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Do Chaos Space Marines still speak English/Gothic after their conversion to Chaos or do they change to the "Tongue of Chaos" mentioned in WHFB fluff?

I'm mostly wondering because I use some regular SM bitz with scrolls and parchment banner thingys on them on my CSM. Kinda wondering what to write on those. Was thinking some profanities or fitting words, like "Balls of Steel" (Globos Ferro?) on a power fist for example. Or should I just stick to ye olde Chaotic runes?

I imagine all of them can speak Low Gothic, but I bet a lot would choose not to. Really, it depends on the Marine.

Spanish.

Frozen Ocean wrote:Spanish.

Lies! Everyone knows Chaos Space Marines speak cockney.

Nothing is more scary then a cockney.

You could have them write in English, considering it's a dead language no one has spoken for 30,000 years it would just be disturbing and incomphrehensible to the Imperials.

Hmm, so Low Gothic, Spanish or Cockney... I might just go for Spanish!

Nah, kidding. English does simplify things, but with Gothic/Latin I can impress when my opponents ask what it says on the banner and I reply "Bad Mother F*cker!" Or words to that effect.

If you can paint text that looks like it hurts your eyes to read you're doing a pretty good, Chaosy job!

They probably do put a few taunts and jeers on their kit in Gothic for the reading benefit of those they're about to kill but mostly it's probably the opposite, daemonic version of purity seals. Impurity seals?

DoW

I would imagine both high and low Gothic as Marines during the great crusades were certainly not dumb( not that the are in 40k they are just a little childish and closeted by thier surroundings).
Whether or not they choose to speak it is another matter. If vulgarity or intimidation is the goal; I would probably say they'd use low gothic.

They speak german, the bad guys always do. This way even mundane sentences can sound menacing

Isn't Low Gothic just a bastardized version of English?

They may speak the Language of their home world if they are one of the original legions.

Medium of Death wrote:They may speak the Language of their home world if they are one of the original legions.

That and possibly the dialects of gothic they spoke on their worlds before being abducted by CSM warbands... unless they were from those worlds in the warp, then who the heck knows

It varies I think. I just read Dark Apostle and they mention at one point that one of the Word Bearers deliberately was speaking in Low Gothic. And one of the slaves who slowly turns to Chaos ends up speaking another language without realizing it.

Squigsquasher wrote:Isn't Low Gothic just a bastardized version of English?

It's completely imaginary.

Things are printed in English on the models a lot of the time because that's what the majority of the players can read, lol. Sometimes the stuff is printed in Latin because it looks fancy.


There's no "right" or wrong" way to do it. They're just plastic toy soldiers. Just make sure of your Latin translations. It isn't structured like English and you can print some pretty unintended hilarity if you do it wrong by using the wrong conjugations or the wrong order. Kinda like how getting character tattoos from from one of the Asian moon languages is a bad idea if you aren't actually fluent in that language.



Okay, that's not fair. Getting a character tattoo from one of the Asian moon languages is almost always a bad idea, even if the intended translation is accurately depicted.

The Dark Tongue in 40k is only really spoken by Daemons or their cohorts. Like Sorcerer's or Daemon Princes.

I imagine they never changed languages they -do- rather like insulting their loyalist counterparts.

Fluff-wise Low Gothic is not a single language, but a spectrum of language, a catch all phrase covering a multitude of human languages spoken across the galaxy which vary from world to world.

Once all mankind would have had a shared language (likely High Gothic), but with the fall of mankind and the Age of Strife the various worlds were isolated and began developing their own dialects. 15k years later you have millions of languages which are related, but not actually the same thing.

Often two speakers of low gothic will not be able to understand each-other. The more isolated the location, or the further separated two speakers are, the less likely they are to be able to understand one another. However, since they are related, a sufficiently skilled/knowledgable speaker may be able to find a way to communicate.

High Gothic is likely the original, largely uncorrupted language used during the DAoT. It is the language of all official business in the Imperium. In the past it was hinted that it is a corrupted form of english or latin, but that has never really been nailed down. We do know that it is sometimes represented as English or Latin for the benefit of the player, but that, that isn't what it is supposed to actually look like.

Comparing it to today:
High Gothic = Latin
Low Gothic = Romantic languages + langauges that borrow from heavily latin e.g. spanish, italian, french, english, sardinian, romanian, etc. etc. etc.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for what CSM speak, one would expect them to be fluent in High and Low Gothic, likely using High Gothic.

Some may also be able to speak the Chaos tounges, but likely it would be used mainly to communicate with beings of Chaos like Daemons, or for the casting of spells/rituals.

The Night Lords books have them speaking some High Gothic, and some Nostroman (language of their home world), and IIRC speaking Low Gothic with some difficulty.

The Astral Claws had some local dialects, but all space marine parties present (at various points, Marines Errant, Astral Claws, Black Legion, and of course Night Lords) were able to communicate without difficulty, so presumably 10,000 years hasn't seen much change in high and/or low gothic.

Veteran Sergeant wrote:There's no "right" or wrong" way to do it. They're just plastic toy soldiers. Just make sure of your Latin translations. It isn't structured like English and you can print some pretty unintended hilarity if you do it wrong by using the wrong conjugations or the wrong order.

Veritas.

Semper ubi sub ubi!

DoW

KingDeath wrote:They speak german, the bad guys always do. This way even mundane sentences can sound menacing

Ik zie wat je daar deed.
Or however you weirdos say it.

riplikash wrote:Fluff-wise Low Gothic is not a single language, but a spectrum of language, a catch all phrase covering a multitude of human languages spoken across the galaxy which vary from world to world.

Once all mankind would have had a shared language (likely High Gothic), but with the fall of mankind and the Age of Strife the various worlds were isolated and began developing their own dialects. 15k years later you have millions of languages which are related, but not actually the same thing.

Often two speakers of low gothic will not be able to understand each-other. The more isolated the location, or the further separated two speakers are, the less likely they are to be able to understand one another. However, since they are related, a sufficiently skilled/knowledgable speaker may be able to find a way to communicate.

High Gothic is likely the original, largely uncorrupted language used during the DAoT. It is the language of all official business in the Imperium. In the past it was hinted that it is a corrupted form of english or latin, but that has never really been nailed down. We do know that it is sometimes represented as English or Latin for the benefit of the player, but that, that isn't what it is supposed to actually look like.

Comparing it to today:
High Gothic = Latin
Low Gothic = Romantic languages + langauges that borrow from heavily latin e.g. spanish, italian, french, english, sardinian, romanian, etc. etc. etc.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for what CSM speak, one would expect them to be fluent in High and Low Gothic, likely using High Gothic.

Some may also be able to speak the Chaos tounges, but likely it would be used mainly to communicate with beings of Chaos like Daemons, or for the casting of spells/rituals.

The divide between High and Low Gothic mimics that of Classical Latin (lingua latina) and Vulgar Latin (sermo vulgaris) in the mid to late Roman Empire. Most Romance languages derive from Vulgar Latin, though, so your point is more or less valid

As for the CSM, the Horus Heresy books has most legions speaking Gothic AND their native homeworld's language, so it's possible that the Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion still speak Chtonian amongst themselves.

In second thought, feth this. They speak Spanish.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Nothing is more scary then a cockney.

You wanna take a walk around Glasgow sometime. Time of day doesn't matter!

AustonT wrote:

KingDeath wrote:They speak german, the bad guys always do. This way even mundane sentences can sound menacing

Ik zie wat je daar deed.
Or however you weirdos say it.

"Ich sehe, was du da gemacht hast."

Not that you care anyway…

Redcruisair wrote:

AustonT wrote:

KingDeath wrote:They speak german, the bad guys always do. This way even mundane sentences can sound menacing

Ik zie wat je daar deed.
Or however you weirdos say it.

"Ich sehe, was du da gemacht hast."

Not that you care anyway…

it depends who makes the rules. If we're going for a sci-fi element the bad guys are quite often speaking "posh" English.

Night Lords speak Nostraman for the most part unless they're insulting someone.

Low Gothic as standard for communication between warbands.

Each Legion and corrupted Chapter will have their own dialect used during battle and amongst their own numbers. The Night Lords have Nostraman, the Black Legion will have Cithoic, the Word Bearers will have Colchisian etc.

Obviously, they will likely be able to speak many, many languages, such are the virtues of such an artificially created intellect.

They speak low gothic usually high gothic and their home lagnuage just read the book Night Haunter, the night lords speak both forms of gothic and some language I can't remember the name of but it began with an N.

Whatever the hell they goddamned want to speak.

They're Chaos worshippers, after all. They could reject Gothic as a remnant of the Imperium's weakness.

they speak in tongues ..........

Plauge marines have a distinct burp and vomit code.

Beserkers speak with their actions, mangling corpses as a painter makes a piece of art

Thousand sons whisper in there sorcerers ear (their a bit shy.... and brain dead)

Noise marines simply won't shutup..... they will speak in any language you will listen to. (a little "up themselves")

Seriously tho, i assume they speak whatever the SPACE marines speak.

DogOfWar wrote:If you can paint text that looks like it hurts your eyes to read you're doing a pretty good, Chaosy job!

So, paint in Comic Sans and you're set?