Conlangs in Dungeons, Dragons, and Dames by T1mbuk0n3 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

There is a fanfic by @SilverPaladin1985 called Dungeons, Dragons, & Dames. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13332959/1/Dungeons-Dragons-Dames

Here’s the summary. Every Saturday night, Lincoln’s been going out with his friends. His sisters were curious, but he always told them it was a secret. Feeling nosy one Saturday night, they follow him in secret and learn that he, his friends, his parents, and several friends of the sisters, have been participating in D&D sessions, D&D being the shorter name for Dungeons & Dragons. Being caught, and getting used to what they just learned, they have no other choice but to participate in the session, which they chose over risking punishment for leaving the house without their parents' permission and discriminating against the game, and would eventually be getting used to.

Now, in the real world, people playing tabletop RPGs create worlds to serve as settings for the events of the game, and sometimes, it would lead to fictional, yet fully functional, languages being created, since J.R.R. Tolkein had a hobby for creating languages due to his liking for Welsh sounds and Finnish syntax, and later wrote books that described the worlds the languages would exist in, those books being the Lord of the Rings novels.

People still create languages to this day. They’ve been doing it since the 17th Century, and these types of languages, being constructed languages, are best known as conlangs. Many types of languages exist. There are auxiliary languages like Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Lingua Franca Nova, Lingwa de Planeta, etc. Logic-based languages are also a thing, like Loglan, Lojban, Toaq, etc. Engineered languages exist, including, but not limited to, Toki Pona and Ithkuil. There are artlangs/natlangs like the Elvish languages by Tolkein, Klingon by the Star Trek production teams and Marc Okrand(long story), Atlantean by him and Disney, Na’vi by James Cameron and Paul Frommer, etc. David J. Peterson has created the most conlangs for films and tv shows. They include but aren’t limited to, the languages by George R.R. Martin for A Song of Ice and Fire(which was adapted to Game of Thrones for HBO), the extraterrestrial languages for Defiance, and, as of recently, the Fremen language that Frank Herbert created for Dune.

I’m actually a conlang maker, or conlanger, myself. And I have ideas for conlangs for DD&D. Here they are:

1. Something that mixes the phonologies and grammars of French and Mexican Spanish Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ɲ(ny), ʀ(r), f, s, ʃ(h), ç(c), ɬ(hl), j(y), l, w, ts, tʃ(ch), tɬ(tl) Vowels: i, ĩ, u, ũ, e, ẽ, o, õ, a, ã

Syllables: (C)(S)V(S/C)

Stress: on the antepenult(third-to-last syllable), or the penult(second-to-last) if said syllable ends in a consonant

Writing system: an alphabet

Number system: TBD

2. Something that mixes the phonologies and grammars of Italian and Mandarin Chinese

Consonants: m, n, p, t, c, k, q, ʔ('), pʼ, tʼ, cʼ, kʼ, q’, f, s, ɕ(sh), x, h, ts, tɕ(ch), l

Vowels: i, u, e, o, ə(ua), a

Tones: ˩, ˧˩, ˧˥˩, ˩˥

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)

Stress: lexical

Writing system: a mix between a logosyllabary and an alphabet. A logo-abugida in other words.

Number system: TBD

3. Something that mixes the phonologies and grammars of Hawai’ian and Russian

Consonants: p, b, t, d, c, ɟ(gy), k, g, ʔ('), m, n, ɸ(f), θ(th), s, ç(hy), x, ɹ(r), j(y), l, w, ɕ(sh), ts, tɕ(ch)

Vowels: i, u, ɪ(ie), ʊ(uo), e, ɘ(ua), o, a

Syllables: (C)(C)V

Stress: TBD

Writing system: an alphabet

Number system: TBD

4. Something that's supposed to be what Latin was in our world that English is now.

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ɾ(r), β(v), s, z, ħ(kh), ʕ(gh), l, ʘ(kp), ǃ(kq), ᵑʘ(np), ᵑǃ(np), tˤ(th), sˤ(sh), dʒ(j)

Vowels: i, y, u, e, o, ɛ, ɔ, a, ɒ, ai, ei, ɔi ao, au

Syllables: TBD

Stress: TBD

Writing system: a logography-alphabet hybrid

Number system: TBD

5. Something inspired by Proto-Sinaitic and Phoenician.

Consonants: p, t, k, q, ʔ('), pʼ, tʼ, kʼ, qʼ, s, ʃ(sh), cç(ch), x, ħ(h), ts, m, n, l, j(y), w

i, u, a, iː, uː

Syllables: maybe something with tri-consonantal roots, but no consonant clusters

Stress: TBD

Writing System: an abjad

Number system: TBD

6. Something that mixes Japanese with Simātsan

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ɾ(r), s, h, j(y), l, w, ɕ(c), ts, tɕ(tc), tɬ(tl)

Vowels: i, u, ɪ(ie), ʊ(uo), e, o, ɛ(ea), ɔ(oa), a, ĩ, ũ, ẽ, õ

Syllable structure: (C)V(N/C)

Stress: TBD

Writing system: a syllabary

Number system: ???

7. Something that mixes Oqolaawak and Na'vi

Consonants: p, t, k, q, ʔ('), m, n, ɾ(r), β(v), s, h, ɬ(hl), j(y), l, pʼ, tʼ, kʼ, w, ts

Vowels: i, u, ɪ(ie), ʊ(uo), o, a

Syllable structure: either (C)V(C) or (C)(C)V(C)

Stress: TBD

Writing system: an abugida that was created from borrowing #6's syllabary

Number system: ???

8. Something mixing Korean with Nekāchti

Consonants: p, t, k, m, n, ɸ(f), v, s, ç(hy), ɬ(hl), ɹ(r), j(y), l, w, ts, tɕ(c)

Vowels: i, e, o, a, iː, eː, oː, aː

Syllable Structure: (C)(G/L)V(C)

Stress: TBD

Writing system: An abjad-syllabary hybrid.

Number system: ???

9. Something mixing Edun with Arabic.

Consonants: b, t, d, k, g, ʔ('), m, n, ŋ(ng), r, ɸ(f), ð(dh), s, z, ʃ(sh), ç(hy), x, h, ɬ(hl), j(y), l, w, pɸ(pf), bβ(bv), tʃ(ch), dʒ(j), kx

Vowels, i, u, ə(ua), a

Syllable structure: something with tri-consonantal roots

Writing system: Something that mixes a logo-syllabary and an abjad.

Stress: TBD

Number system: ???

10. Something mixing Ilothwii and ???

Consonants: t, d, c, ɟ(gy), k, g, q, ɢ(gq), ʔ('), m, n, r, s, ç(hy), x, ɣ(h), ħ(qh), ʕ(gh), ɬ(hl), l, ɕ(sh), tɕ(ch), dʑ(j), tɬ(tl)

Vowels: ɪ(i), iː, ʊ(u), uː, ɔ(o), oː, a, aː

Syllable structure: ???

Stress: ???

Writing system: An abjad-syllabary hybrid borrowed and simplified from language #9’s system, albeit with modifications here and there.

Number system: ???

11. Something that mixes Sindarin and Quenya, seeing that there are elves in D&D. In regards to the grammar, I might mix the grammars of them, some of the Celtic languages, and Ӧvüsi.

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, q, m, n, ŋ(ng), r, f, v, θ(th), ð(dh), s, ç(c), χ(qh), ɬ(hl), j(y), l, w

Vowels: ɨ(ii), ɪ(i), ʊ(u), ə(ua), ɛ(e), ɔ(o), a

Syllable structure:

Stress:

Writing system: an abugida

Number system:

12. Something for dwarves to speak. I might throw in a consonant harmony system surrounding a selection of the voiceless sibilant and non-sibilant fricatives.

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, ʔ('), m, n, β(v), f, s, z, ʃ(sh), ç(hy), χ(kh), ʁ(gh), h, j(y), l, w, ɕ(c), θ̠(th), ɹ̠̊˔(r)

Vowels: i, iː, u, uː, e, eː, o, oː, a, aː

Syllable structure:

Writing system:

Number system:

13. Something for the orcs. The phonology mixes the ones for Scots and Bodzvokhan.

Consonants: p, b, t, d, c, k, g, m, n, ŋ(ng), ɸ(f), β(v), θ(th), s, z, ç(hy), x, ħ(kh), ʕ(gh), ɬ(hl), j(y), l, ɕ(sh), ʑ(zh), tɕ(ch), dʑ(j), tɬ(tl)

Vowels: i, iː, u, uː, ə, ɛ, eː, ɔ, oː, a, aː

Syllable structure:

Writing system: an abjad using the glyphs from language #4

Number system:

14. I wonder if I should do anything about the tabaxis, goliaths, etc.

That’s it so far, though I could come up with more.

On a bonus note, I looked at "Chapter 5" of DD&D, which lists all the character names and their fanon VAs for the in-game world. One thing to point out is that I think Alex tends to forget that Paula even exists, and is voiced by Cree Summer, who might as well still be the chosen VA for Girl Jordan's in-game character. If Paula was playing Dungeons and Dragons as well, her in-game characters might be someone different, or maybe Cree as well, recalling that she has multiple types of voices, my two examples being how the types of voices she used for Kida in Disney's Atlantis and Honerva/Haggar in DreamWorks' Voltron.

Another thing to point out is that as a result of the episodes "Singled Out" and "Hurl, Interrupted", Maddie is the only LH character to be voiced by Tara Strong so far, though she might still be the fanon VA for Cristina's in-game character since she uses different types of voices, like Cree and Grey DeLisle Griffin. Another thing to note is that some of the fanon VAs are already dead, including Peter O'Toole, and others, like Tom Kane, are retired. So I think Alex will need to edit the chapter for different options that would work just as well as them but aren't dead OR retired.