Language

A language is a lexicon of words that various characters use to speak to each other and communicate. In World of Warcraft, most races have a unique language they speak that only they can understand. Each faction shares a common language of the dominant race (Orcish for Horde and Common for Alliance).
A language may or may not have an associated alphabet for writing. Several languages may share the same alphabet, or may have a specific alphabet used only for that language.
Lorewise, there are at least 39 languages on AzerothFrankal Stonebridge#Quotes and hundreds more throughout the cosmos.Korthian Cypher Book
It should be noted that traditionally (in the RTS games and the pen & paper RPG) almost all intelligent races speak Common. The ability for player characters to learn additional languages was planned early in World of Warcraft but was not developed, likely due to the tendency of cross-faction communication to be insulting and profane. The Forsaken were originally able to speak Common and thus communicate with Alliance players, but this was removed with the introduction of Gutterspeak due to, once again, the tendency of cross-faction communication to be insulting and profane. For a long time, it seemed unlikely that this functionality would ever be added. When the pandaren joined the Horde and the Alliance, players could speak the same language, but not understand those of the opposite faction. With the introduction of the demon hunters, however, who all speak Demonic, Alliance and Horde cross-faction communication was reintroduced to the game. At the same time, the language barrier that had come between Horde and Alliance pandaren was lifted. With the Thalassian speaking void elves joining the Alliance, yet another channel for cross-faction communication was opened. Cross-faction communication is restricted to say and yell, and players will not be able to understand custom emotes from players of the opposite faction.
==Alliance languages==
The Alliance's primary language is Common.
Language 	Spoken by
Common 	Stormwind humans, Gilnean worgen, Kul Tiran humans
Dwarven 	Ironforge dwarves, Dark Iron dwarves
Gnomish 	Gnomeregan gnomes, Mechagon mechagnomes
Darnassian	Darnassian night elves
Draenei 	Exodar draenei, Lightforged draenei
Thalassian	Void elves
==Horde languages==
The Horde's primary language is Orcish.
Language 	Spoken by
Orcish 	Orgrimmar orcs, orcs
Zandali 	Darkspear jungle trolls, Zandalari trolls
Taur-ahe 	Thunder Bluff tauren, Highmountain tauren
Gutterspeak	Forsaken undead
Thalassian 	Quel'Thalas blood elves
Goblin 	Bilgewater goblins
Shalassian 	Nightborne
Vulpera 	Voldunai vulpera
==Other known languages==
Language 	Spoken by
Ancient earthenA Rocky Start 	Earthen
Ancient unknown languageTortolla Speaks 	Tortolla
ApexisGet a Clue 	Apexis
Bee dancing languageHoneyback_Hive#Finding_the_hive 	Bees and beekepers
Centaur sign languageSign Language Reference Sheet 	Maruuk CentaurOkir gossip
Coded language of the Kirin TorRemedy of Arugal 	Kirin Tor
Cypher of the First Ones 	First Ones and their automa
Draconic 	Dragons, Dracthyr, dragonkin
Drogbar 	Drogbar
DrustIf Bones Could TalkAncient Runebound Tome 	Drust
Sisterhood of Elune liturgical languageThe Sundering, pg. 215 	Sisterhood of Elune
Eredun (or Demonic) 	Demons
Furbolg 	Furbolgs
Hozen 	Hozen
Jinyu written language (extinct)Origins 	Jinyu before the first mogu dynasty
Kalimag 	Elementals
Language of death 	Scourge
Language of the First OnesExpedition Report A37J - ForewordExpedition Report A37J - Part 1	First Ones
Language of the treesDay of the Dragon, pg. 167 	Trees and other plants, with Spring meaning hope and renewal of life
Language of the windsAviana's Request 	Creatures of the sky, Druids of the Talon
Mantid 	Mantid
Mogu 	Mogu, other races from Pandaria
Nathrezim 	Nathrezim
Non-Eredun demonic languageThe Corrupter 	Demons
Nazja 	Naga
Nerglish (or Murloc) 	Murlocs, makrura and a few other aquatic races
Nerubian 	Nerubians
Ogre 	Ogres
Pandaren 	Pandaren
Pygmy 	Pygmies
Qiraji 	Qiraji
QuilboarA Failure to CommunicateWorld of Warcraft: Traveler, pg. 53 	Quilboar
Ravenspeech 	Arakkoa
Runic language similar to KalimagFlamebender's Tome (quest) 	Burning Blade clan shaman and Draenor elementals
Shath'Yar 	Old Gods and their minions
Sprite 	Sprite
Titan 	Titans and titan-forged
Tol'vir 	Tol'vir
Tuskarr 	Tuskarr
Vrykul 	Vrykul
WildkinCukkaw 	Wildkin
Zombie 	Zombies and some ghouls
Language 	Spoken by
Abyssal 	Unknown
Aquan 	Water elementals
Auran 	Air elementals
Elven 	Various
Giant 	Giants
Gnoll 	Gnolls
Ignan 	Fire elementals
Kalimdoran 	Races from Kalimdor
Krenkese 	Krenka Clan Centaur
Low Common 	Lesser races
Terran 	Earth elementals
Undercommon	Unknown
Worgen 	Worgen
==Beta languages==
Language 	Spoken by
Gilnean 	Gilneans
Old Tongue	Unknown
Sindassi 	Blood elves
==Changing chat language==
The language a player's character speaks, for those with more than one, can be changed by going into the chat menu. Clicking on the "Chat Bubble" on the chat box toolbar, then highlighting "Language" with the cursor, will make a list of known languages to appear. From there, the player can click one to choose which language they prefer to speak.
It may be worth mentioning that when the language is changed, it only affects say, yell, guild, and party chat. General and whispers will be unaffected. Also, it tends to irritate a player's guild when they speak their "native" language.
As of patch 2.0, it seems the scripting ability to speak other languages has been modified to check whether the character can normally speak that language.
==Origins==
As with many other features of the Warcraft setting, many of the languages<ref>http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/speakLanguage.htm</ref> are derived from early fantasy or the role-playing game — not in the sense of the actual languages, but in what kinds of languages are present in a given world. This connection is mostly obvious from the shared culture and parallels or outright duplication of language names, primarily on the outer reaches of Warcraft lore that appear in the Warcraft RPG — which started out as an offshoot of Dungeons and Dragons.
;Language names that are the same or re-used from D&D in Warcraft:
*Abyssal
*Aquan
*Auran
*Common
*Dwarven
*Draconic
*Ignan
*Orc
*Gnoll
*Gnome
*Goblin
*Elven
*Giant
*Terran
*Undercommon
==European realms and real-world languages==
European realms are each associated with a real-world language such as English or French. In battlegrounds and the Dungeon Finder, players are grouped only with players of the same language. However, Alliance players in a battleground may speak a different language than Horde players. In that case, even being able to translate between Common and Orcish would leave another barrier for many players.
==Trivia==
*Early in World of Warcraft's development, Blizzard planned for player characters to be able to learn the in-game languages of other races, including those of the opposing faction, as part of a secondary skill. This idea was scrapped, and characters ended up only being able to speak their race's starting languages. However, as a leftover of the original idea, languages continued to be displayed as a learnable skill in the skills tab—even though they were maxed out by default and no new languages could be added—up until patch 4.0.1, at which point they were moved to the Spellbook.
==References==
Category:Game terms
 
Category:WoW skills
es:Idioma