I'm quite sure I'm not iterating anything that hasn't been discussed at length here before, but I'll chime in on my view of languages.
In Dungeons and Dragons, language is a skill. It is something you invest points in and acquire proficiency just as you would opening locks or concentrating.
The limitations of the NWN engine with respect to coding and leveling make this a very difficult thing to truly implement, and as always, we as players struggle to divide these limited points across a range of skills that will allow the character to be proficient enough to function a role within the game. This is balanced against the character background, character development and exposure to language over time as a means of becoming proficient in a given tongue. This does not cleanly stack against the mechanics of the game, given that a person could for example be somewhat bright and spend a lot of time around elves, but never quite go adventuring, yet becomes fully familiar with the language quite validly. Extend the hypothesis across a range of situations, and the logic of the dilemma is clear.
Language, at base, is about communicating concepts that relate to one another and mean something in context of other words and symbols in a collective genre. It is easy to observe the crossover, slang, prefix, suffix and context of romance languages (French, Spanish, Latin, etc.) in relation to one another, because they are very similar in structure and vary only in diction and grammar--they are based on roman letters, and are far easier to relate than say, Chinese radicals or Japanese calligraphy--which again have many crossovers and dialects that are more or less recognizable within geographic regions. The ability to connect the pieces of these puzzles is limited by the scope of a person's intelligence and exposure, and desire to learn. Romance languages are very harshly literal in how they connect, but Asian "letters" more or less paint a picture of a scene, concept or idea that relates as the character becomes more complex and sophisticated, and this meaning changes rapidly in relation to other "word-pictures" in succession, like an idea unfolding instead of a line projecting directly forward. That is why they are difficult to learn.
This is all important to take into consideration when deciding exactly how much knowledge of language your character possesses upon entry to Ravenloft, and even more so as he or she grows in exposure to other languages (such as Balok) that he or she may encounter. The more similar the character's native culture, and the greater his or her intelligence, the smoother this transition shall be.
The best idea I can come up with to bridge this dilemma is to assign yourself a native language, and full proficiency in another per point of intelligence bonus, a broken proficiency for an odd score (i.e., 16 int means your native tongue, full proficiency in three others, 17 int would be another broken proficiency in addition). If your intelligence grows, you should be able to add additional proficiencies. Moreover, the character should be becoming proficient in languages that he or she is exposed to and intelligent enough to grasp the context of the conversation, save all mitigating circumstances.
I'd like to hear opinions about this idea, it's how I've been operating thus far, and I'd like a little clarification on the subject before I sit down and write my character's bio. Perhaps I missed something.
