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Orks are always portayed as saying 'kannon' and 'elacopta' etc. like the roaring barrow boys they are, however is this like other species just translation for our benefit as readers or do they actually speak a phonectic variation of Low Gothic?

This is a good question.

Everything that I've encountered is, like you said, a phonetic variation of Low Gothic. However, it seems to vary from writer to writer. At times, the Ork tounge is hardly intelligible, but at others it is clear as a bell.

I think we might have to chalk this one up to poetic license.

Good question! According to Waaargh the Orks, which includes a brief lexicon, the tribes have their own languages derived from a pure common root (categorised by Imperials as 'Old High Orkish') but also speak a bastardised pidgin Gothic as a lingua franca. Mekboys possess their own tongue, unintelligible to other Orks (presumably a gag on the humorous impenetrability of technical vocabulary and usage to the unwashed masses).

I also seem to recall Yarrick's background including the snippet that he learned Orkish in his youth from prisoners, which would support that notion.

Orks speak some type of English, just like every other race in 40k (excluding Tyranids and Necrons)

Orks speak Football Hooligan, or some variety of it.

bombboy1252 wrote:Orks speak some type of English, just like every other race in 40k (excluding Tyranids and Necrons)

The Eldar, Tau and Kroot have their own languages, as I'm sure all others do. The Imperium may have Gothic to tie itself together but has millions of tongues and probably billions of dialects.

My assumption was simply by being the language of the galactic majority, and the Ork tendency for konvertin' things, they'd have picked it up in their 'travels', as English Assassin suggests as a lingua franca of sorts.

Whenever orks are encountered in the Ciaphas Cain novels, Mitchell refers to them having stolen or borrowed many Gothic words.

The Ciaphas Cain novels confirm that the orkish language is Gothic, English, and blows to the head.

No it confirmed it being made of guttural barks and blows to the head.

William King's Space Wolf novel Ragnar's Claw has Orks speaking the Imperial language. Like most of the nonmilitary professions I suspect the Orks can evolve "translators" who speak the languages of their slave races (to deliver orders, threats, to interrogate, etc.) Orks are nothing if not adaptable.

In rulebooks/codex's a "guttural language" is mentioned for the Orks. I'm guessing no.

There was a similar thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/397998.page
I think they speak Orkish but some of them (bosses, meks, painboyz) can speak Gothic.

Soladrin wrote:No it confirmed it being made of guttural barks and blows to the head.

And insults. Don't forget the insults.

bombboy1252 wrote:Orks speak some type of English, just like every other race in 40k (excluding Tyranids and Necrons)

And if this was a German or French language site then they would all speak German or French right? The Imperials speak low and high Gothic, the Codexs, Novels, etc are written in several languages primarily English so that you the player doesn't have to learn Gothic AND Klingon.
Orks speak Orkish and at least some speak Gothic, probably Low.

Well then, I suppose we all agree that Orks speak orkish and some variant of Low Gothic? If it's any help, even the lowly boys and gretchin speak english, or I suppose low gothic, in the DoW series.

I'm sure they have translator-boyz that pick up the language of slaves and enemies. Not to mention grots and higher orks like Warbosses and Smart Boyz are, well, smart. They could learn another language the same as any human could, or maybe easier, who knows. Even regular ork boyz probably pick up some gothic from the humans they're fighting. The orks certainly have some impressive built-in language abilities, seeing as they go from a bulb underground to a fully formed yoof, ready to scrap and able to communicate, in a very short time.

I'd imagine that they speak in some kind of blend of Orkish and bastardized Low Gothic.

If we follow that the Orks are creation of the Old Ones "Brain Boyz" then they are one of the oldest races around. The Necron codex alludes to them being around during their time of supremacy. So since the Orks are pre-existent to humanity they would not speak any form of Gothic naturally since it didn't exist when they were created. Orkish is encoded in their dna and they know it innately like Meks knowing engineering. That's what the current fluff leads me to think at least.

All races in the 40k universe have both their own language and some mystery "universal language"

That why the other races can interact with each other, and no it's not just "Their quotes are just "translated" to english for the reader"

If that were the case than how would any of the races communicate?

I say that Orks either speak Orkish(probably Snakebites, tribes, and other Orks who've never met humans) while Bad Moonz and the like who've fought humans for a while might pick up what I call "Bottom Gothic" which would be a pidgin language of Low Gothic and Orkish

It seems that Low Gothic is the most common spoken language in 40k. Though fluff sometimes makes it sound like there are more Orks in the universe than humans so maybe Orkish. I fully agree that Orks can learn other languages such as Low Gothic, Tau, etc.

bombboy1252 wrote:All races in the 40k universe have both their own language and some mystery "universal language"

That why the other races can interact with each other, and no it's not just "Their quotes are just "translated" to english for the reader"

If that were the case than how would any of the races communicate?

Other than a very common language such as Low Gothic, I haven't heard of a "universal language". Maybe I just haven't read anything about it. Where did you come across it Bombboy?

Sencho wrote:It seems that Low Gothic is the most common spoken language in 40k. Though fluff sometimes makes it sound like there are more Orks in the universe than humans so maybe Orkish. I fully agree that Orks can learn other languages such as Low Gothic, Tau, etc.

bombboy1252 wrote:All races in the 40k universe have both their own language and some mystery "universal language"

That why the other races can interact with each other, and no it's not just "Their quotes are just "translated" to english for the reader"

If that were the case than how would any of the races communicate?

Other than a very common language such as Low Gothic, I haven't heard of a "universal language". Maybe I just haven't read anything about it. Where did you come across it Bombboy?

I didn't...

It's just something I have come to the conclusion of, seems to make sense for me.......

Alternatively- and this is the idea I like best- the Ork language sounds like Orkish to Orks and mangled Gothic to humans, because they believe it will. Hey, if belief can get a lump of scrap to fire bullets, then why can't it make a series of grunts intelligible to humans?

Orks speak cockney. This is fact.

Orkish communication is a mix of bastardised Low Gothic (they really will loot anything) and physical gestures.

A Warboss could tell an upstart Nob dat 'I'm da boss and ur da little boy so stuff it'... or he could just smack him round the head hard enough to dent a Rhino to make his point.

There is a personal Orkish encounter in Dan Abnett's second Gaunt's Ghost book. Major Rawne ends up trapped in a cave with a Nob and while the Ork says something to the Guardsmen, it comes out unintelligible and Abnett writes that the Ork "mutters something in its arcane tounge". I don't have the book in front of me for an exact quotation. So if we take Dan Abnett's work as canon then Orks do not speak any form of Gothic unless otherwise taught to do so.