Related Languages

[mrguymiah]

How should related languages be handled?

In the real world, many languages are similar enough to other languages that native speakers can understand each other, relatively speaking. Danish and Swedish, French and Spanish, etc. I'm planning to do a campaign in an area with several languages like this and was curious how people think it should be handled.

My idea was to allow communication, but diplomacy, which isn't usually allowed if you don't share a language, has a penalty of -4.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I think in thr standard game these language families are already a single skill. Want to talk to giants or large monstrous humanoids anywhere in the world? A single skill.

What you suggest sounds good. Maybe add in that languages related to one you already have only cost half a skill point?

[Geddy2112]

Have the player roll linguistics for complicated things, otherwise if the two can speak to each other in their native tongue and understand each other fine, there should be no issue.

[Eldariel]

You'd have to rebuild the whole language system for this to really make sense. Make it scales, make rudiments and writing and speaking and so on separate, make it a matter of points invested into each skill, etc.

[Necroticplague]

How should related languages be handled?

Related languages are already covered by the normal Speak Languages skill. One language learned isn't just one language, it's an entire group of languages. After all, why would the feral cave troll speak in the same tongue as the noble cloud giant? They don't speak the same language, but it's close enough that knowing one let's you talk in the other sufficiently. Thus they're both 'Giant', despite being different languages.

[mrguymiah]

Related languages are already covered by the normal Speak Languages skill. One language learned isn't just one language, it's an entire group of languages. After all, why would the feral cave troll speak in the same tongue as the noble cloud giant? They don't speak the same language, but it's close enough that knowing one let's you talk in the other sufficiently. Thus they're both 'Giant', despite being different languages.

Huh. I never really thought of it like that. The logic won't work for my campaign, but it is interesting to contemplate.

[Buufreak]

I think you over categorized earth language, especially European. It isn't Spanish, French, Italian, etc. It's Germanic, Latin, Grecoroman and Celtic. Those are where all the languages evolved from, and serve as a base, which is why the similarities you've noticed exist. Now, feel free to figure out which English derives from.

[Goaty14]

A language is similar if both of the languages share the same alphabet, the table is in the PHB.

[BWR]

I run PF and have adopt some ideas from Ars Magica. Each player notes which dialect of any given language they speak, and I'll require Linguistics rolls if they encounter something they aren't familiar with. Usually we can reduce mostly similar languages to something like "you guys spend some time figuring out what the other is saying, but you manage to get the point across". More distantly related languages have higher DCs and convey less detailed information. At the risk of making things too complicated, I'd probably say that Diplomacy gets a penalty based on the Linguistics DC to communicate, and a high enough Linguistics roll reduces the penalty.
Fortunately, the Mystara fan community has done a lot (http://www.pandius.com/lang2.html) of work (http://www.pandius.com/eth_lang.html)which make my job easier.

[Gildedragon]

Hmmm
Honestly assume that divine intervention and adventurers constantly moving about keep languages fairly homogeneous, with drift not going much further than dialects.

For example: elven clerics commune fairly regularly with elven racial gods, use "speak with dead", run into elven ghosts, wizards learn from their masters very precise spells that the masters learned from their masters... and then go settle in some remote part to ply their trade, Bards wander the world repeating the old odes and epics regularly... Etc
These things probably keep sermons in a sort of high language (whatever the god speaks), and the constant people flow disperses this.
So there's a bit of cultural stasis... Sort of why empires in DnD last millenia with ease

[BWR]

Hmmm
Honestly assume that divine intervention and adventurers constantly moving about keep languages fairly homogeneous, with drift not going much further than dialects.

For example: elven clerics commune fairly regularly with elven racial gods, use "speak with dead", run into elven ghosts, wizards learn from their masters very precise spells that the masters learned from their masters... and then go settle in some remote part to ply their trade, Bards wander the world repeating the old odes and epics regularly... Etc
These things probably keep sermons in a sort of high language (whatever the god speaks), and the constant people flow disperses this.
So there's a bit of cultural stasis... Sort of why empires in DnD last millenia with ease

Moving about didn't keep languages homogenous in the real world, so I don't see why it should in a fantasy world. With the prevalence of interpretation magic there' s actually less incentive to learn other languages or standardize than there is IRL. Gods can generally speak whatever language they want so they don't need to standardize. And not every setting has empires that are millennia old. Come to think of it, most of the canon countries (just to broaden the scope a bit) are significantly younger than this.

[Thurbane]

The PHB II feat Wanderer's Diplomacy and the RoD feat Smatterings both have some rules in regards to basic communication when you don't have a shared language. Maybe look to them for inspiration on how to handle related languages (one involves Sense Motive checks, the other spending days to be able to handle basic communication)?