Real Languages in D&D, is this idea a good one, or not worth it

[Maroon]

In one campaign that never got off the ground, we would have used these accents for flavor:
Common is plain English (as in Home Countries English);
Dwarves have a Scottish accent (well, duh);
Gnomes have an Irish accent;
Halflings have a Welsh accent (for the Hobbit-types, at least -- the others have a Liverpool or Northern Irish accent);
Elves have a Yorkshire accent (it's archaic and comes from Vikings);
The 'lesser races' like Orcs and Ogres and Goblins speak with a Cockney, Essex or Brummie accent (because, you know, criminals).

No idea why it didn't work out...

[Turcano]

Esperanto has drawbacks. This guy has a bit of an axe to grind, it seems, but I strongly suspect most of his complaints are valid and based on real problems with the grammar of Esperanto.

A big part of the problem was that the guy who invented it was very heavily influenced by Latin and Greek grammar (popular in 19th century Europe but very nonuniversal), and that Esperanto's pronunciation conventions were heavily influenced by the Slavic languages he grew up with. He raises a number of other issues. Since my familiarity with Esperanto is spectacularly limited, I will not digress; he can do it for me since he's the linguist.

One point is that Esperanto doesn't eliminate the possibility of ambiguity in the grammar of sentences and the meaning of words- for instance, the same word is used for 'daughter' and 'dirty linen!'

One of the biggest problems with his analysis is that most (if not all) of his complaints (at least those not related to Esperanto's Eurocentrism) have analogues in real languages. I can assume with a great degree of confidence that JBR would hate Basque and despise Abaza.

[Irenaeus]

I tend to strongly use real languages as inspiration for the languages in my camapigns. I think it is a great tool for naming characters and places, and I would reccomend it to everyone, as it tends to reduce the frequency of silly fantasy names (unless you're into that sort of thing). Most of my campaign worlds have an almost exclusively human population.

I think I would have elves speak Finnish, it appeals to the Tolkien-fanboy in me. Sanskrit might work also, and I know enough of it to make it a bit more plausible.

Almost any dead language is good when you want some arcane utterings. My current preference is Coptic.

[Tura]

Hmmm... Despite the fact that I really like languages, I can't say I like the idea. First of all, I think that choosing languages of real people for "evil" (or simply brutal or even just ugly) races, says more about yourself and your perception of the world than anything useful about a fantasy setting.

And second, regardless of how it sounds, I would hate to designate a real language to a fantasy race if they weren't connected in the first place. The elves could speak a celtic language (if you imagine them like the irish sidhe) or a scandinavian language (if you imagine them like the elves of Tolkien). But the other races are either pure fantasy, or derived from the lore of many different peoples. So no, I would rather make up a few languages than use real ones. To each to his own, of course.

[But I did find brilliant the reverse Latin for Infernal. ]


What I have done, and really enjoyed, is designate made up languages based on real ones, to a homebrew setting which was mostly human, with diverse cultures rather than diverse races. The nomads riders of the steppes spoke an altaic language, something between Mongolian and Turkish. (Yes, George R.R. Martin has already done that. It still is remarkably fitting.) And, as a player, I have encountered "barbarians" with blue tattoos and torques, who were just like (the common perception of) Picts, and spoke, very fittingly, Gaelic. It really adds to the flavor.

Finally, about common. I wouldn't like to use a language that is supposedly made-up for universal communication. On the contrary, every era's Lingua Franca is a very simple and corrupted form of the language of the dominant culture or empire, usually including several words from many other languages. So, if you use English for common, you could actually interlard it with foreign words. The dominant culture could use Middle English, and the learned men (and/or priests) Old English.

[Trouvere]

Who are you people that your groups are all conversant in English, Latin, Finnish, Gaelic, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Maori?

[Eldariel]

I think I would have elves speak Finnish, it appeals to the Tolkien-fanboy in me. Sanskrit might work also, and I know enough of it to make it a bit more plausible.

How about taking it one step further and just making it Quenya? Finnish has complex enough grammar, but the long words can be a bit clunky for something as supposedly flowing and beautiful as Elven. Quenya has words more fitting to that style while still maintaining the rich grammatic aspects (yes, I've studied both - Finnish more than Quenya on the virtue of my location, of course).