NEW! DIALECT: LANGUAGE CREATION BOARDGAME

 

Dialect is a language-creation game that I came across as a recommendation while reading the Arcane Eye D&D blog. It is one of three language-themed games put out by Thorny Games. By chance, I came across it at one of the vendor tables at Rising Phoenix and scored two copies of it, one for myself and the other for my brother. (Also, I briefly blogged about it in this post.)

Now that I own a copy, I can definitely say more about it!

The key ingredients in playing Dialect is the environment (isolation and situation), player roles, and words / concepts to be linguistically evolved. Cards are used to generate concepts that the group will brainstorm and refine new vocabulary for. The new vocabulary becomes used in roleplaying dialogues between the players. Consider the dialogues as something like road-testing your language and is what gives the dialect its "lived-in" feel. Each turn around the table represents an Age of Language Creation: Isolation - Foreshadowing - Reintegration - Legacy. 

That's the game in a nutshell. However, there is more to the rules than just that. There are specific explanations of processes / types of word change and how to apply them in-game to the words / concepts you are working with. There are a number of specific Isolations provided: 

Outpost (Martian Colony), Sanctuary Island (Plague), Czaten Dacha (Migrants), Worcester School (Boarding School), Wolf Pack (Feral), 2081: Solar Slums (Cyberpunk), Protecting Ones (Environment), Forbidden Children (Discarded Orphans), Velayuthapurm Tamil Nadu 2006 (Untouchables), Beyond the Village (Bohemians), Self-Actualization Project (Digital Community), Toybox Tales (Toy Story)

But also guidelines for designing your Isolations for cooperative play. I can't wait to put together a sufficiently large group to play the game. Grade: I love the idea of this game! Solid A.