Old New Mexico Tales

Before the Fall the dominant language was American English followed by Spanish with over three hundred other tongues spoken.

Unsurprisingly there are many languages in a shattered America but some are listed below.

English

English was the dominant US and indeed world language with it still being the most common tongue but split in to a plethora of dialects. The ARC claims to speak the ‘purest’ of English but even within the ARC there are dialects. The Texican Republic has its own variant used for official documents and the likes while many Black Americans speak Black English. A speaker of one dialect will be able to understand a speaker of another with only minor humorous issues.

Language Options: English: Texican English, ARC English, Black English,

Spanish

Spanish was a very prominent and growing language before the Apocalypse and is still widespread today.

Post-Apocalypse variants include Latino which is more of a Spanglish or Calo dialect of Spanish with a heavy English influence. It is common within the Texican Republic amongst those of Latin heritage but also widely spoken across the old southern US.

Mexicano is close to old Mexican Spanish and is the common tongue ‘south of the border’ and is spoken by more educated people of Latin origin.

Cubano is a Spanish dialect from the Caribbean island of Cuba that is spoken by traders that call in to American ports

Language Options: Latino, Mexicano, Cubano.

French

French was heavily spoken in eastern areas of old Canada and in US Louisiana and Texas. It was not very wide spread but deeply entrenched before the Fall and it has continued since.

Cajun is spoken in rural areas of Louisiana by the white insular inhabitants who have thrived since the Apocalypse. Québécois is spoken is the far northern land of Quebec and is rare in the southern US.

Creole is a pigeon French dialect and widespread Caribbean language spoken in Haiti and southern Louisiana, especially N’Awlins (New Orleans). It is spoken by mainly those of Black heritage but not exclusively.

Language Options: Cajun, Québécois, Creole

Other Languages:

Deutsch is spoken in the Dakotas and is a recognised language of the Dakota Farmers’ Co-operative while it was common in Pennsylvania and even in areas of old Texas. It is rumoured to be common in the Tularosa Basin area of New Mexico but no one knows why.

Chinese, Vietnamese and various Asian languages were common.

Injun Tongues (Native American Languages) are widespread but not often learned outside of the tribal grouping. They include Keres, Apache, Navajo and Cherokee but there are many others.

Language rules for Characters

Each character is fluent in the native language.

Other languages may be spoken at:

D4 – Workable tourist level with a basic grasp but able to have a conversation. All persuasion and intimidation etc. at -2.

D6 – Fluency in the language with the PC able to converse freely. No minuses to interaction but the speaker is obviously not a native speaker.

D8 – Mastery of the language spoken like a native.

Each character may then spend their Smarts dice in other languages if they wish. So a PC with smarts of D8 has three language slots (D4, D6 & D8) but may chose to speak less languages but to a higher standard. So they may have 3 tongues at a D4, two with one at D4 and the other at D6 or just one at D8.