Re: OT: Quick Intro

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 19:06:35 +0000 Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
writes:
> He actually had a few more Elvish languages, like Telerin and Silvan
> Elvish.
> But I suspect that the Lord of the Rings, with it's plentiful
> references to
> Elvish speech and Dwarvish inscriptions, has, thru' not too
> attentive
> readers, helped establish the pattern in many Fantasy worlds of
> each
> non-human race having just one language. I've, in RPGs, seen rather
> amusing
> examples of this, where Dwarfs speak Dwarf, Minotaurs speak Minotaur
> and
> Halflings speak Halfling, while the humans, in addition to being the
> only
> race that doesn't get a capital letter, for some reason don't speak
> Human.
> And they _never_ bother to explain this irregular state of affairs.
>                                                      Andreas
-

I remember encountering explanations for the phenomenon... stuff like
"humans are more varied in their cultures, languages, ethics, etc. than
other races."  sometimes it goes back to cosmological bases having to do
with different racial deities and stuff like that.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "aru."