The word for food is slugs.
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| by Vergvotre |
The following is the collated work of the late Emeritus Master and Polar Explorer Wimm Oxwoe, who through some mysterious method (now, perhaps lost forever) had claimed to have reconstructed the ancient language spoken by the thralls of the Dread Hyperborean civilization. Whatever uncanny technique Oxwoe employed, it's efficacy is undeniable. Now, through the language's use, many of the strange arctic hominids who lurk that malignant land can now be communicated with intelligibly. Perhaps unsettlingly, this lends greater weight to the theory that these creatures are indeed descendants of the human slaves of that dread civilisation.
And what a cruel language it is. Pity those folk who lived in the brutal world to which O Drc alludes - they who knew no other language.
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| photography by Kjetil Karlson |
A Handsome yet Arrogant Author's Thoughts and Design Notes:
It is the dream of all nerds to make a conlang. I'm no nerd, and what's more, I'm barely literate. So, bish bash bosh, I'll just make an entire conlang in 2 weeks, no problem, it'll be great. I cannot deny this isn't anything other than baby's first conlang. I have certainly learnt a lot during the process. But still, I hope I have achieved something interesting.
O Drc, is inspired by Toki Pona and shares its interest in the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Whereas Toki Pona tries to be twee and good spirited, so O Drc will be sinister and cognitively oppressive - like a primordial version of 1984's Newspeak - a small language full of purposeful restrictions, omissions, pointed polysemy and the impoverishment of expression amongst others techniques. Though I do feel I could have pushed this further.
The phonology of O Drc is deliberately simple and almost overwhelming 'English' and is likewise presented simply. The intention is, while the language may sound alien, I would want it to be easily read by my players. The rules around grammar are a little stranger but still stem from a notion of simplicity. Still, if you are unsure of how to pronounce anything ping me on Discord, I mean it. Furthermore, if you are a real smarty pants conlang or linguistics aficionado (and therefore likely pained by this language) please give me some feedback.
Generally, using conlangs in roleplaying games is a risky business. Perhaps as a short lived linguistics puzzle you'd be ok, like how I plan to use O Drc - I'm thinking I may include a magic item that automatically transcribes O Drc speech spoken by NPCs to aid in this. If you would like actual, gameable content relating to languages, check the bottom of the post where I have compiled a collection of posts quilled by wiser minds.
A list of just a few of the grammatical terms I did not (and perhaps still do not) know/understand upon creating this conlang:
- Subject
- Object
- Noun Phrase
- Phonesthemes
- Tropicalisation
- Semantic Domain
- Free translation - and the difference between gloss and transliteration.
- Basically most types of this stuff: accusative? the subjunctive? Huh?
- How to read IPA
- And much more!
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| It's me |
This post was requested by Metasyn of the mainwave OSR discord server for Christmas (I received the spooky, energumeniacal class; The Guided Hand by Katt Kirsch) They wanted a post on Language, I gave a language. Unfortunately, these are not the same things. So here is some more befitting content:
- Blog of Forlorn Encystment's 'On Language' argues for skill based, gradated language, checks to build a more realistic picture of language acquisition and multilingualism
- Speaking of multilingualism, Lich Van Winkle's post titled A Reality Check for Language Rules in Your Fantasy Game (and rationalizing alignment languages), argues a character's known languages shouldn't be based solely on their Intelligence score but a host of factors such as social class (and much, much more!)
- Prismatic Wasteland offers a novel method for slot-based languages in Schrödinger’s Chat 2: Amended & Restated Quantum Language Rules. In my opinion, quantum language is 👌 but the memory system presented in the post sets meaningful limits. Personally speaking, I've had a dwarf PC who ended up speaking a huge 16+ different languages including every type of Dwarven dialect and some wacky ones like Western Lowland Gorilla and Martian.
- Prismatic Wasteland also looks at the implied setting of D&D through the lens of language. What does the existence of 'Common' actually imply? Read The Languages of D&D Imply a Specific Setting to find out.
- Troy Press wrote Real-world Language Proficiency for Fantasy Games. It introduces us to F.A.C.T - an actual method for appraising the level of a speaker's language proficiency and how this can be applied to games (in a variety of ways).
- Murkdice asks What did you say?. They demand one should treat language as an ingredient for gameable scenarios and interesting social/textual obstacles to encounter during adventures. They also suggest ways to handle this kind of play.
- Additionally, Languages and Frictionless Design by Nate Whittington of the Grinning Rat blog builds upon this. They write about language as a wrinkle in play, a problem, a complication. There's also some very interesting thoughts on tying language to faction play.
- You must read the Onomasticon Quernorum (I must self promote). And is not onomastics (the study of names) not a kind of language we interact with daily? This Adonic author (of a blog too cool for Google to index) suggests the obvious, names are good for implied world building!
- Rise Up Comus serves up some sizzlingly gameable subversions on classic dnd languages in Lingua Franca.
- The Benign Brown Beast follows a similar path in Saying Magic Words where in they link languages to spells. How intriguing, how WHIMSICAL.
- This Benign Brown Beast can't be stopped! In RPG Linguistics they share their thoughts on shrinking the common naturalist take on language with many dozens of racial/geographic dialects to a narrativist approach. It's very thought provoking.
- Real value for money with this 2-in-1 post (titled Some Thoughts About Languages in RPGs). First, an overview of some excellent scripts for use as ciphers. Then, a brilliant and detailed array of 'The Languages of Generic Vernacular Fantasyland'. A real cracker of a post from Dan.
- The inimitable Xaosseed ruminates on how the presence of extraordinarily long-lived beings might effect the evolution of language in Your great-grand-elf's elvish: long lives slowing language change.
