Cantr II Discussion Forum

Seeing as how most of you are English, and the English have not had much (any, to my knowledge) contact with other languages in Cantr. So this really has never been an issue to you, but it might in the future.

But wouldn't it be weird to call it English, in character? I mean, there is no England...

In a French town I am in, one person is saying that he speaks 'Romovais", the language of the town (Romov), yet another person is insisting that they are both speaking French. What do you guys think?

An interesting situation. I think that it is awsome that someone has come up with a name for the language (although it does not accout for people who also speak the language who are not from Romov). I have heard tales of (and directions to) a land where people speak in strange tounges when I was last in Baaak. I have no problem with people claiming that they speak english, or french, but I think it is better if people would develop other names for the language.

That's a damn good question, Nick. I was thinking the same thing.

One of the big stumbling blocks that this society simulator has is the lack of a language barrier. Because the English speaking players come from all over the world, there isn't even a difference in dialect from one area to the other. So no one location has the right to claim to be the inventors of their language. There's no explanation as to why the three main English islands all can understand each other, but if they find a French island, it's instantly a problem.

I really don't see a way to fix it, so we might as well be practical and just say we speak English or French or whatever. Even though I think it would be much better to say you were speaking Ramovian and I was speaking Siomese.

Well when my character found a Dutch village, it's not like he just heard the words and because I, as a player, recognized it to be dutch, knew that it was Dutch. He just knew that they spoke strangely, and called the people there Husjna's, because he had found a bike, called 'Husjna's Fiets' and dictionary that said that 'fiets' meant bike.

So because he had found a culture that was so different from his own, we had to determine our own identity. That is why I think that this French town has more culture than an English town can possibly have... there is just really not much difference from one town to another, in the English lands.

I almost cringe at the thought of what will happen. Hopefully it won't be a whole "You're strange. We conquer!" kind of thing. For some reason, I can just imagine that happening.

slowness_incarnate wrote:I almost cringe at the thought of what will happen. Hopefully it won't be a whole "You're strange. We conquer!" kind of thing. For some reason, I can just imagine that happening.

Why not? Buncha crazy people who can't even speak proper Cantrian, they'll probably be stealing our notes and going into buildings without permission next. Maybe even hitting heavily armored people with their fists or gathering restricted resources! Wholesale slaughter is the only viable option. (Either that or drag them into buildings to starve.)

I assume that if we ran into a Spanish player we'd be seeing 'a man in his twenties' and not 'un hombre en años 20' or whatever (Though the latter would be cool...do Cantrians even understand the concept of other languages? Would the fact that the man was described with different text in a text-based world mean he looked completely different?)

But the real problem is going to be emotes. In real life people who don't know a single word of each others languange might still be able to reach some level of understanding with gestures, facial expressions, etc. but in Cantr that's going to be impossible. Even something as simple as a smile will be completely incomprehensible - all we have is pointing, which could mean just about anything. (Unless the player understands some of the language, though that might count as OOC knowledge.) Giving a person food or items is about the only action a character can take to show their friendliness.

I believe what is going to happen..is ..well..it might be like the English coming to the Americas. They didn't share any language in common, but they learned..sort of.

Emotes are taken into consideration.

You're allowed to put whatever language you want inside emotes, and it wouldn't be cheating either to use a translator to find out what any emotes are.

Really?!? There is hope! Yay!!!

*does the no-pants dance* Translate it!

*tut den Keinhosen Tanz*

*fait la danse d'aucun-pantalon*

*hace la danza de los ninguno-pantalones*

Ahhh..the headache!!!! I can't wait for the first sightings of an "English" speaking person meeting someone from another language group.

Jus' point me in the right direction.

Lmao..oh noes. Say...how many of the other language groups have met?

Well French and Dutch meet quite often, they're on the same continent. And Spanish and German aren't far from them, my french character has maps from both regions. I believe the English may have had SOME contact with this group of languages.

As for all the other ones... no clue.

That's interesting..I wonder how come none of the English ones have made any contact yet? Anyone have any clue why not? I mean..if anything..I thought there would be one group that landed or made contact, then brought it back to an English speaking island.