Languages in Roleplaying Games
"If life doesn't offer a game worth playing, then invent a new one."--Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book
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Introduction
Have you ever been in a roleplaying game (RPG) and wondered how your elven character, the quasi-humanoid mutant creature your party just captured, and the human colonies on the other side of the continent all spoke a common language? Have you ever run an RPG and despaired of the fact that your players, despite being nominally from the same hometown, have names as diverse as Zarg the Mighty, Hitomi Naruharu, Siobhain MacLeod, and Mbanga?
Fear not: this is for you. More importantly, it's for anyone who's curious about ways to incorporate languages in a more "realistic" manner into RPGs, or ways to avoid the issue altogether. (I like linguistics, but not everyone does, and the point is to have fun!) This is intended more as an overview of possibilities and suggestions rather than as a comprehensive guide.
Caveat lector: I'm a dabbler in linguistics and constructed languages, not a linguist.
Why should I care?
Frankly, if it's too much bother, you shouldn't. There are so many areas in which you can worry about the plausibility or realism of a given RPG setting or scenario--of you're inclined to worry about such things, which I am, but others aren't--that it's best to stick with what you and your RPG group are interested in.
So much for why you shouldn't care. I can give you examples of why you might care, however:
You might be looking for a naming guide so players have an idea of what fits in and what doesn't. Depending on the setting, this may be easy or hard. In Legend of the Five Rings, which is loosely based on feudal Japan, you can't go wrong with any Japanese name, and even then they give you lists of possibilities. (L5R also has Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, and other influences.)
Maybe there are different species and/or cultures in the gameworld, and language is an additional way of differentiating them as well as giving a sense of the culture. It's probably silly to expect the GM to devise Orkish from scratch and expect the players to become fluent in it, but even "local color" in phrases ("in translation" or otherwise) can enhance the roleplaying experience. Knowing that the gravest Orkish insult translates as "I like the way your hair looks today"--offensive because the First Orkish Warlord in history had continual bad hair days and declared that anyone who commented on hair would be sliced, diced, and served for dinner--could make a diplomatic exchange with the Orkish Court interesting indeed. In The Hidden General, I used random phrases in Turkish to simulate an exchange with Burning Sands foreigners (I couldn't use the other languages I knew--Korean, French, German, and Latin--because there were players who understood them) before an interpreter was found.
On a related note, perhaps you are a GM of the "let's make life complicated" school of thought and you'd like your players to have translation/interpretation problems in that diplomatic exchange.
On a more friendly note, maybe you're a kinder GM with a fondness for archaeological puzzles and would like to simulate aspects of written language decipherment and historical linguistics.
For even more fun, players or GMs might be interested in an esoteric language of magic (in a fantasy setting). Perhaps spells spoken in Old High Flimflammian are twice as effective as spells spoken in Modern Vulgar Flimflammian, and creative players could improve rhyming or alliterating spell-chants on the spots (but watch out for the side-effects if you get your verb conjugations wrong).
Languages in Setting Creation
Assuming you've gotten this far and still care, let's look at various ways you can incorporate languages into a setting, whether it's one of your own devising or one you got from somewhere else.
The most basic type of language creation isn't really language creation: a phonological system. Roughly speaking, phonologiy is the study of sound systems in languages (phonetics is the study of speech sounds and their production). For example, if you're an American English speaker, you know that the ch sound in German Bach (a velar fricative) doesn't exist in (most dialects of) English. You're also aware that "marfle" could be an English word, but "ktorpf" couldn't (unless it were a loan-word). Even though you may not be able to articulate them, you know there are rules concerning what sounds you can put together, and how.
An easy way of doing this is to select a set of sounds that you like, figure out rules for putting them together, and declare that all words in your language-skeleton have to follow these rules. For an RPG example, see the naming guide in Shazrad: City of Veils. It's not the most realistic phonology out there, but it's simple and let game players figure out what names were "permitted."
If you only speak English, chances are you'll create something that looks uncomfortably like English. Also, note that sounds are different from their representations in the alphabet. Anyone who's struggled with English orthography (spelling) knows this. If you want to get around this, a little knowledge of phonology or foreign languages helps a lot. Sounds in languages tend to come in fairly orderly groupings based on place of articulation (where in your mouth the sound is made) and manner of articulation (how the sound is being made), so if you'ore interested in doing a little extra research, it will add to your phonology's plausibility. Try any good introductory linguistics book, or see my suggestions for further reading (both books and links to constructed language websites).
A consistent transliteration system into the Roman alphabet (or whatever alphabet is convenient for you) is also helpful, so you don't have thinks like c standing for either [s] (perceive) or [k] cow) as in English and confusing the issue. (This, by the way, is why I'm calling orcs Orks.)
If you want to take it a step further, you can generate a set of interesting-sounding words with interesting meanings and put them together to create names. If ka means "shadow" and taru means "hunter," Kataru or Taruka might mean "shadow hunter." About the only decision you have to make is whether modifiers come before or after the noun. With some knowledge of computer programming, it shouldn't be difficult to whip up a program that will generate random names for you. If not, you can find freeware programs or websites that do this.
If you're creating a group of languages, or even a group of naming guides, life becomes more complicated. You can read about theories of language development in any good introductory linguistics textbook. Assuming you're not starting from the dawn of time, however, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Generally, "modern" languages will be descended from various ancestors through the process of language change. Suppose we start with a protolanguage (or ancestor tongue) called Old High Orkish by modern scholars. Once upon a time, the Old High Orks ranged free over the plains of Orkia. As they spread out and settled in different communities, the Orks of the Northern Mountain developed their own dialect, as did the Orks of the Windy Plains and the Orks of the Black Crater. Over time, these dialects became three mutually incomprehensible languages. Old High Orkish was a language rather like Latin in grammar (cases, declensions, etc.) and German in phonology. Northern Mountain Orkish retained much of the grammar but lost all the Germanic-sounding umlauts. Windy Plains Orkish, due to trade-contact with the Elven Cities of the West, added a lot of loan words from Elvish, lost its cases and declensions (rather like the Romance languages lost most of Latin's inflections), and shifted toward Elvish-sounding [l] and [r] and other sounds that the Elves considered mellifluous. Meanwhile, Black Crater Orkish added more vowel phonemes, and after being conquered by the Black Trolls, many words were borrowed from Black Trollish that replaced terms from Old High Orkish in polite usage. So the Old High Orkish bash, meaning "to eat a meal," turned into Black Crater Orkish pasho, meaning "to eat disgusting swill," and the Black Trollish word ktavo was borrowed as kutafo to mean "to eat a meal."
Complicated? You haven't seen the worst of it. Language change in "real life" can get pretty messy. The salient thing is that many languages come in families because they're descended from a protolanguage like Old High Orkish, and various changes occur until they're no longer (quite) mutually intelligible, even though you can see the resemblance. Also, the distinction between a dialect and a language is a tenuous one. It's entirely possible to have languages A, B, and C where speakers of A and B, or B and C, can understand each other, but speakers of A and C can't understand each other at all.
If you want to show relations between languages, start with a protolanguage and develop the descendant languages using principles of historical linguistics. For a quick and dirty job, decide on different sets of sound changes for each descendant. Vowels change around, new phonemes (roughly, the basic units of sound in a language) are added or deleted, consonant clusters like ktp are broken up by inserting vowels in the middle, phonemes shift places or change to resemble other nearby phonemes in a given word.
Language isolates are certainly possible, whether because they have no known relatives (Basque is one real-world example) or because all their sister-languages and ancestors have died out. Figure out the history of the language's speakers and be creative. Perhaps the reason it's so hard for everyone to learn Black Crater Orkish these days is that all the other descendants of Old High Orkish died, so there are no related languages to give learners a leg up, so to speak. It's also possible a magic language doesn't have any relatives due to its specialized use.
If you'd like to go into more detail, you can always construct a language, grammar and all. Issues to consider include syntax (the way words are arranged to make sentences), morphology (the "shapes" of words and how they vary, e.g. adding the suffix -ly to a an adjective in English generally turns it into an adverb), and lexicon (vocabulary items). There are many websites on constructed languages (or "conlangs"), and I've listed a few to help you get started.
You can have fun with this just by creating a small lexicon of phrases. Perhaps the ritual greeting "Your swords are too sharp" isn't a threat in Black Crater Orkish, but a sign of respect. Perhaps the word for "great leader" comes from "vegetable chef" in Old HighOrkish because the First Orkish Warlord in the dawn of time started life as a lowly vegetable chef. Perhaps there are special forms of the word "you" used when addressing an elder, addressing a child, or addressing an enemy. French has a distinction between tu (informal) and vous (plural or formal), likewise German with du vs. Sie--and Japanese and Korean make even more distinctions in their pronouns. (The reason English only has "you"? We started being polite to everyone and lost the original "thou"!)
Even without creating the actual languages or their sounds, if you draw a chart of how they're related to each other and what languages are spoken where, you can have some idea of what communications problems (if any) might arise, and even how difficult it may be for a speaker of one language to learn another language. The possibilities are many.
Writing systems are another way to add flavor to a campaign. The most basic are pictographs, in which a picture of the sun really does stand for the sun. These often develop into ideographs, so a picture of the sun might lead to a symbol meaning "light, heat, warmth, or sun." Logographs, as in Chinese, are similar to ideographs, but the symbols stand for words rather than ideas (yes, there is a distinction). Syllabaries represent syllables and work best for languages where the number of possible syllables is small (good for Japanese, which has two, hiragana and katakana; bad for English). Finally, you can have various kinds of alphabets and writing styles. Some only use consonants (y cn ndrstnd mst f ths sntnc wth n vwls), some don't leave spaces between words (ever looked at Roman inscriptions?), some are written up-down (Korean written in the traditional style), right-left (Arabic or Hebrew), boustrophedon ("as the ox plows," alternating left-right and right-left, like Greek).
Languages in Gameplay
There are many ways of incorporating language madness into an RPG if it's something your gaming group is interested in. Naming guides are one way of ensuring some consistency in the names of characters and places from similar backgrounds. They might even be useful clues for players when they discover some NPC, despite being disguised as a large man, has a suspiciously Orkish-sounding name.
Problems of interpretation can lead to havoc in communications. Perhaps a non-player character (NPC) gasps out his last words--in a language none of the player characters (PCs) recognizes. On the other hand, a GM would allow PCs to learn multiple languages; monolingualism in our world's history is actually less common than various forms of multilingualism. Fluent PCs might become interpreters for an NPC and be implicated for any miscommunication. Others, thrust into a situation where they don't know the local lingo, might attempt to learn it, with varying degrees of success (depending on how similar or different it is compared to the character's native tongue).
Terminology can be introduced for in-game flavor. One favorite area might be, say, Orkish swear words (and profanities reveal a lot about what a culture considers taboo) or Elvish honorifics. Surely a PC who uses the proper honorific when addressing the Elven Princess Melliflama would be regarded with favor.
Examples of written language can make interesting props for a campaign: inscriptions on moldering tombstones, intercepted letters and messages gone astray, attempts to decipher dead languages (it would be kind of the GM to provide some sort of Rosetta Stone if the players are expected to do this for real, instead of just describing the process). Passages for translation (perhaps in transliteration if the GM wants to make it easier) can tantalize with hints.
Ways to Avoid Dealing with Languages
Too much trouble for a quick scenario or a campaign with other things going on? There are ways around the problem.
One escape I've seen in many gameworlds is to have everyone capable of speech speak the same language: dragons, steppe nomads, Orks and demons, whatever. A variant is the common language (often called, creatively, "Common") that is spoken by everyone in addition to her native tongue. Certainly it's possible that, in a world where communications and travel are fairly open, a creole or pidgin might spring up.
Failing that, the GM can make sure that a PC or NPC can serve as an interpreter or translator. Soemtimes fantasy RPG systems provide a gift of tongues or translation spell. In science fiction, you might see a universal translator à la Star Trek, linguistically unrealistic as this is. (As Walter Meyer says in Aliens and Linguists, approximately, given that Orkish for "goat" is mashen, deduce Orkish for "two-handed sword." However, a translation device for known languages is more plausible.) Anotehr alternative is the presence of telepathy or other psionic powersl. Of course, all of these can be made more interesting by making them less than 100% reliable.
There's another old standby: if you're pressed for time or don't feel up to devising your own naming system or language, but want to incorporate language elements, you can always use an existing language. As mentioned above, I used (badly mispronounced) Turkish phrases to simulate an encounter with foreigners in one campaign (althgouh there was an interesting moment when the random phrase I chose included otomobil, or "car"). You can find websites for all sorts of natural languages, probably including many you've never heard of, and decide that Orkish is German, Elvish is Italian (Elves eating pizza...?), and so on. You do have to be careful that players who are fluent in languages they don't know in-character are able to firewall, and be ready to provide translations for those who don't know the language in question, if you do this extensively. But for something minor like names, it shouldn't be too much hassle.
Suggestions for Further Reading
NOTE: These are mainly constructed language sites. I am happy to take suggestions for other resources people have found useful, especially roleplaying-oriented sites. Thanks to those who have sent in suggestions.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not, to my knowledge, affiliated with the sites listed below, but references are useful.
Other Websites
Introductory
The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder. Probably the best introductory "how-to" constructed language site. His Metaverse also has other intriguing and useful articles and a "sound changes" program for those dabbling with evolving protolanguages to "modern" forms.
How to Create a Language [updated link]: An introduction to conlangs by Pablo Flores, based on the above and a useful supplement.
Phonetics and Phonology
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) [UNIL] and Linguistics Handbook Downloads with sound sets for various languages [University of Victoria]. Finally, International Phonetic Alphabet [Wikipedia] does have some files you can listen to, if you're willing to do a lot of clicking around (and trust Wikipedia).
7 bit representation of the IPA--if you want to represent the IPA in ASCII, several common methods are shown here, including SAMPA and Kirshenbaum.
Writing Systems
Ancient Scripts of the World [updated link].
Omniglot is another survey of writing systems.
Conlangs in RPGs
Old Hyksos: Boudewijn Rempt's constructed magic language for the Dutch RPG Queeste.
Suggested Reading
Pages of the Gray Wizard: Linguistics Library: An annotated list of linguistics references (including a number recommended for conlangers).
Books
Introductory
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (not The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language). A far-ranging survey of topics in linguistics, probably one of the best places for a casual reader to start.
Fromkin, Victoria & Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. A fairly standard introductory linguistics textbook, which covers fewer topics in more detail than the above.
Meyer, Walter. Aliens and Linguists. An oddity in that it's a (dated) study of how linguistics has been (mis)portrayed in science fiction. Possibly inspirational to the worldbuilder/roleplayer in search of ideas. Out of print, so check a library or used bookstore.
Historical Linguistics
Crowley, Terry. Historical Linguistics. An introduction to language change and reconstruction.
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