Languages of Mythic Europe

From The Z-Team Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Ars Magica Primer
ArM5LogoColor.jpg
Game Setting
Mythic Europe
The Order of Hermes
The Order of Hermes
The Code of Hermes
The Peripheral Code
Hermetic Book Cycle

Back to Mythic Europe
Back to Nova Semitae Languages

Introduction

These are the languages and rules defined for Mythic Europe for these Ars Magica games. It is based on Guardians of the Forest and The Lion and the Lily source books.

Language Groups

The main division of languages is into Language Groups. Each language characters take must have a dialect as a specialty; for PCs and other important NPCs, they may take any other specialty.

The following rules are used to determine whether or not languages are mutually intelligible:

  • The same dialect, or the same language without dialect: -0 to speaking rolls
  • Different dialects of the same language: -1 penalty to both speakers
  • Different languages/dialects of the same sub-group: -2 penalty to both speakers
  • Different languages/dialects of different sub-groups in the same group: -4 to both speakers

Effectively, there's a -1 penalty for each "step" you have to go up on the chart to reach a common language ancestor, with a -2 if you reach the main language group at the far left.

Language Fluency

Per the Language ability (ArM 5, p. 66) there is no roll. After the penalty is applied, reference the chart to see what level of communication is achieved based on the lowest score of the speakers.

Score Fluency
0 Point and greet. With one or more experience points, you know "please", "thank you" and a few other words.
1 Basic questions and answers. "Where is the church?", "Do you sell food?" Constant mistakes, and an atrocious accent. People must speak slowly and often repeat themselves, and you cannot string a conversation together. Contrary to popular belief, speaking loudly does not convey a +1 to comprehensibility.
2 Basic conversation. You can sustain a short conversation on a common topic. You still make many mistakes and often fail to catch what others say.
3 Haltingly functional. You can hold a conversation on everyday topics, although it takes time, you make many mistakes and your accent is still bad.
4 Functional. You can hold a conversation on non-technical topics, and make few mistakes. People do not normally need to repeat themselves. This is the minimum level required to study from a book.
5 Fluent. You still have an accent if this is not your native language, but it is weak. You speak as well as most natives. This is the minimum level to write a book.
6+ Elegant. You choose your words well, and have no accent if this is not your native language.

Language Tables

Celtic Languages

Language Group Sub-Groups Languages Dialects
Celtic Languages Goidelic (Gaelic) Irish Gaelic Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Connaught
Scots Gaelic East Highlands, West Highlands and Islands
Manx Gaelic Manx
Brythonic Breton East Breton, West Breton
Cornish Cornish
Cumbrian Cumbrian
Northern Welsh Northern Welsh
Southern Welsh Southern Welsh

Germanic Languages

Language Group Sub-Groups Languages Dialects
Germanic Anglo-Frisian Group Lowland Scots Lowland Scots
Anglo-Saxon (Old English) Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
Northern English Mercian, Northumbrian
Southern English Wessex, Sussex, Anglia, Kent
Frisian Frisian
Middle English Middle English
German Group Low German Flemish, Holland, Brabant , Westphalian, Emsland, Bremenasch, Holstein, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Pommern
Middle German Thuringian, Mittelfränkisch, Hessian, Upper Saxon, Silesian German, Lusatian German
High German Alsatian, Bavarian, Bohemian, Carinthian, Franconian, Luxemburgish, Styrian, Swabian, Swiss German, Tyrolian, Yiddish
Norse Icelandic Icelandic
Norwegian Southern Norwegian
Faeroese Faeroese
Danish Danish
Eastern Norse Swedish, Scanian, Gotlandish

Romance (Latinate) Languages

Language Group Sub-Groups Languages Dialects
Romance Languages French Languages Northern French
(Langues d'oïl)
Francien (Orléans, Bourbonnais, Champagne, Paris)
Picard (Picardy, Lorraine, Franc-Comtois)
Norman (Normandy, eastern Brittany, Maine)
Poitevin (Poitou, Saintonge, Anjou)
Bourguignon (Burgundy)
Walloon (Flanders, Brabant)
Langues d’Oc Languedocien (Toulouse)
Provençal (Arles, Avignon, Nîmes, Provencal Maritime, Nice)
Gascon (Guyenne)
Occitan (Limousin, Auvergnat Provençal Alpine)
Iberian Languages Catalan Catalan (Catalonia)
Portuguese Portuguese (Portugal)
Aragonese Aragonese (Aragon, Navarre)
Castilian Castilian (Castile)
Italian Languages Gallo-Italian Piedmontese, Lombard, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Ligurian, Venetian
Italo-Dalmatian Tuscan, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Corsican
Sardinian Northern, Central, Southern
Eastern Romance Dalmatian Dalmatian (Dalmatia)
Romanian Romanian (Romania)
Latin Ecclesiastic Latin, Hermetic Latin, Judeo-Latin

Greco-Armemian

Language Group Sub-Groups Languages Dialects
Greco-Armemian Greek "Standard" (Constantinopolitan), Cypriot, Cretan, Cappodocian
Armenian Armenia, Cicilian

Finno-Ugric Languages

Language Group Sub-Groups Languages Dialects
Finno-Ugric Ugric Hungarian Western, Eastern, Csango
Finno-Lappic Estonian Estonian
Livonian Livonian
Finnish Finnish, Karelian
Sammi Western, Eastern

Other Languages

Language Isolates

  • Albanian: Gheg dialect is spoken in the north; Tosk dialect, the south.
  • Basque: spoken in the western Pyrenees.

Semitic Languages

  • Arabic: Spoken through most of the Islamic world. Local languages also exist.
    • Maltese: spoken on Malta, oddly enough; an Arabic off-shoot
  • Medieval Hebrew, flourished in Spain, used among Jews as a common language much like Latin in the Christian world

Other

  • Berber: spoken in Moorish Spain and Northern Africa.
  • Caucasian languages: A wide variety of languages are spoken in the Caucasian mountains, with only a passing similarity to each other. They are not Indo-European languages.
  • Persian (a.k.a. Farsi): One of the more prominent languages of the Islamic world.