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Common Tongue
- 570 statements
- 107 feature instances
- 144 referencing feature instances
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In Real Life, there are more languages than there are cultures speaking them. Even within what is designated as a single "language"note Which is a fuzzier distinction than you might think, there may be numerous dialects, slang, and a thousand other variations. People ten miles away from each other might not understand a word the others say. This makes communication difficult. So, many speculative fiction writers use a shortcut: having everybody speak the same language. It can be the simple way, by just having everyone speak the same native tongue; or it can be the realistic way, by having a lingua franca that many people learn as a second language to communicate with people who probably have also learned it as second language. Usually called the Common Speech/Tongue, or simply Common or Basic, this is a baseline language that is used by the vast majority of the setting. Oftentimes, it is the human language, since humans are almost always the most widespread race, and other races will have their own "Common" language that most or all their members speak. All dwarves will speak Dwarven, all elves Elven (or Elvish) and so on. If it is never stated explicitly that everyone is speaking the same language, it might be a case of Translation Convention or even Translator Microbes instead. See also Aliens Speaking English and Animal Talk. Contrast Classical Tongue, which was often a Common Tongue long ago, and Noble Tongue, which is used by the upper classes. See also Esperanto, an attempt to create this trope in real life. If you are not a native English speaker, you are currently experiencing this trope as Truth in Television by reading this page, as English is today's de facto global language throughout the entire world. It's so global that, despite being the 4th-most spoken native language in the world, it still has more second-language speakers than first-language ones. On a more local level this happens with Spanish and Portuguese in Latin America; English or French in mainland Europe; English or French in different parts of Africa; Russian in Central Asia; Arabic (and, to a lesser extent, Farsi) in the Middle East; Mandarin Chinese in East Asia; English and Hindi in South Asia; and English in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Essentially most were forced to use the language of whatever big neighbor conquered or colonized them, and it persisted post-independence. Oh yeah, and Latin used to be one (ever wondered why most of continental Western Europe speaks a bunch of closely-related languages?). Examples |
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Dropped link to AliensSpeakingEnglish: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to AllThereInTheManual: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to BabyTalk: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to BalkanizeMe: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to BattleCry: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to BlackSpeech: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to CanisLatinicus: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to ClanOfTheCaveBear: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to ConLang: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to FrostDancers: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to NexusClash: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to StarWars: Not an Item - CAT | |
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Dropped link to ThievesCant: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to TranslationConvention: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to TropeNamer: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to lampshadehanging: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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ClanOfTheCaveBear | |
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Frost Dancers | |
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DBTropes | |
Common Tongue / int_11ec8b | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_11ec8b | comment |
In Darkstar One, all alien races use a language called Terra (read: English) in order to make communication between them easier. | |
Common Tongue / int_11ec8b | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_11ec8b | featureConfidence |
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Darkstar One (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Common Tongue / int_13dc9b0a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_13dc9b0a | comment |
The One Ring is set in Middle-earth and assumes that everyone has at least a functional grasp of the Westron "Common Speech". Most cultures have at least one local language, but the game recommends hand-waving any language barrier unless the players are interested in the challenge. | |
Common Tongue / int_13dc9b0a | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_13dc9b0a | featureConfidence |
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The One Ring (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
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Common Tongue / int_1aacbbc9 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_1aacbbc9 | comment |
Dragon Age has the King's Tongue, which was apparently invented by the dwarves to replace a more archaic and formal language, and spread to the surface races through trade. It's the main language for humans, though there are others (Orlesian, for example). The elves have a language of their own, but is has been mostly lost as a result of centuries of slavery and the like. Qunari also have their own language, Qunlat, which is part of the reason they have a reputation for being taciturn in the rest of Thedas — their language skills in the common tongue simply aren't well developed. | |
Common Tongue / int_1aacbbc9 | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_1aacbbc9 | featureConfidence |
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Dragon Age (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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Common Tongue / int_1c34acd2 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_1c34acd2 | comment |
Rocketship Voyager. Given that no-one's heard of a Universal Translator, the crew have Nee'Lix teach them Traben. The Traben Empire dominated that area of the galaxy before it collapsed, so remains as a lingua franca used for business (much like English). There's also mention of Esperanto being used for the same purpose back home; Tom Paris uses the language to greet half-Venerian B'Elanna Torres before finding out she can speak Terran-English. | |
Common Tongue / int_1c34acd2 | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_1c34acd2 | featureConfidence |
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Rocketship Voyager (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_1c34acd2 | |
Common Tongue / int_2171d046 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_2171d046 | comment |
The Common Tongue in the RWBY fic Let Us Be Your Poison is called "New Kingspeak" and is the official language of all four Kingdoms. It's practiced by all humans and is a modern version of Grand Kingspeak, a language that first originated in Mistral eight hundred years ago. There's a language barrier between humans and Faunus because many Faunus only speak their own tongue, Zhoviyak. | |
Common Tongue / int_2171d046 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_2171d046 | featureConfidence |
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Let Us Be Your Poison (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_2171d046 | |
Common Tongue / int_2591835b | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_2591835b | comment |
Red from Pocket Monsters is a kid from a Japanese-based region that never seems to have any issue speaking to people, no matter what region he is in. | |
Common Tongue / int_2591835b | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_2591835b | featureConfidence |
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Pocket Monsters (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_2591835b | |
Common Tongue / int_26baf6f7 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_26baf6f7 | comment |
The Nazis in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are attempting to enforce this in their conquered territories. There are reminders that Americans should start learning German soon, since July 4, 1961, is "Changeover Day," when English will be banned and anyone caught speaking it will be executed. How they're planning to enforce this Dystopian Edict is never really explained, but the Nazi regime being a dysfunctional slow-motion catastrophe under the surface is key to the whole plot. | |
Common Tongue / int_26baf6f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_26baf6f7 | featureConfidence |
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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_26baf6f7 | |
Common Tongue / int_2acb12c5 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_2acb12c5 | comment |
The X-Universe has a language-drifted version of Japanese be the trade language among the Community of Worlds. This is because Japan Took Over The World (or at least the sciences) on Earth, and the Argon, one of the founding members of the Community, are a Lost Colony of Earth. It seems the Argon language was selected because other species' languages were just too complex or unpronounceable; almost everyone can at least pronounce Japanese (except the Boron, who have to rely on translators no matter who they're speaking to... having a language that incorporates pheromones will do that). | |
Common Tongue / int_2acb12c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_2acb12c5 | featureConfidence |
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X (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Common Tongue / int_32d026ec | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_32d026ec | comment |
Rave Master has a universal language to avoid any unnecessary language learning each time the hero travels to some new location somewhere in the world. Although there are several recently dead languages, or languages that people still use despite also knowing the universal language. | |
Common Tongue / int_32d026ec | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_32d026ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Rave Master (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_32d026ec | |
Common Tongue / int_353bdeb0 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_353bdeb0 | comment |
The Humanx Commonwealth universe has "symbospeech", an In-Universe Conlang that became a common tongue through serendipity. Shortly after humans and thranx met one another, they spent some time working out a language that was easily pronounceable by both species, as they had wildly different vocal apparatus, and the thranx language incorporated significant body language aspects in addition to vocalizations. When additional species were encountered, symbospeech was found to be functionally pronounceable by them, too, and thus became the de facto galactic language. | |
Common Tongue / int_353bdeb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_353bdeb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Humanx Commonwealth | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_353bdeb0 | |
Common Tongue / int_35e05f2a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_35e05f2a | comment |
Everyone on Remnant in RWBY speaks the same language and almost all in the same accent as well. The amount of non-English names (Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee, for example) imply that other languages exist(ed) but none are shown. Even flashbacks to thousand of years in the past use modern day English. | |
Common Tongue / int_35e05f2a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_35e05f2a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
RWBY (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_35e05f2a | |
Common Tongue / int_468bebb0 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_468bebb0 | comment |
Discworld (specifically, said by Lord Vetinari, in Jingo): | |
Common Tongue / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_468bebb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Discworld | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_468bebb0 | |
Common Tongue / int_489150a8 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_489150a8 | comment |
Andarra and Desriel share a language in The Licanius Trilogy, with a few unique words here and there. The latter is actually an offshoot of the former, so it's Justified. | |
Common Tongue / int_489150a8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_489150a8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Licanius Trilogy | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_489150a8 | |
Common Tongue / int_49a88442 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_49a88442 | comment |
While multiple languages are confirmed and seen in writing in Final Fantasy XIV, everyone speaks the common tongue while the dialect spoken depends on what region the characters are from. The Hrothgar, a race of huge muscular feline men,didn't have the ability to speak common at first. Because of their ferocious looking appearance and their inability to communicate, there was fear and misaimed conflict by others when they arrived in Eorzea. Once the Hrothgar mastered the common language, fears of them were put to rest and they were welcomed by all. | |
Common Tongue / int_49a88442 | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_49a88442 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Final Fantasy XIV (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_49a88442 | |
Common Tongue / int_4d28cfbc | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_4d28cfbc | comment |
User Unfriendly: In Chapter 14, "Boots, Sword, Crystal", the "Common Tongue" is mentioned about an inscription: | |
Common Tongue / int_4d28cfbc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_4d28cfbc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
User Unfriendly | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_4d28cfbc | |
Common Tongue / int_4d9653ef | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_4d9653ef | comment |
The 5E Planescape books state that the Common tongue of each material plane is inexplicably intelligible with every other world's Common, leading to the in-universe hypothesis that the language originated in Sigil. Not that you'd know with all the Cockney-based chant flying around the Cage. | |
Common Tongue / int_4d9653ef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_4d9653ef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Planescape (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_4d9653ef | |
Common Tongue / int_5003bfe4 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_5003bfe4 | comment |
Of Fire and Stars: People in Havemort and Mynaria appear to speak the same language. However, Zumordans don't. Instead they communicate with them via a language named Tradespeech, presumably one used by traders that developed from international commerce. | |
Common Tongue / int_5003bfe4 | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_5003bfe4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Of Fire and Stars | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_5003bfe4 | |
Common Tongue / int_50bcf7a6 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_50bcf7a6 | comment |
Homestuck: This happens by accident In-Universe, due to Trollish basically being English with a different alphabetical system. Thus, the Kids and the Trolls can communicate with each other flawlessly despite technically speaking two different languages. | |
Common Tongue / int_50bcf7a6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_50bcf7a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Homestuck (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_50bcf7a6 | |
Common Tongue / int_517380f | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_517380f | comment |
Terra Ignota: In the 25th century, English is the language of all of Earth, while each Hive has its own language in addition to that, but members of any Hive are only allowed to learn them upon registering with the Hive (usually for life). The Mitsubishi have Japanese, the Masons have Latin, the Humanists Spanish, and so on, and it is considered extremely impolite to know the language of another Hive. | |
Common Tongue / int_517380f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_517380f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Terra Ignota | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_517380f | |
Common Tongue / int_53ebf3bb | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_53ebf3bb | comment |
In the Liaden Universe, the common language is called Trade, and that's what it's mostly used for. | |
Common Tongue / int_53ebf3bb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_53ebf3bb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Liaden Universe | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_53ebf3bb | |
Common Tongue / int_591e9935 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_591e9935 | comment |
Bravelands actually has three, "Grasstongue", "Skytongue" and "Sandtongue", the common languages of terrestrial mammals, birds and bats, and non-avian reptiles, respectively. A true Great Parent can innately understand all three, and some others have learned more than one, but Grasstongue is generally treated as the lingua franca. | |
Common Tongue / int_591e9935 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_591e9935 | featureConfidence |
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Bravelands | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_591e9935 | |
Common Tongue / int_5bd0554b | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_5bd0554b | comment |
Common in Warcraft games. It is primarily the language of humans, but nearly everybody can speak either it or Low Common, which sounds like a Hulk Speak version of Common. Now, it makes sense that races allied with humans would learn their language, and the orcs could've picked up how to speak it during the war or while in internment camps, but it makes less sense when tauren in Warcraft III can communicate with humans and orcs despite never meeting either one. In World of Warcraft Common is the Alliance universe language (the Horde has Orcish) and is not understood by Horde races. However this is because of game mechanics (blood elves and undead should definitely be able to speak it, as well as many orcs and goblins) and there are still NPCs in game that can be understood by all factions. It's implied that the Forsaken lose the ability to speak the languages they knew in life (a tailor in the undead city in WoW says his former family were speaking a language "I no longer understand". However, a later RPG book states that Forsaken can still speak Common, but refuse to do so to distance themselves from their old lives. Instead they speak Gutterspeak, formerly the Thieves' Cant of Lordaeron. |
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Common Tongue / int_5bd0554b | featureApplicability |
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Common Tongue / int_5bd0554b | featureConfidence |
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Warcraft (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_5bd0554b | |
Common Tongue / int_5c897f4a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_5c897f4a | comment |
Schlock Mercenary has five common languages: Galstandard West (which seems shockingly like English), East, Eight, Brown, and Peroxide. Given later revelations that Galstandard Peroxide is only spoken by ocean-dwelling creatures, it seems as though each language is tailored to a specific voice and vocal type. Brown is based on emitting chemical smells and is used by Starfish Aliens with no equivalent to vocal cords. | |
Common Tongue / int_5c897f4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_5c897f4a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_5c897f4a | |
Common Tongue / int_5d4724ee | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_5d4724ee | comment |
Harbourmaster: Standard English is the primary language for communication in the futuristic civilization the story takes place in. | |
Common Tongue / int_5d4724ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_5d4724ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Harbourmaster (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_5d4724ee | |
Common Tongue / int_5e150650 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_5e150650 | comment |
Played with in Exalted, there are three "trade languages" that characters can expect at least one person in a given rural village can speak, though most might not outside the language's native land or at least a major city. High Realm is the language of the Realm's nobles, Old Realm was spoken by the previous major empire and is still spoken by spirits and demons, and Riverspeak is used in the Scavenger Lands and by the Guild. | |
Common Tongue / int_5e150650 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_5e150650 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Exalted (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_5e150650 | |
Common Tongue / int_610a694a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_610a694a | comment |
Similar to the anime, the Pokémon Adventures manga uses this trope. Characters from both the Japanese-based regions and non-Japanese ones can interact with no language barrier. | |
Common Tongue / int_610a694a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_610a694a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pokémon Adventures (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_610a694a | |
Common Tongue / int_6360cc80 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_6360cc80 | comment |
In the Hayven Celestia universe the krakun enslaving many other species has led to the Krakun language acting as a common medium of communication between species. | |
Common Tongue / int_6360cc80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_6360cc80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hayven Celestia | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_6360cc80 | |
Common Tongue / int_68237790 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_68237790 | comment |
In the default Pathfinder Inner Sea setting, Common is actually Taldane, the language originally spoken in the Vestigial Empire of Taldor, which was the last major empire to control most of the region. In the Tian Xia/Dragon Empires subsetting (the farthest, although not most obscure and isolated, continent from the Inner Sea) the Tien language is so common that in that part of the world it is often referred to Common (Taldane is still spoken by some groups, but the same is true for Tien in the Inner Sea). |
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Common Tongue / int_68237790 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_68237790 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pathfinder (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_68237790 | |
Common Tongue / int_6aaa1fab | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_6aaa1fab | comment |
City of No End has Civic, the language of the known parts of the City united under the Receiver. There's a hint of Latin still existing somehow, and possible other languages out in the barbarian lands. | |
Common Tongue / int_6aaa1fab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_6aaa1fab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
City of No End | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_6aaa1fab | |
Common Tongue / int_6ac55ec7 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_6ac55ec7 | comment |
Dungeons & Dragons, being heavily based on The Lord of the Rings, uses this extensively. But tries to not give in completely as it has language-related magic. Specific settings are likely to have a "Lingua Franca" and a handful of specific languages. Forgotten Realms subverts this by having several "trade languages" even on Faerûn. Usually people can talk to each other, but on the larger scale there are Common "common" (Heartlands' dialect of Planecommon), Kara-tur "common", Undercommon (mix of Dwarven, Gnomish, Low Drow, Upper Common, etc.), Auld Wyrmish ("common" across dragon subspecies). Other continents may have their own "common" languages, like Midani of Zakhara. While many specific cultures retain their own tongues still, though some reduced to dialects of "common". So learning all half a hundred or so present tongues (like Wemic or Gnomish speech) is unnecessary, but doesn't that comprehend languages spell seem worth learning now? (If you want to talk back, you might need the tongues spell too.) Some other D&D settings have a named language (usually human) that serves the in-game function of a Common tongue, such as Thyatian in Mystara (the language of the Known World region's dominant empire) or Balok in Ravenloft (the language of its oldest domain, favored by merchants). Simplified in 4th edition (no surprise there); for the most part there are only ten languages, with Common being the trade language. There are however 7 other languages for different regions. Of particular note is the Supernal language, the language of the Gods, the very first language. When the speaker speaks in Supernal, everyone would understand what the speaker says as if in their own native tongue. In fact, all other languages are variants of the Supernal, in how the various races perceived the Supernal language. While you can learn the Supernal language, ultimately subverted because mortals lack the necessary power to fully speak in Supernal, thus losing its capability as universal language. One old 1E article on AD&D languages proposed that Orcish, Goblin, Kobold, Gnoll and similar tongues weren't separate racial languages, but dialects of a monsters' version of this trope. This would explain why such races, never renowned as intellectuals, automatically knew each others' languages in the 1E era. The 5E Planescape books state that the Common tongue of each material plane is inexplicably intelligible with every other world's Common, leading to the in-universe hypothesis that the language originated in Sigil. Not that you'd know with all the Cockney-based chant flying around the Cage. |
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Common Tongue / int_6ac55ec7 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Common Tongue / int_6ac55ec7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_6ac55ec7 | |
Common Tongue / int_701f0ece | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_701f0ece | comment |
Berserk averts this; though most of the cast speak Midland's language, some characters speak Kushan, which none of the Midland cast understand. | |
Common Tongue / int_701f0ece | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_701f0ece | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Berserk (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_701f0ece | |
Common Tongue / int_70814599 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_70814599 | comment |
There was also a situation in Stargate SG-1 where four ancient races used holographic displays of various periodic elements as some kind of universal language, though the intended effect was a little vague. The way they chose to represent the elements (as orbiting spheres) doesn't sound like something various alien races would come up with on their own. | |
Common Tongue / int_70814599 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_70814599 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Stargate SG-1 | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_70814599 | |
Common Tongue / int_733f2aaf | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_733f2aaf | comment |
Cradle Series: Absolutely everyone on the planet speaks the same language, to the point that it doesn't even need a name. Lindon, who lives in a secluded valley that has had absolutely minimal contact with the outside world for a thousand years, has no trouble communicating with outsiders. He doesn't even mention any different accents. Eventually it's explained that Emeriss Silentborn, one of the Monarchs, wanders the world spreading language and making sure everyone can communicate. Lindon mentions that he's heard of other languages, but has never actually encountered any. The closest is when he meets foreigners from the other side of the planet, who have accents so thick it takes time to sort out what they're saying. | |
Common Tongue / int_733f2aaf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_733f2aaf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Cradle Series | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_733f2aaf | |
Common Tongue / int_7559ae0b | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_7559ae0b | comment |
Dune has Galach, derived from English mixed with some Slavic languages and a smattering of other Old Earth tongues. But there are many other languages such as the Chakobsa hunting speech of which a dialect is spoken by the Fremen, and the Atreides battle language that is signed (so enemies can't overhear) instead of spoken. | |
Common Tongue / int_7559ae0b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_7559ae0b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dune (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_7559ae0b | |
Common Tongue / int_76e7de99 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_76e7de99 | comment |
Forgotten Realms subverts this by having several "trade languages" even on Faerûn. Usually people can talk to each other, but on the larger scale there are Common "common" (Heartlands' dialect of Planecommon), Kara-tur "common", Undercommon (mix of Dwarven, Gnomish, Low Drow, Upper Common, etc.), Auld Wyrmish ("common" across dragon subspecies). Other continents may have their own "common" languages, like Midani of Zakhara. While many specific cultures retain their own tongues still, though some reduced to dialects of "common". So learning all half a hundred or so present tongues (like Wemic or Gnomish speech) is unnecessary, but doesn't that comprehend languages spell seem worth learning now? (If you want to talk back, you might need the tongues spell too.) | |
Common Tongue / int_76e7de99 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_76e7de99 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Forgotten Realms (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_76e7de99 | |
Common Tongue / int_7988cb68 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_7988cb68 | comment |
Mass Effect makes heavy use of Translator Microbes in the form of computers that need to be regularly updated for new languages, as practically every species in the setting is as linguistically diverse as humans. There is, however, a "trade tongue", which Shepard refers to as "Galactic" at one point — a simplified artificial interspecies language, essentially Space Esperanto. The angara of Mass Effect: Andromeda are said in the Codex to use their trade language as a lingua franca, due to several hundred years of linguistic drift among their separated planets, to say nothing of each angaran family having their own individual languages. |
|
Common Tongue / int_7988cb68 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_7988cb68 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mass Effect (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_7988cb68 | |
Common Tongue / int_7d985ff1 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_7d985ff1 | comment |
The universe of Epithet Erased, where a significant chunk of the population is born with word-based superpowers, functions like this. | |
Common Tongue / int_7d985ff1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_7d985ff1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Epithet Erased (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_7d985ff1 | |
Common Tongue / int_7de8951a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_7de8951a | comment |
Traveller: Galanglic was the official language of the Third Imperium, though many worlds only used it for interstellar communications or traffic control. The Second Imperium spoke English and the First, Vlani. | |
Common Tongue / int_7de8951a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_7de8951a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Traveller (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_7de8951a | |
Common Tongue / int_7fcbd3e | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_7fcbd3e | comment |
Some other D&D settings have a named language (usually human) that serves the in-game function of a Common tongue, such as Thyatian in Mystara (the language of the Known World region's dominant empire) or Balok in Ravenloft (the language of its oldest domain, favored by merchants). | |
Common Tongue / int_7fcbd3e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_7fcbd3e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mystara (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_7fcbd3e | |
Common Tongue / int_81692f99 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_81692f99 | comment |
Star Trek: The Federation has Federation Standard (aka English) and the Klingon and Romulan empires have the racial languages of the Klingons and Romulans, although the line between this trope and Translator Microbes is frequently blurred. Of course, there are many examples of Aliens Speaking English and going back and forth between that and their own tongues. | |
Common Tongue / int_81692f99 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_81692f99 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_81692f99 | |
Common Tongue / int_84986bf9 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_84986bf9 | comment |
The majority of races in RuneScape speak "the common tongue" and is canonically the language of the version of the game you're playing. | |
Common Tongue / int_84986bf9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_84986bf9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
RuneScape (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_84986bf9 | |
Common Tongue / int_85843fa4 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_85843fa4 | comment |
Slightly Damned: Only three languages exist in the setting. The main language which is called "Lingo" is spoken by humans, jakkai, khamega, merfolk, and demons. The only other languages are Angelic, spoken by angels, and the unnamed language used by fairies. | |
Common Tongue / int_85843fa4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_85843fa4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Slightly Damned (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_85843fa4 | |
Common Tongue / int_86312631 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_86312631 | comment |
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: This is nearly always part of Fantasyland. Even if other languages exist there will be one all people share and will communicate to each other with. One Old Tongue may also exist in ancient writings and magic (just the sole precursor language). The only exception is on the Other Continent, where another language will exist that Tourists must learn to use. | |
Common Tongue / int_86312631 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_86312631 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_86312631 | |
Common Tongue / int_8fbce0e6 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_8fbce0e6 | comment |
In Hunters of Justice, most people in modern day Remnant speak Vytalan, a language created and popularized after the Great War to better unify people in the aftermath. The old languages still exist but see seldom use. | |
Common Tongue / int_8fbce0e6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_8fbce0e6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hunters of Justice (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_8fbce0e6 | |
Common Tongue / int_90199e38 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_90199e38 | comment |
In Somewhither the inhabitants of all universes conquered by the Dark Tower communicate in "Ursprache", which has the additional benefit of granting its speakers Omniglot abilities. | |
Common Tongue / int_90199e38 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_90199e38 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Somewhither | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_90199e38 | |
Common Tongue / int_90c73dda | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_90c73dda | comment |
Animorphs has Galard (Galactic Standard), a interstellar language briefly mentioned a couple of times. The Yeerks have transmitters that can be used by all kinds of different host bodies with unusual vocal chords, including horses. | |
Common Tongue / int_90c73dda | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_90c73dda | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Animorphs | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_90c73dda | |
Common Tongue / int_90e2f673 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_90e2f673 | comment |
BattleTech has the various Great Houses of the Inner Sphere (and the various lesser houses, sub-states, and Periphery domains) which all speak wildly varying official languages. This can lead to some incredibly complicated language issues (including the birth of new languges, such as "Swedenese" from a combination of Imperial-era Japanese and Swedish). This doesn't even include entirely new Conlang such as the Russian-military-derived English spoken as the Clan dialect. To keep international communication from being entirely unrecognizable, almost all parties involved speak English to some extent. ComStar in particular holds all proceedings in English, meaning that using their Subspace Ansible system or hiring mercenaries with their financial guarantee as a neutral party required everyone to speak English. | |
Common Tongue / int_90e2f673 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_90e2f673 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
BattleTech (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_90e2f673 | |
Common Tongue / int_90f42a9b | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_90f42a9b | comment |
The Wheel of Time: Everyone in the entire world speaks the same language, with minor local quirks, even nations like Seanchan that have been completely isolated for a thousand years. No explanation for this is ever given in the text, though according to Word of God, the availability of printed text has cut down on linguistic drift. | |
Common Tongue / int_90f42a9b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_90f42a9b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Wheel of Time | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_90f42a9b | |
Common Tongue / int_920bdb7c | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_920bdb7c | comment |
Kill Six Billion Demons: Universal Metaconstant is the primary spoken language of Throne, the Red City at the nexus of 777,777 universes. Its writing system shows up sometimes in signs and Painting the Medium captions, but for the most part, the reader benefits from the main character's Translator Microbes. | |
Common Tongue / int_920bdb7c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_920bdb7c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Kill Six Billion Demons (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_920bdb7c | |
Common Tongue / int_94f0ca53 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_94f0ca53 | comment |
In Hellspark by Janet Kagan, the common language is called GalLing' (presumably from "galactic lingua franca"); it's an artificially-constructed language, and one of its design features is that it only uses phonemes common to all human languages, so that anybody can speak it without difficulty. | |
Common Tongue / int_94f0ca53 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_94f0ca53 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hellspark | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_94f0ca53 | |
Common Tongue / int_97a77531 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_97a77531 | comment |
A language called "Tongue" in House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds is described as the closest possible equivalent to a universal galactic language, and even then a lot of civilisations don't understand it. | |
Common Tongue / int_97a77531 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_97a77531 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
House of Suns | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_97a77531 | |
Common Tongue / int_9a3c055d | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9a3c055d | comment |
Rolemaster: In the Spacemaster setting Privateers, the language Species Standard is spoken by all of the known intelligent races. Shadow World setting supplement Star Crown Empire and the Sea of Fates. Across the Central Basin the most commonly spoken language is Trade Common, AKA Imperial Common. It is even spoken outside the Star Crown Empire. |
|
Common Tongue / int_9a3c055d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9a3c055d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Role Master (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9a3c055d | |
Common Tongue / int_9a40744a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9a40744a | comment |
Tunnel in the Sky briefly mentions the simple but global Lingua Terra being used in an argument between an American guard and his Chinese counterpart. | |
Common Tongue / int_9a40744a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9a40744a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tunnel in the Sky | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9a40744a | |
Common Tongue / int_9acdda28 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9acdda28 | comment |
In Watership Down each species of animal has its own language, and animals don't speak each other's languages. However there is "hedgerow vernacular", a very limited language which allows inter-species communication. | |
Common Tongue / int_9acdda28 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9acdda28 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Watership Down | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9acdda28 | |
Common Tongue / int_9d34190a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9d34190a | comment |
While The Elder Scrolls series features many languages in background lore, both extant and extinct, there is only one common language spoken in the games (typically referred to as Tamriellic or Cyrodiilic), which is an Acceptable Break From Reality for the player's convenience. Some of the other languages include those of Dwemeris (of the extinct Dwemer), Falmeris (of the devolved Falmer), "Dovazhul'' (of the Dragons), Aldmeris (the Classical Tongue of the Elven ancestors which didn't so much go extinct as gradually evolve into a set of related languages), Jel (of the Argonians, and Ta'agra (of the Khajiit). | |
Common Tongue / int_9d34190a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9d34190a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Elder Scrolls (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9d34190a | |
Common Tongue / int_9d47a2a2 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9d47a2a2 | comment |
A Song of Ice and Fire: Suubverted. The series has no single common tongue but rather a few of them. Translation Convention is employed, so people who don't speak the current POV character's language are rendered unintelligible. The "Common Tongue of Westeros" is only universal in the continent of Westeros itself, where most of the action takes place. It is a major world language, and most merchants in major ports from Essos to the Summer Isles will probably be at least familiar with it - but more isolated groups like the Dothraki mounted hordes in central Essos do not know it. Specifically, the "Common Tongue" is actually the language of the Andals, who migrated to Westeros thousands of years ago, displacing the earlier "Old Tongue" of the First Men. The conceit of the story is that Westeros is a fantasy version of the British Isles, but as a continent the size of South America. The Andals are thus the analogue of the Anglo-Saxons, and the First Men the analogue of the Celts. Meanwhile, in Essos, the Valyrian empire once ruled half the known world, and was basically Fantasy Rome (with dragons) - but their empire collapsed 400 years ago after a volcanic eruption in their capital, and their provinces fragmented. Since this collapse, the languages spoken by all their different colonies in the Free Cities and elsewhere drifted into different "Low Valyrian" languages. Their original language, "High Valyrian", is still used by scholars and educated social elites, and is thus their fantasy analogue of Latin. The different Low Valyrian languages are like how French and Italian diverged from each other. The vocabulary of the Slaver's Bay dialects, in particular, is by influenced by Old Ghiscari, an extinct language that was displaced by Valyrian thousands of years ago, hence why the freed slaves call Daenerys "Mhysa", the Ghiscari word for "mother". Well-educated aristocrats from Oldtown to Meereen can speak High Valyrian, but in terms of languages used by the man on the street, it's a bit of a tossup. Sailors are even described as using a pidgin "Trade talk" to communicate in ports, mirroring real life use. |
|
Common Tongue / int_9d47a2a2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9d47a2a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
A Song of Ice and Fire | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9d47a2a2 | |
Common Tongue / int_9f37740 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9f37740 | comment |
Oracle of Tao: While elves know Elvish, and there are some languages from the original Earth (the only ones that survived also had an alphabet attached), there is Common. There's also confusingly, English, which Common is based on. But Common has different grammatical rules such as being able to start sentences with but and ignore some punctuation like commas, except when used to break a sentence up arbitrarily. Obviously, the author is writing in Common, not English, for convenience. | |
Common Tongue / int_9f37740 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9f37740 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Oracle of Tao | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9f37740 | |
Common Tongue / int_9f89a5f0 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9f89a5f0 | comment |
Pokémon: This is typically justified in Pokémon: The Series in that they're in Japanese-like regions (the first two sharing the names of their real-world inspirations) so everyone speaks Japanese… except later the regions were expanded to be based off other countries, such as America (Pokémon Black and White's Unova) and France (X and Y's Kalos). In X and Y they explicitly speak French and Looker even has communication problems with a Kantonese women who speaks Japanese. In the anime no such language barriers exist. Ash can go from Sinnoh to Unova then to Kalos and speak perfectly with others. In the Japanese version of a Sinnoh episode, Jessie did mention she needed to learn English, yet she can visit Alola and Unova (both based off American states) and speak to the locals with ease. Everyone speaks the same language, however written language is not as simple. On top of the original Japanese, there is also the originally-4kids-exclusive writing that comes in several different forms. The protagonists, however, have no issue reading any variation of it. Similar to the anime, the Pokémon Adventures manga uses this trope. Characters from both the Japanese-based regions and non-Japanese ones can interact with no language barrier. Red from Pocket Monsters is a kid from a Japanese-based region that never seems to have any issue speaking to people, no matter what region he is in. |
|
Common Tongue / int_9f89a5f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9f89a5f0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pokémon (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9f89a5f0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9fb9bec4 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_9fb9bec4 | comment |
Outsider: The Trade language was originally used by the Precursors, and was consequently inherited by the various primitive societies that survived their collapse. In the modern day, it serves as the main lingua franca used by different spacefaring societies when they need to communicate with each other. It's also the only language the Loroi speak — they normally communicate telepathically with each other, and consequently never developed any native languages and simply use unaltered Trade for writing and when vocal communication is necessary. | |
Common Tongue / int_9fb9bec4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_9fb9bec4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Outsider (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_9fb9bec4 | |
Common Tongue / int_a2a386c9 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_a2a386c9 | comment |
The First Federation of Orion's Arm attempted to standardize "Anglic", but once the Feds lost power Anglic evolved into a family of languages several times more diverse than the current Indo-European family. The prevalence of Translator Microbes in the setting makes it a moot point anyway. | |
Common Tongue / int_a2a386c9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_a2a386c9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Orion's Arm (Website) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_a2a386c9 | |
Common Tongue / int_a390e6f5 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_a390e6f5 | comment |
The aptly named "global tongue" in Ssalia and the Dragons of Avienot, which is spoken in most parts of the planet with varying degrees of fluency, though not usually natively. | |
Common Tongue / int_a390e6f5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_a390e6f5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ssalia and the Dragons of Avienot | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_a390e6f5 | |
Common Tongue / int_a8150af4 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_a8150af4 | comment |
Everybody knows and speaks Westron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, even in their own intimacy instead of their own native languages. | |
Common Tongue / int_a8150af4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_a8150af4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_a8150af4 | |
Common Tongue / int_a869f91d | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_a869f91d | comment |
The Most Popular Girls in School: Played for laughs and lampshaded. The cheer squad is accused of being misinformed as, apparently, everyone in France speaks english with a heavy French accent. | |
Common Tongue / int_a869f91d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_a869f91d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Most Popular Girls in School (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_a869f91d | |
Common Tongue / int_a97a40f0 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_a97a40f0 | comment |
The Witch of Knightcharm: Enforced via magic at the evil Wizarding School that Emily infiltrates. All the students are hit with a spell which automatically translates anything they say or write into Latin, and also makes them perceive any Latin they see or hear in their native language. This not only allows the students (who come from all over the world) to communicate, but it also makes it nearly impossible to escape. After all, even if they got to the surface, they would be unable to use any language besides Latin (which almost nobody outside of the Scholomance is fluent in) until and unless they could break the translation spell. | |
Common Tongue / int_a97a40f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_a97a40f0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Witch of Knightcharm | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_a97a40f0 | |
Common Tongue / int_afc86b0a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_afc86b0a | comment |
In the Ender's Game universe, there is a common language based on English called Stark, short for Starways Common. At the same time, many cultures, who have spread out among the stars, have retained their own languages, even though they still use Stark when working with computers or sending messages. When traveling to Lusitania, settled by descendants of Brazilians, Ender tries to learn Portuguese, and the book is peppered with Portuguese words and phrases. Several Swedish words are also used constantly, specifically those dealing with the so-called "Hierarchy of Foreigness" (which Valentine Wiggin developed after choosing to settle on a Swedish-speaking planet).note Orson Scott Card learned Portuguese while serving a Mormon missionary in Brazil. | |
Common Tongue / int_afc86b0a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_afc86b0a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ender's Game | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_afc86b0a | |
Common Tongue / int_b2f2c6c0 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_b2f2c6c0 | comment |
Universal in the Paradox universe is spoken by most of The Alliance's member races, as well as their own tongues, most of which were developed by the linguistically talented Seersa. Though in some races, such as the Hinichi and Glaseah, their own languages never caught on and they just speak Universal with a few unique words. | |
Common Tongue / int_b2f2c6c0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_b2f2c6c0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Paradox | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_b2f2c6c0 | |
Common Tongue / int_b30ae4db | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_b30ae4db | comment |
Valyrian is used in Essos in Game of Thrones (albeit the issue of the common tongue is more complex in the books). | |
Common Tongue / int_b30ae4db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_b30ae4db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Game of Thrones | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_b30ae4db | |
Common Tongue / int_b5a03cec | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_b5a03cec | comment |
In the Robotech Expanded Universe, it's revealed that though there are many languages still spoken amongst the Sentinal's races, Zentraedi has become a sort of common tongue that everyone can understand. This is justified because the Robotech Masters used the Zentraedi as soldiers to create their empire, and thus the language was spread. | |
Common Tongue / int_b5a03cec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_b5a03cec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Robotech | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_b5a03cec | |
Common Tongue / int_bb5f7a3f | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_bb5f7a3f | comment |
Along with the Wookiees' main trade language Shyriiwook, at least two other dialects are known. Tyrant's Test introduced Thykarann, noted to have a wide lexicon of scientific and technical terms. Rebel Dawn gives us Xaczik, a language from the Wartaki Islands that Wookiee resistance fighters used as an unbreakable code during Imperial times. | |
Common Tongue / int_bb5f7a3f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_bb5f7a3f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
BlackFleetCrisis | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_bb5f7a3f | |
Common Tongue / int_bcadd7cb | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_bcadd7cb | comment |
Warhammer 40,000 The "Gothic" language serves this purpose for the Imperium, acting as a way for cultures from different worlds to communicate. There is also High Gothic, which is used for official purposes and has a role similar to Latin in medieval Europe in that no-one actually uses it as a first language but scholars and those of high rank are expected to know it. High Gothic's Canis Latinicus is actually explained as Translation Convention: Characters aren't actually speaking English and Latin, but it provokes the same impression on someone who only speaks English. Binary is the language used by the Mechanicus, and is completely unintelligible to an outsider, which frustrates the Inquisition to no end. |
|
Common Tongue / int_bcadd7cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_bcadd7cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_bcadd7cb | |
Common Tongue / int_bf29ce3b | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_bf29ce3b | comment |
In Celadon's New Blossom, it's explained that most people are bilingual. During school, they learn the native language of their home region as well as an international common tongue. This explains how people from different regions can communicate in the Pokémon anime. | |
Common Tongue / int_bf29ce3b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_bf29ce3b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Celadon's New Blossom (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_bf29ce3b | |
Common Tongue / int_bff01809 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_bff01809 | comment |
Warhammer tends to lean on Reikspiel, the language of the Empire, in this capacity. It isn't a universal world language by any means, but the Empire is easily the biggest and most prominent of the human realms, and hence its language has a certain reach and importance as a Lingua Franca. Most elves, dwarfs and others who deal with humans tend to learn Reikspiel for communication (the elder races finding it childishly easy, but crude and ugly on the tongue), and even brutish races like Orcs and Beastmen tend to learn a few choice boasts and insults to torment human victims with. Dwarves are almost always heard speaking in Reikspiel because they don't like outsiders to hear Khazalid being spoken. In the RPG, set largely in the Empire, all characters are presumed to know Reikspiel, but non-Imperial characters also get their own native language for free. In the first edition, however, Reikspiel was just a dialect of a true common tongue called Old Worlder (which had its own Greek-and-Latin equivalent in Classical Old Worlder). |
|
Common Tongue / int_bff01809 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_bff01809 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Warhammer (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_bff01809 | |
Common Tongue / int_c1b1b573 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c1b1b573 | comment |
Invoked in Undead Unluck when all the languages in the world are changed to English, affecting everyone except Negators. This allows them to locate other Negators as they would be able to speak other languages. | |
Common Tongue / int_c1b1b573 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c1b1b573 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Undead Unluck (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c1b1b573 | |
Common Tongue / int_c2a63ee5 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c2a63ee5 | comment |
Completely averted in Chants of Sennaar. Every single culture in the tower has their own languages (each with it's own written script and grammar), and none of them can understand each other. Learning to translate between them is required to get the true ending. | |
Common Tongue / int_c2a63ee5 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c2a63ee5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Chants of Sennaar (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c2a63ee5 | |
Common Tongue / int_c2ac5afa | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c2ac5afa | comment |
Warriors of the World uses New Runic to unite the continent where the story takes place. There are other languages used (Morrocian, Umbalan and Payan within the Kingdom, Zwald within the Republic of Schwarzwald) but no one speaks any of the other languages unless they've confirmed the person they're speaking to can understand those languages as well. | |
Common Tongue / int_c2ac5afa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c2ac5afa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Warriors of the World / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c2ac5afa | |
Common Tongue / int_c2eb1b78 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c2eb1b78 | comment |
Delicious in Dungeon: Everyone in the story speaks the same language, regardless of race, where they came from, or how many centuries old they are. Languages of other races are mentioned briefly, however. Kobolds have their own language because the common tongue is difficult for their vocal anatomy to articulate, although the reverse doesn't seem to be true. Half-foots also have their own language, but this only comes up when Chilchuck starts screaming foreign swear words at Laios because the insults of the common tongue were not sufficient to describe his idiocy. | |
Common Tongue / int_c2eb1b78 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c2eb1b78 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Delicious in Dungeon (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c2eb1b78 | |
Common Tongue / int_c326acd9 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c326acd9 | comment |
In Inazuma Eleven everyone speaks Japanese, no matter what country they come from. This is obviously mostly used in season 3 of the original series, as well as Go: Galaxy, when the Football Frontier International is held and everyone from every team from every country speaks Japanese, even when they're speaking among themselves. This also applies to the aliens in Go: Galaxy as well. | |
Common Tongue / int_c326acd9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c326acd9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Inazuma Eleven (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c326acd9 | |
Common Tongue / int_c3335b05 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c3335b05 | comment |
In RWBY: Scars, everyone speaks a language explicitly called "Common Tongue". This explains all the non-English names like Weiss Schnee and Xiao Long Yang. Most of the non-Common Tongue words come from "Old" languages that parallel Earth languages (such as Old Atlesian being German). | |
Common Tongue / int_c3335b05 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c3335b05 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
RWBY: Scars (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c3335b05 | |
Common Tongue / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
In Doctor Who, this trope is subverted — the TARDIS is translating for both the Doctor and his companions. This usually comes across to the audience as Recieved Pronunciation English. Except for the Ninth Doctor, who had a Northern accent. And the Tenth (Estuary), Twelfth (Scottish) and the Thirteenth (Northern again, but Yorkshire rather than Nine's Manchester). If you attempt to speak a native's language to them on purpose while being translated, it will sound like a foreign language they know of, but can't speak themselves. Translation also fails if the language lacks the concept for the word you are using, such as in The Fires of Pompeii when a companion tries to warn the citizens about a volcano they didn't understand as Latin didn't have a word for it during that time period — until Mt. Vesuvius erupted. This justifies the Doctor's technobabble as both things untranslated (nonsense words), and him having to work around this limitation by explaining things out or use metaphors. A good example of this in real life is "layman's terms", wherein somebody is trying to explain specialized knowledge to somebody who doesn't know specialized vocabulary or key concepts. |
|
Common Tongue / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Common Tongue / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c43df4d8 | |
Common Tongue / int_c6220b6e | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c6220b6e | comment |
Lumbanico, the Cubic Planet: Everyone in the entire world speak the same common idiom whose parent language, Lumio, was spoken across Lumbanico seven hundred years ago. | |
Common Tongue / int_c6220b6e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c6220b6e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lumbanico The Cubic Planet | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c6220b6e | |
Common Tongue / int_c9b98f4e | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_c9b98f4e | comment |
In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, there's Smurf language, and there's human language which most beings (humans and non-humans alike) speak, including Psyches (though they call it Psychelian). There's also the "lost languages" of the Smurfs, which correspond to other human languages, such as Schtroumpf (French), Pitufo (Spanish), Schlumpf (German), Puffo (Italian), and Smurfentaal (Dutch). Painter Smurf occasionally speaks in Schtroumpf while Zipper tends to speak in Pitufo at times. | |
Common Tongue / int_c9b98f4e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_c9b98f4e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Empath: The Luckiest Smurf / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_c9b98f4e | |
Common Tongue / int_ca5cb239 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_ca5cb239 | comment |
In the Circle of Magic universe, characters in different countries speak different languages, but everyone also seems to know how to speak Imperial. | |
Common Tongue / int_ca5cb239 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_ca5cb239 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Circle of Magic | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_ca5cb239 | |
Common Tongue / int_ca745ccb | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_ca745ccb | comment |
Pacificators: Standard English. Moreover, the Pacificators are actively discouraged from speaking in their native languages (hence why the platoon always nag on Larima and Taffe when they speak in French). The fact that Muneca has slipped into Spanish a few times is a significant Character Development. | |
Common Tongue / int_ca745ccb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_ca745ccb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pacificators (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_ca745ccb | |
Common Tongue / int_ce009416 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_ce009416 | comment |
The trope is evident in the "Monaco Cup Arc" of Yakitate!! Japan, where the main characters are able to communicate with the foreign characters, who hails from all over the world (French, German, American, Monacoian, etc.) without any problems; even though Kuwabara explicitly mentions that he doesn't understand foreign language and it's highly unlikely that the non-Japanese characters (except perhaps Shachihoko) actually speak Japanese. | |
Common Tongue / int_ce009416 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_ce009416 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Yakitate!! Japan (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_ce009416 | |
Common Tongue / int_cfae4b52 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_cfae4b52 | comment |
In Warriors Redux, predators have a common tongue known as "Fang". | |
Common Tongue / int_cfae4b52 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_cfae4b52 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Warriors Redux (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_cfae4b52 | |
Common Tongue / int_d32d5a07 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_d32d5a07 | comment |
The Unknown Regions have a vast variety of local tongues and a bunch of trade languages to facilitate communication. Thrawn introduces Sy Bisti as the trade language used in the region containing the Chiss homeworld. Later novels add Meese Caulf, Minnisiat and Taarja. | |
Common Tongue / int_d32d5a07 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_d32d5a07 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Thrawn | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_d32d5a07 | |
Common Tongue / int_d5505073 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_d5505073 | comment |
In the Uplift series the ridiculously organized and stagnant culture of galactic civilization has resulted in at least twelve different Galactic languages (numbered 1-12) designed to accommodate the wide variety in vocal structures; humans seem to have the easiest time with Gal 7. One of the assorted ways that Earthclan is different from the other oxy-breathing races is that they have languages other than Galactic, mostly Anglic and Trinary, a poetic language designed for dolphins. Gal One is a binary language like Morse code, mostly used to program computers. Gal Two is basic, logical, unambiguous... and boring. Gal Three, Four, and Ten are hard for humans to speak but neo-dolphins have little difficulty. Gal Five and Nine are completely unpronounceable to Earthlings. Gal Six, Eight, Eleven, and Twelve are difficult for Earthlings but possible. Gal Eleven is intended to be used to bridge the gap between different orders of life (oxygen, hydrogen, machine ...), it's only partially successful and intended to be transmitted by radio or psi. On Jijo in the second trilogy, colonized by six species living a low-tech lifestyle, most people speak Gal Two, Gal Seven, and Anglic interchangeably (though Urs speak Anglic with a lisp). The latter is because the humans were the only species to know a means of recording information without electronics (books), so nearly every written word on Jijo is in Anglic. |
|
Common Tongue / int_d5505073 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_d5505073 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Uplift | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_d5505073 | |
Common Tongue / int_d5ddd6c1 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_d5ddd6c1 | comment |
This is typically justified in Pokémon: The Series in that they're in Japanese-like regions (the first two sharing the names of their real-world inspirations) so everyone speaks Japanese… except later the regions were expanded to be based off other countries, such as America (Pokémon Black and White's Unova) and France (X and Y's Kalos). In X and Y they explicitly speak French and Looker even has communication problems with a Kantonese women who speaks Japanese. In the anime no such language barriers exist. Ash can go from Sinnoh to Unova then to Kalos and speak perfectly with others. In the Japanese version of a Sinnoh episode, Jessie did mention she needed to learn English, yet she can visit Alola and Unova (both based off American states) and speak to the locals with ease. Everyone speaks the same language, however written language is not as simple. On top of the original Japanese, there is also the originally-4kids-exclusive writing that comes in several different forms. The protagonists, however, have no issue reading any variation of it. | |
Common Tongue / int_d5ddd6c1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_d5ddd6c1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pokémon: The Series | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_d5ddd6c1 | |
Common Tongue / int_d888c467 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_d888c467 | comment |
In Tailchaser's Song this is referred to as "Common Singing". Animals use it to talk cross-species. Species-exclusive languages are "Higher Singing". Cats' face names (Tailchaser, Goldeneye, Whitewind, etc) use Common Singing words, while their tail names (Fritti, Harar, Viror, etc) use Higher Singing words. "Common Singing" is made up mainly of body language (explaining why it's cross-species), while "Higher Singer" is purely vocal. | |
Common Tongue / int_d888c467 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_d888c467 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tailchaser's Song | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_d888c467 | |
Common Tongue / int_d8a841f4 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_d8a841f4 | comment |
The Longest Journey gives us Na'ven or Alltongue, a magical language spoken in all of Arcadia (a parallel universe). Its omnipresence is justified with the fact that you can become a fluid speaker after listening to it for just a few minutes, as April does upon her first visit to Arcadia. It's magic. Interestingly, Zoë from Dreamfall: The Longest Journey doesn't appear to need to listen for several minutes before learning the language. Perhaps it's because she's not really there and is only dreaming. | |
Common Tongue / int_d8a841f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_d8a841f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Longest Journey (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_d8a841f4 | |
Common Tongue / int_da92c130 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_da92c130 | comment |
Erfworld: Most units speak Language, but Natural Allies have their own (unnamed) languages, and only a few members of each tribe speak Language. | |
Common Tongue / int_da92c130 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_da92c130 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Erfworld (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_da92c130 | |
Common Tongue / int_dcbd6000 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_dcbd6000 | comment |
Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Spoken by most characters, humans, orcs, giants, and elves, but others don't learn it, like the Kobolds, unless they need to. In the seventh episode, it's mentioned that there's a root language that morphed into the dialects spoken in their closely located nations: | |
Common Tongue / int_dcbd6000 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_dcbd6000 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Princesses of the Pizza Parlor | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_dcbd6000 | |
Common Tongue / int_dd30f115 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_dd30f115 | comment |
Subverted with "Common" in The Witcher: Game of Imagination. It is simply a language humans use (with countless local and national variations) and not even all of them - people from Skellige use their own dialect, while Nilfgaardians and Zerrikanians use different variants of Elder Speech, language of the elves. Elder Speech itself is used in a few different forms that have as much relation to each other as Romance languages have with Latin. | |
Common Tongue / int_dd30f115 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Common Tongue / int_dd30f115 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Witcher: Game of Imagination (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_dd30f115 | |
Common Tongue / int_e199d649 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_e199d649 | comment |
Inheritance Cycle slightly subverts the trope by revealing that "the common tongue" that humans speak is actually the dwarven language. | |
Common Tongue / int_e199d649 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_e199d649 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Inheritance Cycle | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_e199d649 | |
Common Tongue / int_e42289f8 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_e42289f8 | comment |
Bazil Broketail: There is one in the region where Argonath lies which many diverse peoples know. Its range isn't clear. | |
Common Tongue / int_e42289f8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_e42289f8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Bazil Broketail | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_e42289f8 | |
Common Tongue / int_e4854c84 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_e4854c84 | comment |
Motohiro Kato's works Q.E.D. and C.M.B. often employ this trope by making every characters of all nationalities capable of speaking Japanese because the main characters travel overseas a lot. It's more evident for C.M.B. whose main character Shinra is highly regarded internationally as a wise person with vast knowledge. | |
Common Tongue / int_e4854c84 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_e4854c84 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Q.E.D. (Manga) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_e4854c84 | |
Common Tongue / int_e66a25a9 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_e66a25a9 | comment |
Rifts' "Three Galaxies" setting has six Trade Tongues. Some of which are for the ease of certain species(like one that insectoid and reptilian races find easier to speak, or one for telepathic races). One of them, Trade Four, is effectively American English, but has so much loanwords and language drift that a native English speaker(as opposed to a native Trade Four speaker) isn't guaranteed to understand it. | |
Common Tongue / int_e66a25a9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_e66a25a9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Rifts (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_e66a25a9 | |
Common Tongue / int_ea85bebc | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_ea85bebc | comment |
In Always Coming Home, the TOK is used as either that or as a non-verbal language for the internet. | |
Common Tongue / int_ea85bebc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_ea85bebc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Always Coming Home | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_ea85bebc | |
Common Tongue / int_eb3f3551 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_eb3f3551 | comment |
The angara of Mass Effect: Andromeda are said in the Codex to use their trade language as a lingua franca, due to several hundred years of linguistic drift among their separated planets, to say nothing of each angaran family having their own individual languages. | |
Common Tongue / int_eb3f3551 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_eb3f3551 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mass Effect: Andromeda (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_eb3f3551 | |
Common Tongue / int_f38f5664 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_f38f5664 | comment |
In The Lion Guard, the characters speak a generalized language (in addition to Swahili), but also have species-specific tongues as well (or at least elephants do). As you’d expect, the language a species uses would correspond to the sound they would make in the wild. | |
Common Tongue / int_f38f5664 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_f38f5664 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Lion Guard | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_f38f5664 | |
Common Tongue / int_f480f310 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_f480f310 | comment |
Books of the Raksura: Altanic and Kedaic are the primary trade languages in the Three Worlds, as well as being some peoples' native languages; Kedaic is described as a mishmash of several other languages. They're ubiquitous enough that most people can at least communicate in one or the other, and the exceptions tend to be very unusual species. | |
Common Tongue / int_f480f310 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_f480f310 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Books of the Raksura | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_f480f310 | |
Common Tongue / int_f5b4d46c | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_f5b4d46c | comment |
In Fledglings most Pokémon in the Cradle, on top of their individual languages, can understand a pidgin language that is translated as English storywise. | |
Common Tongue / int_f5b4d46c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_f5b4d46c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Fledglings (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_f5b4d46c | |
Common Tongue / int_f5e30a17 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_f5e30a17 | comment |
Stand Still, Stay Silent: Iceland is the largest remaining bastion of humanity with a population of 190 600, while the four other known surviving countries have 58 900 inhabitants taken together. This has resulted in Icelandic basically replacing English as the second language all non-natives learn, and the only member of the cast who can speak three languages mentioning that she learned the third one after learning Icelandic. While it keeps things smooth at Mission Control, it doesn't help the crew on which the story focuses that much on its own: only three out of the six members know it and one of them happens to be native to Iceland. | |
Common Tongue / int_f5e30a17 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_f5e30a17 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Stand Still, Stay Silent (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_f5e30a17 | |
Common Tongue / int_f74b5f80 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
Babylon 5: Interlac, which seems to be math-based, is strictly used for cases when this is absolutely necessary (e.g. First Contact situations where communications need to be relatively easy to decipher). As it happens, most of the aliens speak English anyway, as because most of the aliens we see are diplomats and interstellar merchants, and Earth is the new dominant power in both of these areas (the Minbari being semi-isolationist Space Elves). Also applies to humans, who seem to have all of their ancestral languages (for example, Susan Ivanova's native language is Russian; she has an American accent from her education in American schools) but use English as a common tongue among themselves. And played for a plot point in one episode. A Minbari ship, meeting an alien race for the first time, communicates to them in Interlac ... and gets a reply in Minbari. Recall that bit above about the Minbari being isolationist, and you will realize the same thing the crew did ... the aliens were lying about not meeting the Minbari before. |
|
Common Tongue / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_f74b5f80 | |
Common Tongue / int_f95a1dc9 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_f95a1dc9 | comment |
Space 1889 Mars has Koline as a trade language. | |
Common Tongue / int_f95a1dc9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_f95a1dc9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Space 1889 (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_f95a1dc9 | |
Common Tongue / int_fc58aa8a | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_fc58aa8a | comment |
Mission to Zyxx calls its primary language Regular. One planet's language is officially Weird. | |
Common Tongue / int_fc58aa8a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_fc58aa8a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mission to Zyxx (Podcast) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_fc58aa8a | |
Common Tongue / int_ff07c169 | type |
Common Tongue | |
Common Tongue / int_ff07c169 | comment |
Flight Rising has Draconic as the general language most dragons use. The Coatl breed is the only breed to have its own seperate language and they struggle to speak Draconic but can learn it if necessary. The non-dragon Beastclans have their own separate language as well. | |
Common Tongue / int_ff07c169 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Common Tongue / int_ff07c169 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Flight Rising (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Common Tongue / int_ff07c169 |
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