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9littlebees
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Creating a Pidgin Language for the Third Horizon

Sun 09 Sep 2018, 14:01

[UPDATE!] See the following post for the phrasebook!

The more I think about languages being used in the Third Horizon, the more I want to create a sort of combined pidgin language for the setting, drawing inspiration from Arabic, Persian (Farsi) and Hindi. After all, the people making up the setting would have come from a melting pot of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures.

So what I would do is look at all three options for key phrases and pick options (or create amalgamations) which are easy to pronounce for native English speakers.

Being a polyglot myself who can speak a couple of these languages, I appreciate that some words are quite different phonetically to English, and so would be attempting to do this to create the semblance of realism without the unique phonetics of the Middle Eastern / South Asian languages.

Thoughts? Would people be interested in this?
Last edited by 9littlebees on Tue 11 Sep 2018, 11:21, edited 2 times in total.
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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9littlebees
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Re: Creating a Pidgin Language for the Third Horizon

Tue 11 Sep 2018, 11:20

Well, I haven't wasted any time. Allow me to introduce a 2-page phrasebook for the Third Horizon. To repeat the introduction I've provided on page 1 of the attached document...
Drawing on 4 of my teenage years when I lived in South Asia and learned 3 languages to basic and intermediate levels, I thought I would tackle language in Coriolis and attempt to create a pidgin language which combines Arabic, Persian, Hindi and (a little bit of) Berber.

In some places I have taken liberties with the original languages, in order to make words that are (a) easy to pronounce using English phonetics, (b) spelled in a way that an English-speaker unfamiliar with the word will be able to accurately pronounce, and (b) short (as pidgin words should be).

Content-wise, I wanted to keep this fairly light, rather than requiring a GM or players to memorise a lot of words. In keeping with this, general everyday phrases are provided, as well as a list of exclamations and swear words that would likely come up in a standard roleplaying session.

My recommendation to you would be to start off trying to get a handle on no more than a handful of words to use at your table the first time you use any. Then, slowly add a word or two to your personal list, until you’ve reached a happy number that everyone understands.
I'm happy to up-rev it if needed!  As always, please feel free to ask questions, critique, offer alternatives, or request additional content.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__d ... sp=sharing
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
Viktorpedia
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Re: Creating a Pidgin Language for the Third Horizon

Thu 26 Dec 2019, 20:54

Love it! I'm totally going to try to use it at the table
 
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Greipur
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Re: Creating a Pidgin Language for the Third Horizon

Tue 31 Dec 2019, 14:55

Thanks for sharing!
 
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jerichojeudy
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Re: Creating a Pidgin Language for the Third Horizon

Mon 27 Jan 2020, 06:57

That’s great work! Thanks!

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