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Re: OT: Quick Intro

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Thursday, February 20, 2003, 21:44
Steg Belsky wrote:
>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.
OK, I'll reformulate that: "And they've _never_ in any text that I've read bothered to explain this irregular state of affairs." I've actually seen the "humans are more variable" explanation, but that was of a world whose creators had the imagination to give non-English names to the non-human languages. Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963