Anyway, in my game, I recommend the use of language issue in the oral contest case to be considered very rarely.
I hate when the Game Master tells me "you can't communicate with them because you don't know the language" and the whole dialect/tongue/mothertongue bonus-malus matter makes things agonizing slow in play.
My character is currently an Etyries Communicator Ordinate, so I bypass most of communication problems ipso facto.
Usually movie and fiction heroes speak any language it is necessary at the moment (think about the Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas: he learns viking tongue in the span of a couple of scenes; the Interpreter and Dances with Wolves spring to mind, also). The grade of knowledge or dialect subcase is never mentioned and I like it so, in game.
Either the character understands the spoken language or not.
Speaking of reality, the matter is different. That's why I like playing more than working, for instance ;-)
Ciao,
Gian
- Lun 19/1/09, Alison Place <alison_place_at_jtANnnxGrF3hTwyU80XOR8kSIDfpgzDfgK78CjWsBVTA42ssMBckqHjWN9JCa8kDSX6a1KshwbM35l3S.yahoo.invalid> ha scritto:
Da: Alison Place <alison_place_at_jtANnnxGrF3hTwyU80XOR8kSIDfpgzDfgK78CjWsBVTA42ssMBckqHjWN9JCa8kDSX6a1KshwbM35l3S.yahoo.invalid>
Oggetto: Re: Dialects in communication
A: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Data: Lunedì 19 gennaio 2009, 16:29
Interestingly, the main reason that English is largely an uninflected language
is that different Norse dialects and languages (from the Angles, Saxons, Jutes,
etc.) shared their most of their roots, but not their suffixes. Dumping the
word endings, and relying instead on sentence word order to convey meaning,
created a creole that everyone could understand.
What this would mean in Glorantha is up to interpretation (pun intended).
However, a stripped-down pidgin, developing into a genuinely composite language,
is quite likely.
Joerg's point about the ancestors demanding adherence to the old language
is probably highly germane. What I suspect could happen is that a priestly
language would be retained to speak with the ancestors, and the acceptance of
and reliance on more recent ancestors (who grew up with the new way of speaking)
would more rapidly replace the less necessary old ones.
Alison
- On Fri, 1/16/09, Gianfranco Geroldi <giangero_at_lry8yZP3BEGzz8bsniOYiUv3W8XDjcs_oWNLjJveVD_cHW7zUqCV4jDyF8P3DC-U1EMfDQs6kVJYB4Ec.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
I don't know exactly, but I doubt that in an oral (verbal and direct based)
community, accents matter as much as in our Real World (written and indirect
based) community. I mean: many dialects are an obstacle in our world because we
don't strive to comprehend our neighbors. We have TV, email, telephone,
written papers a lot of other means of different communication which is not
dependent on dialects. In an oral world (like the ancient Earth or Glorantha) I
suspect dialects are less an obstacle because people are trained from their
childhood to overcome this small but grevious problem. When you have no
alternative to contact neighbors except using intermediaries (specialized
communicators) or war, you make substantial more efforts before saying "I
don't understand your dialect".
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