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I know their symbols look a little spikier, but I wasn't sure if their written language (or their spoken language) was the same as the Craftworld Eldar? Has anyone seen any backup for this in the fluff anywhere?

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere about their written language, but a Salamanders marine mentioned their language embodied their cruelty in a way, with harsh sounds that reminded him of sword swings or whip cracks (or something similar iirc) in the Salamanders Omnibus. Sorry I don't know much about their written language, but I figured this might be helpful in some way, and it still is in the regards to the DE language.

I guess their languages changed after/during their downfall, but they can probably understand the pre-fall eldar language

Someone else brought up that there's no concrete evidence that all craftworlds even share a language, but went on to theorize that all Eldar probably speak dialects of the same language.

It's probably the difference between Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, although it could be the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin.

In the novel Valedor and Path of the Outcast pre-Fall Eldar language is rendered as archaic English with thees and thous, but it appears it is still understandable to modern Eldar.

Similarly in both books, there seem to be no problems in communication between the various Eldar branches so it seems their language is still mutually intelligible.

The old 3rd edition Eldar Codex had a drawing of a stele showing various runes denoting the different branches of Eldar, and it talked of various tenses of the runes on that. Basically the Exodites seem to use older more naturalistic runes, the Craftworld Eldar more rigid formalized ones, and the Dark Eldar more spiky ones focusing on bloody and dark topics. The Harlequins used runes that seemed to be future focused, suggesting they have a plan (as confirmed later by the Harlequin Codex).

 Jimsolo wrote:
Someone else brought up that there's no concrete evidence that all craftworlds even share a language, but went on to theorize that all Eldar probably speak dialects of the same language.

It's likely they have a wide variety of languages that they can speak.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
I guess their languages changed after/during their downfall, but they can probably understand the pre-fall eldar language

considering that a number of the DE were alive to witness the fall. I bet they can understand the prefall language.

They had a whole Eldar *empire*.

There is a good chance that there was more than one language.

That said, in a race where everyone is at least somewhat of a psyker, and a focus on the telepathy style, linguistics isn't as critical.

Lol, I'm putting together a Dark Heresy character and I want him to be able to speak the language of Commorragh. Is Eldar the correct choice, you think?

Probably "Speak Xeno Language: Eldar (Commorragh Dialect)" would be the appropriate choice.

Thinking about it, its probably a bit like France.

In France, everyone speaks French. Even the people who really speak Occitan but have been told they speak French and must speak Parisien French.

I imagine it to be the difference between Canadian French, and .. France French? like Furyou mentioned.

It's probably different accents, a few different pronunciations, and slang.

I am not sure if they are still that similar, they are not exactly on speaking terms (pun intended)

I am thinking more like the difference between Dutch and (south) Afrikaans, they both originated from the dutch languages a few hundred years ago but it has changed a lot, i can understand about 50 to 60% of Afrikaans but there are a lot of words with different meanings. I think the Dark eldar tongue has also changed over the millennia while the craftworld eldar are more strict and hold on to tradition.

The difference there is that there are still Eldar alive from before the fall, while all the people who spoke Dutch 2/300 years ago area dead.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
I am not sure if they are still that similar, they are not exactly on speaking terms (pun intended)

I am thinking more like the difference between Dutch and (south) Afrikaans, they both originated from the dutch languages a few hundred years ago but it has changed a lot, i can understand about 50 to 60% of Afrikaans but there are a lot of words with different meanings. I think the Dark eldar tongue has also changed over the millennia while the craftworld eldar are more strict and hold on to tradition.

Actually, they are. Eldar pass between the Craftworlds, the Corsair Fleets and the Kabals all the time. The differences between Eldar and Dark Eldar are cultural, nothing more. As well, unless the CWE are speaking Olde Eldare (the equivalent of an American speaking Old English), then the Dark Eldar *are* the traditions of the Eldar culture, at least as evidenced in the last 15,000+ years.