DM Q&A - The Common Tongue

[Greisslich & Friends]

I have two questions about the usage of common in Cormyr.

-- What is the "language of status" in Cormyr, that would be mixed in with common when spoken by upper-class citizens? Is there one? In the fourteenth-to sixteenth-century-style english that we are expected to use for Common, many words and phrases in French were used by everyday speakers. I was wondering if there is a parallel between these, or how it might change in Faerûn.

-- What metric or ability would be used to emulate a specific or unspecific accent of Common? It is much like learning a language but also involves a certain amount of performance and deception.

Thank you!

[DM Flash]

Hello Greisslich & Friends

Thank you for the question. As best I understand it, there's no difference in the "common" used by Nobles or Royalty, outside of likely having a more diverse vocabulary from a commoner "eh wot be riding yer saddle, lad?"

There is also no "ability" for accents, it's just however you prefer to express it.

Hope that helps, let us know if you have any other questions

[Greisslich & Friends]

For the question on accents, I meant specifically when a character is attempting to emulate an accent that is not their own, to convincingly sound like a native of that area. Would that be a different matter?

[DM Flash]

Ah okay, I may have misunderstood originally on that part.

It kinda depends, if you're an outlaw disguising your voice I can see a situation where another PC known to the outlaw might ask for a bluff roll. If you're telling a story around a campfire then a perform roll could add some fun flavor.

[Munroe]

Also worth considering is that Common is not the native language of Cormyr. Chondathan is the language of Cormyr. Common is a trade tongue that almost all humans and their allied humanoid races have access to for the purpose of doing business, but the natives of Cormyr would be speaking Chondathan in their day-to-day lives.

Common is a pidgin of Chondathan, so potentially shares some vocabulary and structure, but Common is not Chondathan.

I'm not sure if this is relative to the intent of the question or not, but it's worth knowing.

(Both Common and Chondathan use the same alphabet, the Thorass alphabet originally used by the dead language Thorass, also known as Old Common. Thorass alpahbet is used by many regional languages.)