Ravenloft Languages

[Bluebomber4evr]

To expand on the tips above, here's some examples of when the use of non-english words become too much:

Take the phrase "it's good, yes?"

"it's good, da?" <-- good
"it's bun, da?" <-- pushing it
"este bun, da?" <-- overkill

[Nemien Callishan]

Yeah it was a mistake on my part.

Vaasi is NOT COMMON!

And for those who haven't cottoned on yet Pidgin English is Common :p. And that's not a core language in Ravenloft :p.

[Alternate Account]

Looking for information on the Thaani language. Haven't found much cannon side. I know the majority of ethnic Thaani would be living in and around Immol. Thus Balok would be what they speak now. But what do we know about their original language. Is it even remembered?, has it a written script?

Thanks

[Bluebomber4evr]

Looking for information on the Thaani language. Haven't found much cannon side. I know the majority of ethnic Thaani would be living in and around Immol. Thus Balok would be what they speak now. But what do we know about their original language. Is it even remembered?, has it a written script?

Thanks

It's never been named or described.

[Geiger]

Judging how Thaani names are of a Islamo-Turkic origin. You could probably do some sort of Islamo-Turkic faux language.

[Bluebomber4evr]

Judging how Thaani names are of a Islamo-Turkic origin. You could probably do some sort of Islamo-Turkic faux language.

I tend to give Thaani NPCs Albanian names

[Geiger]

Ooh. That is a good idea too and still goes along with Islamic/Eastern naming conventions. Also you get to use Albanians and that makes Albanians smile!

[Crimson Shuriken]

I had envisioned a somewhat of a language isolate like Armenian. But its an interested topic Thaani, since it was never explicitly stated

[DM Tarokka]

Albanian is an interesting language which recalls, to some extent, ancient Greek, and other Slavic languages, but it has its own autonomy. It's anyway indo-european as origin, whereas Turkish is not. Most languages used in the Core have anyway indo-european references (Neo-Latin, Latin, German, Scandinavian, Slavic, etc). Maybe this mystery could be linked to an extra indor-european reference. I'm just digressing and pondering here.

[Geiger]

 The actual origins of Albanian are still disputed by people in the Linguistics field because there are crazy nationalists trying to claim some sort of 'Perso-Illyrian' super language. It is indo-european but its recent history has given it a lot of near-eastern (persian, arabic), turkic and general islamic vocabulary considering it is still today a Sunni-muslim majority nation. It was also ruled over the Ottoman Empire. The area was subject to a lot of forced assimilation because of its rebellious nature. Albanians have a badassed history though, but I won't list that here.

But given the Turkic/Islamic names that the Thaani are listed with in the sources and the general badassedness of Albanian that would be a great choice for Thaani. If you would like Blue - I could compile a friendly list of words/a few phrases in Albanian for a player to use?

(Also you probably already know of this Tarokka, but give this a looksie.)

[DM Tarokka]

The charm of the history of languages, the more I discover, the more I want to find out...

[Bluebomber4evr]

The actual origins of Albanian are still disputed by people in the Linguistics field because there are crazy nationalists trying to claim some sort of 'Perso-Illyrian' super language. It is indo-european but its recent history has given it a lot of near-eastern (persian, arabic), turkic and general islamic vocabulary considering it is still today a Sunni-muslim majority nation. It was also ruled over the Ottoman Empire. The area was subject to a lot of forced assimilation because of its rebellious nature. Albanians have a badassed history though, but I won't list that here.

But given the Turkic/Islamic names that the Thaani are listed with in the sources and the general badassedness of Albanian that would be a great choice for Thaani. If you would like Blue - I could compile a friendly list of words/a few phrases in Albanian for a player to use?

(Also you probably already know of this Tarokka, but give this a looksie.)

Yeah, that's kind of why I went with it. It's kind of a cross between the Middle East and the Balkans. Go for it if you want to make a list of phrases, etc.

[Corsair6500]

I want to check something here - since Earth is a possible setting of origin for a character, it's conceivable that a character might know Hungarian, or Romanian, or some other language that the language on here is derived from. Would Romanian seem identical to Balok, or would it seem to be like a cousin dialect - you might be able to understand some phrases, but the language is decidedly different, or would they be completely different?

[herkles]

This seems like the best spot to place this link!

I have found a really good name site with good names for the time frame that the domains repersent. It is s-gabriel; it has almost any group available, hungarian, russian(really really extensive russian names)) italian, spanish, german, french, and so on and so on. Might be useful for helping people who need some name help. So I hope this link can help people out

[Kendric98]

This seems like the best spot to place this link!

I have found a really good name site with good names for the time frame that the domains repersent. It is s-gabriel; it has almost any group available, hungarian, russian(really really extensive russian names)) italian, spanish, german, french, and so on and so on. Might be useful for helping people who need some name help. So I hope this link can help people out

Bookmarked, very usefull.

[herkles]

Another interesting fact, Lamordian is not a swiss language, which doesn't exist but instead Lamordian coresponds to the Plautdietsch or Mennoite Low german language.  Here is a dictionary for anyone interested

[Geiger]

Lamordian actually is very close to Swiss-German (the phrases we have), which is an Alemannic Dialect. This is not a coincidence - Dr. Mordenheim is based on Dr. Frankenstein, which - if you are familiar with the story by Mary Shelley is actually a Swiss German. As the Domains tend to reflect their masters, the people there also speak a Swiss German type language. The dialects you talk about are very close to the Palatinate region and are a Low Franconian language. Even the names they give in the lists for the Domain, are fairly Swiss German.

The domain may have access to the sea (Which in the Germanic-Language Sprachbunde, a lot of the Low Franconian language are located, Dutch, Flemish, Luxemburgeish, Plattdeutsch, etc...) its mostly based on Switzerland from what I can tell because the place is also mountainous and has really cold winters.

So you're better off checking this out here:

Swiss German Phrases!

Also google. lol.

[Bluebomber4evr]

I want to check something here - since Earth is a possible setting of origin for a character, it's conceivable that a character might know Hungarian, or Romanian, or some other language that the language on here is derived from. Would Romanian seem identical to Balok, or would it seem to be like a cousin dialect - you might be able to understand some phrases, but the language is decidedly different, or would they be completely different?

No. I realize they used Romanian words in the books, but that's mainly as a representation -- IC and In-Universe, Balok isn't derived from Romanian. They're completely different languages with no relation to each other as far as IC world goes.

[herkles]

Question: is High and Low Mordentish, 1 language but two vastly diffrent deliects as the source books indicate or are they two seperate languages?

[Bluebomber4evr]

Question: is High and Low Mordentish, 1 language but two vastly diffrent deliects as the source books indicate or are they two seperate languages?

From the IC perspective, the people of Ravenloft consider it one language with 2 different dialects. I think, though -- and this is really just my own opinion,that this is because both "dialects" are actually separate languages that were both simultaneously introduced to the demiplane from Mordent, and their true origin as separate languages is lost due to the domain's false history and so on.

OOC game mechanics-wise, they'd be 2 separate languages.

[herkles]

question! what language is vaasi supposed to be trying to immatate, danish?

[Mark Johansen]

question! what language is vaasi supposed to be trying to immatate, danish?

It's an mix between Danish, Norwegian and Swedish from what i understand.

[herkles]

Some more Forfarian words according to chris nicholas's notes on the domain

hello - daenacht hael
goodbye - beannachd leat
please - mās e do thoil e
thank you - taing thu
yes - seadh
no - nadh
help! - cuidich!
go away! - rach air falbh!
Mists - saoghal ceō
Where is an inn? - cāite biā an ōsda
castle - caisteal
druid - druid
goblyn - car fiacail mar
highlands - ghaidhealtachd
nature - nādur   
vampire - fuilfarng
ghost - bōcan
lich - māgl cor
werebeast - atharr-beathach
golem - rinn deuine
ancient dead - seann bās
fiend - olc
Vistani - fėrinneach meirleach
hag - bean mar
 tartan - breacan
treant - craobh coisich
tree - craobh
wolf - madadh-allaidh
oak - darach
rowan - caorann

[DM Stygian Witch]

Can someone point me in the right direction for  * Akiri (Har’akir) – Egyptian
Thanks

[Bluebomber4evr]

Can someone point me in the right direction for  * Akiri (Har’akir) – Egyptian
Thanks

I'm pretty sure Lockleed made a post about Akiri phrases somewhere

EDIT: I was right, he did: http://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=21862.msg261529#msg261529