Darokin Language

Here are a few thoughts I had on the Darokin Language. The first thing I would like to address is the dialect. Darokin has three dialects that are distinguishable from each other. We have the Borderlands Dialect which includes almost all lands that are in the Borderlands and Selenica. We have Central Dialect which is the lands between Alfheim and Lake Amsorak. Finally, there is the Akesoli Dialect, which is everything left in Darokin west of Lake Amsorak.

The Central Dialect is the one that most everyone recognize as Darokin Language. It encompasses a vast area due to easy mobility of the peoples who lived in that area. There is not much difference in the way Darokin is spoken as you travel to different locations within the Central Dialect region. In fact, the major differences you would find is how serious a tone some of the border cities have than a place like Darokin. As the people who live in a peaceful area are capable of enjoying laughter more than those of the border regions, they have a little more joy and mirth in their speak. This is not to say that those on the border reigons are serious all the time. They laugh and joke just like anyone else. However, because of the death they have seen, it is a little hard to be so flamboyantly joyous in speech when they have constant memories of someone who have died in their minds.

The Akesoli Dialect is different in a few ways from Central Darokin. The basic way that it works is that since Akesoli is so far away from Darokin (due to the lake) they don't pick up on the latest changes in dialect like everyone else does. In fact, Akesoli picks up changes on its own accord for the most part. Change that do happen because of Central Darokin tend to come from military personel stationed out there. Basically, what this leads to is words being said differently in Akesoli from the rest of Darokin. For example: If Darokin was spoken like English, they might say "danger" as we would. Akesoli might pronounce it like "dangah." Here are a few more examples (don't expect me to roleplay this as I am not a language genius, I am just posting this to give you some thoughts and ideas on how the world works)
"Dragon" -> "Drakon"
"Barrels" -> "Bar-ills"
"Water" -> "Uu-door"
"Fish" -> "Tish"
Basically, as you can see, you can guess what they are trying to say pretty easily, it is just that they have (not trying to call them stupid) a slightly less developed speech pattern.

Lastely, the Borderlands Dialect. As Darokin was basically made as a melting pot as immagrants, the Borderlands is a constant modern melting pot. People from surrounding nations constantly move in and settle here. The result is a language that is a mix of all these. While Darokin is still spoken, they will often use words or phrases that are a bit foreign for the rest of Darokin. The two primary languages that mix in the Borderlands (besides Darokin) are Ylarum and Traldarian.

The last thing to consider is the fact that most Darokins can speak two languages fluently. Darokin is a trading nation, they would want to speak the langauges of other nations.

Wow, it has been a while

Man. I haven't posted in this place for almost a year. Well, lets get back to work. For you Merchant classes, I found this map that could help ya out a little if you ever intend to trade in the Serpent Peninsula.

http://arghis.free.fr/d&d/full_map.htm

If you don't know your geography of Mystara yet (for obvious reasons) then let me tell you that on the East side of the map, you will see a city called Akesoli. That is the western most city of Darokin. It sends and recieves goods across Lake Amsorak. It also recieves goods from the neighboring nations. Just so you know, the "safest" route to the Serpent Peninsula is via boat.