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(I've created a similar thread before, but it was poorly presented and it went off topic.)


Low Gothic as spoken in the Imperium is represented by 21st century English, while High Gothic is represented by pseudo-Latin.

However, the actual languages themselves are described as "utterly unintelligible" to English speakers after thousands of years.


In physical depictions of Imperial text within the 40k universe, GW continues to use English and pseudo-latin.

This is equivalent to whitewashing a wall covered with Arabic graffiti, then spray painting a new layer of graffiti which is the English translation of the Arabic words.


Which brings me to the big question, does the Imperium use the Latin script to write Gothic?

Let's use this sample text: "Glory to the Imperium and the Emperor."

Now, if Gothic used the Latin script and was entirely unintelligible to us 21st century folks, the sample text might look like:

"Huvrain fel Varukkvop dant poifr Kpoeddfr"

Something that sounds like nonsensical gibberish.



What do you think? Should the Imperium use the Latin alphabet or should GW invent an entirely new script for them?


Is it even possible for the Latin script to fall out of use? Won't the Latin script be around until man stops writing and reading? It is way too popular and successful after all.

We don't know what language the Imperium of Men uses. The exact form of the Gothic language is left vague as everything could have been a translation of the future languages into the ones you know, for publications sake.

High Gothic can well be the "Classical" Latin we study today, with the Low Gothic language more similar to the medieval latin or any other Latin languages developed after the fall of the Roman Empire - distorted, diversified and localized. The new, younger "offsprings" resemble their heritage, but have all lost the original's structures, instead replaced by whatever the users can understand in their personal circles. The difference is of course Medieval Latin was actually more of an elite language whereas the Classical a common one, while High Gothic is the official and therefore the language for Imperial elites.

Or -- the High Gothic is really just a language Terrans used during the Age of strife. Due to constant inter-continental warfare and possible migration, the human global language (if there was one) would have become a mixture of local dialects, creating a language no one would know today. This bastard-child of future human languages would become High Gothic (or that the Big-E decreed that the language his faction was using would become High Gothic), and Low Gothic was formed out of all the silly little excuse of a "dialect" all those human space colonies developed over the long night.

Either way we do not know what they are, but for pep's sake never create a language just for that. First GW isn't good at this stuff. They will not hire an actual philologist to design one properly and the result will be gak. Second, it's pointless to have an "official" High Gothic language and lexicons. In the setting the Orks and the Elves Eldars speak their own set of languages, as do the Tau. They don't write their codices in Orkish or Eldarish or Tau'va, because nobody would know what it says. I know some people like to write and speak in Quenya or Klingon, but for the sanity of all we'd like everybody to stick to speak with others with their respected tongues, thank you very much.

Either way they use florid gothic style lettering....

In 40000 years? Highly unlikely. Whatever writing system or language people in such an incredibly distant future use would likely be completely unintelligible for us.
English is just the language everything is translated in so that we can understand. If you use the Russian-language codex the Imperium uses the Cyrillic alphabet.
Languages and writing systems evolve very quickly. about 5000 years ago, English (and all other European languages) looked approximately like this:
Owis, jesmin wl̥nā ne ēst, dedork’e ek’wons woghom gʷr̥um weghontn̥s - bhorom meg'əm, monum ōk’u bherontn̥s. Owis ek’wobhos eweukʷet: K’erd aghnutai moi widn̥tei g’hm̥onm̥ ek’wons ag’ontm̥. Ek’woi eweukʷont: K’ludhi, owi, k’erd aghnutai dedr̥k'usbhos: monus potis wl̥nām owiōm temneti: sebhei ghʷermom westrom - owibhos kʷe wl̥nā ne esti. Tod k’ek’luwōs owis ag’rom ebhuget.
And a writing system did not even exist. You can only guess how utterly alien human language from 40000 years in the future will be to us.

I always thought it was just written as little squigglydoos on my little guys purity seals and such.

There is no codified form of the written language of Gothic, in any dialect or form. Two planets in the same star-system might not even speak the same version of Low Gothic, and may be entirely unintelligible to one another, let alone share a common alphabet.