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A language is a lexicon of words that various characters use to speak to each other and communicate. In World of Warcraft, most races have a unique language they speak that only they can understand. Each faction shares a common language of the dominant race (Orcish for Horde and Common for Alliance).

A language may or may not have an associated alphabet for writing. Several languages may share the same alphabet, or may have a specific alphabet used only for that language.

Lorewise, there are at least 39 languages on Azeroth[1] and hundreds more throughout the cosmos.[2]

It should be noted that traditionally (in the RTS games and the pen & paper RPG) almost all intelligent races speak Common. The ability for player characters to learn additional languages was planned early in World of Warcraft but was not developed, likely due to the tendency of cross-faction communication to be insulting and profane. The Forsaken were originally able to speak Common and thus communicate with Alliance players, but this was removed with the introduction of Gutterspeak due to, once again, the tendency of cross-faction communication to be insulting and profane. For a long time, it seemed unlikely that this functionality would ever be added. When the pandaren joined the Horde and the Alliance, players could speak the same language, but not understand those of the opposite faction. With the introduction of the demon hunters, however, who all speak Demonic, Alliance and Horde cross-faction communication was reintroduced to the game. At the same time, the language barrier that had come between Horde and Alliance pandaren was lifted. With the Thalassian speaking void elves joining the Alliance, yet another channel for cross-faction communication was opened. Cross-faction communication is restricted to say and yell, and players will not be able to understand custom emotes from players of the opposite faction.

Alliance languages[]

The Alliance's primary language is Common.

Language Spoken by
Common Stormwind humans, Gilnean worgen, Kul Tiran humans
Dwarven Ironforge dwarves, Dark Iron dwarves
Gnomish Gnomeregan gnomes, Mechagon mechagnomes
Darnassian Darnassian night elves
Draenei Exodar draenei, Lightforged draenei
Thalassian Void elves

Horde languages[]

The Horde's primary language is Orcish.

Language Spoken by
Orcish Orgrimmar orcs, Mag'har orcs
Zandali Darkspear jungle trolls, Zandalari trolls
Taur-ahe Thunder Bluff tauren, Highmountain tauren
Gutterspeak Forsaken undead
Thalassian Quel'Thalas blood elves
Goblin Bilgewater goblins
Shalassian Nightborne
Vulpera Voldunai vulpera

Other known languages[]

Language Spoken by
Ancient earthen[3] Earthen
Ancient unknown language[4] Tortolla
Apexis[5] Apexis
Bee dancing language[6] Bees and beekepers
Centaur sign language[7] Maruuk Centaur[8]
Coded language of the Kirin Tor[9] Kirin Tor
Cypher of the First Ones First Ones and their automa
Draconic Dragons, Dracthyr, dragonkin
Drogbar Drogbar
Drust[10][11] Drust
Sisterhood of Elune liturgical language[12] Sisterhood of Elune
Eredun (or Demonic) Demons
Furbolg Furbolgs
Hozen Hozen
Jinyu written language (extinct)[13] Jinyu before the first mogu dynasty
Kalimag Elementals
Language of death Scourge
Language of the First Ones[14][15] First Ones
Language of the trees[16] Trees and other plants, with Spring meaning hope and renewal of life
Language of the winds[17] Creatures of the sky, Druids of the Talon
Mantid Mantid
Mogu Mogu, other races from Pandaria
Nathrezim Nathrezim
Non-Eredun demonic language[18] Demons
Nazja Naga
Nerglish (or Murloc) Murlocs, makrura and a few other aquatic races
Nerubian Nerubians
Ogre Ogres
Pandaren Pandaren
Pygmy Pygmies
Qiraji Qiraji
Quilboar[19][20] Quilboar
Ravenspeech Arakkoa
Runic language similar to Kalimag[21] Burning Blade clan shaman and Draenor elementals
Shath'Yar Old Gods and their minions
Sprite Sprite
Titan Titans and titan-forged
Tol'vir Tol'vir
Tuskarr Tuskarr
Vrykul Vrykul
Wildkin[22] Wildkin
Zombie Zombies and some ghouls
Icon-RPG This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.
Language Spoken by
Abyssal Unknown
Aquan Water elementals
Auran Air elementals
Elven Various
Giant Giants
Gnoll Gnolls
Ignan Fire elementals
Kalimdoran Races from Kalimdor
Krenkese Krenka Clan Centaur
Low Common Lesser races
Terran Earth elementals
Undercommon Unknown
Worgen Worgen

Beta languages[]

Removed from game The subject of this section did not make it out of the beta stages.
Language Spoken by
Gilnean Gilneans
Old Tongue Unknown
Sindassi Blood elves

Changing chat language[]

The language a player's character speaks, for those with more than one, can be changed by going into the chat menu. Clicking on the "Chat Bubble" on the chat box toolbar, then highlighting "Language" with the cursor, will make a list of known languages to appear. From there, the player can click one to choose which language they prefer to speak.

It may be worth mentioning that when the language is changed, it only affects say, yell, guild, and party chat. General and whispers will be unaffected. Also, it tends to irritate a player's guild when they speak their "native" language.

As of patch 2.0, it seems the scripting ability to speak other languages has been modified to check whether the character can normally speak that language.

Origins[]

As with many other features of the Warcraft setting, many of the languages<ref>http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/speakLanguage.htm</ref> are derived from early fantasy or the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game — not in the sense of the actual languages, but in what kinds of languages are present in a given world. This connection is mostly obvious from the shared culture and parallels or outright duplication of language names, primarily on the outer reaches of Warcraft lore that appear in the Warcraft RPG — which started out as an offshoot of Dungeons and Dragons.

Language names that are the same or re-used from D&D in Warcraft

European realms and real-world languages[]

European realms are each associated with a real-world language such as English or French. In battlegrounds and the Dungeon Finder, players are grouped only with players of the same language. However, Alliance players in a battleground may speak a different language than Horde players. In that case, even being able to translate between Common and Orcish would leave another barrier for many players.

Trivia[]

  • Early in World of Warcraft's development, Blizzard planned for player characters to be able to learn the in-game languages of other races, including those of the opposing faction, as part of a secondary skill.[23][24][25] This idea was scrapped, and characters ended up only being able to speak their race's starting languages. However, as a leftover of the original idea, languages continued to be displayed as a learnable skill in the skills tab—even though they were maxed out by default and no new languages could be added—up until patch 4.0.1, at which point they were moved to the Spellbook.

References[]

 
  1. ^ Frankal Stonebridge#Quotes
  2. ^ Inv misc book 16 [Korthian Cypher Book]
  3. ^ B Jewelcrafting [50] A Rocky Start
  4. ^ N [30-35] Tortolla Speaks
  5. ^ N [40] Get a Clue
  6. ^ Honeyback_Hive#Finding_the_hive
  7. ^ Inv misc note 03 [Sign Language Reference Sheet]
  8. ^ Okir gossip
  9. ^ Inv scroll 02 [Remedy of Arugal]
  10. ^ A [20-60] If Bones Could Talk
  11. ^ Inv archaeology 80 witch book [Ancient Runebound Tome]
  12. ^ The Sundering, pg. 215
  13. ^ Origins
  14. ^ Inv misc clipboard01 [Expedition Report A37J - Foreword]
  15. ^ Inv misc clipboard01 [Expedition Report A37J - Part 1]
  16. ^ Day of the Dragon, pg. 167
  17. ^ N [40H] Aviana's Request
  18. ^ H [33] The Corrupter
  19. ^ A [10-30] A Failure to Communicate
  20. ^ World of Warcraft: Traveler, pg. 53
  21. ^ N [100R] Flamebender's Tome
  22. ^ Cukkaw
  23. ^ Justin Joseph 2003-05-14. King_of_Dragons Notes from 2003 World of Warcraft preview. MMORPG.com. Archived from the original on 2017-07-31.​ “Languages will work like this: Orcs start out speaking only Orcish, any characters of another race's text will show up as converted text, and the same is true with another race seeing your text. You can learn other race's languages, but not easy.”
  24. ^ Jeff Green & Thierry Nguyen 2003-10-01. Computer Gaming World Issue 231 (pg. 94). Computer Gaming World Museum. Retrieved on 2023-03-23.​ “Depending on your race and class, you'll be able to specialize in a number of diverse skills, such as first aid, alchemy, cooking, languages, herbalism, mounts, and lockpicking.”
  25. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Katricia 2004-03-22. World of Warcraft General Discussion: Archived Q&As. Archived from the original on 2004-04-13.​ “Will players have the ability to change factions (from Horde to Alliance)? / No, but it will be possible to learn languages and communicate with players of the opposing faction.
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