Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So thanks to my new job, I've got a lot of reading time on my hands now, and I was reading through a bunch on the Ork language system and their runes.
I had dabbled a bit into it previously, but nothing too deep, but lately I've gained a renewed interest in it and would like to discuss it with people, so here I am.

First and more-most, I was wondering if anyone happened to know where a complete dictionary of glyphs could be found.
I was looking through various sites, and the were some really common ones on all of them, but there were also some unique ones on most of the pages too. Has anyone gone through the work to compile all known glyphs?


Second, a while back, I made an orky style objective counter. (See Picture Here)
Here's a clearer picture of the glyphs I used:

Given my understanding of Orkish glyphs, this can read one of two ways, either "Attention! Buried/Hidden Weapons" indicating a weapons cache nearby or "Danger! Buried Explosives" indicating a mine field (or perhaps even a blasty weapons cache ).
Is this usage and such correct?

Also, as mentioned above, I wouldn't mind discussing ork "grammar". For instance, are descriptors placed AFTER what's being described? As in Latin languages? i.e. tower blue (rather than blue tower.)

The most comprehensive information about ork language, that I am aware of, can be found in Waaargh The Orks! This section may be of use to you. AS you might imagine though the Ork language is not very sophisticated and according to Waaargh The Orks! they generally don't write anything down. The way you've used it so far seems perfectly acceptable.

 Gogsnik wrote:
The most comprehensive information about ork language, that I am aware of, can be found in Waaargh The Orks!

I've seen that exact example on several entries on the Ork glyphs. Hilariously, I actually found that one's partially wrong as the 3rd glyph wasn't written in. (It should be a block capital I, as the "blank" glyph refers to "garg", not "Ug".)
If that's the most comprehensive info, I'll have to hunt that down somewhere, likely in PDF form.

The thing that somewhat confuses me though is that in that example, the order seems inconsistent. Ugwort is glyphed "Ug-Wort", but Blueface is glyphed "Face-Blue". Is this just a gaff on the book's part, or is just chocked up to orkzes being orkzes.

It could be either but generally speaking the glyphs convey information in a 'near enough is good enough' way. Waaargh The Orks! talks about orks having various dialects (which Imperial scholars refer to as Old High Orkish), some of these dialects are unintelligible to other orks so they use a pidgin language made up of common ork words and Imperial Gothic, some orks only speak variations of Imperial Gothic and in any case, as with everything else, orks will loot words they like the sound of.

There are no linguistic rules described in the background, and it doesn't seem likely orks would care too much anyway so, you can basically do whatever you like.

Like these?





The last one is taken from Waaagh! the Orks, the Rogue Trader Ork book. That's probably the most comprehensive source on Ork language there is.

The only thing I can think of as opposed to interpreting Ork runes would practically break the english language down to more simplistic and phonetic sounding words. It's just like the Elder and Younger Futhark. But as far as grammer goes? I don't think GW ever expanded on Ork language except for what you read in the book "Waaagh! The Orks." You could if you want for fan fiction try to expand on it. I think it would be a fun idea.. But please keep the Cockney accent.

 Grensche wrote:
The only thing I can think of as opposed to interpreting Ork runes would practically break the english language down to more simplistic and phonetic sounding words. It's just like the Elder and Younger Futhark. But as far as grammer goes? I don't think GW ever expanded on Ork language except for what you read in the book "Waaagh! The Orks." You could if you want for fan fiction try to expand on it. I think it would be a fun idea.. But please keep the Cockney accent.

I've actually been reading through Waaargh: Da Orkz, and it's been absolutely delightful. Interestingly, it contains the entirety of the ork-perspective (written) stories that I've found in anything 40k related. I haven't gotten to the language section yet, but I glanced through the PDF. I didn't see a massive section for language, so it very well may be that my questions are not answered by the book.

And as an aside, not all Orks have Cockney accents. Good ol' Kaptin Bluddflagg doesn't have a Cockney accent. Or rather, he's got a half-Cockney, half-"West Country English" accent. (It's apparently what the stereotypical pirate accent is based off of.) So, ya know Orkz don't have to be Cockney, but they pretty much have to be blunt and crude with their language.

Bonus: If you want a nice video how to speak like a prop--... erm... If ya want ta know 'ow ta speak loike a proppa ork... 'ere's a gude vidya for ya.

 ShadowMageAlpha wrote:

 Grensche wrote:
The only thing I can think of as opposed to interpreting Ork runes would practically break the english language down to more simplistic and phonetic sounding words. It's just like the Elder and Younger Futhark. But as far as grammer goes? I don't think GW ever expanded on Ork language except for what you read in the book "Waaagh! The Orks." You could if you want for fan fiction try to expand on it. I think it would be a fun idea.. But please keep the Cockney accent.

I've actually been reading through Waaargh: Da Orkz, and it's been absolutely delightful. Interestingly, it contains the entirety of the ork-perspective (written) stories that I've found in anything 40k related. I haven't gotten to the language section yet, but I glanced through the PDF. I didn't see a massive section for language, so it very well may be that my questions are not answered by the book.

And as an aside, not all Orks have Cockney accents. Good ol' Kaptin Bluddflagg doesn't have a Cockney accent. Or rather, he's got a half-Cockney, half-"West Country English" accent. (It's apparently what the stereotypical pirate accent is based off of.) So, ya know Orkz don't have to be Cockney, but they pretty much have to be blunt and crude with their language.

Bonus: If you want a nice video how to speak like a prop--... erm... If ya want ta know 'ow ta speak loike a proppa ork... 'ere's a gude vidya for ya.

You know, I need to find a copy or a pdf file of Waaargh: Da Orkz. I love Orks, it's the one race that I enjoy playing and could never get bored of. Kaptin Bluddflagg has to have a pirate accent. It would've been strange if Bluddflagg were to sound exactly like Michael Caine.

 Grensche wrote:
You know, I need to find a copy or a pdf file of Waaargh: Da Orkz. I love Orks, it's the one race that I enjoy playing and could never get bored of. Kaptin Bluddflagg has to have a pirate accent. It would've been strange if Bluddflagg were to sound exactly like Michael Caine.

I can hook you up with my copy of the PDF I had. Only way I could find it was subscribing to Scribd, download it, and then immediately cancel my subscription (so I didn't forget after the trial period was up ).

And yeah, he had to have a pirate accent, but listening to some of those voice line, it's really odd how heavily he pulled from both accents. It kinda hurts to listen to and analyze.

 ShadowMageAlpha wrote:

 Grensche wrote:
You know, I need to find a copy or a pdf file of Waaargh: Da Orkz. I love Orks, it's the one race that I enjoy playing and could never get bored of. Kaptin Bluddflagg has to have a pirate accent. It would've been strange if Bluddflagg were to sound exactly like Michael Caine.

I can hook you up with my copy of the PDF I had. Only way I could find it was subscribing to Scribd, download it, and then immediately cancel my subscription (so I didn't forget after the trial period was up ).

And yeah, he had to have a pirate accent, but listening to some of those voice line, it's really odd how heavily he pulled from both accents. It kinda hurts to listen to and analyze.

That would be awesome!

Looking at the Ork Glyphs some more I wondered if there is such a thing as different dialects from region to region or planet to plant or it's just universal because of the Brain Boyz input when creating the Orks.

 Grensche wrote:
That would be awesome!

Looking at the Ork Glyphs some more I wondered if there is such a thing as different dialects from region to region or planet to plant or it's just universal because of the Brain Boyz input when creating the Orks.

How should I get it to you?

And it has been mentioned that differing ork tribes do have differing dialects, particularly if they are separated by a large amount of space and more isolated in comparison. Also the surrounding non-Ork culture will affect the dialects.