Re: Languages etc.
I agree. I mean, here in England where we speak English (Can I get away with
saying 'properly'? On a US-dominated list. Probably not. Damn....) in many
different guises, you only have to go the the deep south-west or the north-east
to hear an accent that you cannot make head nor tail of. And this is before
you take the other home nations into consideration (Wales, Ireland, Scotland).
I know that the situation in the US is the same, having friends from Boston,
San Fran., Texas, Nevada etc. How about Down Under?
Some people may argue that in a reasonably medium-high TL (3+?) culture
where mass media is predominant, this dialect barrier will break down, and one
homogeneous lingua franca emerge. I believe this is not so. In the short term,
take the example of Earth. In the UK we have television consisting almost
entirely of British (SE England/London) accents and American accents from
imported crime series, with the odd burst of Aussie soap at lunchtimes. Yet,
we have hugely different accents separated by only 30-40 miles. In the long
term I think accents/dialect is a social phenomenom rather than a geographical
one, and, as new youth fads with new buzzwords hit the streets every 5 years
(minutes???) there is change - I cite the 'rave' culture as one in point.
Surely then, if such differences can arise in such close proximity (both social
and geographical) then what happens when two vastly different communities
(one religious sect, one trading outpost) have a few hundred (thousand, 10,000)
years to mutate their language, even if sharing mass media?
I think when dealing with this, referees should be very careful - although it
does come down to realism vs. playability in some respects. However, an
enterprising party should be able to devise the best strategy for translation
with some novel twists - Searching for old dictionary files, Automated equipment
with voder chips, speaking slowly and LOUDLY etc.!
However, it should be easier dealing with officials/ flight coordinaters/landing
permission bribees... Shouldn't it??
....no, I said land NEXT to the village, not ON the v.......
Ho hum. What else...ah yes.
Personal opinion, I know, but I am all in favour of campaign plot summaries -
gives me more of an idea of flavour CT/MT/TNE squabbling. More please (JP)...
(The man from Del Cambridge - he saay yea-eeass!)
James.