LANGUAGES IN MY RAVNICA

 

As I mentioned before in this previous post, one of my jams in languages and linguistics. As I'm preparing my Ravnica campaign for my friends on the MPL staff and others by invitation, I thought I'd revisit the languages of humanity to be found on Ravnica. (Note: I've noted in parentheses the real-world languages they are based on or inspired by.)

Gavonèse (French): This is the older sister language to Ynge (below). While Ynge has largely superseded it in everyday use, it is still spoken by the aristocracy and other elites of Gavony and its capitol Thraben. Along with Ynge, it has migrated to Ravnica with contact of the Orzhov Syndicate.

Ippan (Japanese): The Infinite Consortium is known to have trade contacts with the plane of Kamigawa. Apart from this interplanar trade, little is known of this language -- though there are some loan words that have made their way into Ravnican street language.

Koine (Greek): In Ravnican Antiquity, Azor I the Lawgiver, brought over natives of Theros to fight in the Guild War that eventually led to the Original Guildpact. Many of them settled down in Little Theros in the Second Precinct and brought their language and alphabet with them.

Ravi (Esperanto): The everyday language of Ravnica. Derived from the ancestral language of Ravonèse, but much changed and simplified by the multiplicity of languages spoken on Ravnica and their influence.

Ravonèse (Czech): The ancestral language of native Ravnica, now a special prestige language used by the elite and professionals of Ravnica.

Ynge (Middle English): The Orzhov Syndicate is believed to have ancient contact with Innistrad -- the nature of that contact has been lost to history for those outside the guild. The purest form of the language on Innistrad can be found in Gavony and its capitol Thraben. Elsewhere on Innistrad, it has been further influenced by the dialects of the other provinces.

Then just to round things out, here are the linguistic characteristics of the two secret languages to be found in character class descriptions: Druidic and Thieves' Cant.

Druidic (Brythonic): Celtic -influenced language with an archaic feel to it. What makes it special to Druids is that many of the words and phrases have sacred and esoteric meanings foreign to speakers untutored in the Druidic religion. Also somewhat influenced by the Sylvan language in some respects -- so not pure Brythonic either.

Thieves' Cant (Special): Less of a language and more of a method or jargon. It involves speaking in seemingly nonsensical gibberish or in the telling of strange anecdotes with seemingly hidden and mysterious meaning. (Think of the "Lost in Translation" scene from Ocean's Twelve to get the gist of it.)