Is it bad...

[Elegiac]

That I use Sindarin for IC purposes rather than Thalassian because the former is vastly superior in terms of development and structure?

[The Madgod]

Considering it's WoW... a bit.

[Camaris]

Meh, I use Sindarin and Quenya extensively in WoW, particularly for character names. It sounds more "elven" than Thalassian and lets me create names with meaning.

[Elegiac]

Considering it's WoW... a bit.

But but....Tolkien > All.

[The Madgod]

But but....Tolkien > All.

But Tolkien isn't WoW and there's enough of a difference between the two languages to say that it's not right as far as trying to roleplay in a proper sense.

[Elegiac]

But Tolkien isn't WoW and there's enough of a difference between the two languages to say that it's not right as far as trying to roleplay in a proper sense.

The problem is that with a complete lack of grammatical rules, let alone a decent corpus of vocabulary, it is impossible to work with Thalassian even for things like names.

Thalassian, by and large, is just a rip of Quenya anyway in terms of appearance.

[The Madgod]

Do note that I never stated that Thalassian was a better language, merely that it is the canon language, as broken as it is. In terms of strict adherence to lore, using a Tolkien-created language is against canon and therefore shouldn't be used.

If Thalassian and Quenya are pretty similar languages, to the point where you can say one is a rip-off of the other, then I'd say it's fair to use in my opinion... on two conditions:

1) You realize that you are in the realm of speculation, thus be prepared to change things if you are proven wrong.

2) You don't really have any facts to back up what you say as being true elvish.

If you can accept those two terms then go to town!

[Trassk]

End of the day, nobody will rp with you using an elven language from a completely different genre, no matter how much you like it.

It be like a draenei speaking Klingon.

[LilSaihah]

It be like a draenei speaking Klingon.

My next character to roll. Brilliant! I knew we kept you around for a reason.

[Elegiac]

My next character to roll. Brilliant! I knew we kept you around for a reason.

Cranial ridges gave it away or what?

---------- Post added 2012-11-25 at 03:03 AM ----------

Do note that I never stated that Thalassian was a better language, merely that it is the canon language, as broken as it is. In terms of strict adherence to lore, using a Tolkien-created language is against canon and therefore shouldn't be used.

If Thalassian and Quenya are pretty similar languages, to the point where you can say one is a rip-off of the other, then I'd say it's fair to use in my opinion... on two conditions:

1) You realize that you are in the realm of speculation, thus be prepared to change things if you are proven wrong.

2) You don't really have any facts to back up what you say as being true elvish.

If you can accept those two terms then go to town!

The issue is mainly from a vocabulary standpoint; given that the corpus of Thalassian words is so limited I have to coin bastardized names for races, places, etc.

[The Madgod]

Be that as it may, what I've stated is basically everything there is on the subject in terms of the roleplaying community. The specific issues you might have with the language are yours to deal with after you understand what your general actions mean and how others will react to them. Like I said if you can accept that you have literally nothing to back up your claims that the words you use from a Tolkien language are Thalassian and that what work you've done with that language could potentially be overturned by Blizzard expanding lore, then feel free to do whatever.

[Evi1Toad]

I feel nerdier just by reading this... and I love it. I wish I could get into roleplaying... how do you start out?

[The Madgod]

I feel nerdier just by reading this... and I love it. I wish I could get into roleplaying... how do you start out?

Read the stickies here, bro. They should give you a good idea of how to make a character and some of the ways you should and shouldn't interact with other people in a roleplaying setting

[Deleted]

IMO its great

[Khorianas]

I just wanted to ask in what setting do you use Sindarin? In a Forum based roleplay for effect, so that people may/have to translate themselves? Or ingame instead of the built in Thalassin parser? I just don't really see a striking need for it, and one could argue that the depth/atmosphere you gain by using an actual language is lost to the fact that it is in the wrong universe. For me personally if I read some handwritten elvish in which I would discover elfish terms I remember from the Tolkien universe it would break the immersion more than it would help it.

[2PotHeadz]

imo its great 2

[Mengucekli]

Well i use (minor) latin for roleplaying a priest, but i believe that is not a huge case. However i think, using a non-cannon language totally out of the fantasy setting you are rping in, is something else.

[Khorianas]

Well, technically, Latin is as much out of canon as Sindarin is. I don't remember any "scholar language" existing in the Warcraft universe.
In the setting of DSA, a german Pen and Paper, Latin is indeed an in-universe scholar language called Bosparano. That's the only fair use of Latin I could imagine. Also I would rather object with latin being a clerical language in World of Warcraft, while the connection to christianity is there, it is never explicitly given. I would even go further and say while a god was mentioned in early warcraft sometimes it has changed to the sole usage of "the Light". So using latin would break the immersion for me again. Also, I never had the pleasure to learn Latin, and If I would play a character that is a scholar and wouldn't be able to reply that would also massively interfere with my roleplay. Same goes for an elf that can't make any sense of Sindarin, or his/her supposed language. I see more drawbacks then benefits here.

And while I'm objecting to the use of those languages, I really would love to see the in game languages being somewhat speakable. Then again they would have to do ALL of them or the drama would be astronomical "Why did you do "language A instead of language B ?" IIRC Tolkien was lecturing linguistics in some form so he knew what he was doing when he developed his languages, but doing that for a ton of ingame languages is just not feasable, sadly.