Some Thoughts on the Common Tongue

Its occurred to me that the common tongue, as often used in fantasy RPGs, is one hell of an unrealistic crutch. Just look at Europe. How many languages are spoken there? Well, according to Wikipedia, the European Union has 24 languages designated as "official and working": Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. Trust me, there are others that are spoken.

So, obviously "common" is used so player characters can travel the world without having language difficulties, but is it taken too far?

In my mind, "common" should be to a fantasy setting as English is to much of the real world - a language of international trade and business. Yes, many if not most of Europe  (if not the world) speaks English as a second language, but that's the catch - it is a second language. At home, on the streets, in personal interactions among locals, it is rarely used. Such communications use the native tongue, not the common tongue.

Now, for those that the so-called common tongue is their native tongue, they may not have even bothered to learn another language. Sound familiar to anyone? ;)

Anyhow, just something to chew on when I run my next Swords & Wizardry Campaign...

If you want, I have some further thoughts and observations on tonight's episode of The Tavern Chat Podcast.

https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/E198---How-Common-is-the-Common-Tongue-e2lvhc

The World is Ruled By Cats (at Least My Corner Is)

I'm a firm believer in this.  If you have a cat, you do for them.  Dogs do for you.  Kinda.

My little girl is a talker, she's extremely vocal.  Her different cries all mean something, and I've learned them over the last few years.  At the moment she is telling me to go to bed.

She understands a number of words... well, more like a handful then a number.  We each speak in our specific language, so we use two languages for one set of communication.

Damn, that seems like a crap load of work.

Still, it makes a lot of sense in a fantasy setting.  The Rock Trolls communicate with grinding noises, yet they understand the Gnolls and their yapping / barking language.  Maybe not word for word, but they get the ideas that are being communicated.

Alright, the lady is getting pissed, and she's just a cat.  Just wait until I actually understand women ;)