Sometimes i think about the idea of Common as a language in fantasy settings.
On the one hand, it’s a nice convenient narrative device that doesn’t necessarily need to be explored, but if you do take a moment to think about where it came from or what it might look like, you find that there’s really only 2 possible origins.
In settings where humans speak common and only Common, while every other race has its own language and also speaks Common, the implication is rather clear: at some point in the setting’s history, humans did the imperialism thing, and while their empire has crumbled, the only reason everyone speaks Human is that way back when, they had to, and since everyone speaks it, the humans rebranded their language as Common and painted themselves as the default race in a not-so-subtle parallel of real-world whiteness.
In settings where Human and Common are separate languages, though (and I haven’t seen nearly as many of these as I’d like), Common would have developed communally between at least three or four races who needed to communicate all together. With only two races trying to communicate, no one would need to learn more than one new language, but if, say, a marketplace became a trading hub for humans, dwarves, orcs, and elves, then either any given trader would need to learn three new languages to be sure that they could talk to every potential customer, OR a pidgin could spring up around that marketplace that eventually spreads as the traders travel the world.
Drop your concept of Common meaning “english, but in middle earth” for a moment and imagine a language where everyone uses human words for produce, farming, and carpentry; dwarven words for gemstones, masonry, and construction; elven words for textiles, magic, and music; and orcish words for smithing weaponry/armor, and livestock. Imagine that it’s all tied together with a mishmash of grammatical structures where some words conjugate and others don’t, some adjectives go before the noun and some go after, and plurals and tenses vary wildly based on what you’re talking about.
Now try to tell me that’s not infinitely more interesting.
Tag: i love this
Tattoo design of Discworld universe~
Oh y know, the one full of flying giant star turtles~
made it loooong time ago for an ex-classmate and fellow Discworld fan~ (also my very first try in a tattoo design)As I understood he never actually filled it, and I stumbled upon it recently while combing through my old works sooooo if anyone like it enough to put it on their body (even a bit modified) I will be honoured *_*
*no need to ask – just give me a credit or send a pic if you actually gonna fill it *_* I’m so curious~
hello i bring you tiny bull playing with young tama’s hair :,)
sort of to apologize for not posting a page today !!
The Very Hungry Rust Monster is a mini-comic I made a few years back. I’ve seen it floating around Tumblr without attribution recently, so I’ve uploaded a higher-resolution version, properly credited.
Peter you’re a terrible uncle.
Baby Derek and Papa Hale returns!! Only for fun 😀
something else that is of immense and immediate concern to me: why didn’t zevran have running commentary on the dirty love letters you find scattered throughout ferelden in origins
like
can you just imagine him doing the voices as he reads it aloud, pausing to question choice metaphors or to deliberately read a misspelled word phonetically? walking backwards with a hand pressed to his chest as he reads, not even breaking stride when alistair tugs him out of the way of a tree and then back into place? bc i can. vividly.
Inspired by this post. Because while I can completely see why Harry became an Auror, teacher!Harry also holds a lot of appeal …
April 2006
The sky had been threatening rain for hours, and now down it came, no doubt to
the dismay of the handful of students out on the Quidditch pitch. Watching from
the window of her office, Professor McGonagall discerned a few Gryffindors
amongst the group and smiled. They had a good team this year, though perhaps
not as exciting as previous years. The Seeker, a slight third-year girl, showed
promise, but certainly she was not in the same league as a few of her
predecessors. Charlie Weasley, for instance, or …She moved away from the window and glanced at the clock. He was late. She
wondered, not for the first time, if there was much point in holding this meeting.
She could not allow all her hopes to lie with it; there was, surely, only the
slightest chance that he would agree.The knock on the door came as she was settling herself behind her desk.
“Enter!”
She was amused to observe the slightly hesitant way in which he came into the
room. He pushed back his hood, looking around. His eyes lingered on the
portrait behind her desk, but Albus was asleep – or at least, Minerva thought,
pretending to be. A few of the other portraits called out greetings, and Harry raised
a hand in acknowledgement.
Delicious Fish 