Question:
that my "common' question is more or
less resolved. For those of you who missed it, it
resulted in me deciding that there is *not* a universal
(universal + the entire multiverse) common language.
In other words...'common' ain't *that* common!
Moving on.......
How long *does* it take for a character to learn a new
language?
I'm usre it depends on a number of factors:
Intelligence, (possibly wisdom), the teacher,
amount of time studying per day, etc....
Has anyone detailed this out yet...better yet...can
anyone reference me to a TSR product that discussed it?
With my luck, 450 of you will say "look in the DMG
dumbass!"
Well hey...at least I'd know...:)
(I didn't look in the DMG before I posted this).
Some additional comments:
The person learning the new language would need
to share a seperate language with the person
teaching the new langauge correct? Could one
apply huge penalties to learn if there was not a shred
language and still have a chance of learning the new
one?
Here is my situation:
I run Dragonlacne campaign...a 1st lvl mage
(from Planescape) is going to goin the group...
granted a mage has some spells that will help
him 'make the transotion' a bit easier...but he
still needs to learn a 'local' tounge. He's highly
intelligent...(a 19 INT) [tiefling] (hehe..I know I know..
I figured *ever* class is worht at least one chance
..even *with* a max prime rec!!!!!)
What do you folks think? IF (and thats a big if)
he survives more than 5 minutes looking and
sounding like he does how long will it take?
By the way...He's thinking of pretending the guy
is deaf so as not to arouse more suspicion and
hatred then his funny looks already do...he would
see a sage (that speaks planar common) [planar
common is the common of the planescape setting]
and hope he trusts the right mage./sage!!!
Answer:
Actually, they wouldn't. Consider the way people learn languages in the
real world. One of the most effective ways is a "total immersion"
language class (or summer camp), where the only language spoken is the
one being learned. For that matter, think of how many immigrants learn
the language of their new country exactly that way: from people with
whom they share no language.
You can get a lot of the basics of language across with pointing and
pantomime. For example, you're learning Orcish. Your teacher points to
himself and says: "Grah nogu Gaak-or!" Then he points to a rock and says
"Gahrk nogi korag." Then he points to a group of rocks and says "Gahrkn
nogin koragn."
Right there, you've got some basics of Orcish. A few nouns -- your
teacher's name and the word for rock. The verb "nog" apparently means
"is called". "Grah" seems to be a pronoun. "-n" is a plural suffix which
is attached to nouns and verbs alike. "-u" is the first person singular
suffix, much like the Romance languages use, and "-i" is the third
person, or maybe non-person, suffix. "Gahrk" seems to mean "this" or
"that" or something of the kind.
Once the basic "bootstrap" vocabulary and structure is transferred, the
teacher and student can talk about the language itself. "What is this
thing called? "What is the word for how you feel when you want to eat?"
"How do I say when something happen yesterday?" And a lot gets picked up
from context.
Of course, how hard that is to learn depends on how complex the language
is. I imagine the common sort of Orcish as being sort of a creole,
originating from trade languages used between various orc tribes, with
words taken from other languages (of humans, elves, etc.) as needed for
concepts that Orcish doesn't have words for. So, like most languages of
that sort, it would be have the rough edges worn down, and much of the
structure simplified. On the other hand, if you've ever looked into the
Klingon language created for the Star Trek movies...well, let's say that
the creator went all-out in doing a non-human language, and what he did
with those prefixes and suffixes shouldn't happen to any decent verb.
But, anyway, you don't need a bilingual teacher.
As for time, I was just reading an article about local high school
student who spent a year as an exchange student in Indonesia, and took
about two months to learn enough of the language to be able to keep up
in high school. You might use that as a basis to work from.
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