The Shock of This Notable Storm: Campaign Languages

1.) Celtic Languages: a.) Brittonic, spoken in most areas of Britain and in Armorica as well. i.) Pictish. Spoken in many areas north of the Wall. In my campaign, I'm adhering to the theory that it was a branch of the Brittonic language. Picts probably have a funny accent and fewer Latin loan-words, but it's a dialect of Brittonic (mutually intelligible, no mechanical penalty other than an accent betraying origin). b.) Hibernian (Goidelic, aka Tongue of the Scotti). This is the language spoken in Hibernia. Also spoken in some places with a degree of Hibernian settlement (Cambria) and spoken widely in Western Caledonia.== c.) Gaulish (also includes Galatian). Spoken across the Narrow Sea in Gaul (with the exception noted above that Brittonic is predominant in Armorica). It is a language somewhat on the decline. NOTE: In my campaign, speakers of any of the separate Celtic languages can make themselves understood to each other in very simple terms via the time-honored method of speaking more loudly and pointing. If a speaker of one Celtic language is eavesdropping upon someone speaking in another Celtic language, he has a good chance of understanding what is being said, but also a small chance of a humorous and/or deadly misunderstanding. I'd use rules from RQ3 for this.=

2.) Latin: spoken widely throughout the former lands of the Western Roman Empire. In Britain, still spoken as a native/first tongue by some in major (in relative terms) urban centers or the lands in the southeast. Also widely spoken by priests, by men whose fathers or grandfathers were in Roman service (or who served themselves), and by merchants. In areas of southern Britain that were never heavily Romanized such as the Cambrian hill country or the land of the Dumnonii, it is possible that chief and his sons might speak Latin, even if no one else in the settlement does.

3.) Germanic: Given the geographical focus of the campaign, I'm not getting into varieties like Gothic and such. This language will be intelligible to Saxons, Frisians, Angles, Jutes, and Franks (those most likely to be encountered in Britain).

4.) The Old Speech: The language of the Little Dark People. It would be unheard of for an outsider to learn this tongue. Completely unrelated to any of the other languages in this campaign.

5.) Greek: Widely spoken in the Eastern Empire. Given the decline in trade and the sacking of cities in Britain, few men are so educated as to speak this tongue in Britain. Most likely to be known by merchants of strange extraction or by foreign churchmen sent to Britain to proselytize (or root out heresies).