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Scarey Nerd
2010-06-06, 12:06 PM
Do any of the sourcebooks from 3e and/or 3.5e have an orc phrasebook, like the "Races of..." books have phrasebooks for gnomes, elves, dwarves and halflings?

SaintRidley
2010-06-06, 12:16 PM
If I remember right, Races of Destiny had a couple words in Orcish.

Just take a Slavic or Germanic language and rip words from it. Pronounce them as you imagine they must be pronounced. Should get the feel.

J.Gellert
2010-06-06, 01:14 PM
http://www.angelfire.com/ia/orcishnations/englishorcish.html

Slavic or Germanic doesn't really fit, but All Orcs Are Different (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOrcsAreDifferent), so...

Spiryt
2010-06-06, 01:23 PM
Just take a Slavic or Germanic language and rip words from it. Pronounce them as you imagine they must be pronounced. Should get the feel.

But...

That covers about bazillion of different languages from Norsk and English to Montenegrin...

So that's quite broad advice.

lsfreak
2010-06-06, 01:26 PM
Stops: Enlgish, p, b, t, d, k, g, plus Arabic q
Guttural fricatives: German Bach, Hebrew Chanukkah, French/German R
Sibilants: s, z, Slavic hard sh/Mandarin sh/r
Vowels: No long e or short i
If you can manage it, Khoisan strident vowels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strident_vowel)

Generally no/few consonant clusters. Or alternatively, very hard-to-pronounce ones.

It's a language that probably wouldn't exist in reality, but it gets the right sounds across.

SaintRidley
2010-06-06, 01:27 PM
It's a wide range to choose from, but with little idea how you view orcs, I figured something broad was better than nothing.

Myself, I like my orcs to be a mix of Estonian and Dutch.

Although Estonian isn't really a Slavic language, as such.

Gametime
2010-06-06, 01:36 PM
http://www.angelfire.com/ia/orcishnations/englishorcish.html

Slavic or Germanic doesn't really fit, but All Orcs Are Different (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurOrcsAreDifferent), so...

Most modern conceptions of fantasy languages have little in common with how Tolkien imagined them, even when the races are taken largely from Tolkien's work. When was the last time you saw a dwarven language inspired by Hebrew in a fantasy game or work?