WoW Languages

Lore Story Forum
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I’m in the process of learning my third tongue and it made me think of how weird WoW’s treatmemt of language is.

We know it was added in mainly as a gameplay feature when not having a language barrier basically turned it into grief fest. But it does make sense different nations and entire different species would have different languages.

Orcish in particular makes me curious. It’s a literally alien language that would probably have a very confusing alphabet and pronunciations as a result.

With Zandali and Common it seems the Trolls and Humans managed to agree on a common tongue. Although I think Common really ought to be called Stromgardi as presumably that’s where it comes from.

Gutterspeak (I refuse to call it Forsaken) has some interesting origins as it’s apparently an artificial derivative of common that was used by thieves and cutthroats to communicate in code. Given it’s name I like to believe it just looks like an extraordinarily rude and lude version of Common in writing.

And then there’s Darnassian and Thalassian which interest me quite a bit. As you hear greetings and goodbyes in the languages from tons of NPCs it seems like they’ve a Deutsch Dutch kinda relationship going. It was once one language that shifted over time.

Pandaren is an embarrassment I won’t speak much on. Om nom nom. Seriously Blizz? I thought you were trying to give some semblance of dignity to the once gag race.

Obviously there’s a lot more I can’t touch on but it’s pretty interesting.

In our own world there are sounds in languages non-native speakers have tremendous difficulty replicating because if you didnt grow up doing it your brain can’t seem to figure out what you’re asking of your mouth and throat. This is a problem for us and we’re all the same species. Are there like vowel noises in Draenei a human just straight up can’t make? Or now that it is called Forsaken did the undead add like a sound you specifically make without the use of your jaw?

This just fascinates me and it’s a pity there’s little to no lore on the topic. Personally I’d’ve liked it if in any dramatic cutscene between Horde or Alliance characters they needed some dwerpy translator present.

Or maybe do the UN thing where they have to wear headphones when communicating and there’s a lag in reactions because this nerdy translator really doesn’t want to tell his boss what Garrosh just said because he’s going to get yelled at.

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I’d love for some history on languages in WoW.

I assume Darnassian and Thalassian have roots in Zandali, being their descendants and all.

I always thought Arathic would’ve been a cool human tongue name, harkening back to the highlands of their first empire.

Apparently Common sounds crude to elves, which is interesting.

The orcs write in runes, if I recall right, not in letters. So think more Asian’s graphics rather than what Europeans have.

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A clear example of this is when Kael’thas meets Tyrande in Silverpine forest.

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I could see the gnomes building these nice protocol-bots to translate stuff, and their goblin built counterparts are just programmed with swear words.

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I run a D&D game set in Azeroth, so I thought about this a bit. Given the relationship between the Elven Languages, I ruled that if one can speak one elven language, they can attempt an Insight check to try to discern the meaning of someone speaking a different elven language.

However, I do not extend the same thing to it’s written form. I have this head canon that Darnassian script looks like a pairing of Nordic Runes and Kanji with accent marks that resemble antlers and tree branches.

Where as Quel’dorei script has been influenced by Common, which I always interpreted to be more like Latin. I based this on a few things, before I realized that the memorial script at Lion’s rest is something like Elder Futhark… But I am kind of stuck with it now.

I didn’t much like Gutterspeak basically being a form of Theieves Cant, so I changed that. I say Gutterspeak and Forsaken are two different languages. One is the Lordaeronian Dialect of Common, which is uncommon enough among humans to the point where it is almost entirely associated with the Forsaken. Gutterspeak, I said, was a language invented for Forsaken lacking convention methods of speak. Such as missing jaw, tongue, or damaged vocals. It is basically a language that sounds like various pithed of coughing and sneezing lol.

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Common, I think, uses runes as well. We’ve seen books and plaques with common written on it and they are runic looking.

I don’t think Common has a alphabet like Latin does. It’s more Germanic or Nordic in nature.

I’ve always assumed Common is some variation of Titan language, which is definitely runic. After all the langauge likely comes from the vrykul one, which is also runic.

We do also know that Darnassian is influenced by Titan, so it’s probably originates as some form of merging between ancient zandali and titan.

Forsaken don’t need jaws, tongues or voice boxes to talk though. Forsaken talk the same way spirits and ghosts talk, it’s the soul talking, not the body. While many Forsaken sound guttural others sound soft. The executor at the Bulwark has no jaw but talks perfectly fine.

Like I get it’s just your DnD game for WoW, but it seems strange to change that?

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It’s cool that Void Elves and Blood Elves can speak the same language. You can communicate cross faction if you both pick Thalassian as the language. (Every one else has to drink an Elixir of Tongues.)

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Pandaren can talk to each other now.

I think Legion changed that, so they are the first cross-faction communication.

I guess Sylvanas and Anduin did not subscribe to Garrosh’s and Varian’s no talking to the other side policy.

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Demon Hunters likewise can all speak Demonic.

And way back when Forsaken could speak common but this never made it past beta as I understand it.

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Yeah people trash talked each other in PvP.

I wonder why this isn’t considered an issue anymore?

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I’ve long speculated that given the differences in naming conventions so often seen among satyr and naga (lots “z’s,” “x’s” and “shj’s”) from those of other kaldorei, Thalassian perhaps originated from the Highborne (and consequently their various descendant racial offshoots) having their own sort of “high Darnassian” dialect that was similar and functionally comprehensible to, but still recognizably distinct from the Darnassian being spoken by the bulk of the population in the old night elf empire.

In that vein one might consider that the word “thalas” (as in Thalassian and Quel’thalas, meaning “home” in at least the latter) doesn’t really seem to be used in the naming of contemporary night elf locations, but does appear at least twice in the names of certain notable Highborne ruins, so the term not only predated the high elf schism, but may be attached to the Highborne caste in particular. Meaning the differences between Darnassian and Thalassian could theoretically have roots in the old class divisions within kaldorei society rather than being symptomatic of the high elves’ exile from Kalimdor.

Especially given how long even the non-immortal high elves can live; even across a few thousand years the rate of cultural turnover and changes in speech that come with it would be a great deal slower and less pronounced than with shorter-lived races, as (given both their long lives and seeming resistance to infirmity until the very absolute end) many overlapping generations would regularly coexist, continuing to actively shape society and inform their descendants’ behavior rather than cutting off around the great-grandparent range as it usually works with humans and races of comparable longevity.

So in that way, it might almost make more sense for Thalassian to have originated from it being to at least some extent made deliberately distinct from Darnassian.

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The interesting thing is they can communicate without jaws. I remember a Shadowstalker in Borean Tundra reacting to command sending just your PC as backup with

“, if it hadn’t already fallen off my jaw would be on the floor right now”.

So it’s quite possible the undead speak through some magical method that doesn’t require body parts or organs. Come to think of it at one point a Forsaken’s head in your bag is giving out quests which seems hard to do without lungs to create vocalizations. Or alternatively he’s giving out these detailed descriptions in morse code by chattering his teeth.

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I could see why common would be an issue because it’s the main tongue of the entire faction, so every Alliance would see it, whereas if you trash talk in Thalassian or Pandaren only one race on the other side is gonna see it.

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Speaking of languages, one thing caught my attention.

In Nazjatar, there is a section named “Elun’alor”. Naturally, I started thinking of “Dazar’alor”.

I mean, I guess that some connection between the Trolls and Elven languages?

(Using google, I found there is actually an NPC named Phanthanhes Elune’alor in Legion content. That seems to have little to do with either city. Just something that came up when I googled.)

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It’s an interesting and creative change though…an alternative explanation for Forsaken language.

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Mr. Forsaken, sir?

It took me longer than I would care to admit to realize you were talking about learning a language in the real world, and not some weird Forsaken thing with, like, tongues.

I would strongly disagree. The Well of Eternity had a pretty strong impact on the rapid evolution of night elves. I like to imagine that the early progenitors to trolls had their language evolve into present day Zandali, and the elves turned into Darnassian/Thalassian.

Oh come now, darling. We’re elves. Everything non-elvish sounds crude to us.

Ooh. I like the idea that that’s one reason they can’t speak to each other. But I also like the ideas that the high elves are hardly - hardly - going to let their beautiful language be influenced by something as vulgar as Common.

I…this is entirely in my own head, mind, but I like to think that the reason that elves can’t understand each other is because high elves just said “Screw you, we’re going to speak better elven”, and just on a whim changed their language to something…else. And then night elves were like “Screw you, we’re going to speak pure elven.” Mostly because that makes me giggle.

Actually, I also like to think that high elves heard some Common, decided “Ugh, that is so crude,” then went ahead and used the same word and pronounced it slightly differently.

(D&D, yes? I look at high elves as sun elves. Specifically. Night elves seem to be a unique mixture between drow worshippers of Eilistraee and wood elves. Sylvanas they’re just trying to go full on drow. They even have her dark rangers liking spiders.)

So…I gave this some thought, too. And came to a realization. If you don’t speak Common, it looks…germanic, I think, if memory serves. Dwarvish looks…Gaelic? Celtic? That region. And so forth.

Pandaria is, obviously, modeled after China. Which means that the language should probably look Chinese (I don’t know enough of a difference between Mandarin and Cantonese to say anything more specific). This makes sense, yes?

…now, ask yourself if you think the people you encounter on your server will handle that with maturity. Remember: Trade chat counts for your server.

In my head canon? Vanaelia speaks Thalassian, and still knows some Old Elven, which is the name I just right now gave to the language all elves spoke before the War of the Ancients.

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This likely falls under the guise of using mages/priests to imprint the knowledge of a racial tongue into your mind, how people learn languages so fluently.

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That’s fair. If I haven’t yet I probably will broach the subject of Forsaken tongue replacement eventually.

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Nah, modern and ancient zandali is similar enough that we can read tablets from before the Sundering just fine, so the language hasn’t evolved that much. Makes sense since their culture stagnates like heck. Zandalari probably disaprove of any evolvution to their language.

There also wasn’t that many generations of night elves between the birth of the race and the birth of dudes like Malfurion, Illidan and Tyrande.

Plus, Zandalari apparently sounds like they have a melodious flow when they talk, which is certainly a trait I often ascribe to elvish.

Rapid evolution isn’t going to affect their speech, that’s not how speech works, speech isn’t tied to genetics. The elves would’ve had purposefully changed their language for it to have changed that fast.

Which… honestly I’ve always assumed the Kaldorei purposefully supressed the fact they came from trolls, so maybe.

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I’ve always thought that Darnassian and Thalassian were kind of like Spanish and Italian in the way that someone who speaks one can usually comprehend what a speaker of the other is saying. Even if some words or phrases are completely different they would get the general idea of what was being said.

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