Languages and You

[Ghoster]

Hello all!

I was wondering how everyone has thought of languages like celestial, abyssal, etc, that kind of stuff and what they sound like / look like when written. For things like Celestial, I have heard people saying they view it as old latin and things like that. But I am curious on whether or not paizo or anyone has found as close to a definitive way of depicting those languages over the years.

Thoughts?

[SheepishEidolon]

Inner Sea World Guide has a few bits at page 251. For Abyssal and Celestial they have no information how they sound, though. But others are described to fit their speakers, thematically:

Quote:

Aquan: Aquan is a guttural tongue with thick, throaty sounds and long syllables.

Auran: Auran is a breathy, gentle-sounding language.
Dwarven: Dwarven is a guttural, phlegmatic language consisting of hard consonants and clipped syllables.
Elven: The Elven language is complex but beautiful, sounding poetic in its cadence and tone.
Goblin: The nigh-incomprehensible yapping of goblins, the militaristic barking of hobgoblins, and the sibilant taunts of bugbears all use the same vocabulary.
Gnoll: Punctuated by high-pitched yips, deep barks, and throaty growls, this cacophonous language is difficult for non-gnolls to pick up—much less master.
Ignan: Ignan consists mostly of short words—their staccato feel on the tongue emulates the popping of fire.
Infernal: Infernal requires precise enunciation, for many of its words with unrelated meanings nonetheless bear extremely similar pronunciations.
Necril: A whispering tongue said to have ties to ancient Osiriani, Necril is the language of the dead—it is spoken primarily by ghouls and agents of the Whispering Way.
Orc: Known for the brusque delivery of its disjointed, hard-consonant syllables, Orc sounds harsh and angry.
Terran: Terran is a slow and deliberate language, the sounds of which cannot be rushed.

Since demons are short-tempered, fierce and physically strong, for Abyssal I'd focus on short words, sharp consonants and an abundance of "o" and "u" (the "evil" vowels).

Celestial IMO would rather use a singing way to speak, soft consonants and a focus on "a" and "i" (the "good" vowels).

[Mightypion]

I am headcanoning Abyssal as a tonal language, relatively heavy on vowels.

Every thing one can say in Abyssal can have several meanings, typically seperated in terms of how aggressive they are. It can also be a beutifull language, plenty of its users are quite skilled at seduction.
Written Abyssal does not have a system indicating pronounciation, meaning it is pretty useless in accurately conveying information.

Infernal is something I would not neccessarily picture as tonal, but a language where the sentence "I am going to do this" sounds completely different if it is said to a higher, similar or lower social hierarchy.

[Derklord]

As someone who had latin ins chool (and seriously struggled with it), I'd picture it as more suited for Infernal - very strict and orderly, but a pain in the ass!

And I'm pretty sure Abyssal is just French...

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

I don't generally play with most extraplanar tongues because they rub me the wrong way. That said, I've at times pictured Infernal as being an excessively analytical language, with case endings and inflections for every conceivable relation between the propositions being talked about. For extra fun, many of these inflections are nigh-identical so people not properly versed in the language think they understand what is being said (or, most importantly, agreeing to) to one thing while something slightly different is actually being said.

Abyssal isn't a language so much as a mindset. With telepathy, demons don't need a language, and the immense timescales they work on, the evershifting webs of alliances, the origins of demons, and their inherently chaotic nature, the infinite layers, Abyssal as spoken in one time and place may be vastly different from Abyssal spoken elsewhere/when other. Think Robert Sheckley's Shall we have a little talk?.

As for most other planar languages, especially elemental tongues, I consider these at the nicest to be utterly impossible for humanoids to pronounce properly, though they may possibly be able to understand them and produce something which sounds entirely unlike an elemental tongue but functions as it - think humans trying to speak Shryiwook only worse.

[Azothath]

I have several as private font sets of which elven is the most complete. The trick is the language is likely not just english with the font changed and the grammer/scripting probably is bit different given the common writing materials and writer as you want it thematic.

In the game it is very simplistic, just a statement of the language and a possible skill check.