Master list of languages used in Mythic Europe?

Does anyone have a master index of all of the languages used or listed in the various books, including where it was spoken and what alphabet was used for it? It's straight forward--if tedious--to comb through all of the sourcebooks and assemble such a list, but I'm hoping someone has already done the job and I can simply acquire a copy.

Even then, I will probably have to add a few. My upcoming campaign will take place in the Theban Tribunal, and the list in TSE is missing some languages at the edges of the region, such as Georgian and Armenian. And I think Georgian uses three(!) different alphabets during the period, with two becoming the upper and lower case letters in modern Georgian.

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This one is the best I have found so far.

http://amfightorflight.wikidot.com/language-chart

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I don't have the link, but I have seen the same table but more complete: the whole Finnic group was a lot more developed.

Is one language list I have bookmarked

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Medusa is correct. That copy someone made is from a while ago. I haven't been adding to it quickly, but I've definitely added to it since then. Here is the current version:

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I actually copied that from a document- I believe originally a pdf though I am not certain where a copy would be at this point.
Ah, I just needed to look further down the conversation...

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A most impressive work! And very useful, too. So thanks.
Two very minor quibbles:

  • It's DalmatiAn, not DalmatiOn.
  • The Raethian language "Romansh" is not quite located in Western Tyrol, but rather just to the west of it, in the neighbouring Grisons - even today it's one of the four official languages of the Swiss confederation.

Yes, it is. No idea how that happened. Probably fingers on autopilot with so many ...tion words in English. That will be a quick fix. Thanks.

There is a mistake there, but it's a lack of inclusion rather than a mistake with western Tyrol as far as I'm aware. Are you basing your statement off of today, or are you basing it off a millennium ago? Here is a map of where it was spoken close to the timeframe we're working with

I should add Graubunden and southwestern Vorarlberg (or what they were called). I'll edit that. Thanks.

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While you are at it, I find it odd that you distinguish between Danish and Scanian, but not between Danish and Jutish. I am no expert though; I just know that Jutish has historically been a very distinct dialect from Danish.

I'm no expert, either. I've just spent a lot of time gleaning what I could.

I should drop Scanian. I thought I kept it separate because I found something about it in an ArM5 book, but I can't find that. Generally East Norse should just be split in two, so I find it odd that I did that, too. Thanks.

As for either of them being historically separate, that's really after this time. At this point in time it's questionable if any of them can even be separated. Many still consider these to be just dialects of a single language. "all the Scandinavian languages could understand one another to a significant degree, and it was often referred to as a single language, called the "Danish tongue" until the 13th century" (North Germanic languages - Wikipedia). However, 1200ish is about when they start to diverge. Seeing as most sagas will go forward in time, I wanted to lean toward 1250 or so when the choice was required. Even then, Scanian doesn't make sense to include.

Rather than Jutlandic or Scanian, I should really be looking at Dalecarlian. I don't know when the distinctions showed up. But it's a small enough region ignoring it is probably the way to go.

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OK. That's another thing which confuses me.
Why should there be a penalty for speaking different dialects of the same language? It somehow breaks the standard interpretation of abilities, where the language is one well-defined ability with a well-defined score. The speciality gives a bonus and may or may not be a dialect. With respect to the question at hand, the -1 penalty on different dialects makes the dialect a lot more important mechanically than it should be.

With that caveat, I totally agree that the number of dialects do not and should not matter.

As to the actual differences, it seems that the scientific opinion has changed, not only because of scientific development but also because of political priorities. Snorre has sometimes been said to write Old Norwegian, as spoken in the entire kingdom. More recently I have heard linguists say that the Icelandic was a lot more distinct than previously assumed, while Snorre talks of the Danish tongue as a common language throughout the Nordic countries. At the end of the day, we have to realise that we play a game, and just have to define languages which such granularity that the story is tellable and interesting.

And prior to writing and central government, dialects formed continuums, rather than discreet systems, which again says that we should be liberal in the use of specialities.

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When people are speaking truely different dialects (and not just some minor variations like the difference between the Queen's English and standard American English), then they can be nearly incomprehensible. It is still the same language, but unless you are used to the other dialect you will barely understand a single word.

In reality it is of course a continuum where some dialects are easily mutually intelligible, and some are not.

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Let me assure you that a visit in Bavaria would clarify this.

In Germany the local variations are significant (most likely due to the centralisation or lack thereof starting in the early modern period).

Some dialects are an absolute struggle to understand, with major vowel or consonant shifts. To give an example: southern german dialects tend to turn some a into o, d into t and s into sh.

So the LandstraĂźe in a northern Swabian dialect becomes Lantstross. Similar difficulties occur between swiss german and non allemanic based german dialects (a Badener will understand the swiss dialect better than a WĂĽrttemberger).

Similarly, some people from quebec need to be subtitled in French because of how funny they speak.

To give a last example, i tried to watch the Wire and needed to turn on subtitles because of the use of AAV which was borderline incomprehensible.

So yes, -1 for a different dialect really makes sense.

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Consider a conversation between two people, one with a heavy cajun accent and the other with a heavy Scottish brogue, and keep in mind that they are technically speaking the same language.
uncharted scene scottish brogue - - Video Search Results (yahoo.com)

In addition to what several posters have just said, remember that an ArM5 “dialects” tend to be a major dialect or even distinct but closely related languages. So the average ArM5 “dialects” are even less mutually intelligible. -1 each isn’t that heavy a penalty.

Want to add Chaldean? (RoP:D 97)

Sure, but it is on top of the missing bonus, so the actual difference is -2. It really breaks the continuity of language variation.

That may be so, but are all the dialects in the list major dialects, bordering on separate languages? I am pretty sure the regions of Ireland are not comparable to Cajun/Scottish ...

What happens if the character has no specialisation in a dialect? Say «expansive vocabulary». Do they have -1 with all uses, if they cannot make a cases for this vocabulary being useful?

I would not be so sure of that. I do know that even today some of the dialects of England can be very hard to understand for people from other parts of England. (This is true for several other European countries as well.) And that is after radio/TV/newspapers have done their part in spreading a standardized version of the language - differences would likely have been greater in the 13th century.

The errata says

(Living Language) (p. 66): Add the following sentences to the paragraph after the list of competences by score. "Two dialects of the same language generally have a –1 penalty. If your character is not specialized in a dialect, you should specify a dialect without specializing in it, and take the penalty when conversing with people who speak a different dialect. If you speak a "standard" version of the language, that is a dialect that differs from all other dialects."

I used to live on an island called Bornholm. Population 50 000. (now closer to 40 000).
There were people living there with dialects so thick that I had trouble understanding them. And this was just 30 years ago.
And a fairly small island.

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