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Two Rivers Wolfbrother
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 10:05 AM
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Got a little question. The different dialects throughout the Westlands: are they completely different languages, or just different accents and dialects of the same language? For example, if I'm a Tairen who travels to Saldaea and I don't have Common: Borderlands as one of my languages, I can still be understood and understand there, right? Is it like an Australian visiting England, or like a German visiting England?


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Cisco Lii
  Posted: Nov 5 2004, 12:56 PM
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As I understand it, they can understand each other, but they have different accents and some words are different. Something like an American speaking to an Englishman.


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MagusRogue
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 03:29 PM
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The ONLY languages that should merit needing Language for is Common, Old Tongue, Ogier, and Aiel Handspeach. Otherwise, you REALLY don't need languages. I don't like how they did it at all, personally.


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Aleshandre
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 04:01 PM
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I agree somewhat with Uncle Magus. It doesn't really need a whole language skill for it, though knowing how many dialects of English there are, I can see where it may be something to consider. For example, in some areas of London, the accent is so different from California, that it is nearly incomprehensible. Likewise, between towns in Louisiana, some (especially in the Cajun/Creole sections) can't be understood within a few blocks of eachother. While most dialects of English aren't that drastic, there are some like:
Behold the language of King James; who's wisdom spans the land; who followed the will of God in bringing forth the Holy Word into the hands of the common man. Thus we know of the language of our fathers and that language nearly cannot be comprehended, save for the understanding wrought of long study and supplication.

While it is written in English, the construction and prasing is so drasticly different that it is very difficult to understand unless the reader is fammiliar with the form. That by the way would be High Chant, while this and the first paragraphs would be low chant. Common would look more like:

Hey, king james was the guy that did the bible in english. That's cool i'nit.

This post has been edited by Aleshandre on Nov 5 2004, 04:02 PM


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Entropic_existence
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 08:18 PM
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Yea, Like Magus I really hated how they treated langauges in the game. From everything we have seen the differences aren't THAT different. Illianers structure their sentences a little differently, Seanchan have that slurring drawl, different regions have different expressions,etc but we have never seen a problem where people didn't understand one another or had difficulty in getting their point across.

The big reason would be that the characters in the book are fairly cosmopolitan, nobly born, or travelled alot recently. Adventurers fit the same criteria. I told my group to ignore it except for the completely different langauges like Old Tongue, etc.


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Two Rivers Wolfbrother
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 08:53 PM
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What I thought.


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This is an old thing, boy. Older than Aes Sedai. Older than anybody using the One Power. Old as humankind. Old as wolves.

Current Projects:
Encounters Handbook
Tome of the One Power

Homepage:
Town Center Productions
It's funny! Please check out the funny short films and sketches, such as Pink Avenger, the Sockies, and Kenny getting shot with a paintball gun.

Check out my Wheel of Time RPG Website!
It's not as funny as Town Center Productions, but it's updated frequently, so check it out often.
Newest Features:
Alternate Rules: Sanity
Towns and Locals: The Tuatha'an I
My TRW WoT Yahoo! Group! This is where I let the people know when I update my WoT site and also let them know what's coming up.
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Llewin
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 09:10 PM
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just to toss in a bit of info here however:

the seanchan especially can barely understand the people of the westlands... ESPECIALLY not the illianers and tarboners because they speak so quickly...

i think that the idea behind the different 'dialects' is that if you were trying to 'get in good' with the locals it would help a lot if you understood their slang and coloquialisms (spelling?) and you didnt have to either ask 'huh, wha's tha' mean?' or just laugh along with everyone else trying to hide your cluelessness... it seems to me that 'dialect' knowledge would only be useful if you were using the diplomacy, bluff, or other 'human interaction' sort of skills.. perhaps adding a bonus or some such...

but in cases of the seanchan and perhaps the people of shara and the lands of the madmen etc, that have had little to no contact with folks from the westlands for millenia... it would be difficult to communicate.

perhaps a 'dialect' is not the right thing to require... perhaps KS: local should be split up in to KS: region 1, KS: region 2 etc...

i mean look at the seanchan marriage ceremony for example... Mat, a very well traveled adventurer, unwittingly calls Tuon his wife three times, thus beginning and ending his half of the marriage ceremony seanchan-style... he didnt have any idea what he is doing...

or how about how out of place the boys felt when they first visited fal dara and found out they had co-ed bathing?

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MagusRogue
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 09:12 PM
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way i handle KS: Local is that you know of 1 region per 2 ranks of the skill.


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Entropic_existence
Posted: Nov 5 2004, 09:27 PM
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Yea I can definitly see combining in with the Knowledge skill somehow.


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