[SoA2064] Linguistics power, broken rules... Options

[audun]

I should have discovered this in proofreading, but I didn't so sorry guys.

Though, the rules for the Linguistics power strike me as odd. Namely the Linguistics table. The target number is based on some presumption about what languages are obscure, which IMHO doesn't make any sense.

Wouldn't the likeness to languages already known be a much better way to determine the target number. Latin isn't obscure if you already know Italian, Ukraian isn't uncommon if you already know Russian (there are 40 million Ukraianans). SR2 had a language tree, but I don't think that needs to be repeated.

So I suggest the following table instead:

Language is:
Close (within the same group of languages as an already known language. Ex: Germanic languages for English, Roman languages for Spanish) TN 4

Related (within same the same broader group. Ex: Indo-European languages) TN 6

Unrelated (other group of languages, or special languages like Sperethiel, Or'zet or Basque with no known relations to any other language) TN 8

One could rule that cultural commonalities also should count so that someone who knows Spanish or Catalan may learn Basque as a related language (rather than unrelated), and a similarily with a Swede and Finnish.

If one can't decide the relations, either consult an encyclopedia or let the GM rule.

[Kanada Ten]

That's really cool.

[toturi]

I believe Sperenthiel and Or'zet are related.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Well, given it's description Or'zet could be considered to be related to everything.

[toturi]

Well.... you got a buunda with that, cerri?

[JongWK]

[Ancient History]

It's like this:

Throalic is the modern dwarven dialect of Barsaive, the literal common tongue. As it grew and evolved as a trade language, it incorporated elements of non-dwarven langauges, noticeably Sperethiel. In turn, modern Orkish (Or'zet) as opposed to ancient Orkish (Or'zat) incorporates a number of loan-words from Throalic, including the Sperethiel terms.

So, a Sperethiel speaker could pick out a few words in Or'zet, and vice versa.

'course, that's assuming or'zat isn't some debased mutant dialect of Sperethiel, but that hasn't come up in canon yet.

[audun]

[Random idea] What if Basque is an ancient language too (in ED terms). There's a mention of a higher than normal percentage of dwarves in Euskal Herria. What if someone found some common words between Basque and Sperethiel for instance. There (IRL) theories that Basque is remnants of the language spoken in Europe before the arrival of Indo-Europeans. [/random idea]

[Ancient History]

If Basque is an ancient Dwarven dialect, I'd lend more money on it being related to Scythan than Throalic. Unfortunately, the Slithering Wastes are rather poorly covered in ED, so I can't tell you how close Euskal Herria is to ancient Elven lands.