RP Guidelines: Fictitious Languages

RP Guidelines: Fictitious Languages RP Guidelines: Fictitious Languages

Although American English is -- for the most part -- the language used on SinaiMUCK, and the language our logs are written in, it is not the language that the PCs are "really" using, in role-play terms, on the world of Sinai. Rephidim Standard is not English.

There are a number of implications that would arise from this fact. If the logs we read of dialogue between PCs represent "translations" from Rephidim Standard, then some things that might make sense in English wouldn't make sense here. For instance, the foppish fox's poems shouldn't rhyme: The odds that some alien language will have equivalent words that happen to rhyme are fairly small. Similarly, puns and jokes wouldn't translate so well into English.

The trouble is, in order to be totally realistic, we'd have to create entirely new languages. As much as some attempt at consistency and realism helps, there are just certain concessions that have to be made for the sake of roleplay. This is one of them. Therefore, for the sake of game-play, one can make jokes, puns, rhymes and such, utilizing the only language that we (as players and GMs) have in common.

That said, there are lines that should probably be drawn. SinaiMUCK isn't exactly the most serious of environments -- even though it occasionally tries to be. Sometimes, character names, creature names, place names, etc., may be puns (however obscure) or real-life references. (For one thing, it makes them a lot easier for the GM to remember.) However, in the course of IC dialogue, using too much modern lingo or slang can really sound out of place, and is on the verge of failing to be "in character".

For instance, asking someone to put one's "John Hancock" on a piece of paper wouldn't be appropriate to Sinai. Saying "Geez" or "Jeez" as an exclamation is pretty lame, since evidently the average person in Rephidim does not know who "Jesus" is. (Disclaimer: If you happen to be an Exile character who comes from an "alternate Earth", you'd have plenty of excuses to use all the Earth allusions you like.)

Using real-world curse words would be inappropriate for other reasons as well ... and several PCs have shown plenty of creativity in inventing new "curse words" on the fly, to fit into the Sinai environment.

Some of the different languages have real-world equivalents in mind ... either due to deliberate plot elements, or just because the GM thought it'd be neat to have some fictitious country remotely resembling a real life one ... rather than going to the trouble of creating a completely alien environment. Here are a few notes on these language precedents:

Rephidim Standard: Rephidim Standard is meant to be the Sinai equivalent of English. There have been hints in plots that it uses an alphabet that bears visual similarity to the "real" (English) alphabet. It is meant to be easy for most species to speak, but it was originally spoken by humans. Some species (such as Vartans, with beaks) have trouble speaking clearly in this language -- Since this is a text medium and not an audio one, this has been simulated by quirky grammar and odd spellings.

Silent Tongue: Silent Tongue (aka Silent Sign, aka Savanite Sign) is meant to be something remotely akin to Sign Language. In its "formal" form, it can be performed solely with hand-signs, without any movements of the arms (or other limbs). This is a slow, tedious way to get a point across. In the "City" form, arm movements and near-pantomime are added in to get the point across and to add emphasis.

Silent Tongue would actually be much like the real-world American Sign Language in some respects -- at least in the "City" form. There would not be synonyms for words, a lot of parts of sentences would be left out, and various shortcuts would be required to get something said quickly. For the sake of easy reading, and so Savanite PCs don't sound primitive, logged dialogue doesn't have words (such as "the", "a", etc.) dropped out.

When a character "signs" in pidgen, that generally represents even more severe "shortcuts". Also, since Vartans only have three fingers and a thumb, one way to simulate their handicap in signing is for them to use odd grammatical structures and spellings, much like the trouble they'd have speaking Rephidim Standard with a beak.

It should be noted that Silent Tongue does not use gender-specific words when referring to occupations or titles. In logs, there are references to the "Priest-Queen" or the "Priest-King" of the Savanites. In actuality, the hand-signs for each are exactly the same. The word might be more accurately translated "Priest-Monarch".

Imperial (Nagai): The language of the Nagai is supposed to be adapted to the language of a bunch of sapient snakes primarily, and their reptilian underlings second. To non-Nagai, it sounds like a language with an awful lot of hissing in it. An "Imperial accent" is sometimes represented by "hissing" words by means of doubling or tripling the letter "S" where it occurs in dialogue. However, this is not a requirement. (Besides, it makes spellchecking a real pain.)

One "quirk" about Imperial is that there is not much emphasis on gender in words as there might be in English. They use gender-inspecific pronouns, for instance. (Despite this, in the logs, we mere humans using American English still resort to using "he" and "she" when typing, because it sounds a bit weird referring to people as "it". ;) ) This doesn't mean that the Nagai are an equal-opportunity employer, by any means, but it just reflects that -- except where it directly affects things (such as in matters of romance, dealing with cultural concerns of other species, or in the production of offspring), they don't really care much about gender in ordinary day to day life.

Babelite (Eeee): Supposedly, proper Eeee is spoken in a wider range of octaves than most species can hear. So, even if one "understands" Eeee, if one does not have the ears of an Eeee, then a lot of nuances are being missed out on. However, it's quite possible to get points across just fine, and there's no need for non-Eeee speakers to type dialogue like cavemen or anything like that. The only end-result is that Eeee tend to prefer Eeee singers, and non-Eeee listeners may find Eeee music to be bland or missing something, since they can't hear the whole thing.
For the sake of artwork on the site related to Babel, the following "alphabet" has been developed to represent Babelite writing. (It is, in actuality, nothing more than a letter-substitution code. Some suspension of disbelief for the sake of abstraction is called for.)

Gallisian: Gallis was pretty much made up in an attempt to find a place to stick all the random "breed" dogs that some GMs had been introducing, and explain why they would even exist. (Who would breed sapient dogs, after all?) It was originally thrown together as a hardly-serious anachronistic image of France, as a place for the poodles to call home. Gallisian, therefore, is a "pseudo-French" language. It's in-character to occasionally slip in some French or French-sounding words, but authenticity isn't a primary concern.

Bosch: The language of Chronotopia is meant to be a pseudo-German language for a pseudo-German land. Some of the words that have been thrown in for Chronotopian terms have been taken out of other languages, or really badly mangled German words applied without knowing what they really mean. The rest of the time, we just settle for NPCs speaking in really bad accents.

Olympian: Olympia is meant to have some superficial resemblance to Rome and Greece, in its historical role as well as aesthetic appearance. Its language is sort of a Sinai equivalent of "Latin", being a "trade language" that was in wide usage on the surface a very long time ago, and now of interest to scholars who study ancient texts from the "golden era". So far, no precedents have been set for Olympian, but it would probably serve a similar role to Latin, with scholars occasionally quoting some Olympian phrase in italics to sound more impressive. ;)

Skeek/Skreek: This language is in use by most of the rodent races of Sinai: Skeeks, Skreeks and Lapis. So far, no real precedent has been set for it except that one tends to "chitter" when using this language, and that the word "kaj" means "sky". This language is closely related to the tongue of "Kroz", the latter having the same grammatical structure, but without use of "squeaks" and animal noises as part of the language.

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