This has been brought up before and if I recall correctly, the answer goes something like "If the author of the area feels like changing it then fine, but otherwise that's part of the downside of playing a Minotaur".

In some cases where a simple "yes" is needed a nod (social) will work, but not always.

the thellth thea thellth by de thea thoore

Thedithus thalamanderth thell thoulth tho thathy thexthy thailorth thing thtories of thacerdotalithm and thatanophany.




Why is this so fun?

Next seasonal race - Some other form of mutilated speech. It. Must. Be.

With our current CF races in mind, birds and cats are the least human in their facial anatomy; we've all heard birds imitate human speech (and dial up modems) pretty well, but felines just don't have the structure to pull off any kind of articulate speech. So technically felars would be a good candidate for some kind of mreowinate() function. (I didn't know about velars, labials, fricatives, etc. when writing the bovinate function for minotaurs--otherwise it might have turned out very differently.)

The way I'd like to see something like that work is for the target race to hear speech just fine amongst themselves, but have it communicate differently to other races. Felar1 confronts Felar2 and Human1 with an assertion: "Fruity Oaty Bars make a man out of a mouse!" Felar2 should understand this assertion as spoken, while Human1 instead hears something incomprehensible ("Felar1 makes a series of meowing and growling sounds.") CF could add language skills, I suppose, so that Human1 could go learn Catspeak and then be able to understand Felar1 as well.

Alternately, it would be interesting if we added a secret language function that could be toggled on players. For example, let's say all thieves automatically learn Thieves Cant at level 10. A thief could toggle the Cant so that all thieves in hearing range see their text just fine while non-thieves are left with something incomprehensible (as above).

But, these are things I muse about without much conviction. Imagine the uproar if they were implemented!

but I'm told it's an obstacle to RP

It would be interesting to see if/how the language issues for minotaurs have impacted RP with others. Are they treated differently? How have they adapted to having the impediment?

It's tough being a foreigner somewhere that no one understands you; but that also can (IMO) make things more interesting. You have to solve problems and communicate in ways you didn't have to before.

(And I almost wonder if minotaurs in CF should be able to understand each other just fine.)

However, Minotaur isn't a completely different language that can't be understood either. If nothing else it has produced plenty of funny moments and intended frustration.

I also think a decent portion of CFers are likely to just abuse emote if they COULDN'T understand the person at all.

Bash is the universal language.

bash bash orc orc boat boat


Dems good.

Its called the "common language" because every race speaks it to each other. Every race, that applies, should have its own tongue. This would take playing evil/neutral to a whole new level. Imaging conspiring an uprising right in front of the Emperor and he/she couldn't understand.

on the flip side, each help "race" speech file talks about how that race talks in the common tongue. So only makes sense that they would have their own language.

While we have some form of a common tongue available in Thera, I really only imagine there being a lingua franca available to races with a human/demi-human anatomy (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Orcs, Halflings, etc.). The diversity in language among races with completely foreign vocalization is probably wide enough that you would have no way of producing a language that every race could speak. You could play the Fantasy Card at this point and say we suspend disbelief on a number of other matters, but I think racial diversification and making non-human races have a more non-human feel is a good thing. In a serious RP environment I don't think we really don't want "human in a cat suit" and "human in a bird suit" mentality when dealing with other races.

Even if some changes make the more 'exotic' races a bit more foreign or alien to interact with (which is the point) - I think the overall atmosphere it would provide for interactions, attempted talks, etc.

I mean, you wouldn't expect, in a realistic fashion, for a Drow to walk up to a Felar and speak in ways entirely and absolutely understandable to each other, with the exception of one adding "mre" before each sentence (the drow).


I'd love to see some further alienation in the more exotic races, so that they do, in a way, stand out positively (as something inclusive and powerfully tied to their own race) as well as negatively ('standing out in a crowd' and being a bit unappealing to associate with if you're unfamiliar with their tendencies/lingo/etc).




If not current races, I would totally enjoy seeing this for further races added (seasonal race choice perhaps?)

Maybe as an experiment to see that "Okay, Minotaur have mutilated speech but seem to still be accepted - how much further can this form of 'difference' be pushed for a unique, but still enjoyable experience".



Like a minotaur from Spain with a Dwarven accent.

"Me cath'r thoorth'er,en garde!"







And you best be joking about putting orcs into your lingua franca - Else I expect a Tower of Babylon sort of incident.

And yes, blame the orcs.

and in typical orcish fashion, I blame someone, anyone, and everyone else. It's not our fault.

Paid for by the orcish committee against racial persecution. (Except when it comes to elves)