Language in Wesnoth

[johndh]

I'm not sure portmanteaus like that would happen naturally over time in an ancient or medieval setting. They seem to me to be a very recent phenomenon, but I could be wrong.

Oh really?

However, I'm generally against contrived fictional profanity anyway, as I've never seen it done in a convincing way. Playing a game based in the Shadowrun universe and seeing somewhere referred to as a "fragging drek-for-brains" just pulls me right out of the story. Besides, if the phrases and idioms they're using are being translated into our modern vernacular anyway, it stands to reason that their profanity would as well.

[kiss]

To be honest, I've not thought about such question of language since I've started to play. For me the answer is as simple as when I watch a movie! Whatever the language used, it is translated for me and I understand.
Beside that in each campaign I've played: my team speak same language as me and the opponents another one. With the magical translator ... all is fine.

Thus, when I ask about race's definition it's only because in my earliest campaigns I've had to fight against Ruffian,Thug,Poacher, for me they weren't humans! But when you look at unit table, they are!

To summarize, there is no relationship between races and language for me.

[Tascheter]

Personally, I always thought the dialogue was a translation to our languages, since the elves, dwarves and the drakes have place names that look different than English and if two people, say the dwarves, are speaking dwarvish to each other, of course we hear as our language since our character is supposed to understand it. A scenario where Haldric and the Elves completely didn't understand each other would have been hilarious, but the time is a little fuzzy and maybe an elven squanto had a week to learn the language or whatever

[Tascheter]

Addressing profanity also brings up weird questions. How do dwarves reproduce? Why are all peasants male? Why is there zero difference between male and female elves? I mean, it's not SIMS. Its a 2-D strategy game. Unless Wesnoth comes up with a campaign that isn't so linear with more adult themes, then the current dialogue is fine. "Tree-Shagger" makes me laugh every time