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Language in Trade
In-game chatting will allow any unicode characters, but will be 'babeled' based on experience with different
languages. Decipherability is a function of the speaker's communication, the listener's communication, and
their experience with each other. Communication skills rise most rapidly during new communication with a new
person, slightly on continued conversation, and most when 'taught' or 'information apprenticed'.
The first utterances between two characters is highly distorted, but improves quickly. Interactions create/taint language groups and common linguistic nodes can diversify across the map. Simple replacements or reduction of variety in vowels or consonant clusters would mimic dialects within the same language.
| Speaker | States | To | Hears | Adjustments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | "Hello there" | B | "Amma Vasa" | uniform vowels, translated consonants, dropped aitches |
| B | "Who are you?" | A | "Vo oqo yoo?" | uniform vowels, translated consonants, dropped aitches |
| A | "The name's Grimlock!" | B | "Ta nama's Gramlack!" | uniform vowels, known consonants, dropped aitches |
| B | "I think that was your name?" | A | "A thank that was yoor nama?" | split vowels |
| A | "Is that a question? | B | "Is that a question? | communication! |
Now is C next talked to A for a time, both languages would be influenced. From a dialect perspective,
A would speak Abc, B would speak AB, and C would speak AC, so if C went ot talk to B, the threshold for communication would be lower. If B tried to talk to A again, there is a chance for new misunderstanding
from C's influence.
In this way, no one really speaks the same language, but communication is possible. Social clusters become
much more in sync and migrants or traders will all speak a pidgin. The efficacy of any sign, plan, etc.
may even be tied to a reliance on communication.
Understanding and the deformation of communication is based on probability and the application of major and minor
deformations. Thus, "Say again?" becomes a successful way to improve communication and a helpful way to
clarify a mission-critical statement. Although many skill may eventually be affected by communication,
other low level ones would not. For example, teaching needs communication, but ordering an attack does not.
| # | Filter | Pattern | "Alarming chicken sausage" |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | uniform vowels | / aeiou / "o" | "Olormong chockon soosogo" |
| 2 | translate consonants | c = c +> n | "Amasniph djidlep tautahe" |
| 3 | shrink alphabet | r/l u/w p/b f/v c/k/x (h) j/g t/d | "Anazing kikken zauzage" |
| # | Filter | Pattern | "Alarming chicken sausage" |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | collapse dipthongs | / vv / "v" | "Amazing chicken sasage" |
| 5 | drop trailing "g" or "e" | (-g) (-e) | "Amazin chicken sausag" |
| 6 | drop aitches | (h) | "Amazing cicken sausage" |
| 7 | split vowels | / aeiou / a o | "Amazang chackan saosaga" |
| 8 | accents | th/z ch/sh s/z ing/in' en,an/on | "Amazin' chickon sausage" |
1,3,4,6 - "Omozomj kokkom zozojo"
2,7 - "Anabaph djadlap tootoho"
At some point, items become recognizably discrete from other items around them. It is then that Trade will ask the character to label this new thing. Most recognition is based on form and icons, so the label is a convenience, but not an insignificant one.
When a handaxe is invented:
- Trade: “This stone fits well in your hand and has a sturdy edge for cutting or scraping. What would you like to call it?”
- Character:
BLXTJAnd then, -
Trade: “You have added a long handle to the
BLXTJ, improving leverage for chopping. What would you like to call this?” - Character:
GLPFX
When trading with someone else, the form will be known to both, but the name may be adjusted after the trade. If trading something already invented or known to the recipient, hints like "contains a BLXTJ" or "similar to a BLXTJ" or "advanced BLXTJ made with metal and salt." Iconography becomes much more important, but the immersion or possibility to make a broad impact as the inventor of the cultivator is pretty neat. Also, if this is applied to plants and animals, we can avoid regionalized fox, rabbit, and deer labels. Language in these cases ought to be secondary with solid enough iconography to discuss the attributes of a critter, item, or trade without having to rely on a label.
All considered, most people will want to name towns, money, shops, players, and landmarks (like Adam). With sign-making, perhaps everything can be accommodated except money and players without specific language.