Fantasy Dictionaries

[BiblioRook]

I love languages, so it almost goes without saying that I love using them ingame, it always gives me a sense of being more ingrained in the setting. Whenever I have spare skill points I almost always try buying up as many as make sense for my character.

Problem (or rather, annoyance) I seem to be running into is that no one else seems to care anymore about fleshing out the world and ever actually enforcing languages. It's always ether everyone conveniently speaks nothing but Common or what I then to call 'enforced dubbing' where any exchanges in another language are more done like "...he says [This, this, and this] in Elvish, but none of you actually understand it except for the Ranger".

Anyways, now that I possibly might be running my own games soon, this is one thing I very much want to include. I was wondering if there were any actual dictionaries for fantasy languages (not just Elvish) out there that I would be able to use.

[NotScaryBats]

I speak Japanese, so use real Japanese words in game when someone is speaking a language no one knows.
Do you speak any foreign languages?

[The Rose Dragon]

Enforce the idea (not present in D&D, if that's what you're playing, but then again, it is D&D) that Common is a pidgin, rather than a lingua franca. It won't communicate anything other than essentials, such as trade, asking for food, water, shelter and first introductions. If anyone wants to do more with anyone, they have to share a common language other than Common. That should prevent the everyone speaking Common problem.

That said, there are a number of conlangs available online. They key is picking the right one for the right culture and actually learning them enough to be able to speak them on the spot. It is easier for written word, but most conlangs also have their own alphabets (which I find awkward, since a lot of languages on Earth share the Latin alphabet).

[Rainshine]

Yes, there are. Most of the more developed ones are courtesy of a fellow named Tolkien: you can find Dwarvish and Elvish dictionaries readily available online. I'll refrain from suggesting one, so as to not bias which dialect you might pick. I suggest googling Orcish/Elvish/etc. dictionary, and picking one. Frankly, your players aren't likely going to have the faintest idea what you're saying, whether it be gibberish or Sindarin.
There are two other ways. One, as already mentioned, would be to use a real-world language. That is fine for conveying confusion, but the any players who understand the language it represents might still need an English translation. The other way that I've used for utilizing in-game language is handouts. For instance, give the rogue that understands Giant a small "dictionary" of sheets, perhaps fifty or a hundred words. Then, once they have cleared the guardroom, they spot a large bulletin posted -- and give them a copy of it. The rogue can translate it, the rest of them aren't so fortunate.

[Eldan]

Similar to the hand-out thing, but:

Don't let the players translate from a word list... that takes a lot of time and would probably become tedious soon, especially if the rest of the group can only watch.

What I usually did was check what languages everyone spoke and writing everything that was not understood by everyone on small cards, then handing them to the player in question. He can then either keep it to himself, or translate for the rest.

But I used these cards a lot anyway for everything not everyone in the group new. My group was fine with keeping knowledge secret that way.

Also: racial languages. Common might be well-established world-wide, but that doesn't mean everyone wants to speak it. Look at English in the real world. Sure, a lot of people speak it, but I've met plenty of people who dn't actually like it.
You are an ambassador to the Elven lands. Yes, the Elven minister speaks common, but this is his country, and if you want anything from him, you should speak Elven.

[Kurald Galain]

Anyways, now that I possibly might be running my own games soon, this is one thing I very much want to include. I was wondering if there were any actual dictionaries for fantasy languages (not just Elvish) out there that I would be able to use.

I'd suggest you play Planescape Torment; you'll be speaking cant for weeks.

Also, Watership Down has a nice, if limited, Lapine vocabulary.

[Deadly]

You can always make your own languages. That's what I like to do myself. It's a lot of work, and difficult to do well I've found. If you're interested, Google "conlang", "constructed language" or the like and you should find plentiful material to get you started. Wikipedia is also a pretty good source for linguistic topics, I've found.

If you just want a dictionary with lots of alien looking words that noone understands, then a simple cipher of English will do, in which case all you have to do is take a list of common English words and make corresponding gibberish words for each. There are plenty of these out there, though, so a search may spare you the work.

You can also use Google Translate, using a real-world language, as already suggested.

[hewhosaysfish]

Anyways, now that I possibly might be running my own games soon, this is one thing I very much want to include. I was wondering if there were any actual dictionaries for fantasy languages (not just Elvish) out there that I would be able to use.

So if someone wants there character to be able to speak more than one language (i.e. they're any race other than human or they're a human with Int 12+) they have to go out and learn a whole new language?

That sounds like a very good way to have the entire party consist of Int 10 humans.

I would say: go with Eldan's notecard scheme.

[Darth Stabber]

In my primary homebrew setting I have a very simplified language conversion system that works well servicably.

Common (aka the human language) is English (with an recieved English or Welsh accent if I want to enforce it (I don't))

Halflings speak common and halflingish (Gaelic), and have an Irish accent when speaking common.

Dwarven is Swedish, but speak common with a Scottish accent (genre convention)

Draconic is Latin, and all of the elven languages are based on it (ie romance languages).

High elven is French, wood elven is Spanish, and undercommon (dark elven) is Italian.

Orcish is not rarely written (never have I actually shown it), but it's accent is a roughly German

Giants have a vaguly Nordic accent (i can't fake it well, and neither can my players)

Celestial is accented roughly as hebrew.

I still need to do Infernal and Abyssal (suggestions?)

I am not fluent in languages that are not english, so it's quite rare when i actually put the time into using the system fully, mostly it's just to iron out accents enough that the players can tell one race from another verbally. Before any one screams as me, I am not comparing other countries to those races, I am just trying to make stuff fit, and restrict myself to European languages (since that is general feel of D&D as a whole). The only logic actually involved is making Draconic the root of elven, and having elven langauges come from the same root. That and I always thought of Halflings as leprechauns.

[BiblioRook]

The notecard thing was what I already had in mind. Unfortunately I don't actually know any other real-world languages myself (Not for lack of trying though, this probably excludes the possibility of inventing a new one as well.), so it's not like I was planning on completely alienating any players that didn't pick up a few languages, it's more as a means of adding flavor to the world and maybe the occasional toying.

Sadly, even with the notecards, the people I play with tend to be way to meta for stuff like 'secret information' to fly. So in the end this is likely more for my own enjoyment then for theirs. Still would be nice to see who goes with it and who doesn't, I find the notion that some could possibly 'mistranslate' information rather humorous.
As for Tolken, I put in an order for a book on Middle-Earth languages just before I posted this topic.

[WalkingTarget]

There's somebody out there who can rival Tolkien as far as fictional languages go. M.A.R. Barker.

Specifically, he developed and published a full grammar, dictionary, primer, and even pronunciation tapes/cds for his language Tsolyáni (and at least grammar guides for 4 more languages for his Tékumel setting - originally a campaign setting published by TSR).

You can get PDF versions of at least some of the books from DriveThruRPG. I don't know if there were more recent releases for them or not.