Speak Language & Languages
Languages identify homes, peoples, professions, education and centuries of contact between cultures. Human languages exist beside Elven, Sylvan, Dwarven, Draconic, elemental, infernal, celestial, deep-world and alien tongues. Some are spoken; others are signed, written, displayed through colour or carried through several senses at once.
Languages in the 1454 Campaign
Human communities speak the languages produced by their own histories. Nonhuman peoples, planar civilisations and extraterrestrial cultures possess languages of their own. Trade, migration, warfare, scholarship, settlement and magic allow words and ideas to travel between them.
A university manuscript might therefore be written in Latin while quoting Greek philosophy, using Arabic astronomical terminology, preserving Draconic magical terms and leaving one Infernal legal expression untranslated. The document is still Latin.
Where an edition grants Common, use a language appropriate to the character’s homeland, family, household or community. The number of languages granted by the rules does not change.
Latin can borrow Infernal legal terminology without becoming Infernal. German miners can use Dwarven technical words without speaking Dwarven. A human place name may preserve an old Sylvan word long after its original meaning has been forgotten.
Rules by Edition
D&D 5.5e / 2024
D&D 5.5e does not use a Speak Language skill. Languages are gained through character creation and features that specifically grant them.
Replacing Common
Where the rules grant Common, choose an appropriate home or community language instead.
Standard and Rare Languages
Retain the edition’s mechanical distinction between Standard and Rare Languages. A Rare Language is restricted as a character option; this does not mean all of its speakers are rare in the world.
Primordial
For 5.5e mechanics, Aquan, Auran, Ignan and Terran are dialects of Primordial.
Undercommon
Where the source rules use Undercommon, use Deep Trade Tongue as the setting name.
Sign Language
Where the rules grant Common Sign Language, treat the proficiency mechanically as written. Signed languages are genuine languages expressed visually through structured hand, facial and body signs rather than spoken sound.
The rules proficiency does not imply that every culture uses one historically identical signed language. It represents the proficiency required by the edition while regional and cultural signed traditions can exist where relevant.
Checks
Knowing a language does not normally require a check. Checks become relevant when the difficulty comes from archaic speech, damaged writing, technical terminology, a cipher, an unusual dialect or incomplete evidence.
Pathfinder 1e — Linguistics
Pathfinder 1e uses Linguistics (Int; Trained Only). Each rank grants another language, and the skill also covers difficult writing, deciphering and forgery.
Learn a Language
Each rank grants one additional language, subject to restrictions on secret, dangerous or otherwise inaccessible languages.
Decipher Writing
Linguistics can analyse unfamiliar, archaic, incomplete or difficult writing. It is not universal translation.
Forgery
For false letters, signatures, decrees and records, see Forgery.
Undercommon
Where source material uses Undercommon, use Deep Trade Tongue as the setting term.
Aklo
Aklo remains available where a supported rules source or established creature specifically uses it. It does not replace Sylvan and is not a universal language of Fey, aberrations or extraterrestrial peoples.
D&D 3.5e — Speak Language
Speak Language is not a conventional numerical skill.
- A rank teaches one additional language.
- There is normally no Speak Language check.
- The character either knows the language or does not.
- Edition literacy rules remain mechanics rather than universal social history.
Check
None.
Action
Not applicable as a conventional skill action.
Try Again
Not applicable.
Common
Where the source rules use Common, replace it with an appropriate actual language without changing the mechanical language allowance.
Undercommon
Where the source rules use Undercommon, use Deep Trade Tongue as the setting name.
Legacy 3.5e Language and Alphabet Table
| Source Language | Legacy Alphabet |
|---|---|
| Abyssal | Infernal |
| Aquan | Elven |
| Auran | Draconic |
| Celestial | Celestial |
| Common | Common |
| Draconic | Draconic |
| Druidic | Druidic |
| Dwarven | Dwarven |
| Elven | Elven |
| Gnome | Dwarven |
| Goblin | Dwarven |
| Giant | Dwarven |
| Gnoll | Common |
| Halfling | Common |
| Ignan | Draconic |
| Infernal | Infernal |
| Orc | Dwarven |
| Sylvan | Elven |
| Terran | Dwarven |
| Undercommon | Elven |
This preserves source-rule terminology only. It does not establish Common or Undercommon as universal languages in the setting.
How Detailed Should Languages Be?
The world contains thousands of human, nonhuman and supernatural communities. Language needs enough detail to give those cultures identity without turning a character sheet into a linguistic atlas.
| Resolution | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | Use broad language families or regional groups. | Celtic Languages; Plains Languages; South Asian Languages. |
| Standard | Use major named languages appropriate to the character and location. | French; German; Arabic; Japanese; Lakota; Quechua. |
| Detailed | Separate dialects, historic forms or neighbouring languages when the adventure depends on the distinction. | Archaic Greek; a court dialect; the language of a particular community. |
If a broad language proficiency was valid when chosen, it remains useful at that campaign’s agreed level of detail. Increasing linguistic detail later adds texture rather than retroactively invalidating the character’s abilities.
Languages of Earth
Human languages remain languages in their own right. The broad categories below are play aids, not claims that every language listed within a group is mutually intelligible.
| Playable Category | Specific Examples | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|
| English | English | England and English-speaking communities. |
| French | French | France, courts, diplomacy, trade and warfare. |
| German | Relevant German vernacular | German-speaking territories and communities. |
| Low Countries Languages | Dutch, Flemish and related speech | Ports, towns and merchant networks. |
| Celtic Languages | Welsh, Gaelic, Breton, Cornish where relevant | Use the broad category unless the particular language matters. |
| Iberian Languages | Castilian, Portuguese, Catalan; Basque where relevant | Iberia, Atlantic activity and Mediterranean trade. |
| Italian Languages | Appropriate regional vernacular | Italian states and communities. |
| Scandinavian Languages | Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic | Northern Europe and North Atlantic communities. |
| Baltic Languages | Lithuanian, Latvian and related speech | Baltic communities. |
| West Slavic Languages | Polish, Czech and related languages | Central and eastern Europe. |
| East Slavic Languages | Ruthenian and related speech | Eastern Europe. |
| South Slavic Languages | Bulgarian, Serbian and related speech | The Balkans. |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | Hungary and neighbouring communities. |
| Greek | Medieval Greek; Ancient Greek for older texts | Living eastern Mediterranean speech and older learned material. |
| Latin | Latin | Universities, law, scholarship, diplomacy, natural philosophy and magical writing. |
| Arabic | Appropriate regional Arabic | North Africa, the Middle East, trade, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and scholarship. |
| Amazigh Languages | Appropriate regional language | North African communities. |
| Persian | Persian | Courts, scholars, merchants and communities. |
| Turkic Languages | Appropriate regional Turkic language | Central and western Asia. |
| Caucasus Languages | Armenian, Georgian and others | Caucasus communities and routes. |
| West African Languages | Relevant community language | Use a named language when the people are identified. |
| Central African Languages | Relevant community language | Broad category for simplified play. |
| East African Languages | Swahili and relevant regional languages | Settlements, ports and trade networks. |
| Horn of Africa Languages | Relevant regional language; Ge’ez where appropriate for learned material | Horn of Africa communities and written traditions. |
| Southern African Languages | Relevant regional language | Use the language of the actual people where known. |
| Chinese Languages | Appropriate spoken variety; Classical Chinese for learned writing | Use the broad category when finer regional distinction is unnecessary. |
| Japanese | Japanese | Japan and Japanese-speaking communities. |
| Korean | Korean | Korean-speaking communities. |
| South Asian Languages | Relevant Indic or Dravidian language; Sanskrit where appropriate | Use a specific language when culture or story makes it important. |
| Southeast Asian Languages | Language of the relevant kingdom or community | Use named languages when they matter. |
| Central Asian Languages | Relevant Turkic, Iranian or other regional speech | Steppe, caravan and Central Asian communities. |
| North American — Arctic | Inuit, Yupik and appropriate local languages | Arctic communities. |
| North American — Northeast & Great Lakes | Mi’kmaq, Wampanoag, Ojibwe, Mohawk and others | Use the specific community language where known. |
| North American — Plains | Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Pawnee and others | Use the actual people’s language when identified. |
| North American — Southeast | Cherokee and relevant Muskogean or other languages | Use the actual community language. |
| North American — Southwest | Diné and other regional languages | Southwestern communities. |
| North American — Northwest Coast | Haida, Tlingit and other regional languages | Northwest Coast communities. |
| Caribbean Languages | Taíno/Arawakan and other appropriate languages | Caribbean peoples and islands. |
| Mesoamerican Languages | Nahuatl, Maya languages, Mixtec, Zapotec and others | Mexica, Maya and neighbouring peoples. |
| Andean Languages | Quechua, Aymara and others | Andean states and communities. |
| South American Lowland Languages | Guaraní and other regional languages | Use specific community languages where known. |
| Amazonian Languages | Relevant community language | Broad category only for simplified play. |
| Polynesian Languages | Māori and other Polynesian languages | Pacific island communities. |
| Micronesian & Melanesian Languages | Appropriate island or community language | Pacific communities outside Polynesian language traditions. |
| Australian Languages | Appropriate Aboriginal Australian language or regional grouping | No single universal Australian language is assumed. |
| Ancient Human Languages | Sumerian, Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Elamite and others | Ruins, old records, ritual texts and historical scholarship. |
| Other Earth Languages | Any historically appropriate language | The list remains open whenever a source or adventure needs another language. |
Nonhuman Languages
Some peoples maintain shared languages across wide distances and long periods. Others speak primarily the languages of the cultures and regions in which they live. A language survives because communities continue to teach and use it.
| Language | Primary Use | How It Works in the World |
|---|---|---|
| Elven | Elven peoples | A long-lived cultural language with regional forms and extensive historical vocabulary. It remains separate from Sylvan. |
| Sylvan | Fey | The shared Fey language across courts, crossings and widely separated Fey communities. Fey living among mortals commonly learn local languages as well. |
| Dwarven | Dwarven peoples | Maintained through holds, guilds, enclaves, families and technical traditions even where communities are geographically dispersed. |
| Orc | Orc peoples | A complete cultural language maintained across Orc communities, armies, trade routes and successor states. Regional languages are commonly learned as well. |
| Goblin | Goblinoid cultures | Widely used among Goblins, Hobgoblins and connected Goblinoid institutions. Regional languages are added according to territory, administration and contact. |
| Giant | Many Giant peoples | A broad Giant language or related language tradition. Individual Giant communities commonly add local human, nonhuman or planar languages. |
| Draconic | Dragons and draconic traditions | Shared across many dragons and preserved by magical traditions that have studied draconic learning. Different dragon kinds do not require separate languages. |
Fey and Sylvan
Fey use Sylvan as their shared language, but this does not isolate them from the places where they live.
A household Fey may speak Sylvan and the principal language of its household. A Hellenic Fey may speak Sylvan and Greek. A Fey court with centuries of contact with elves may contain many Elven speakers.
Dryads, nymphs, sprites, fauns, household spirits and other Fey do not require separate languages for every kind of Fey.
Goblinoids
Goblin provides a useful shared language across Goblinoid societies with connected histories. Hobgoblins operating in multilingual territories add the languages needed for administration, trade, diplomacy and military command.
Giants
Giant works as a broad shared language or related linguistic tradition rather than a separate language for each variety of Giant.
A Giant living among Hellenic peoples may know Greek. A northern or North American Giant may know the language of neighbouring peoples. A Giant with strong elemental connections may know Primordial or an elemental dialect.
Dispersed Peoples
Some peoples are spread across cultures that have little continuing linguistic unity. In those cases, the language of upbringing matters more than ancestry.
Catfolk are one example: a Catfolk community in Kemet does not need to share a universal racial language with a distant Catfolk population elsewhere. The same approach applies wherever communities have developed separately for long enough that culture, rather than ancestry alone, determines language.
Undead
Intelligent undead retain the languages they knew in life and may learn additional languages afterward through study, travel and contact.
A vampire therefore speaks the languages known by that individual before undeath, plus anything learned since. A lich may know many languages because centuries of scholarship have given it time to learn them.
An undead creature’s language list therefore preserves its personal history.
Language Patterns for Creatures
These patterns keep creature languages recognisable and playable without multiplying language proficiencies unnecessarily.
| Creature or Culture | Typical Language Pattern |
|---|---|
| Fey | Sylvan + appropriate regional or learned languages. |
| Elven peoples | Elven + regional or learned languages where appropriate. |
| Dwarven peoples | Dwarven + languages used by neighbouring settlements, guilds and trade partners. |
| Orc peoples | Orc + regional languages gained through rule, trade, warfare or migration. |
| Goblinoid cultures | Goblin + regional languages. Administrators and officers are often multilingual. |
| Giant peoples | Giant + local, cultural or planar languages justified by the community. |
| Dragons | Draconic + languages learned through territory, scholarship, servants, diplomacy or long life. |
| Culturally dispersed peoples | Languages of upbringing and community; retain an ancestral language where a continuing culture actually preserves it. |
| Intelligent undead | Languages known in life + languages learned afterward. |
| Planar beings | Principal cultural or planar language + languages learned through actual contact. |
| Extraterrestrial peoples | Species or civilisation language where useful + bridge languages such as Deep Speech where established. |
Deep-World Languages
Deep Trade Tongue
Deep Trade Tongue is the setting name for the widely learned subterranean lingua franca represented by Undercommon in several source rules.
It develops through long contact among merchants, miners, mercenaries, migrants, raiders, caravans, enclaves and mixed underground settlements.
Dwarves, Derro, deep Fey, aberrations and other underground peoples retain their own languages where appropriate. Deep Trade Tongue exists because different communities need a practical way to communicate across routes and markets.
Influence on Surface Speech
Deep Trade Tongue enters surface languages through mining, smuggling, commerce and military contact. Surface speakers may borrow terms for underground routes, cave hazards, unusual minerals, measures, contraband and deep-world goods.
Planar and Cosmic Languages
Planes contain many peoples and cultures. The languages below matter across sufficiently wide traditions to remain useful as character proficiencies.
| Language | Primary Context | Strong Influence Beyond Its Native Speakers |
|---|---|---|
| Celestial | Celestial peoples and divine courts | Oaths, divine titles, consecration, protective formulae, metaphysics and divine law. |
| Infernal | Hell, devils and infernal institutions | Contracts, debt, jurisdiction, ownership, obligation, precedent, seals and supernatural fine print. |
| Abyssal | Demons and Abyssal cultures | Demonology, curses, destructive ritual, sacrifice, taboo vocabulary and cult practice. |
| Primordial | Elemental peoples and traditions | Elemental magic, weather, pressure, fire, stone, water, forgecraft and natural philosophy. |
| Deep Speech | Some aberrations, cosmic beings and eldritch traditions | Alien biology, impossible anatomy, strange dimensions, temporal anomalies and forbidden natural philosophy. |
Infernal and the Language of Contracts
Infernal has strongly influenced mortal legal and occult vocabulary because infernal institutions place exceptional weight on exact wording, jurisdiction, ownership, debt, precedent and enforceable obligation.
A mortal pact may therefore be written almost entirely in Latin, French or another human language while retaining Infernal words for concepts that translators consider dangerously imprecise.
Infernal-derived terminology is especially likely around conditional ownership, transferable debt, inherited obligation, jurisdiction, delegated authority, forfeiture, restitution, successor liability, obligations surviving death, supernatural surety, recognised witnesses and sealed amendments.
A reader might understand the Latin body of a contract perfectly while misunderstanding three Infernal technical terms hidden in its definitions, inheritance clause or final condition.
Celestial and Formal Oaths
Celestial-derived vocabulary appears in divine titles, protective formulae, consecrations, vows, metaphysics and attempts to describe divine or cosmic law.
Abyssal and Ritual Transgression
Abyssal vocabulary often enters mortal speech through demonology, curses, sacrificial rites, descriptions of destructive transformation and cult practice.
Primordial and Elemental Knowledge
Primordial vocabulary is especially important when describing elemental states and phenomena.
- Auran: wind, storms, pressure, breath and flight;
- Aquan: currents, tides, pressure and fluid transformation;
- Ignan: combustion, heat, forgecraft and destructive energy;
- Terran: stone, minerals, earthquakes, mining and underground engineering.
Deep Speech and Forbidden Natural Philosophy
Deep Speech supplies terminology for phenomena first encountered through contact with profoundly alien beings: non-terrestrial anatomy, unusual states of matter, alien cognition, impossible geometry, temporal distortions, cosmic organisms and strange astronomical phenomena.
Space and Alien Languages
Extraterrestrial civilisations may possess native languages expressed through senses and organs very different from human speech while also learning broader languages for dealing with outsiders.
Mi-Go
The Mi-Go use a multimodal language combining species-specific sounds with controlled changes in body coloration.
The colour component is part of the language rather than decorative display. Another being may learn to understand the complete system while remaining physically incapable of reproducing every element accurately without magical, technological or biological assistance.
A creature capable of reproducing the sounds but not the colour component may communicate only part of what a Mi-Go speaker could normally express, depending on the message.
Fraal
Fraal is the language of the Fraal.
Fraal telepathy is a separate communication ability rather than a replacement for their language.
Other Alien Languages
Alien languages may be vocal, signed, chemical, visual, vibrational or multimodal. A species-specific language becomes important when characters can plausibly learn it, when understanding it changes an adventure, or when its unusual form carries important information.
Languages in Contact
Trade, conquest, scholarship, migration, magical teaching and planar contact spread words and ideas between languages.
Knowing a borrowed term does not mean knowing the language it came from.
| Type of Borrowing | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Loanword | A foreign word is adopted into another language. | A Latin magical text uses a Draconic technical noun. |
| Translated Concept | A foreign idea is expressed using local words. | An Infernal legal category is translated into French. |
| Technical Register | Specialists use many borrowed terms from another language. | Lawyers handling infernal bargains use Infernal-derived terminology. |
| Fixed Formula | Original wording is preserved because translation is unsafe or inaccurate. | A ritual clause remains in Infernal or Dark Speech. |
| Transliteration | Foreign language is represented through another script or notation. | A Latin manuscript records an Infernal phrase in Roman letters. |
| Borrowed Glyph | A foreign sign is retained because translation loses precision. | A Draconic glyph appears within an otherwise Latin magical diagram. |
Major Fields of Influence
| Source Language | Fields Where Borrowing Is Especially Common |
|---|---|
| Infernal | Contracts, debt, jurisdiction, legal definitions, ownership, pacts and supernatural obligation. |
| Draconic | Arcane theory, spell structure, enchantment, magical materials, alchemy and magical notation. |
| Primordial | Elemental magic, weather, forgecraft, stone, water, pressure and natural philosophy. |
| Dwarven | Mining, metallurgy, masonry, tunnelling, fortification, measurement and engineering. |
| Elven | Long chronology, genealogy, astronomy, botany, old geography and some magical traditions. |
| Sylvan | Landscape, seasons, old paths, springs, Fey boundaries, place names and bargain terminology. |
| Celestial | Oaths, divine titles, consecration, protective language, metaphysics and divine law. |
| Abyssal | Demonology, curses, destructive ritual, sacrificial terminology and cult language. |
| Deep Speech | Alien biology, cosmic phenomena, strange dimensions, temporal anomalies and forbidden sciences. |
| Deep Trade Tongue | Subterranean trade, routes, mining, cave hazards, contraband and mercenary slang. |
Infernal can describe flowers and Sylvan can describe contracts. These fields simply show where borrowing has been especially strong.
Human Scholarship Is Multilingual
Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Classical Chinese and other human languages can all carry philosophy, medicine, mathematics, law, astronomy, natural philosophy and magic.
Their specialist vocabularies may include material borrowed from human, nonhuman and planar languages.
Example: A Magical Manuscript
A fifteenth-century manuscript might be written primarily in Latin while quoting a Greek philosopher, using Arabic astronomical calculations, retaining Draconic spell-structure terms, using a Terran-derived mineral term and preserving an Infernal clause untranslated because its exact legal force matters.
Reading the manuscript does not therefore require complete fluency in every source language. Familiar technical vocabulary may be recognised as part of learned Latin, while genuinely untranslated passages may require additional proficiency, scholarship or magic.
Language, Writing and Forms of Communication
Language does not have to be spoken. Intelligent beings can encode complex meaning through sound, signs, writing, colour, movement, vibration, scent or several channels used together.
The key distinction is whether a system has the expressive structure of a language or whether it communicates a limited range of predetermined signals.
| Form | How It Carries Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Spoken Language | Meaning is carried primarily through structured sound. | French, Elven, Dwarven, Infernal and most familiar languages. |
| Signed Language | Meaning is carried through structured hand, facial and body signs. | Human signed languages and culturally developed visual languages. |
| Written Form | A language is represented through script, glyphs, symbols or another durable notation. | Latin manuscripts, Infernal contracts, Draconic notation and bilingual treaties. |
| Colour-Based Language | Controlled changes of colour, pattern or luminosity carry linguistic information. | Alien or nonhuman species capable of meaningful visual displays. |
| Vibrational Language | Meaning is transmitted through structured vibration rather than ordinary airborne speech. | Species adapted to stone, water, subterranean environments or unusual planes. |
| Scent-Based Language | Structured chemical signals carry complex meaning. | Species with sufficiently developed scent production and perception. |
| Multimodal Language | Full meaning is distributed across two or more channels used together. | Mi-Go communication combining sound and colour. |
| Signals and Codes | A limited system transmits agreed information without necessarily possessing the expressive range of a complete language. | Flags, horns, battlefield gestures, warning marks and trail signs. |
| Telepathic Communication | Meaning is transferred mentally according to the particular ability. | Psionic, magical or biological telepathy. |
Understanding and Producing a Language
Understanding a language and physically producing it are not always the same ability.
A human scholar may learn to understand a language that combines clicks and rapid colour changes while lacking the organs needed to reproduce the colour component. Writing, signs, illusion, magic or technology may allow the scholar to answer more accurately.
The reverse is also possible: reproducing a sound, colour sequence or written symbol does not prove that the creature understands what it means.
Signed Languages
A true signed language is a complete language, not simply a collection of gestures. Its grammar and vocabulary may use hand shape, movement, position, facial expression and body posture.
Characters can therefore be fluent in a signed language in the same sense that they can be fluent in a spoken language.
Language and Script
A language and its writing system are separate. Several languages may share a script, one language may use several scripts, and a text may borrow individual foreign glyphs without changing its underlying language.
A Latin manuscript containing Draconic symbols remains Latin unless the surrounding language itself changes.
Multilingual Documents
- a treaty written in two languages with both versions declared authoritative;
- a Latin contract containing untranslated Infernal definitions;
- a magical diagram using Draconic glyphs inside Arabic commentary;
- a German mining text preserving Dwarven terminology;
- a human place name descended from an old Sylvan expression whose meaning has been forgotten.
Natural Communication
Animals and other creatures communicate through calls, posture, scent, movement, touch, colour and other natural signals even when those systems are not listed as character language proficiencies.
Plant creatures may communicate through movement, scent, spores, colour, vibration or other methods appropriate to their nature.
Magic such as Speak With Animals and Speak With Plants can bridge natural forms of communication according to the rules being used. A creature does not need a player-selectable language before such magic can function.
Telepathy
Telepathy is a method of communication rather than automatically a separate language. Its exact limits come from the ability that grants it.
One telepathic ability may transmit words in a language both creatures understand, while another may convey thoughts, images, emotions or concepts more directly. The creature’s rules determine which model applies.
Truespeech and Magical Translation
Where Truespeech functions as an automatic tongues-like ability, it is supernatural communication rather than another learned proficiency.
Translation magic can provide linguistic understanding without teaching the language itself. It also does not automatically provide legal expertise, technical training, cultural knowledge or the hidden meaning of a cant.
Restricted, Dangerous and Specialist Languages
| Language | Use |
|---|---|
| Druidic | Restricted language or communication tradition associated with druids. See Druid. |
| Aklo | Specialist language retained where supported by rules or established creatures. It is not the universal language of Fey, aberrations or aliens. |
| Dark Speech | Dangerous supernatural speech associated with particular evil rites and powers. It is not an ordinary everyday language choice. |
| Local Planar Languages | Individual peoples and realms may maintain languages of their own. These become player-facing where they are useful to actual play. |
Enochian
Enochian belongs to later historical occult traditions and is not projected backwards into 1454.
A character dealing with celestials in the campaign present normally uses Celestial unless a particular source establishes another tradition.
Cants, Codes and Professional Jargon
A cant is usually coded vocabulary, gestures, marks, euphemisms and hidden meanings layered over an ordinary language rather than another complete conversational language.
Thieves’ Cant
A French-speaking thief can use French + Thieves’ Cant. An English-speaking thief can use English + Thieves’ Cant.
See Rogue.
Pirate’s Cant
Pirate’s Cant represents overlapping maritime criminal slang, signals and coded terminology. It is not one universal language spoken identically by every pirate crew.
Other Professional Jargon
Merchants, guilds, mercenaries, smugglers, sailors, scholars and craftspeople may possess specialised vocabulary without each profession becoming a separate formal language proficiency.
Quick Character Examples
| Character | Languages | Additional Knowledge or Communication |
|---|---|---|
| University scholar | German, Latin, Greek | Some Draconic magical terminology. |
| Lawyer handling infernal pacts | French, Latin | Infernal contract terminology; full Infernal only if separately learned. |
| Human mining engineer | German, Dwarven | Terran and Deep Trade technical loanwords. |
| Elf living beside human settlements | Elven, local human language, perhaps Sylvan | Regional human vocabulary. |
| Household Fey | Sylvan, principal household language | Local sayings and family vocabulary. |
| Hobgoblin administrator | Goblin, two regional languages | Administrative and military terminology. |
| Deep-world caravan guide | Native language, Deep Trade Tongue | Dwarven and local underground jargon. |
| Centuries-old vampire | Languages retained from mortal life + languages learned since | Older forms and historical vocabulary accumulated over time. |
| Rogue in Iberia | Castilian | Thieves’ Cant. |
| Elementalist | Home language, perhaps Primordial | Elemental technical vocabulary. |
| Human Mi-Go researcher | Home language, Deep Speech, learned Mi-Go comprehension | Can understand colour-and-click structures but may need technology or magic to reproduce them fully. |
| Deaf court interpreter | Regional signed language, French, Latin | Works between signed, spoken and written communication. |
Using Languages in Play
Reward Language Choices
A chosen language should occasionally provide access to information, people or places that would otherwise require an interpreter, research or magical help.
Reward Partial Knowledge
A character who does not speak Infernal may still recognise Infernal legal terminology. A miner may know several Terran words. A scholar may recognise a Draconic technical symbol.
Partial knowledge can provide clues without granting complete fluency.
Do Not Make Language an Absolute Roadblock
Characters can gesture, write, draw, find interpreters, use signs or communicate imperfectly. Language barriers create complications rather than automatically ending interaction.
Keep Global Detail Balanced
European languages do not receive extreme precision while Africa, Asia, North America or South America are reduced to vague continental categories. The same resolution rule applies throughout the world.
Let Language Reveal History
Vocabulary can expose earlier contact long after its origin is forgotten. A village name may preserve Sylvan. A mining term may come from Dwarven. A legal phrase may ultimately derive from Infernal.
Let the Medium Matter
A language expressed through colour may be impossible to use in darkness. A vibrational language may travel farther through stone than through air. A signed language requires sight or touch rather than hearing. These differences can matter without turning every conversation into an obstacle.
Related Language Magic
| Spell or Effect | Use |
|---|---|
| Comprehend Languages | Understanding languages or writing under the appropriate edition rules. |
| Tongues | Communication across language barriers under the appropriate edition rules. |
| Speak With Animals | Bridges communication with animals according to the edition’s rules; animals do not require a named character-language proficiency first. |
| Speak With Plants | Bridges communication with plants or plant creatures according to the rules being used. |
Translation and communication magic provides access to meaning. It does not automatically supply legal training, technical knowledge, cultural context, hidden cant or an understanding of why a particular technical term matters.
Making Languages Matter at the Table
Languages work best when they reveal clues, relationships, history and choices rather than repeatedly stopping play.
Common Rulings
Is Common a universal language?
No.
What replaces Undercommon?
Deep Trade Tongue in setting terminology.
Does everyone underground speak Deep Trade Tongue?
No. It is an acquired trade language used across many routes and mixed settlements.
Are Elven and Sylvan the same?
No. Elven belongs to elven linguistic traditions. Sylvan is the shared Fey language.
Does every Fey kind need its own language?
No. Sylvan provides the shared Fey language. Individual Fey may also learn local human, Elven, planar or other languages through their history.
Do Hobgoblins need a separate Hobgoblin language?
No. Goblin serves as the shared language where Goblinoid cultures are historically connected. Hobgoblins commonly add regional languages needed for administration and contact.
Does every kind of Giant need a separate language?
No. Giant can serve as a broad shared language or related language tradition, with local and planar languages added where appropriate.
Do Catfolk automatically speak a single Catfolk language?
No. Communities speak the languages they actually preserve and teach.
What languages does an intelligent undead creature speak?
The languages known in life, plus any learned afterward.
Does a vampire acquire a vampire language?
No.
Can a language be signed rather than spoken?
Yes. A structured signed language is a full language.
Is writing itself another language?
Usually not. Writing is a way of representing a language. A single language can use more than one script, and several languages can share a script.
Can colour be part of a language?
Yes. If controlled colour changes carry structured vocabulary or grammar, colour is part of the language rather than merely a signal.
Can a character understand a language they cannot physically reproduce?
Yes. Anatomy may prevent accurate production even when comprehension is complete.
Do animals have no communication because they lack a listed language?
No. Animals communicate naturally through calls, scent, posture, movement and other signals.
Can Speak With Animals work with an animal that has no language entry?
Yes. The spell bridges communication according to its rules.
Is telepathy a language?
No. It is a communication method whose exact capabilities depend on the ability providing it.
Does knowing a Draconic loanword mean I speak Draconic?
No.
Can a Latin contract contain Infernal?
Yes. It may contain Infernal terminology, definitions, seals or untranslated clauses while remaining primarily a Latin document.
Does every plane have one language?
No. Languages belong to peoples, courts, civilisations and traditions rather than automatically to entire planes.
Is Deep Speech every alien’s native language?
No. It is a useful bridge language among some cosmic beings. Individual extraterrestrial peoples can have languages of their own.
Is Aklo the Fey language?
No. Sylvan is the shared Fey language.
Is Thieves’ Cant a normal language?
Usually not. It is coded speech, signs and jargon layered over another language.
Rules Sources and Licensing
D&D 5.5e / 2024
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Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e
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