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I happened to spot the regional accent thread on these boards and they got me inspired all of a sudden. Instead of just going for accents, why not hunt down all the real world analogies for most of the known languages on Golarion? I'll probably start with racial tongues first.
Aklo = Insert Lovecraftian language here (same with Aboleth)
Common = English
Draconic = Gaulish
Dwarf = Irish (Dwarf) / Scottish (Duergar), can be done vice-versa as well
Elf = Gothic (High Elf) / Breton (Drow)
Giant = Old Norse
Gnome = Welsh (Gnome) / Manx (Svirfneblin)
Goblin = No idea (suggestions are welcome)
Halfling = Faroese (it's distantly related to English, and Halflings do hang around Humans a lot)
Orc = Black Speech (bite me, I just had to make the reference!)
Sylvan = Proto-Celtic
I don't think I can wrap my head around any more languages and their equivalents. Anyone with more (and better) ideas than these here are welcome to contribute.
Interesting subject.
For the record however there is no "Scottish" language, both scots and Irish speak variations of Gaelic, natively anyways.
I for one can't speak a word of it but it's quite a pleasant sounding language, very akin to welsh and I would imagine its closer to an elven or sylvan tounge. The original elven tounge created by Tolkien was based on welsh, a language he had a great love for.
Oh, thanks for the contribution. It's a shame I can't edit the original post, but if I can get more stuff to work with I might even put up an updated list.
I haven't played on Golarion for that long and so haven't gone into a world wide naming/language correlation phase yet, but in the two adventure paths that I've ran so far, I've made Varisian a kind of Pan-Slavic language, Taldor and most of it's provinces have an old Greek/old Castilian mix of language elements and Cheliax is more like Italian with a dash of Roman. Currently we're playing in Ustalav and Lastwall. Lastwall is interesting because it's Taldane with Varisian influences and Ustalav is coming off Slavic (Varisian) with a healthy dash of Hungarian. The Kellid are ending up proto-celtic so far.
I'm hoping for a Taldan based AP, because I've put in the most sweat and blood on the Taldan background of my version of Lastwall so far and I'd like to use more of my work. I'm about to write my own AP in Taldor, so all of my work isn't in vain.
Anyway, that rounds up my brief take on things thus far.
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I'm a student of linguistics and a conlanger, so I've actually given this topic some thought. Here's what I came up with: I've divided the Inner Sea languages in various families, depending on the history of the nation. That in a whole continent only half a dozen languages are spoken is totally unrealistic, so I've given most nations their own language (e.g. Celiax has Chelish, Brevoy has Brevic etc.).
Here's a map showing the distribution of the families (sorry but I suck at photoshop).
And here's the key for reading it:
Black = Cheliax-Taldane
Red = Thassilo-Varisian
Blue = Skaldic
Yellow = Hallit-Iobarian
Green = Isolated/Artificial
Light Blue = Dwarven
Pink = Sovyriani
Grey = None/Various
Dark Green = Casmaronic
Datrk Blue = Garundi
Orange = Polyglot
Violet = Vudrani
There's another family which is not shown on this map: Shoanti, whose 20+ languages are spoken on the Storval Plateau.
Cheliax-Taldane and Thassilo-Varisian are actually part of a single family of languages called Azlanti.
Hot damn, that's a varied and interesting interpretation of it. It will certainly help fill in on those parts I tried to work on.
Hot damn, that's a varied and interesting interpretation of it. It will certainly help fill in on those parts I tried to work on.
Glad I could help! If you need clarification, ask anything you want. ;)
Now I just need to configure what proto-language would be for Azlanti, which would later evolve into Thassilo-Varisian, Chelish-Taldane and their descendants. The other languages are more free game on that regard. Also, if I recall right, Shadowtongue (the language of Nidal) is a mix of Taldane, Infernal, and Azlanti (thus a language evolved of the original Azlanti tongue) while Undercommon and Druidic apparently evolved from Elven (though Druidic seems to have some Sylvan in it as well), thus being Sovyriani languages. Also, the Darklands language of Aklo was an influence to the undead tongue Necril, which seems to be a mix of Aklo, Undercommon, and Osiriani. After some more research through Pathfinder books, I found out that Halfling developed from a mix of Taldane and Varisian, while Giant is a mix of Thassilonian and the Cyclops language.
All this info is from existing sourcebooks, and only add to my workload. Then again, I don't mind.
Though how do I know what groups to categorize these languages in? Most of them seem to have multiple influences and such.
Also, I might as well make Azlant the Proto-Germanic (or perhaps the actual Proto-Indo-European) language of Golarion, from which the others evolved.
The proto-language of the Thassilo-Varisian and Cheliax-Taldane languages is indeed Ancient Azlanti. Shadowtongue is a wholly artificial creation of the Umbral Court, from what I understand, hence my classification. The other families that didn't make it on the list are the Aklo family (which is spoken in the Darklands and includes Svirfneblin and Necril among others), the Ghol-Gan family, whose last representatives are modern Cyclops and Giant and the various Halfling languages, which are derived from human ones. Undercommon is a Sovyriani language, and Druidic counts as artificial. Other representatives of the Azlanti family include Jistka (which is the direct predecessor of Taldane and Chelish)and Thassilonian.
There's also the Sylvan family, which includes Gnome.
Hope this gives you a good starting point. ;)
Though how do I know what groups to categorize these languages in? Most of them seem to have multiple influences and such.
Both my mothertongues, Italian and English, have heavy influences from other languages, the one from Arabic and Germanic, the other from French and Norse. No language is wholly of one family. The difficulty is deciding which family is predominant: in Italian's case, Romance, and in English, Germanic. As for Golarion, I suppose it's all a matter of personal preference and guesswork, since we don't have any actual samples of the languages themselves.
After going through those again, I might as well give this listing another shot.
This might be oversimplified from a linguist's perspective, but I can say that I tried, and hope I get help fixing this list.
Ancient Azlanti = Proto-Indo-European
Thassilonian = Hellenic
Cyclops = Ancient Greek
Giant = Mycenaean Greek
Jistka = Italic
Taldane = Latin
Varisian = Romanian
Shoanti = Romano-Greek
Skald = Old Norse
Halfling = Italian
Ancient Hallit = Old East Slavic
Hallit = Russian
Tekritanin = Proto-Afroasiatic
Ancient Osiriani = Egyptian
Garundi = Semitic
Kelish = Arabic
Polyglot = Afroasiatic languages
Tien = Sino-Tibetan + Altaic languages
Vudrani = Sanskrit
Sylvan = Proto-Dravidian
Druidic = Kannada
Elven = Telugu
Undercommon = Tamil
Gnome = Malayalam
Dwarven = Icelandic
Goblin = Black Speech (Lord of the Rings language)
Orc = Orkish (another one taken from Lord of the Rings)
Draconic (or Aboleth) = The Proto-World language of Golarion
Like I said, feel free to make your own corrections to this if you want. My brain stopped working properly half-way through finishing this.
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As I said, since we don't have any samples of the languages themselves, there's no "correct" interpretation, so yours is just as good as anybody's. :)
Personally, I don't like drawing parallels between the languages of Earth and those of Golarion, as I think they're completely different, and my "family tree", so to speak, doesn't match well with that of Earth languages. Therefore, it's inevitable that some languages that are not closely related in real life end up being so in Golarion. However, your list is very good.
Here's the list of what I think the features of each language in the Inner Sea are like, so you can have an idea of what I had in mind:
Taldane (spoken in Taldor, Absalom, Lastwall and, unofficially, in the rest of the region) = elegant and refined, like Victorian English, but at the same time concise and practical, like today's English.
Chelish (spoken in Cheliax, Isger and Sargava) = a beautiful language, very good for song, poetry and rhetoric, much like French or Italian. Isger and Sargava have their own dialects.
Andoren = very concise language, with many quirky sayings; not as formal ad Taldane or Chelish. Like modern Italian.
Galtan = a "fiery" language, very passionate. Like Spanish or French.
Molthuni and Nirmathi = very similar to Chelish, but with enough differences to be a separate language. They're the same language, only with two different names, depending on the side of the war you're on.
Varisian = another passionate language, full of innuendo and subtlety but also more vulgar than most (especially in the mouths of the Sczarni).
Ustalav = a slow, phlegmatic language, like today's Polish or Russian.
Drumish = a language almost as subtle as Varisian, whose family it belongs to, but not quite as exuberant.
Skald = a language both harsh and poetic, like Old Norse.
Irriseni = Irriseni and Skald split only comparatively recently, so they're still very similar, but not enough to warrant intelligibility between them. The language of the jadwiga is totally alien and doesn't fit in any Golarion language family.
Hallit = a throaty, harsh language, poor in rhetorical embellishments but very direct.
Mendevian = somewhat long-winded language, but otherwise unremarkable.
Numerian = throaty like all Iobarian languages. It's the language with the most "modern" lexicon.
Brevic = another harsh language, but more "sophisticated" than the other languages in the Hallit-Iobarian family.
Razmirani = similar to Brevic.
Avistani Elven = beautiful to hear, but somewhat complicated in grammar.
Five Kings Dwarven = full of complex consonant clusters, but beautiful in its own way.
Alkenstari = difficult to pronounce like most Dwarven languages.
Orcish = harsh and unsophisticated language, poor in vocabulary. Some linguists want to link it with the Goblinoid language family, but for now it remains isolated.
Shadowtongue = strangely beautiful language, probably because of the influence of Infernal.
Draconic (spoken in Hermea) = a very complex, difficult language which nonetheless affords a great deal of elegance.
Qadiran Keleshite = beautiful language, useful for both poetry and prose. In the courts they use Classical Keleshite, which is the official language of the Empire.
Katapeshi Keleshite = very direct, very no-nonsense language.
Osiriani = beautiful and rich language. It's the official language of all the courts of northern Garund.
Thuvian = more a motley collection of dialects than one language.
Rahadoumi = complex language, but one of the best for philosophical dissertation. It is spoken in Rahadoum and on Mediogalti.
Nexian = very complex language, but the best for talking about magic.
Gebbite = somewhat conservative language, retaining many archaic forms, and heavily influenced by Necril.
Jalmeri = beautiful in sound, complicated in grammar, it's still less complicated that most other Vudrani languages.
Polyglot languages are hundreds and I can't go in detail about all of them. Some are tonal, others have rare sounds like clicks.
Shoanti languages are famous for their strange sounds (ejectives mostly), and complicated grammar.
Here it is, sorry for the long post. There are dozens of other languages spoken in the Inner Sea Region.
Hope this helped.
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I happened to spot the regional accent thread on these boards and they got me inspired all of a sudden. Instead of just going for accents, why not hunt down all the real world analogies for most of the known languages on Golarion? I'll probably start with racial tongues first.
Aklo = Insert Lovecraftian language here (same with Aboleth)
Common = English
Draconic = Gaulish
Dwarf = Irish (Dwarf) / Scottish (Duergar), can be done vice-versa as well
Elf = Gothic (High Elf) / Breton (Drow)
Giant = Old Norse
Gnome = Welsh (Gnome) / Manx (Svirfneblin)
Goblin = No idea (suggestions are welcome)
Halfling = Faroese (it's distantly related to English, and Halflings do hang around Humans a lot)
Orc = Black Speech (bite me, I just had to make the reference!)
Sylvan = Proto-Celtic
I don't think I can wrap my head around any more languages and their equivalents. Anyone with more (and better) ideas than these here are welcome to contribute.
To be honest my go to in my mind for Goblin so far has humorously been Spanish or Armenian if for no other reason then having a goblin shout gringo or speak with a stereotypical mexican/spanish accent makes me laugh and seems somehow appropriate. Also goblin gunslinger with a poncho and duel pistols just feels right. Other then that it feels like a language that can be spoken quickly and is very emotive with varying range. Armenian actually comes up more when I think of hobgoblins and want something that sounds a bit harder on the tongue and a bit intimidating though I think that can work well with spanish as well I don't know the language well enough to find the right umph power.
As I said, since we don't have any samples of the languages themselves, there's no "correct" interpretation, so yours is just as good as anybody's. :)
Personally, I don't like drawing parallels between the languages of Earth and those of Golarion, as I think they're completely different, and my "family tree", so to speak, doesn't match well with that of Earth languages. Therefore, it's inevitable that some languages that are not closely related in real life end up being so in Golarion. However, your list is very good.
Here's the list of what I think the features of each language in the Inner Sea are like, so you can have an idea of what I had in mind:Taldane (spoken in Taldor, Absalom, Lastwall and, unofficially, in the rest of the region) = elegant and refined, like Victorian English, but at the same time concise and practical, like today's English.
Chelish (spoken in Cheliax, Isger and Sargava) = a beautiful language, very good for song, poetry and rhetoric, much like French or Italian. Isger and Sargava have their own dialects.
Andoren = very concise language, with many quirky sayings; not as formal ad Taldane or Chelish. Like modern Italian.
Galtan = a "fiery" language, very passionate. Like Spanish or French.
Molthuni and Nirmathi = very similar to Chelish, but with enough differences to be a separate language. They're the same language, only with two different names, depending on the side of the war you're on.
Varisian = another passionate language, full of innuendo and subtlety but also more vulgar than most (especially in the mouths of the Sczarni).
Ustalav = a slow, phlegmatic language, like today's Polish or Russian.
Drumish = a language almost as subtle as Varisian, whose family it belongs to, but not quite as exuberant.
Skald = a language both harsh and poetic, like Old Norse.
Irriseni = Irriseni and Skald split only comparatively recently, so they're still very similar, but not enough to warrant intelligibility...
This list is excellent if you ask me, and a good help with the accents as well. However, I will sadly have to keep the number of languages on Golarion similar to the one it is in the books and make these more like regional dialects or something, if only because players would have to use an insane amount of ranks in Linguistics to learn all of them compared to going by the book. If I don't change my mind in that regard, then knowing Varisian can keep you going in Varisia, Ustalav and Druma, while knowing Taldane/Common is enough to know Molthuni, Nirmathi, Chelish and Andoren with at least some skill.
Yes I understand perfectly that from a gameplay perspective having so many languages would be quite a hurdle. XD
The list I made is for purely "theoretical" purposes. Thanks for the appreciation, though. :)
Thank you Lu-Ming for all of the incredible inspiration. I am a linguist hobbyist and appreciate your work.
Hey no probs! Anytime. XD
