Questions to the lore/worldbuilding team about their plans for the languages of Runeterra.

Hextech OwI·7/3/2018, 10:44:28 PM·4 votes·5,536 views

So far we have (IIRC) Modern Shuriman, Old Shuriman, (Modern) Va-Noxian, (Old/Noble) Ur-Noxian, Freljordian, Ionian and Vastayan. Demacia, Bilgewater, Piltover/Zaun, Targon, Bandle City, the Blessed/Shadow isles and the Void don't have known languages. Will you try to create a language for each nations/factions?

I recently watched again Ornn's teaser and after listening the lyrics to try to correlate them to the english translation I wonder if it's a legitimate translation, as it sounds like it is. If so, how much do you plan to expand this language and other languages vocabulary?

And finally, will we ever see a written sentence/alphabet of one of your language?

4 Comments

KestrelGirl7/4/2018, 12:19:11 AM2 votes

Ornn's teaser song is written in "ancient Freljordian" which is just a mix of words in Germanic languages. That's why it sounds legit!

I've actually done some thinking on this one as of yesterday and I will probably make a post about it soon.

CauseSCIENCE7/4/2018, 12:24:26 AM2 votes

I want to see what ancient shuriman writing looks like

Tegash7/4/2018, 5:06:24 AM2 votes

Considering Shurima had a continent-spanning empire, much like Ancient Rome IRL, most languages that aren't unique like Noxian are probably derivatives of it.

Look at Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian. They're all distinct languages, but all of them have the same root in Latin. Likewise Piltover/Zaun, Demacian and Ur-Noxian are also probably derivatives of Ancient Shuriman, and Ionia and the Freljord probably have bastardized dialects of Shuriman as well.

I should note that because they are merchant/trade cities, Bilgewater and Piltover probably employ a pidgin of multiple different languages in the marketplace, along with a distinct language for use with other Piltovans/Zaunites. I would hope that the class warfare in Zaun isn't so terrible as to have the two cities have separate languages (a la the split between North and South Korea), but it's a distinct possibility.

mrmeddyman7/4/2018, 6:10:14 AM1 votes

The people in Bilgewater probably speak "the common tongue" like in Demacia and Noxus because they are not native to the Serpent Isles. The Serpent isles language is Buhru, spoken by Illaoi.