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Author Topic: Languages and writing systems  (Read 748 times)

Azerty

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Languages and writing systems
« on: May 20, 2017, 08:44:08 am »

Yet another language suggestion, this time on writing.

Writing systems should be implemented to transcribe the languages.

They should be from the following kinds (other types could be added, knowing how Toady loves research and details):
  • Alphabet
  • Ideograms
  • Syllabic

The type of writing system should depend from the language, and could influe on the density of information and the difficulty of learning.

Then they could be used to transcribe languages, although a language would have a prefered means of writing (IRL, Russian is written using Cyrillic while French uses Latin but there is cases of Arabic script used by the Huis to transcribe Chinese, and Serbo-Croatian has been written in the Cyrillic, Latin and Arabic scripts).

In order to be able to read a document, the reader should know both the writing system and the language used in the material.

Some languages would not have any writing system; the kobolds would be an exemple of this. However, someone could use his native writing system to transcribe them.
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Languages and writing systems
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2017, 09:42:18 am »

Im half interested in this idea, with the thoughts about scribes or yourself being able to write down dialogues as they happen via some kind of system where with paper present you set your artistic mode to "Transcribe", take a little note of the date & location and just write down the events that happen.
  • The scribe scribbles furiously while the dog is fighting the chicken in order to add the combat to their novelization (this is of course without scribes simply drawing pictures in the book)
  • Or to properly make a note of the justice being proceeded, a detailed report of the treasonous criminal being killed is transcribed and sent to the king for confirmation.

However, kobolds wouldn't be able to be transcribed, no less than absolutely not understandable to other, and learning a language could be a valuable negotation skill or a complete pain in the case that misunderstandings become instantly violent at first contact. There's also the matter of what civilisations speak which language and why in both game progression terms & RAWS.

- Kobolds have a language type of [UTTERANCES] that is completely random and follows no structure, a creature would likely need to have [CAN_SPEAK] in addition to [UTTERANCES] to work as a intermediary translator for others or to write it down in any particular language.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2017, 09:47:06 am by FantasticDorf »
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