Goblin linguistics and comprehend languages

[Krallek]

Ok, we had a little debate going the other night at the geek table and I wanted to get some community input on it.

The other night we were play fighting nostalgically in the Caves of Chaos. All evening, whenever we encountered the goblins they would shout "BREE YARK" as some kind of warning to their peers ... incidentally if any of you remember the caves, it usually brings a flood of help. But I digress. At one point one of our group members cast comprehend languages and hid. Strategically this didn't sound like too bad an idea as he would be able to get an idea of how many there were and what they planned to do as they came running out to see what the fuss was about as me and my party members started yelling "Bree Yark!"

Herein lies the debate. We do not speak goblin but were emulating the sounds made by goblins. Would the spell caster be able to understand us? I mean we really didn't understand ourselves what we were saying.

The question is, does the speaker need to understand a language in order for comprehend languages cast by another to be effective? ie does the spell read the "meaning" of the spoken word? Or does it simply translate those words verbatim from a source language into a destination language.

My argument was that it couldn't simply translate the words from goblin into common because some words with the same pronunciation would appear in multiple languages but with different meanings. Thus, it MUST translate the meaning or thought behind the message and not simple 'google translate' words ... and you all know how bad that is right? Lol

[Serisan]

PRD wrote:

You can understand the spoken words of creatures or read otherwise incomprehensible written messages. The ability to read does not necessarily impart insight into the material, merely its literal meaning. The spell enables you to understand or read an unknown language, not speak or write it.

I would rule that the players are not speaking words. They're making sounds.

Following that, the description states that it is a direct, literal translation with no indication of context. Yes, it is Google translate.

[wraithstrike]

It translates it just as if you knew how to speak the language. If someone is speaking in code however you have to decipher the code.

[Gallo]

If "Bree Yark" is a Goblin expression then the spell would translate it. If they are made up words then it wouldn't.

Part of translating a foreign language is first identifying the language and then your mind clicks into the correct state to start translating for you. I would rule that given the spell is comprehend languages the spell would do that bit for you and therefor you would either know it was Goblin (and therefor the Common translation of it) or just gobbledegook.

It would ruin the immersion somewhat if the spell sent a stream of translation into your mind.

Select A for Ancient Ossirian. Bree Yark means "warm maize porridge"
Select B for Modern Taldiran. Bree Yark means "small hill"
Select C for Standard Goblin. Bree Yark means "adventurers pretending to speak Goblin" etc etc

In real life there are a variety of clues that help you work out what language is being spoken at you and help your mind hone in on what language is being spoken. Sometimes it takes a while depending on accents, dialects etc but for a bunch of adventurers in a cave full of goblins, then the spell should automatically translate the words from goblin or let you know they are not real words.