Dialect variation

[kitolani]

I suggest that we have a bit more variation in rsay than 'You hear (player) chittering away in a language you don't understand.' Chittering would be an awesome verb for our Martian or Faun races, but I think that for dwarves or spacewolves, it doesn't really work. I think it'd be a relatively easy way to add atmosphere to the realms, just to change it up a bit.

My suggestions are as follows, and are definately incomplete:

Elves- Musical, eloquent, you know...
Dwarves- Robust, thick-tounged, earthen
Gringos- Do they even get an rsay for being so common?
Indians- I think they should both speak/use sign language.
Spacewolves- Barks, growls, etc.
Martians- Clicks pops and perhaps even chittering.
Centaurs- I say we make them neigh. -_-
Fauns- Perhaps some whimsical dialect?

Just an idea since I overhead some dwarves chittering away in recall and laughed at them...until I found out that I chittered too.  Hrmph!

--Oh, and would it be possible to learn other languages for devious *cough* I mean...social purposes?

[Kvetch]

We have rsay?  Where've I been?

[Tor]

This sounds like a good idea to me.

[Sarias]

Sounds like a good idea to me too. I like using rsay. ^_^

[Tocharaeh]

why not actually write a language code? it's stupid easy to do in fact. I know I spoke with Morde on this subject two years back and he said not only could it be done, but he really liked the idea. I'd be happy to create variations to display a unique linguistic representation for each race in fact.

Cent's wouldn't neigh btw- they are humanoids and thus do not support the correct vocal tracts to create the neigh, nor the lung compacity. They're language would be more akin to something that could either harsh german, or maybe even arabic/hebrew in the way they would compose sounds. By this I mean sounds that pull a lot from their throat, aveolar, and so on. Just a suggestion..

[kitolani]

I know centaurs wouldn't neigh. It was a joke. *pats Toch on the head*

[Tor]

But if gringos can't understand the other rsays then the gringo rsay shouldn't be understood by the others. 
Seems I see many other races more common than the gringos.

[Tocharaeh]

Ha! This is exactly why the race system is broken Gringoes are just anglo-saxon peoples who are CALLED gringoes by the mexicans!

Elvish is easy, it sounds rather musical, and a bit breathy (like the wind is talking, no kidding..that is how I always describe elvish)
Dwarvish is VERY rough, tough, and grumpy. Lots of rolling r's just about everywhere.
Gringo would just speak english, lol, poor gringoes. You COULD have them speak french, or something akin to latin. That itsn't a bad idea.
Martian, like kito said, clicks, and pops, chirping and so on. Not a bad idea at all. You could come up with some interesting syntax for them.
Centuarian like I said earlier, something akin to german in sound and nature.
Space Wolf, to be honest they wouldn't truly have a whole lot to convey like we would because canines dont have the same makeup as we do when it comes to forming words or sounds. I could never figure out how the heck a Space Wolf could speak english...make a space communicator like in Start Trek? Anywho, lots of barking, nipping, yips, and howls. It's not too creative, but based upon their biology, ot's just about all I can think of from a professional point of view.
Fauns would probably poor something akin to greek since that is their origin anyhow.
Indians, as far as I know Sign Language was written by Spainards in the 17th Century actually. I don't know of Indians having an actual sign language system that provides them with a system to fully communicate. No, I would just give them something a little truer to their actual spoken language. I hate to say it, bt I'm never big on giving races more credit than their due, and Indians were certainly not a very mysterious people, nor very advanced.

[kitolani]

Indians, as far as I know Sign Language was written by Spainards in the 17th Century actually. I don't know of Indians having an actual sign language system that provides them with a system to fully communicate. No, I would just give them something a little truer to their actual spoken language. I hate to say it, bt I'm never big on giving races more credit than their due, and Indians were certainly not a very mysterious people, nor very advanced.

While some of the earliest recorded works are indeed from the 1600's, that was developed directly to communicate with the deaf/mute.

The native americans from the west had a system of sign language set up to communicate with other tribes for the purpose of trade by the early 1800's. That would fit into the old west timeline. Whether they developed it, or whether it filtered up from Mexico isn't really the point. Despite their 'lack of mystery or advancement', they did in fact have a system of non verbal communication in place. Whether it's prudent to use it in the language script isn't really something I care enough to argue about. Just no chittering.

[horus]

If anyone would like to post suggestions for common words for each language, I can get some sort of dialect happening. I am quite sure there are a dirth of texts for elvish common words, especially based on Tolkien stuff.

[Tor]

Hmm... Isn't rsay there for role play? If you are playing a centaur, faun, dwarf, spacewolf, etc. you'd need special training to understand any language not native to you. I assume that many real life "gringos" have traveled to countries where they didn't understand the language.

While there are people that are so into Tolkien's writings and Star Trek that they have learned "elvish" and "Klingon" they are the exception rather than the rule. It seems that centaurs are the most common race in 4D, maybe it should be their rsay that is understood by all.    It would be the most commonly heard and therefore other beings would have picked up at least some of the meaning for their utterances.

I think having any of the "languages" readily understood by other races would defeat the spirit of the command, but I agree that it would be nice if they all didn't use the same description of chittering.

I liked the initial idea of having a different description for the various rsays as I understood proposed by Kito, but I think making an actual language for each race is overkill.

[Tocharaeh]

Actually, when it comes down to it its utterly pointless because lets face it. If a gringo speaks their languauge...they're speaking english Just about every race speaks eachothers language by now because we have such few races, socialize in the same spots, interact with each other over a priod of hudreds of years...personally it just doesn't work at all RP wise.

Plus, if you were to implement an actual language system then I would demand that people could then BUY the language skill with practice sessions. The reason being is that all languages should be learnable. I've never quiet agreed with the rsay because of this matter...we already have whisper, so use it

Just my two cents..

[kitolani]

Hey, I've got about a zillion extra practice points just gathering dust. Having something to dump them into might be nice. Rsay already exists, and would be a bit more tactful to use than whispering, which in a few social groups is considered quite rude. Saying that it doesn't work at all rp wise may be true, but does chittering? 'Tocharaeh chitters away in a language you don't understand like a fluffy squirrel'...really takes away from the whole chaotic evil drow thing.

 Gringos don't necissarily have to speak english. They can be speaking a plethora of european languages. That's why, from what I've studied, they hated the Irish so much back in the old west. A lot of them refused to speak english, and were better at pharming their goldz!!!

We could make it more useful by making a couple of languages for each race to represent the different subcultures that exist in the realms, but I fear that would be overcomplicating things. Simply replacing the 'chittering' with something that better represents each race's style of communication would suit me.
Whispering is no replacement for rsay, and adds absolutely nothing to the atmosphere but the feeling
of secrecy. If you don't want the room to hear what you're saying, use tells. It's less spammy.

[Tor]

Despite the etiquette lesson, I'm astonished at the nefariousness that seems to be expressed in Kito's comments. Isn't in considered impolite to speak in a language assumed to be not understood as well?... Oh! If the listener is hidden then there would be no need to whisper or to be polite, sneaky.

I wonder if/why Toch hasn't already insisted on being able to buy the ability of understanding the languages of the other races. I don't think it would be too difficult to add a flag to the character to receive the actual message instead of the “chittering” one, for each understood language...
There should be different levels of language knowledge if this is where this thread goes. If a character knows the other language they should also be able to speak in it, if they choose, providing they have the proper anatomy to handle the vocalizations.

I doubt it would be worth the trouble of coding or the expense of obtaining, based on the very limited usage of rsay that I've seen. But it would be humorous should one be able to “hear” something to the effect of: “You hear <player> chittering away in a language you don't understand <garbled message with any player/place names or common sounding words in the message being intelligible>.” As this would be more like what I've encountered rt. I'm sure some devious minds in here could figure a way to employ it by using rsay in the presence of one that can only understand the common sounds. Example: You hear <player1> chittering <player_name> more chittering. Is player1 smitten by player_name, planning on smiting player_name, or just used a word that happened to sound like player_name? =:)~

Err... One of the devious players must have telegraphically imprinted that idea in my subconsciousness.   

[Tocharaeh]

Oh Tor, I'm totally down with being able to buy "languages" so we can also chitter or whatever in others languages. I demand to not be caught in the dark and force players to just use tell and whisper because I can understand their Rsay!