Languages, Old and New

[Vestnik]

How much would you require a character who speaks Modern Greek to learn Ancient Greek? A modern English speaker to have Anglo-Saxon, or a modern Norwegian to learn Norse? Relatedly, if you speak, say, Egyptian Arabic, what's it cost to learn Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic?

[Steve Long]

Re: Languages, Old and New

 

You can find rules for this sort of thing in the Languages section of The Ultimate Skill. The Expanded Language Familiarity Table includes a large number of old/extinct languages, including (IIRC) every single one you've mentioned in your post.

[Vondy]

Re: Languages, Old and New

 

How much would you require a character who speaks Modern Greek to learn Ancient Greek? A modern English speaker to have Anglo-Saxon' date=' or a modern Norwegian to learn Norse? Relatedly, if you speak, say, Egyptian Arabic, what's it cost to learn Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic?[/quote']

 

 

I think paying the extra point to go from native to dialectic should be sufficient. You could also require (or substitute) a knowledge skill: classical X to represent such knowledge. Since scholars are generally the ones who have such knowledge, and are not always native speakers with an intimate knowledge of contemporary dialects (though they may well be fully fluent or not have an accent) I would lean towards a KS coupled with a modern language skill, which would work ressurected languages like Greek and Hebrew pretty well. For dead languages I generally rely on knowledge skills without a language skill component.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Languages, Old and New

 

I'd let them do it but require that the player uses an outrageous accent, and then exploit every possible opportunity for confusion.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Languages, Old and New

 

You can find rules for this sort of thing in the Languages section of The Ultimate Skill. The Expanded Language Familiarity Table includes a large number of old/extinct languages' date=' including (IIRC) every single one you've mentioned in your post. [/quote']

What a salesman!

 

How much would you require a character who speaks Modern Greek to learn Ancient Greek? A modern English speaker to have Anglo-Saxon' date=' or a modern Norwegian to learn Norse? Relatedly, if you speak, say, Egyptian Arabic, what's it cost to learn Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic?[/quote']

It really depends on how close the modern version is to the ancient version. In some cases, it's so old it's a completely different language. Other times the modern and ancient forms are so similar a time traveler couldn't tell the difference (such as with several Eastern languages).