Shared Languages

[Neela Garcia]

Just an interesting thought I had. While we tend to use languages directly the way I understand Luperci speech is that its different dialects of canine speech (i.e. When I use Spanish words for Neela she isn't actually speaking spanish, or even wolf spanish for that matter, but it switching into a mexican dialect of wolf speech and i'm just using spanish words to represent that, or writing it as "she spoke spanish" because its quicker.)

If that's right then it raises the question of how languages being distributed would actually work. Even assuming that for some magical reason all the Luperci develop their languages along the same borders that humans used, there would still be languages such as English (British Isles, America) and Spanish (Spain, Canary Islands, Mexico, Cuba) which had their languages distributed throughout the world but have no reason for Luperci developing in those places to share the languages. I'm sure I've read somewhere that some characters originate from England and moved to souls but really those characters would probably speak a completely different language than what Souls has as English (Which would more accurately be called American or Canadian since that's where its developed)

I'm not trying to actually change anything here, thinking up what languages are where and getting names for em and shit would be an exhaustive process for little point since this is just minor details, but its interesting to think about, anybody else got any thoughts on this?

Also interesting side thought I got onto by thinking about this, looking at population numbers wouldn't pretty much everywhere except Canada and a few other places be massively dominated by dogs in terms of numbers? Keeping in mind this was spawned by thought of what English Luperci would actually speak, English is gonna be pretty much all dogs; we have no coyote, no wild wolves and very few captive ones and pretty much anywhere that had human populations if gonna have more dogs than any other animals.

But yeah, anybody else got any thoughts on Luperci Languages? Just wanted to throw this out here, see what others could come up with.

[Kiara Amarok]

I have two theories. The first one is where I would assume that the luperci languages evolved from what was once canine low speech. It's possible that as the luperci developed they adapted the language that they already had to reflect the area's which they lived in (similar to how human languages evolve). Because the luperci live shorter lives, this process would have been rapidly sped up to reflect the generations. As the luperci mingled the languages would further adapt so that other's could understand what was being said. The luperci could also have a common language like humans do. Basically, the luperci english became the lingua franca.

My second theory is that the canines had already developed high speech before becoming luperci. I like this theory better because it accounts for why non-luperci know high speech and why other animals like cats have their own form of high speech. Again, the languages would probably have evolved and become more similar as the luperci traveled. I think a lingua franca would have formed in this case as well.

[Ulilohi Ehn]

As far as I understand it (I'll admit, this is vague. Appreciate input from other 'SA'ers also!) canines had high speech prior to being able to shift; current top carnivores have high speech in the 'Soulsverse despite lacking the ability to shift, such as cougars, tigers and bears.

The development of languages, I think, is not coming completely naturally from the wolves' side. They have lived in regions where a certain human language is used, and I believe(?) that it was once said that this influenced the language that wolves spoke. I.e. they speak "English". This idea is reinforced if we take dogs into account, and their lifelong interaction and cohabitation with humans for generations. This accommodates how the wolves are able to read, as well, though clearly there would be a general lack of consistency between pronunciation and written text/phonology regardless, because of the wolves' different mouths, anatomically speaking. Thus, a wolf from England would be able to communicate in NA easier than a wolf from Germany could.

However, I am far from certain that this is the "right" view on language in 'Souls, more input is definitely welcome!