Discussion Communication with Pathetic Warmbloods

Oooops. Make that one of two.

Good point. It was those foul ratmen. This is what I get for not paying close attention to fluff. Not even my own!

But yes, Solution A was in full effect in The Monument. It was mostly ranged shooting, but that still qualifies as case A, I think.
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Which letter does solely Vexillogical communication fall under? Plain flags of certain solid colours.
Red — no quarter
White — truce / parley / surrender
Black — plague

 

Hmmm. Ponders.

Looks like use of solid color flags would be a mix of Solution F with Solution I. Do flags need adding to case F in the original post?

 

Overthinking added

The only WHFB novel I've read is Headtaker, where dwarfs, Skaven and greenskins seemed to converse effortlessly. I could read the story part of the End Times books I paid for, but I think that would leave me more irritated than informed.

However, what are all the named "official" WHFB languages?

Reikspeil
Khazalid
Saurian
? Bretonnian
? Queekish
? Norskan
Probably only one Elvish

I assume Tilean, Arabyan and Estalian and Cathayese must exist.

 

JMO but I think "Bretonnian" the word applies to all things from Bretonnia, but not so much the language. They were just an adjunct of what became The Empire a few editions ago, alternative allied forces.

At most/worst Reikspiel vs whatever they speak in Bretonnia is like Frankish vs Old German.

Reikspiel / Bretsprech.

 

I know older army books referred to the "Dark Tongue", the language spoken by Chaos followers. I believe it was spoken by both Beastmen and Warriors and could be used to communicate with Daemons. It could be the same as the whatever Norse speak, but I recall them being distinct. I feel like "Dark Tongue" is like picking up a second language that Chaos followers from all backgrounds could use to communicate regardless of origin.

I don't actually own the Beastmen or Warriors books so I could be totally wrong.

 

I have some of those older books and you remember correctly, there is even a script. It might be called Dark Speech instead of The Dark Tongue. I will try to look for it.

I think the Norscans speak... ...Norscan?

 

Hey @RoseThorn what have you got Hjeki speaking? What is your source for languages?
(Try to keep @Kcibrihp-Esurc out of this discussion - he really needs to work on his geometry.)

 

Another option for Greenskins would be that their brains never grow out of that early child stage of development. Anyone with kids can tell you that young children pick up language VERY quickly, and our ability to learn and retain new language skills drops sharply during adolescence and adulthood. Children are also impulsive, emotional, irrational and are quick to overreact to things. All these traits are common in Greenskins too.

This doesn't mean that Greenskins are stupid (well they are... kind of) or incapable of being functioning adults, they still learn from their experience and are capable of being quite cunning. It does go some way to explain some of their behavioral quirks and give a plausible explanation for some of the more obviously stupid decisions that an otherwise competent Orruk warlord may make, and gives a reason for their language skills. They only have a very bare-bones language of their own, and simply pick up the native language of whatever region they occupy.

Or you could go for the whole "greenskins are psychic but too dumb to realise it" theory that seems to be popular in 40k. Personally I think it's a cop-out, the Ork equivalent of "a wizard did it", but a lot of people seem to have jumped on board with that. Not sure how prevalent it is in WHFB/AoS fanbases though, I only dwell in Lustria!

 

I was thinking of the child language development thing for O+G as, well.

 

FANTASTIC Thread! Took me a while to read through it all, I have earmarked it for later use. Great reference for later stories.

Looking at some of the real-world interactions of the Spanish and the New-Worlders long time ago, the mostly used translators. The Spanish had over the course of just a decade able to establish working "relations" with most of the natives, being able to communicate at first through sign language and eventually translators. The Franciscans/clergy were also helpful in this regard, desiring to either A) learn the language of the natives in order to teach them the one true faith, or B) though they were savages and made them learn Spanish and then teach them the one true faith. When Cortes/other conquistadors set out on their expeditions they did so with many native allies, using translators. Cortes is even rumored to have a native mistress who doubled as his very influential translator when they encountered the Aztecs. Similar things happened by the time Pizzaro went up the mountains to steal the Incan's gold, he used translators and levies of local natives to bolster his troop numbers.

In terms of Lustria and Warhammer, this doesn't translate as well simply because the majority of the continent is uninhabited. The Lizardmen language is so unscrutable it is difficult for an outsider to master unless they devote years of study. It has only been within the last few DECADES that we have been able to translate the Mayan glyphs in order to understand them! (Solution H: Warmblood speaks accented Lizard Tongue and Solution F: Use of written word / signs / diagrams / maps).

That being said, in my opinion their are other ways around this, and these are the two I like the best:

Solution G: Lizard / lizards make the effort to learn to speak a heavily accented warmblood tongue. Like stated previously, temple cities keep some skink priests trained in the arts of the lesser-beings languages. The priests don't know why they do it anymore, other than it is always done this way. Almost instinctual. Every once in a while it comes in handy when they encounter some raiding enemies. More often they just go back to using their spears (see default Solution A: If you communicate using your spear alone, your average Warmblood will get the point. (Don't even bother trying to use a shared language)

Solution M: Use a third party translator. Native translators. In previous versions of the game their were pygmies living in Lustria or the Southlands. It is plausible that they speak/understand a bastardized version of the language of the Old Ones. I also would like to think their are human tribal groups living in Lustria (mostly cannibals) that if persuaded to work with other human adventurers/working as their slaves they could be used to talk between them. I like this idea the best, but in most cases Lizardmen will probably default to Solution A because most of them are convinced the warm-bloods "shouldn't be here" in the first place.

I really like the idea of a Chaos Dwarf using translators SPECIFICALLY to upset his diplomatic opponents. Aside from being incredibly nasty, just like a Chaos Dwarf, must make for a great story to increase the tension.

Great Wordsmiths!!

 

^ the Amazons live in Lustria, and have a little contact with the Lizardmen.
(might know some basic saurian)

Also there was a story about Marco Columbo, where he spoke with a priest that knew some English.

 

got to give this on a closer look later... Quiet interesting here! Never really thought about that... As I think know I imagine, that there is at least one priest in Lizardmen society for every known language.. So Lizardmen are in case able to communicate with any race in the warhammer world ... It might be that if there is no frequent contact between Lizards and other races (which is the case for most races), that Lizardmen speak a very ancient version of the language... Also I think that some languages are only know as written languages by Lizardmen... So Lizardmen could be able to write a letter to the emperor or so quite easily, but it would take some effort to talk to him... (except for a Slann, who has the telepathic ability to communicate with ANY species that's clever enough. )...

 

Yes, it's worth thinking about, even just to choose which details you will choose to ignore. I've used language barrier as a major plot point more than once (so has Scalenex), and been careful to have an explanation of communicationon in the back of my mind on other occasions.

The list here was always meant to be a toolbox - select the appropriate tool for the writing task you have at hand, and have less people saying "hey, that didn't make sense" later.