Language

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).

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. It seems unlikely that this functionality will ever be added. The Forsaken were originally able to speak Common and thus communicate with Alliance players, but this was removed with the introduction of Gutterspeak.

Alliance languages

The Alliance's primary language is Common.

Race	Language	Alphabet
Humans	Common	Common
Night elves	Darnassian	Darnassian
Dwarves	Dwarven (Dwarvish)	Runic
Gnomes	Gnomish	Common
Draenei	Draenei	Eredic (presumed)

Horde languages

The Horde's primary language is Orcish.

Race	Language	Alphabet
Orcs	Orcish	Common, Runic
Trolls	Zandali (Troll)	Unknown
Tauren	Taur-ahe (Taurahe)	Pictoforms
Undead	Gutterspeak	Common
Blood elves	Thalassian	Darnassian

Other known languages

This article contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Generally, 'less' civilized races (kobolds, etc.) speak Low Common.

Race	Language	Alphabet
Lesser Races	Low Common	None
Arakkoa	Ravenspeech
Demons	Eredun (Demonic)	Eredic
Goblins	Goblin	Common
Elementals	Kalimag	Runic
High elves	Thalassian	Darnassian
Various	Elven	Darnassian
Dragons	Draconic	Runic
Naga	Nazja	Darnassian
Titans	Titan	Runic, Glyphs
Murlocs	Nerglish (Murloc)	Pictoforms
Makrura	Nerglish	Pictoforms
Furbolgs	Ursine (Furbolg)	Pictoforms
Gnolls	Low or broken Common, Gnoll	Pictoforms
Nerubians	Nerubian	Runic
Tuskarrs	Tuskarr	Pictoforms
Pandaren	Pandaren	Unknown
Giants	Giant, Titan, Kalimag	Unknown
Various	Kalimdoran	Unknown
Worgen	Worgen	Unknown
Unknown	Undercommon	Unknown
Unknown	Abyssal	Unknown
Qiraji	Qiraji	Unknown
Krenka Clan Centaur	Krenkese	Unknown
Water Elementals	Aquan	Unknown
Air Elementals	Auran	Unknown
Fire Elementals	Ignan	Unknown
Earth Elementals	Terran	Unknown

Obsolete Languages

Race	Language	Alphabet
Blood elves	Sindassi	Darnassian

Changing your chat language

The language your character speaks, for those with more than one, can be changed by going into the chat menu. Click on the "Chat Bubble" on the chat box tool bar, then highlight "Language" with the cursor. A list of which languages you know will appear. From there you can click one to choose which language you prefer to speak.

It may be worth mentioning that when you change your language, it only affects say, yell, guild, and party chat. General and whispers will be unaffected. Also, it tends to irritate your guild when you speak your "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 are derived from 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

• Aquan
• Auran
• Common
• Draconic
• Ignan
• Orc
• Terran
• Undercommon