GM: Describing how monster languages sound?

[Phalimar]

Does anyone have any pointers on how to describe what monster languages sound like (to the untrained PC)? For example, how would you describe what Draconic, Jotun, Necril or other languages sound like (to give players a unique description of what a language might sound like)?

[Siro]

Languages are a bit tricky. My best advice would be to look at the creatures whom normally speak them, there physiology, there behaviour and such, and go from there.

Draconic, in tone, may start sharply before slowly falling in tone to that of a whisper, before suddenly becoming sharp again, conveying power, control and a bit of pride, but also hinting there is a bit more, that there are also secrets behind the words.

Jotun may be booming, and forceful, to match the size and strength of the people whom tend to speak it.

Necril may be whispery and airy, and perhaps sounds like incoherent noise to those not trained in it, as the airways/mouth/tongue may not always be in the best condition of those whom speak it. Slightly haunting to hear.

As far as what the actual words are, there are actually fantasy translators for most languages on line, and for the odd language you can’t find, pick a generally unused/dead language for it.

[BellyBeard]

Though not exactly what you're asking, I personally like to use non-English alphabets in play by post games when someone is speaking a non-Common tongue. I usually type random words into Google translate until I get something that looks good.

For in-person games I usually just say "the elemental speaks Terran in a deep voice like stones grinding together" or something like that. I don't usually try to imitate the language or describe the words too much.

[Henro]

I tend to have a bit of fun with my languages. A few examples incude:

Abyssal on my Golarion is dangerous by it's very nature. Mortals attempting to read abyssal sigils may start bleeding from their eyes, start coughing up strange smoke and so on. I drew heavy inspiration from the correspondence of the Fallen London universe and it's always been a blast when it's come up.

I played a one-shot set on Ravnica and decided that the ravnican goblintongue has no breaks between words, marking a space with "x" sound instead. So a sentence in goblin might be something completely maddening like "Krixinthisxhisixise". It also meant goblin names could be first and last name in a single name (Avixza, for example).