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I was wondering exactly what language the imperium speaks. I think I've heard it mentioned before as basic gothic or something. I know everything GW makes is supposed to be translated so we can read it, but when you see it on banners it always looks like Latin. Do they speak Latin, and they just call it gothic, or is it a language that maybe evolved from Latin or sounds similar?
Or do they just speak english and use latin for wierd stuff?

Gothic is the evolution of language over the 40000+ years its been around. if someone was to speak gothic now there no way we could understand them.

Low or common gothic is what the general population of the imperium uses, but this changes from planet to but if the same stuff basically. its represented as english so we can understand whats going on. High gothic is much older, and to represent this Latin is used to portray this.

Asking "what language the Imperium Speaks" is like saying what language does Terra Speak.

Even on Earth today, where we get to interact all the time, we speak thousands of different Languages, Dialects and accents. Now Imagnine it being 38,000 years into the future and Mankind Fragmented over a HUGE ammount of space where it takes weeks/months/years/decades to get anywhere. The "Imperium" would most likely have multiple languages per world, especially on Feral or "Unclaimed" worlds.

"Gothic" is a kind of universal auxiliary language, similar to what Esperanto wants to be on Earth nowadays. I would imagine those in high station on "Civilised" worlds would be taught to speak it along with their native languages, and I guess that "High Gothic" would be used in a Lot of Ecclesiastical Writings the same way Latin is used today for the Catholic Churches writings.

And I am sure Inquisitors of all orders would speak both High Gothic, Low Gothic, their native languages and probably a bunch of others. After all, you don't become an Inquisitor without being incredibly Gifted.

They used to speak grimdark. But now they only speak WAR because in the 41st millennium that's all there is.

I know in IG fluff they talk about how everyone speaks a different language.

As for the Gothic thing it is also true.

High gothic for official stuff and for posher people.

Low gothic for normal everyday stuff and normal people.

Plus other planets would have variations.........I think.

well i figured there were about a million languages, but it being the imperium and all, I thought that they probably forced everyone to speak gothic. I wasn't sure if the latin stuff was used to represent high gothic or if thats just what they called latin.

Trandoshan.

Some chapters have their own language right? Like the Luna Wolfs?

Low gothic is the universal language spoken by the masses. High gothic, which low has evolved (devolved) from is the correct traditional form of the language.
Low gothic would equate to vulgar latin or possibly even the romance languages but as the game is British, english is the chosen language for this role.

So the answer is gothic as that is the language the imperium speaks, just like today english is an international language but local people still speak their own often unrelated languages.

Actual gothic doesn't yet exist and the language may not even be written using letters we are familiar with. It's a good device and one that fans of Tolkien are already familiar with.

Low gothic is the basic language of the Imperium. However, there are MANY different dialects and accents, so it's often hard for people from different planets to understand each other.

In the HH books, the idea seems to be that, during the first human interstellar empire, everyone spoke the same root language, and the millenia of warp storms before the Great Crusade meant that the language diversified. This is why the crusading forces can KINDA understand all the new humans they meet.

On the other hand, some planets have entirely different languages - seen in the way the Luna Wolves use Cthonic as a battle-language. Of course, there is the possibility that Cthonic is only a very obscure dialect of Low Gothic, and not a separate language.

This is again seen in the 41M in the Gaunt's Ghosts books. The ancient 'language' of the Nalsheen (old Tanith warriors from before the Imperium) is a form of very early proto-gothic, maybe similar to Anglo-Saxon or Old English today. When they encounter some humans who have NEVER been brought into the Imperium, they find that their language and the Nalsheen language are the same...

So. Low Gothic is standard, but with so many wildly different dialects that it can sometimes seem like a different language. It's represented by English (for English speaking GW products)

High Gothic is a scientific, courtly and high-class ritualised language. Much in the same way that French was spoken in Medaeval courts throughout Europe as a 'courtly' language. It's represented by Latin (in almost all GW product languages)

Don't forget the mechanicus, they have there own language, Binary. Would a modern computer programer be able to understand it?

GrrBear wrote:Don't forget the mechanicus, they have there own language, Binary. Would a modern computer programer be able to understand it?

If the programmer knows binary they could, but only if it were written down. The binary of the mechanicus is spat out in a constant stream at highrate which would take some kind of cogitative augmetic to render it intelligible to each party. It would take forever for a human to communicate using binary in any normal fashion. It would be like trying to speak using morse code, possible, but annoying after awhile.

cadbren wrote:

GrrBear wrote:Don't forget the mechanicus, they have there own language, Binary. Would a modern computer programer be able to understand it?

If the programmer knows binary they could, but only if it were written down. The binary of the mechanicus is spat out in a constant stream at highrate which would take some kind of cogitative augmetic to render it intelligible to each party. It would take forever for a human to communicate using binary in any normal fashion. It would be like trying to speak using morse code, possible, but annoying after awhile.

No i dont think so, the communication in binary when translated would still be in a language or protocol.... IE when we send info over the web we use tcpip this protocol sends information with VERY strict guidelines such as how big a packet can be, whay flages are attached to the packet, and so on.

so when two mechanicus speak in Binary they would still have to use some sort of protocol

so in a VERY ROUGH example of the TCPIP protocol being used by 2 mechanicus to communicate information
Mech 1: send reauest to transmit packet
Mech 2: Request received send packet
Mech 1: Packet sent 1 of 25
Mech 2: Packet received

I very much doubt that 40,000 years in the future they will be using a similar protocol

What if they speak Chinese?!!!! That would be kind of strange...



-ORKIshly

mussie76 wrote:

cadbren wrote:

GrrBear wrote:Don't forget the mechanicus, they have there own language, Binary. Would a modern computer programer be able to understand it?

If the programmer knows binary they could, but only if it were written down. The binary of the mechanicus is spat out in a constant stream at highrate which would take some kind of cogitative augmetic to render it intelligible to each party. It would take forever for a human to communicate using binary in any normal fashion. It would be like trying to speak using morse code, possible, but annoying after awhile.

No i dont think so, the communication in binary when translated would still be in a language or protocol.... IE when we send info over the web we use tcpip this protocol sends information with VERY strict guidelines such as how big a packet can be, whay flages are attached to the packet, and so on.

so when two mechanicus speak in Binary they would still have to use some sort of protocol

so in a VERY ROUGH example of the TCPIP protocol being used by 2 mechanicus to communicate information
Mech 1: send reauest to transmit packet
Mech 2: Request received send packet
Mech 1: Packet sent 1 of 25
Mech 2: Packet received

I very much doubt that 40,000 years in the future they will be using a similar protocol

I have to agree with cadbren. The way I understand it, their language is much denser. Our computers code, send and decode fast enough that we don't perceive it. But the speed at which they communicate via binary is such that our computers couldn't decode it fast enough.

I think it would be closely related to latin.

I mean, we use it already for medical terms because the language rules of latin doesn't change.