Realistic RP regarding languages and accents

[Incognito]

Zalanthas is huge, as worlds go, and the common tongue in most areas is Sirihish, everyone knows this. So, when you run into someone who speaks in the common tongue with you, its fine to treat the other person with a casualness that one would offer any stranger.

However, when it comes to the other languages, and especially accents, I strongly suggest that your PC react slightly differently.

Perhaps your elf is mildly curious as to how a human is speaking to you in fluent Allundean, and gives him some leeway in his dealings with you.
Or, perhaps your dune nomad is surprised that a dwarf is speaking in broken Bendune with a nomadic accent, and gives him a discount on some of your wares.
A dwarf might be impressed with a half-giant who speaks Mirukkim, and think about befriending him.
A rinther would be more inclined to speak freely in the presence of another who spoke with the same alley accent.
Of course, there can always be fanatical elves who might think that "round-ears" defile their tongue, and might turn on you if you spoke untainted Allundean.

The possibilities are myriad, and fascinating.....

While you might not give a second thought to someone speaking your language and accent in your neighbourhood, you would definitely blink and consider, if you met someone like that in a far-off part of the World.

In short, please take a moment when you make your character, to decide how he/she will deal with others, if they speak your tongue, or use your accent (Sirihish being the exception of course).

Language related RP has a lot of potential on Arm, and which most folks (including me) take for granted over time, or seem to forget, or simply disregard as being a game mechanism....and we end up losing some interesting quirks and changes in behavioural patterns in the bargain!

[Marauder Moe]

Indeed.

Though, people seem to play this pretty well.  In fact, I've personally witnessed most of those exact examples.

[bartenderer]

Makes me wish the way did not break the language barrier.

[Marauder Moe]

Makes me wish the way did not break the language barrier.

This.  Definitely.  Yes.

I've certainly ranted at length about this topic before, though.

[Bast]

I always give myself a headache when I type with an accent. I drop it while I'm speaking in my native and over the way because why would have an accent in your own language. Then pick it back up when I am speaking in my non native. It can get confusing when their is a bunch going.

Languages can certainty make for some interesting rp as well if you are not paying attention. Back in 2007 I picked up a certain language which commoners should not be speaking ever. Accidentally commented on something two Templars were saying to each other because i didn't notice they had changed lang's. Thankfully a certain Red Robe was my buddy. But I nearly peed myself when I realized what I had done.

[evilcabbage]

I always give myself a headache when I type with an accent. I drop it while I'm speaking in my native and over the way because why would have an accent in your own language. Then pick it back up when I am speaking in my non native. It can get confusing when their is a bunch going.

Languages can certainty make for some interesting rp as well if you are not paying attention. Back in 2007 I picked up a certain language which commoners should not be speaking ever. Accidentally commented on something two Templars were saying to each other because i didn't notice they had changed lang's. Thankfully a certain Red Robe was my buddy. But I nearly peed myself when I realized what I had done.

Yeahp, that would be an incredibly big mistake to make.

[kayza]

I do not agree.

As it depends entirely on the character's background.  Some may care, some might not, some even might be annoyed you are trying to speak their language.  

Too many variables to say.. this is how it should be done.


And besides.. an elf who meets a human who speaks Allundean is defiantly going to be thinking something... but it might not be oh wow this guy is great.

[Patuk]

An elf who meets any human ever is going to be thinking.. Ohmygosh which are the fifty ways this man will kill me. Anything out of the ordinary is likely to only make it worse.

[Morrolan]

An elf who meets any human ever is going to be thinking.. Ohmygosh which are the fifty ways this man roundear will might kill me if I were not the fastest, cleverest true person on the block. Anything out of the ordinary is likely to only make it worse be considered an opening through which said elf can work his schemes to take care of the roundear's pesky idea of "personal property".

ftfy

[My 2 sids]

Accents aren't just about how the word sounds, accents also reflects word choice.   Ya'll,  ending a sentence with a preposition, Eh?     All part of one's accent.

[Mr.B]

I think it was posted a long time ago that it was not cool for players to way halflings, for instance, to get around the language barrier and communicate. That said, realistically different languages in Zalanthas would probably be pretty different, and a native bendune speaker let's say, might have different word ordering and choice when it comes to speaking other languages. In one language you would say "The red Tor." In another, you could say "The Tor red." Both meaning the same thing, but a little confusing depending on the ear.

While I've seen it played out well many a time, in those special cases where there is a true language barrier I would encourage players not to use the way as a cranial instant messenger service and seek out those linguists or try to learn the language. Language is a super valuable skill in reality, and only grows more valuable with the amount of fluency and complexity of ideas you can convey and I think that it should be reflected in the game.

[musashi]

It's that discrepency that always bugged me. Using the Way to bridge the language barrier is ok elf to human, but not ok human to halfling. 

I'd rather the Way take language into account so that being a linguist (or a psion) is more useful when it comes to bridging language barriers. But! Now that we don't haz halflings anymore ... hey, constiency once more!

[Nyr]

It's that discrepency that always bugged me. Using the Way to bridge the language barrier is ok elf to human, but not ok human to halfling. 

There was a good reason for it, actually.  Most humanoids in Zalanthas (the playable races) communicate within culture that is very much different than the culture of halflings.

Halfling culture and mentality is very different from what we'll call human culture, despite the fact that it contains elves, half-elves, dwarves, half-giants, muls, etc., on Zalanthas.

It's just too alien - just as communication with a mantis, for example, is a case where the human mind simply cannot comprehend the patterns comprising the communication.  When halflings speak with non-halflings, they might communicate in flashes of images or emotion, but that is about the extent of it.  That's what I've urged the halfling players to stick with.

OOCly, we had a sudden rash of players doing "contact halfling" as soon as the clan opened, and I found this irritating.  They are not tiny humans, they don't want to come visit you, and they don't want to bring you baskets of delicious cookies and grubs from the Grey Forest.  You are not a person to them - you are meat on the hoof. On the positive side of my irritation, this did lead to interesting discussions and clarification of what such communication should look like, which I appreciated, and the halfling players have been swell about it, as far as I can tell, since then.

[Maker]

Accents aren't just about how the word sounds, accents also reflects word choice.   Ya'll,  ending a sentence with a preposition, Eh?     All part of one's accent.

Accent is just pronunciation.  You're thinking of dialect, which encompasses both accent and word choice.

[musashi]

There was a good reason for it, actually.  Most humanoids in Zalanthas (the playable races) communicate within culture that is very much different than the culture of halflings.

LIES! ALL FILTHY LIES!

... out of curiosity is it possible to make playable races get the "their mind is too foreign to you" message? Why not go in that direction? Like was done with mantis.

[BleakOne]

There was a good reason for it, actually.  Most humanoids in Zalanthas (the playable races) communicate within culture that is very much different than the culture of halflings.

LIES! ALL FILTHY LIES!

... out of curiosity is it possible to make playable races get the "their mind is too foreign to you" message? Why not go in that direction? Like was done with mantis.

I think it's because although their minds are 'humanoid', as such, they have a culture so vastly different and a way of thinking, speaking and looking at the world which diffes to much that even thought-to-thought communication is difficult.

[musashi]

Yes but read Sanvean's quote.

[SmashedTregil]

I 'loved' communicating with halflings in psies at one point. Neither one of us used actual words, we were communicating in images. The end result ... we confused the hell out of each other and to this day, I still dont know wtf was that dude talking about.

[BleakOne]

*you recieve the mental image of a large agafari tree, which slowly sways in the breeze. Moments later, it transforms into an obese woman with long hair, full of maggots. Three carru set upon the woman, eating her in a spray of gore. The carru then start dancing.*

[kayza]

Bring back halflings!
I want to eat people!

[hyzhenhok]

It's that discrepency that always bugged me. Using the Way to bridge the language barrier is ok elf to human, but not ok human to halfling. 

I'd rather the Way take language into account so that being a linguist (or a psion) is more useful when it comes to bridging language barriers. But! Now that we don't haz halflings anymore ... hey, constiency once more!

I do wish Linguist had some use besides eavesdropping and allowing elf-like breeds to actually have fluent Allundean.

[Scarecrow]

People from Luir's need a new accent, called 'Midlands'. They're not really northern, they are in the middle. Luir's folk aren't filthy Tulukis.

[musashi]

Clearly, your position is unassailable.

[Scarecrow]

Clearly, your position is unassailable.

Yep.

[Schrodingers Cat]

People from Luir's need a new accent, called 'Midlands'. They're not really northern, they are in the middle. Luir's folk aren't filthy Tulukis.

Back when Tuluk was in ruins before Allanak invaded Luir's was part of something called the Northlands Alliance.  This and their relative geographic location to the north (It's much easier to travel between the north/Tuluk and Luir's than from Allanak) is probably the justification for it being "norther".

I'd be a proponent of some kind of midlands accent because Luir's is different from Tuluk.  Luir's is the only location that's centralized as far as civilization goes.  Based on that, maybe it could be called a outlander accent, or maybe a Kuraci accent if we wanna get cute.  Luir's might also be a good candidate to offer the bendune/tribal accent also.  After all, outside of Kuraci personnel, it's most frequented by tribals.