Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 TiaNadiezja Sep 16, 2014 23:05:16	So... languages.   In my games, I've often had regional languages - Sylaire and Alphatian and such in my current Mystara game, for example. I give characters their native language in addition to the languages they get for race and background. This has seemed sensible enough to me since 2e that I've never thought of it as a house rule... it's just how business gets done.   Which is how I've found myself with a Witch of Rashemen in AL who I'm not entirely sure speaks Rashemi.
#2 Mirtek Sep 17, 2014 14:48:22	Unfortunately a native tongue is not for free. If you want one of the regional languages beyond common, you need to spend an available bonus langues from background or race (if human)   The non-human races basically have their native tongue locked in as their bonus language "choice" (e.g. all elves speak common and elven) and humans have the freedom to chose a different bonus langauge instead at the cost of not being able to speak their mother tongue.   A human rashemi witch could chose common & rashemi and thus be even with the non-human races or could chose common & elvish, but then would not be able to speak rashemi
#3 Pauper Sep 18, 2014 8:46:23	It should be noted that, while the various human ethnicities of the Realms are listed in the Player's Handbook, the book makes no reference to these ethnicities having different languages (the book does mention that "[i]n the Forgotten Realms, for example, the clothing, architecture, cuisine, music, and literature are different in the northwestern lands of the Silver Marches than in distant Turmish or Impilture to the east...."). In fact, the 'bonus language' trait for humans specifically notes that humans tend to learn non-human languages and enjoy using phrases from those languages in their daily speech. Nothing specifically calls out regional human languages in the ALPG, either, though links are provided to PDFs that contain this info from previous editions. If a DM wanted to rule that these languages are nothing more complex than dialects of Common, that's supportable, in which case, you'd have an 'accent' associated with your cultural region, but would still speak Common and would be able to understand the Common dialects of other cultures.   The most commonly spoken human dialects in the Moonsea would be Damaran and Chondathan, for reference.   -- Pauper
#4 Mirtek Sep 18, 2014 15:14:00	Well, I guess one could treat them as such until further books clarify them. But I completely expect them to be real languages in their own right again, just as they were in past editions.   I would say a rashemi witch may have an rashemi accent to her common, but to speak full-fledged rashemi you need to have taken the language