main resemblance to the Byzantine Empire would appear to be superficial.
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Old 10-25-2017, 07:11 AM   #7
a humble lich
 
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

I'm not sure I'd say superficial, but more that the founder of Megalos was specifically modeling his new empire on the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire was also "modeled" on the Roman Empire. (In their case it wasn't modeled on Rome and more was the surviving continuation of Rome.) So I think there are some real resemblances, but no direct connection.

As for languages, I would suspect that Anglish has borrowed even more words from other languages than modern English has. After the Banestorm there were large groups of people speaking many different languages which were thrust together all of a sudden. I would imagine some form of creole would soon develop, which eventually evolved into Anglish. But given that there were originally many non-English speakers amount the Barnstorm victims, I would imagine that those people would have left a linguistic mark.

I had thought that the book also says that there are small isolated communities where other Earth languages have survived; however, I can't find where it says that right now. But it makes sense. If there was a entire village of Basque speakers taken by the Banestorm, they would probably still speak a descendent of Basque, and then also speak Anglish to outsiders.
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Old 10-25-2017, 02:49 PM   #8
dcarson
 
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You don't have radio/tv to smooth dialects. So there is more of a continuous change between places that speak similar languages. Even in the early sixties my parents noticed that going 50 miles in Germany when my dad was stationed there for a few years meant a noticeable shift in accent. So a -1 Familiarity penalty until you have a couple hours to get used to the local accent.
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Old 10-25-2017, 08:54 PM   #9
draxdeveloper
 
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

Wow, I din't know that Anglish was a real thing.
There any other real language reference there?
Also, the language that they most haven "forgot" is the Sahudese, i really can't imagine how the hell is this.
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Old 10-25-2017, 09:31 PM   #10
draxdeveloper
 
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Default Re: languages of Ytarria

Another thing, How i should put the cost of Tedroy Patrois?
It's says it that "Native Anglish or Yrth Arabic speakers can learn this without a teacher just as easily" so it's fair that who have native anglish or Arabic have less cost on this. But they not say how.
They say that Anglish And Aralaise have familiarity on accented and anglish and Northland on Broken... But what about Patrois?
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