Language in the Wasteland

So I'm back to working on Inheritors (among a myriad of other projects, health issues and personal drama) and as I assemble the lists of Heritages a character can start with, the topic of language keeps popping into my brain. In keeping with both the game's and my own scrapper mentality, I figured I might borrow WILD's language rules which go something like this:

(Concept Fan Art of a Mad Max-esc car shop by N L)

Each language comes in two separate proficiencies (Spoken and Written) each tracked on a scale from 1-4 (Ex: English 3|1 would be Spoken Proficiency 3 and Written Proficiency 1).

At Proficiency 1 you can understand common words, and speak/write in sentences using up to five one syllable words. At Proficiency 2, you can understand more advanced words and concepts, but cannot use or understand idioms nor words over 3 syllables, struggle with local dialects and have a chance to lose something in translation in the heat of the moment. Proficiency 3 is considered fluent, speaking comes easily and only the thickest accents provide even the slightest road bumps. Proficiency 4 represents a mastery of the language itself beyond the average native speaker, in speech this means more easily slipping into different accents, having an excellent sense for wordplay and speaking particularly eloquently. In writing this means being able to write evocatively or succinctly as well as derive etymologies and parse dense technical documents.

When making a character, mark with a star the language that your character feels most comfortable speaking (their Root Language). Unless you're speaking at Proficiency 4, the accent of this Root Language will carry into every other language you speak and be quickly recognizable.

For example, a Character with English [2|2] and French* [3|1], can fluently speak French, but not read it particularly well, can speak and read English well enough, but with a French accent.  

There's some additional mechanics that also feed into this, like how being at Proficiency 4 with a romance language makes other romance languages easier to learn, or how you can temporarily bump your Proficiency by 1 (to a maximum of 3) by spending time to use a translation book. I'm not sure if this exact system will be used in Inheritors, but it felt like a good baseline and a solid place to get it out there!

Which of course begs the question, on the war-scarred planet we now call Oasis, what languages do people speak? And what quirks does each language carry?

LUNG - Lung is where the last remnants of the old world's languages go to die. While incredibly common (and practically ubiquitous among Clots), Lung has no unified written language or alphabet (and thus has no Written Proficiency). Any Lung documents are written using a different language's alphabet, most commonly Parsic. Deciphering these documents requires both Written Proficiency in the language whose alphabet is being used, and Spoken Proficiency in Lung.

PARSIC - Parsic is largely considered a "scholarly" language, popular in urban centers and among self-proclaimed archeologists. Parsic shares a few similarities to Lung (to the point where many consider Lung a kind of Proto-Parsic) especially in its vowels, tones and sentence structure. Spoken Proficiency in Lung grants an equivalent Spoken Proficiency in Parsic minus one (and vice versa).

BARTER TONGUE (AKA: Highway Signing) - Barter Tongue was built as Oasis' lingua franca, including both vocal and sign components allowing any Inheritor to understand it as long as they can either see or hear. A favorite with caravan traders who need to communicate through harsh sandstorms and thunderous rains, it's also become popular among mercenary bands who use signing to silently communicate in the field.

SPHALTALK - A sharp language from the north, a variety of common vehicle terms used in other languages are directly lifted from Sphaltalk. Any mechanic worth their salt has at least some proficiency with Sphaltalk, and most texts on motormancy are written exclusively in holy script. Some Engine Monks refuse to speak any other language, believing it'd sully their purified charred tongues.

HYPHAEBHASHA (AKA: The Sense) - What little pedantry is left in Oasis is regularly dedicated to debating whether Hyphaebhasha counts as a language at all. A combination of pheromone releases and subtle electrical discharges sent through the air combine to make the instantaneous "telepathic" language of the Sclerotia and their kin. There are only 2 Proficiencies in Hyphaebhasha (1 and 4). It has no written language, as the Mycelial Royalty is its own records. Gaining Proficiency 4 with Hyphaebhasha requires Mycelial Senses or an equivalent Bio-Mod (at which point the language comes to you second nature with only a little practice necessary).

BINARY (AKA: Geartalk, Jitter) - Binary is the foundational and universal language of robotic life, allowing its speakers to compartmentalize lengthy thoughts into a rapid string of monotone chimes and nearly imperceptible pauses. Binary is harder than any other language to learn, and even harder to speak at speed without extensive training or assistive technology. Luckily, once this hurdle has be passed you can communicate at dizzying speeds and over long distances using flashlight signaling. [The requirements for Binary Proficiency Advancement are Tripled, however a variety of (limited and slow) translation devices can be salvaged or engineered.]

TERRAN (AKA: Star Tongue, Enochian) - The tongue of the few angelic humans who descend from their home in the sky and whose relics can be found in the deepest of the old world's dungeons. Terran is generally considered a language as sophisticated as it is antediluvian. Teachers are few and far between, as most humans lack the interest or skill to pass their language to others. Thus it's become a kind of secret language between the sparse human population on Oasis.

[[ GM NOTES -  Lung is an amalgamation of Earth's present languages, from Mandarin to English to Swahili to Vietnamese. Various dialects of Lung rely more on the tones and structures of a given language, but it's all generally intelligible to anyone who speaks it. Parsic is a refinement of this melting pot into something more uniform with its own bespoke writing system.

Terran conversely is a late-Earth old world conlang built for efficiency, eloquence and universal use.

Also Sphaltalk is a fun word cause it combines Asphalt and Talk :^) ]]

I'm tempted to condense Lung and Parsic into just one language and having literacy be rare, but there's something enticing about separating the two, thereby hammering home a degree of disparity between those who speak Parsic and those who don't.

If you're interested in other language related musings, here are some of my favorites that have stuck with me and inspired the systems you see here:

•  Schrödinger’s Chat (Part 1 | Part 2)
• RPG Linguistics (This was an especially big inspo in trying to give each language extra punch in both building the world and play opportunities)
• On Language
• A Reality Check for Language Rules in Your Fantasy Game (and rationalizing alignment languages)
• Real-world Language Proficiency for Fantasy Games
• Untested: Pidgin
• Fallen Empire - Reviving the D&D Language System

((Also honorable mention to all the lovely fellow bloggers who I've had vvv good conversations with about language! Y'all are great ~ ))