forum What excuses could be made for everyone in a world to be speaking the same language/ able to understand each other
Started by Ali Trutwin
tune

people_alt 97 followers

Makaylin

I read a book and there was a king who conquered his entire continent and made it mandatory that they all spoke the “common tongue”

That writer

What if for a fantasy world, there was a type of launguage made by the gods (or any other omnipresent beings) that not all could speak but all could understand

@TheMagnificentKlyntar

I think that J. R. R. Tolkien used languages the best, that I've seen. He had so many languages that he built different cultures around. However, he also understood that importance of clarity and being able to understand the story and primary language. He had a common tongue that most of the races in Middle Earth spoke because they needed to understand each other. Some cultures only spoke the common tongue, for example the hobbits.

@SapphireLeopardess

If its a fantasy-based world then there may be some equivalent to a high-tech translator like in some earlier comments, and then you could include a 'translation' magic or something similar. Also, I personally prefer to have at least two different languages in my story ideas, just because it adds to the depth of the story and shows the age of the world. Its okay if not everyone understands each other. This is a good thing and can be where translators or people who can speak more than one language come in. These characters also help add to the plot and their ability to translate give their character more depth, as you can ask questions such as; 'did they learn this growing up in a bilingual household?', 'where did they learn this language and why?' and so on. But that's just my opinion.

Deleted user

So in my story when the MC is taken to the fantasy world (kidnapped) they force feed her a magical potion so she can understand them.