PDA

View Full Version : Cool Method for Names in Roleplaying Games



zorba1994
2009-03-25, 03:29 PM
A technique that I use a lot to name places in games is to assign a language in real life to each in game language. Then, whenever I need to name a city by that race, I use that language.

For example, a Draconic Enclave, Big Tree, becomes the majestic Atzegodal when transformed into Hebrew (Etz- Tree, Gadol-Big)


What you do, is take two words describing the place, then take their equivalent in the foreign language. To throw off people who speak that language, change around some of the vowels.

If you don't know a language, there are many online dictionaries to help you in your search


Here is my guide for the 4e languages (plus some that I add myself, like Halfling or Orc)


Common: English, because this is what msot people speak all the time

Deep Speech: Swahilli

Draconic: I'm gonna pick Hebrew, because it is completely different from English, and it encompasses many different noises.

Dwarven: Dwarven comes from Giant, and because Giant is Polish, I'll make Dwarven Russian

Elven: Arabic, because there are a lot of s's and l's, like Tolkienesque Elven. I also like the fact that it is very similar to Draconic

Giant: Polish because it sounds guttural

Goblin: Japanese. I don't know, it just feels right.

Gnomish: I want it to be similar to Halfling, so I will pick Italian

Halfling: Spanish, since I want it to be very similar to English

Orc: I'll go with German, as it also sounds gruff

Primordial: I'll use Icelandic, because it is about as foreign as it gets, as well as encompassing a lot of sounds

Supernal: I'll use Quecha (Incan), I just want exotic stuff now

Abyssal: Sioux, for same reason as above



I hope this is helpful in some way, and that it has not been done before (I've been on this forum for a short time, I'm not really sure what's been done yet.)

Asbestos
2009-03-25, 03:42 PM
I think the language breakdown for 4e goes as follows, according to the character builder.

Supernal: The language of the gods.
Elven: Debased form of supernal as the elves first heard it.
Dwarven: Ditto but for dwarves.
Draconic: Ditto but for dragons.
Goblin: Ditto but for goblins.

Primordial: The language of the primordials.
Abyssal: A debased, eviled up version of primordial.
Giant: A debased form of primordial as the giants first heard it.

Deep Speech: Related to the alien communication of the Far Realm.





For the ones based on Supernal I'd imagine that the shorter the generation time of the race using it, the more altered the language is from the original.

Book Wyrm
2009-03-25, 05:28 PM
Polish is a Slavic language, not a Germanic language. Thus if you want Dwarven to be a descendant language of Giants you should choose a different root. Either stick with Giant as German and switch Dwarvish to Dutch, Swedish, or something similar; or switch Giant to something like Serbian or Czech. Although, since Russian is also a Slavic language, now your crossing Giant, Orc, and Dwarven.

Also, Tolkien's elven languages (Sindarin and Quenya) were highly influenced by Celtic languages. Although one of Tolkien's two languages is so complete there are people who can actually speak it.

I do like the idea of basing the Goblinoid languages on Eastern languages. I would change Hobgoblin to Japanese (hobgoblin society is basically a feudal japan rip off), and Goblins and Bugbears to different forms of Chinese, like Mandarin and Cantonese.

And if your looking for something really exotic for Supernal, Abyssal, and Primordial I'd look at American Indian or Central American languages.

Lastly, Portuguese and Spanish are so close, I'd change Halfling or Gnomish to Italian. Its a romantic language like Spanish and similar to English, yet different enough to distinguish the gnomes from the halflings. Although I've always imagined gnomes speaking Arabic for some reason.

Oh, and I'd use Klingon for deep speech. Its supposed to be alien right?

my 2 cp.

zorba1994
2009-03-25, 08:21 PM
Polish is a Slavic language, not a Germanic language. Thus if you want Dwarven to be a descendant language of Giants you should choose a different root. Either stick with Giant as German and switch Dwarvish to Dutch, Swedish, or something similar; or switch Giant to something like Serbian or Czech. Although, since Russian is also a Slavic language, now your crossing Giant, Orc, and Dwarven.

Also, Tolkien's elven languages (Sindarin and Quenya) were highly influenced by Celtic languages. Although one of Tolkien's two languages is so complete there are people who can actually speak it.

I do like the idea of basing the Goblinoid languages on Eastern languages. I would change Hobgoblin to Japanese (hobgoblin society is basically a feudal japan rip off), and Goblins and Bugbears to different forms of Chinese, like Mandarin and Cantonese.

And if your looking for something really exotic for Supernal, Abyssal, and Primordial I'd look at American Indian or Central American languages.

Lastly, Portuguese and Spanish are so close, I'd change Halfling or Gnomish to Italian. Its a romantic language like Spanish and similar to English, yet different enough to distinguish the gnomes from the halflings. Although I've always imagined gnomes speaking Arabic for some reason.

Oh, and I'd use Klingon for deep speech. Its supposed to be alien right?

my 2 cp.

Giant is now Polish, Dwarven is now Russian, Orc is now German.

In my campaign setting, all goblinoids speak the same thing

I was actually originally going to do Italian for the Gnomes, but I changed it at the last moment.

For deep speech, (I forgot about it, never came back to it!) I'm using Swahilli

Supernal is now Quecha (Incan Language). Abyssal is now Sioux (No offense to the Sioux intended), I'm keeping Primordial as Icelandic.

lsfreak
2009-03-25, 09:22 PM
So do you know how to do the weird pronunciations, or just using English sounds? :p Just glancing at the phonetics they use...

Quechua looks good to me, it lacks the "hard" sounds (no d/b/g/j, just t/p/k/ch). If you really know what you're doing, the ejectives seem a bit out of place, but most people don't even know what those are :p

Lakota looks good as well. Some guttural stuff we don't have, and it's got ejectives too. Seems like a demon language should have d/g/b, though.

Swahili looks great. Lots of stuff that English doesn't have - consonants that are nasal when they "shouldn't" be, a couple sounds we don't have (rolled k/g, ), implosives that suck air into the throat rather than pushing it out.

Kami2awa
2009-03-26, 04:47 AM
Sounds a very nice idea. I also like giving meaningful names to characters, often twisting the meaning through some hoops to prevent players deducing the NPCs personality from their name. An example is Kamizawa, which translates* as 'marsh spirit' and was the name of a villain in a Call of Cthulhu game.

*Roughly. Very roughly, in Japanese according to online dictionaries. Probably inaccurate.

Quincunx
2009-03-26, 04:53 AM
How Do You Hear the D&D Languages? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48651)

Real Languages in D&D, is this idea a good one, or not worth it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79352)

Cool previous discussions about the languages, with many possible pairings, but not so much about names derived from them.

Dixieboy
2009-03-26, 02:00 PM
Do you really speak all those languages? :smalleek:
You impress me good sir.

I only speak one dead language, (Latin, don't ask) and implementing names from that is simply a waste of time. Since half of the English words are based on latin ones as it is, combine with the fact that latin is very, very recognizable.

lsfreak
2009-03-26, 02:33 PM
More than likely, it's finding an English->x dictionary. If you're capable of spending time grasping different phonetics, I'd highly suggest going over to wikipedia and getting IPA pronunciations for words. That would go a long way for making languages seem foreign, especially Deep/Swahili.

Speaking of which, I got looking. If you can pull it off (and find a dictionary that has the right pronunciations), Dahalo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahalo_language) seems to be perfect for Deep Speech. Unfamiliar nasalization, strange ways of pronouncing normal letters (pulling air in rather than pushing it out, or "spitting" them), a couple strange L-sounds, and it's even got four clicks.

(Also, nevermind about Sioux. I looked up Lakota, which lacks d/b/k; Dakota has it).

zorba1994
2009-03-27, 08:13 PM
Do you really speak all those languages? :smalleek:
You impress me good sir.

I only speak one dead language, (Latin, don't ask) and implementing names from that is simply a waste of time. Since half of the English words are based on latin ones as it is, combine with the fact that latin is very, very recognizable.

I do use an English-"x" dictionary, however, I originally got this idea from languages I know, as I speak Hebrew and Spanish as second languages.


From one of the links

Spanish Halflings
Wow, I'm telepathic:smalltongue:

Knaight
2009-03-27, 09:14 PM
Its a good method, for prep work. It falls apart in improvisational play(kind of, some people speak a lot of languages, I can usually pull something out of spanish, greek, or latin. I'm not fluent in any of them, but I do have a lot more fluency than my current bunch of players.) for most people.

arguskos
2009-03-27, 09:21 PM
Also, Tolkien's elven languages (Sindarin and Quenya) were highly influenced by Celtic languages. Although one of Tolkien's two languages is so complete there are people who can actually speak it.
I believe this would be Sindarin, IIRC. I actually knew a guy who spoke it. Beautiful sounding language, really a pleasure to listen to. Great conversation starter too. :smallwink:

Book Wyrm
2009-03-28, 02:15 AM
@dixieboy: Theres no way anyone could actually speak all of the languages listed so far. The idea is more using the amazing powers of the internet to find x->English translators so one could convey cultural differences and similarities through nomenclature.

I agree with the other posters, it requires a decent amount of preparation and some knowledge of pronunciation and phonetics. Romantic and Germanic languages are generally pretty easy to use since English is derived from both groups, while African, Asian, and ancient native languages require a bit more work. I find picking a language you can associate with a D&D race adds character and coherence to the game, especially if you're using your own homebrewed world. Just watch out for people who speak other languages, because they tend to catch you at your own game and can ruin the atmosphere.

Knaight
2009-03-28, 11:26 AM
Not necessarily. I know someone who, at age 15, was fluent in five languages. I know of people who know upwards of 40 languages.

Shades of Gray
2009-03-28, 12:04 PM
I like the idea of draconic being Latin. Oldschool latin. Fits them well concept wise, not necessarily with the sounds.

Although hebrew has a good feel to it.

zorba1994
2009-03-28, 02:53 PM
@dixieboy:

homebrewed world. Just watch out for people who speak other languages, because they tend to catch you at your own game and can ruin the atmosphere.

There was a part at the beginning where I said that I change up the vowels. For example: Etz (tree) gadol (big) would immediately be caught by my Hebrew speaking players (a few of them do). However, Atzegodil, by changing up the vowels does not trigger any alarms.


@shades of gray: Latin is kinda the stereotypical dragon language isn't it? I wanted something fresher, and also, that's where this idea came from, as I can actually speak Hebrew. Also, with Hebrew, you can get dragon names like Shachorchoach (black strength).