Features in languages

[Morrolan]

So, I was thinking about various languages, and how some information is encoded in them automatically...and this led to me thinking about how this might apply to different languages in Armageddon.

Example:  Some languages here in RL distinguish between 1st person plural a) including the audience, and b) excluding the audience.

Ex a: We should go hunt some tembo.  Are we ready?
Ex b: We're going to kill you for that.

This would be a really cool feature to include in Allundean...tribal thinking lends itself to this distinction.  Now, I'm not saying we should create a new word...in fact when using allundean as a language, I wouldn't think about it at all.

BUT, when speaking another language, it would be really cool to literally translate some ideas in more wordy ways.

Code Select Expand

change language sirihish

Ex a: We with you should go hunt some tembo.
Ex b: We the tribe are going to kill you for that.

Any other ideas like this for the various languages in game?  Ways that other native languages would translate their ideas and make the cultures more distinct?

[side-note: I would love to see Northern and Southern Sirihish actually codedly diverge into separate languages over time...this would be -really cool.]

Morrolan

[Larrath]

This is problematic to document and to follow.  It's enough to have the bunch of phrases we already have (Walk in His Shadow, Krath!, Shade and Water, et cetera), adding other terms to other languages can simply make it too hard.

Allundean might have a lot of words regarding theft, tribes and tribemates, and Cavilish might have two dozen words for 'purchase' and 'haggle'.  And of course, then you have languages that borrow from other languages and you get really get everything mixed up.

The best way is to simply write what you mean in-game:
"We should go hunt some tembo.  Are we ready, brothers?"
"My tribe will kill you for this."


But really, I usually use the same language for any IC language I'm using.  Call me lazy, but as much as this can add to the game it can also grow very tiresome at times.  It's enough to have one set of lingual habits to remember, having different habits for each language can become too much for me.
So I say, invent and experiment!  If you can pull off the various highlights each language has without sounding academic ICly, I say bravo.  But I see no point documenting this because I believe most people would rather not go this far.

[spawnloser]

I love it when any language discussion comes up, and here's why:

Our characters are not speaking english, german, czech, canadian, or whatever.  They're speaking sirihish.  We're just putting the meaning into a sentence which reads to us as english, but is understood by our characters as sirihish, allundean, mirrukim, and etc.

That said, to address what Larrath said about 'same language for any IC language,' when playing a character that doesn't speak a language natively or whatnot, when speaking that language I intentionally use odd or short phrases, simpler words, and often with a typed accent.  When speaking the native language, though, my character will speak with a normal amount of fluency.  How I mangle the non-native language, though, all depends on the character and the culture it is from.