How do you guys handle languages in your games ?

I made a couple of languages for fun, but I don't use them. What's the point?

>>52173482
I ask the DM if I understand that bullshit and he tells me no.

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I have sample phrases that I use when a chance presents itself.

Some languages are inherently magical, and languages have history.

Draconic language is inherent to dragons, it's magical, and old magical treatises are written in it, even if the written form was invented from the earliest mages. It's become the sort of default language of magical notation among wizards and scholars.

Celestial is the literal language of the heavens, scrolls of divine spells are written in it, each more like a passage or hymn than an actual spelll instruction manual. When you speak Celestial, your voice is accompanied by phantom voices speaking with you.

Infernal is a corruption of Celestial, kind of like the Black Speech. Fiendish voice accompany yours when you speak it and your saliva turns black. Dark and forbidden spells are written in it, which sting the eyes when viewed.

Sylvan is the language of the fey, Elvish and Gobblish descend from it. Many spells of Enchanment were first devised in Sylvan by Elvish scholars who learned it from fey masters.

Giant is the magical language of giants, written chiefly in runes. Dwarves are inheritors of this legacy, but have devised a mundane language from it as well. The Orcish language is a corruption of Dwarven and so Giant as well. They wield the runes for malign purpose, carving it into their flesh.

Im thinking that both Draconic and Giant descend from the elder Primordial, which is the though-language of the Elementals.

>>52173482
All players can talk to each other, through a shared native language or a lingua franca. They can also communicate with any important NPCs. An inability to understand other characters should only occur is it's a plot point for the characters to be unable to communicate.

Anyone who doesn't play like this is a moron, btw.

Ignore it until it comes up, then raise a hand or something to show whennyoure speaking x language.

>>52173482
If something's not in whatever language everybody speaks, then I print out notecards that I can hand to the players who have a character that speaks it.
I don't permit conversations in anything but the default language: Anything willing to chat will do so in a way everybody can understand
Any character that doesn't understand the default language is banned on sight, and it'll take some serious trust before I let somebody play a mute.

>>52173482
I have a condensed statblock for every player, so I know what they can speak and understand, and what they're literate in. They can all communicate to each other, but sometimes they'll have a conversation with some npc only one or two of them can manage. It's easy with text messages.

>>52173482
VTT has a great system where you have a little selector tab that let's you speak in various languages, and spits out the text in some fantasy alphabet, and only people who have those languages on their character can actually read that text because it pops up as english for them.

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>>52173482

I spout nonsensical gibberish when the need arises.

>>52174107
This. I've had more than one player try and roll an inarticulate goblin or some shit.
I don't care what the book or that sheet says, your character knows and can speak common whether you like it or not.

>>52174107
I disagree, I ran my players through an encounter with a foreign merchant king who spoke an entirely different language to them. It was quite a fun little aside, they had to rush out and find a translator, and I think it added a fun bit of spice to what would otherwise have been quite a dull 'heres your questgiver for tonight' meeting.

Since most people in my group actually do speak other languages, we worked out that those IRL languages are how they're spoken in game.

Common - English
Dwarvish - German
Elvish - French
Undercommon - Spanish
Draconic - Italian
Infernal - Latin
Celestial - Hebrew
Deep Speech - Chinese

>>52187699
>Infernal: Latin
>Celestial: Hebrew
Is your group Jewish, perchance?

>>52190954
>Celestial: Hebrew
>Common: Yiddish
>everything else: Filthy Goy gibberish

>>52190998
Kek

>>52174107
Language barriers are also more acceptable at higher levels where they can be treated as any other obstacle (find a translator, use magic, figure out how to communicate nonverbally).