Common ( language ) Common is the language spoken by the Alliance members . All Alliance characters should understand Common language . Its counterpart for the Horde is the Orcish language . In the lore ( including the RPG , novels , manga , and early games ) , almost all intelligent races speak Common as it is not a " human " language per se . Common is known by many races , and it is used as a universal language by most members of the races of Azeroth and Draenor . Most if not all races have at least some understanding and speak some dialect of Common . Some gnoll s are said to speak with a broken Common . Dialects or languages derived or related to Common include Low Common , Gutterspeak , and Nerglish . Because Common is a universal language known by many races , characters that have never had contact with other races are often able communicate with each other on their first meeting . Other racial languages ( Orcish , Taur - ahe , Gnomish , etc . , ) are normally limited to their specific races , but are often learned by races that are most likely to encounter those races or read their language . The modern " Common " seems to share words with the English language , mixed with words from an ancient tongue ( actually some Welsh , Latin , and other historical languages ) . For example , half - ogre is the Common term for the race that is a mixture of ogre and orc ancestry , whereas mok ' nathal ( lower - case ) is the Orcish term for the same race . At least two known dialects of true Common exist , a modern dialect , which relies more on English , and the " ancient tongue " , from which the modern Common is derived . Alphabets . There are four different alphabets used to write Common language : Latin , runic alphabet , ( in a loading screen in " " ) , and an unknown original alphabet , see images for examples . Common primer ( official translations ) . Here are a few common Common phrases and words , for which the translations have been officially confirmed by Blizz ard or have actual real world translations : Human names . Human parents grant a child its given name at birth , while its family name has a long history and usually speaks something of its bearer ’ s ancestry . Some humans change their family names to emphasize their own accomplishments . Language Implementation in World of Warcraft . As mentioned above , in literature and earlier games almost all intelligent races speak Common . The pre - release " World of Warcraft " used to actually abide by this , but many players in the game ' s beta phase showed a lack of maturity in communication during battles . This caused Common to be the primary Alliance language and Orcish to be the primary Horde language . The Forsaken were given Common as a secondary language , but again , players showed a lack of maturity and this was taken away . Common Words ( speculation ) . This is the list of words created by the in - game language parser for the Common language , and is listed as language number seven ( word range 423 - 546 ) in the Language text file . In the in - game translator , the language parser for Common shares similar words with Gutterspeak and Gnomish . The parser is used to mask both npc and players that speak " Common " when encountered by the Horde . Note : The language algorithm used by the in - game " translator " merely makes the words look like Common . It does not actually use a specific dictionary . Therefore , translated in - game speech isn ' t true Common . In other materials . Common is derived from the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game . In that game , the tongue is a lingua franca , or a universal language , spoken natively by humans and bilingually by other races . The concept is derived from Westron , the " common tongue " of Tolkien ' s Middle Earth , hence the name . It is the language of humans , halflings , half - elves , and half - orcs . The Common tongue also has great hints of the Icelandic tongue .