Skip to content

Are there character speaking old english language in the game?

Just asking

Comments

  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    Not really. They'll occasionally drop some piece o fantasy old-speak. Throw in a Thou or a Thy. Even that's pretty sparse though. If English is your first language you won't have any trouble understanding them, though I could see them throwing the occasional curveball at you if you already have difficulties with the language.
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,075
    There are occasionally characters who say things like "ye", but you'll never encounter someone who writes "have" as "haue" like in Old English.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Dynaheir in bg1 makes an attempt I guess. Although I think she messes it up a bit
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    lroumen wrote: »
    Dynaheir in bg1 makes an attempt I guess. Although I think she messes it up a bit

    Both Dynaheir and Minsc are foreigners, and they both seem to have some trouble with the language, so I think the implication is that they're not speaking their first language here.

    SoD of course made that more explicit, but even before that I think a lot of the odd or wrong word choices were just because she's not 100% fluent in this language. I assume it's common tongue we're all speaking throughout the game but it occurs to me that I can't think of anywhere that's stated.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Chronicler wrote: »
    lroumen wrote: »
    Dynaheir in bg1 makes an attempt I guess. Although I think she messes it up a bit
    Both Dynaheir and Minsc are foreigners, and they both seem to have some trouble with the language, so I think the implication is that they're not speaking their first language here.
    True. However, I am not sure whether you mean to contradict or add info here.
    She misuses thy, thou and thee a lot. If that is to reflect that she wrongly translates her words into the common language that everyone is supposed to speak then that makes no sense to me since no one else uses the words.
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    lroumen wrote: »
    Chronicler wrote: »
    lroumen wrote: »
    Dynaheir in bg1 makes an attempt I guess. Although I think she messes it up a bit
    Both Dynaheir and Minsc are foreigners, and they both seem to have some trouble with the language, so I think the implication is that they're not speaking their first language here.
    True. However, I am not sure whether you mean to contradict or add info here.
    She misuses thy, thou and thee a lot. If that is to reflect that she wrongly translates her words into the common language that everyone is supposed to speak then that makes no sense to me since no one else uses the words.

    Add info mostly.

    The fact that she mixes up Thy and Thou is obviously a language difficulty, but I'm not sure if the fact that she goes for Thy/Thou over the more standard You that everybody else uses is also reflective of her language problems.

    Like maybe she learned Common from a book or something? So she has an academic understanding of the language that doesn't accurately reflect how it's truly spoken among the people, maybe. Hard to say.

    Either way, the big takeaway is that this is something that seems odd about her. Most of the characters don't walk around talking like they're in a Ren Fair.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Ah. I can see how you get to that point of view.
    But the if i were the writer I would likely have used more sentences to portray that she tests her language. Some dot dot dot and then a word with a question mark I guess, or more hesitant speech. But that may both seem of of place.

    I guess we will never know.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Dynaheir's uh, dialect draws more from middle english than old english.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Saerileth tried and failed utterly. Thankfully that thing is far from official.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Saerileth tried and failed utterly. Thankfully that thing is far from official.

    Still middle english.
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    edited October 2019
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Dynaheir's uh, dialect draws more from middle english than old english.

    Basically, Middle English is recognizable and partially readable by anyone who can speak modern English, whereas Old English is a completely different language and one that I never even tried to learn.

    For a point of reference: Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" (written late C14) was translated from Middle English to modern English for today's audience (although you can still get copies of the original - which I know only too well because I had to study them at school).
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Old English is more alike to Scandinavian/Frisian, middle English is mixing in French with the English of the time.
    Both are reasonably understandable. It's like a bad dialect.
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    In University when we were studying a Middle English text we'd just read it, maybe get an edition with some footnotes to explain the odd bits or something, but when studying an Old English text we'd get a translation, so there's that.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Saerileth tried and failed utterly. Thankfully that thing is far from official.

    Still middle english.

    what i'm getting at is what people think is old english is middle english.
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    megamike15 wrote: »
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    Saerileth tried and failed utterly. Thankfully that thing is far from official.

    Still middle english.

    what i'm getting at is what people think is old english is middle english.

    In Academic Terminology "Old English" refers to a particular period of English, but I think in the vernacular it tends to just be used to refer to English that is Old.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Old English is relatively "easy" to understand if you can speak some of the other Germanic languages around the North Sea. A fitting comparative would probably be (Old) Low German in contrast to modern High German.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Old English's technical name is "Anglo Saxon", its the root language that both modern english and german come from.

    Middle english would be chaucer or shakespeare.
  • MichelleMichelle Member Posts: 549
    I may be mistaken but I think the guy with the missions in the Bard playhouse stronghold is the closest. Seriously, I could be imagining that it is easily over 15 years since I’ve done a stronghold.

    Maybe not old English but a good Scottish brogue, “My hotel’s as clean as an elven arse.” :) As a reader, I will always be grateful that they gave the Forgotten Realms dwarves that accent. Except maybe Pikel Bouldershoulder of course. I can forgive them of that, what an amazing character! :)
Sign In or Register to comment.