Greetings!
What are your thoughts on such languages and the "Common" tongue dynamic? Have you done something similar in your own campaigns? How have your players responded to such dynamics in the game world?
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Greetings, Shark.
As a professional translator and amateur linguist I've been doing the same thing in my fantasy games for ages.
I almost always use some sort of regional "common language", but it's never used outside its geographical region. For example, my current campaign 2E is set in Forgotten Realms' Sword Coast, so a regional language (called Calant) could be considered as the regional "common" and is spoken in most places from the North to Daggerford, albeit with different accents.
However, no one speaks Calant outside these two regions. And people in the north also speak Illuskan, a language that belongs to another linguistic family, and thus it's not comprehensible by those who only speak Calant. Most Northerners are bilingual or, if not, have at least some rudimentary comprehension of their non-native language.
To add more realism, I divide languages into linguistic branches (languages from the same family share the same alphabet, grammar and have similar phonemes and are mutually intelligible, because they always come from the same ancient, old mother language) and subdivisions.
Most of my players love those little details.
Greetings!
Thank you, Greywolf! Your campaign sounds very cool! Your real-life job and interest in linguistics is pretty awesome, too! In my world of Thandor, geesus--*laughing*--I have done something entirely similar to what you have in your Forgotten Realms campaign. I have developed several ancient mother-root tongues, then there are several or more branch languages that stretch out from there. I have *dozens* of distinctly different languages in my campaign. Also like your own campaign, within each particular geographical location, there is typically a dominant "common" language--for example, within the Vallorean Empire, Common Vallorean is the de facto "Common Language". North of the northern borders of the Vallorean Empire, the barbarian language of the Ghebben is the most prominent language. Further to the east, Common Archaedian is the predominant language. And so on. Thus, there are many languages that are extremely useful, even essential to any character that seeks to travel beyond the boundaries of their village or province.
When I was in college, I had a friend and classmate that was majoring in Linguistics. He already was fluent in English, Vietnamese, German, French, Russian, Chinese. He is a Vietnamese-American, and grew up learning Vietnamese, Chinese, and English. Through school he had picked up and become fluent in Russian, French, and German, and now the guy was moving onto Latin and Hindi. *Laughing* I was thoroughly amazed. Interestingly, I have numerous friends and colleagues from foreign lands--and whether they are from Persia, India, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, or Kenya--it is not uncommon for any of them to be solidly fluent in three or four languages, and somewhat familiar with one or two more languages besides.
Thus, from my own real-world experience, and also from history, I love languages, and view knowledge of them is very useful and beneficial to an individual in so many ways, you know? The idea of a total global "Common Language" just seems ludicrous to me--and as I mentioned in the introduction, it makes possession of other languages irrelevant. From there, the various cultures and ethnic groups and customs all kind of get watered down and become a vaguely bland mish-mash. In my campaign, the players do not just go into dungeons, and then return to a pod-like existence in the generic town. They may be living in a particular area for many long months, even several years *in game time*--and building relationships with the local population, oftentimes which they are new arrivals in a foreign land, so making friends, having romances, hiring people, and getting drawn into the native environment in a more meaningful manner just becomes a whole lot more necessary and interesting if the players know or must learn one or more of the native languages spoken by the people of the area.
I have also noticed that even though embracing such language rules or dynamics, that while the Players must devote effort and attention to learning additional languages--as there is no universal "Common Tongue"--they have all responded well and with enthusiasm to the principle. They have all enjoyed the enhanced sense of realism to the campaign as a whole, so I believe the effort is definitely worthwhile in creating a more realistic and dynamic campaign!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK