Author Topic: Script of various written languages  (Read 1020 times)

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Offline Gideon

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Script of various written languages
« on: March 27, 2020, 10:05:43 AM »
I am starting a new campaign and the players brought up a question that I thought I would share.

Because each language has a Spoken and Written skill, does that mean that they all use a similar script (Alta and Iylar?) or does every written skill represent a unique script? I am guessing that there is no correlation.

I have found several attempts to show language etymology, but nothing that details the script the language is typically recorded with (except my books on Thuul, which detail some of the Egyptian-esque scripts).

So my ask: Has there been any official or unofficial attempt to document the scripts of Kulthea? And could you share them?

Thanks!

Offline Majyk

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Re: Script of various written languages
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2020, 03:27:41 PM »
For most when I was looking, I ended up using old D&D references where either Dwarvish or Elven script is usurped and used by other Spoken languages(usually tribal cultures like Orcs and other such creatures).

  It makes things less expensive to learn for PCs that way too, DP-wise, with the ability to halve/quarter the current Parent tongue’s language ranks you’re basing written ‘dialects’ against.

In play, I’d have PCs roll a single d10 and if they hit the Language Rank developed or less, they understood the whole conversation/written passage.
If not, I’d halve the Rank and cross reference it against the language table to see exactly how much the PC ended up interpreting.

Hilarious roleplaying developed from that, and PCs started taking Signaling(think interpretive sign language!), more and more, to narrow down misunderstandings between communicators with poor language ranks in the 2-6 range.
 :-X

Offline Gideon

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Re: Script of various written languages
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2020, 10:06:00 PM »
I like the ideas. Barring a more formal definition of rolls on Written Scripts in Kulthea, I will probably use that as a stop gap.

There was a Language hierarchy posted by B Henson a while ago, that really helped with tracking language relationships. But I was trying to figure the written variance between cultures. Because of the Erlin distribution many of my regular players pick up that or Shay (if in Emer) as a party shared tongue.
 
My new interest comes from a couple players interested in playing more scholarly PCs and they wanted to know what to invest in.

Thanks!

edited for spelling.

Offline Majyk

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Re: Script of various written languages
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2020, 01:13:49 AM »
Nice.
Much success in fleshing things out for them - if really geeky, ask each of them to submit what they think fantasy cultural languages share root words-wise.
Grab a few from each side and make your own dichotomy key if it doesn’t already exist somewhere.

Check out old Guild Companion articles, too - lots of lost treasure ideas in there that were written ahead of their time!

Offline terefang

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Re: Script of various written languages
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2020, 01:46:23 AM »
my unfinished writeup on that topic:

# Language Writing Forms

## Iruaric and Althan

* Reference -- the vorloi language is erlini, script is runic,
thought by the althans (why design something totally new?)

* Speculation -- since the Althan had a galaxy spanning technological empire,
thier basic script was probably drive by simplification and technological
limitations at first suggesting some form of true alphabet -- runic or latin ?

* Speculation -- since mastering psionic and magickal sciences as well as
some form of mind-machine interface, iruaric variant of althan suggest a
logographic design (probably syllabic).

## vorloi

* Reference --  the vorloi language is erlini derived, script is runic

* Speculation -- thought by the althans, why design something totally new ?

* Speculation -- similar complexity/flexibility than erlini script ?

## Erlini and variants (eg. Muri-Elven)

* Reference -- muri-elven similarity to erlini

* Reference -- all muri-elven dialects share the same script or variants thereof.

* Speculation -- cultural influences suggest that erlini script is flexible
or complex enough to be used by several cultures and languages as a base of
their script (like latin, cyrillic, hanzi, hangul)

* Speculation -- is it derived from the elven core script ?

## Enris-Sokal

* Reference -- from elven society used for scholarly purposes

* Speculation -- is it derived from the elven core script ?

* Speculation -- is it distant enough from elven core that a lineari reader
can not make sense out of it ?

## Old Emerian

* Reference -- actually the language of the Taranians.

* Speculation -- as simple as basic english, as complex as full english ?

* Speculation -- similarity to indian/british/australian/us-english variations ?

I'd swallow cthulhu whole, with sushi and soy-sauce.

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Offline Hurin

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Re: Script of various written languages
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2020, 09:18:56 AM »

There was a Language hierarchy posted by B Henson a while ago, that really helped with tracking language relationships. But I was trying to figure the written variance between cultures.

That file on Languages of Kulthea was originally written I think by Matt Hanson (Brian's brother I think). It is very helpful for a hierarchical view.

I currently use another file that gives specific relationships, expressed in language ranks, for the Kulthean languages. So for example, Emeri Erlin and Muri Erlin are connected by a line that has the number 1 on it, meaning if you have 8 ranks in Emeri Erlin, you have the equivalent of 7 in Muri Erlin. As you can imagine, this is immensely useful.

I can't remember who exactly made this chart. The name on the file is Maillet. If you'd like it, PM me.
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