LAWhammer Lexicon - An Intro (Patreon)

So, let's see how Patreon handles some texty stuff.

The following is the intro to the Lexicon I'm currently building for my players. The full lexicon will be posted here later for you all to use as you prefer.

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Let's go...

REIKSPIEL SLANG
A brief study of informal Reikspiel in Sigmar’s Empire

Reikspiel is a living language, as dynamic and fluid as the deepest breaths of Manaan. Its speakers are both well-travelled and isolated, so the currents and eddies of its meaning constantly flow and stall, creating new words and repurposing the old. The result is uncounted thousands of Reikspiel dialects existing across the Known World, many of which are mutually unintelligible to each other. Of course, this can cause problems for communication. The most famous example of this was faced by Emperor Magnus the Pious before the Great War Against Chaos.

Over two centuries ago, Magnus the Pious toured the Reik Basin to rally an army the size of which had not been seen since the Time of the God-King. However, he found he could no more communicate with the Heirs of Sigmar than he could with Tileans, Kislevites, or Elves. For all most folk he encountered claimed they spoke Reikspiel, it was clear he could not understand them, which made communication a challenge. After the Great War ended, Magnus founded the Imperial College of Linguists, Lexicographers, and Etymologists (ICCLE) in 2312 IC. He charged the new institution to study, record, and standardise Reikspiel in his name, using the ‘high speech of the Reik between Nuln and Altdorf’, the spoken language of Magnus himself, as a baseline. He then ordered all holy sermons and courts of law be conducted in his new ‘Emperor’s Reikspiel’.

This modernisation of Reikspiel was widely unpopular at the time, but Emperor Magnus would not be denied. He strongly enforced the changes, and soon gained the support of both the Cults of Verena and Sigmar, who swore to only preach in ‘proper Reikspiel’, abandoning their traditional Classical, Khazalid or High Unberogen. This had wide-reaching implications, as Magnus himself noted when addressing the ICCLE near the end of his reign.

‘We have finally gathered the good folk of our Empire behind the banner of unified speech. Now we can march forward as one people in the name of Holy Sigmar, unified in purpose and unified in action because we are unified in language.’
The Great Speeches of Magnus, ‘Third ICCLE Speech’, 2362IC

Today, after two centuries of linguistic standardisation, almost all people in the Empire can, to a degree, understand each other. Tracking this, the ICCLE codifies all Reikspiel words as either ‘The Emperor’s Reikspiel’ – formal Reikspiel – or ‘Reikspiel Slang’ – or informal Reikspiel. Formal Reikspiel is the proper language taught by finishing schools, universities, and the cults. Informal Reikspiel is spoken by everyone else.

Because more people use slang than the Emperor’s Reikspiel, recording slang words is considered by some scholars to be of great importance. However, others would prefer the common folk reject all slang and instead speak ‘proper’ Reikspiel at all times. Of late, this has become a subject of some antagonism and debate in linguistic circles. Ironically, at the heart of this debate is the word slang itself, because not only is the origin of the word obscure, but its potential origins also speak to the nature of which words should be considered ‘proper’ and which shouldn’t.

High Chorister Grumpert Dammen of the Light Order discusses this in his essay ‘Today’s Slang, Tomorrow’s Reikspiel’. He claims the word slang is derived from the Bjornling word slengja, meaning to sling the jaw. He posits this Norscan loanword migrated through the Wasteland into the Reikland many centuries ago, and eventually evolved into Reikspiel’s slang. He believes this makes it clear that key ‘proper Reikspiel’ words come from sources outside the Empire, so ICCLE should widen its acceptance of foreign loanwords, and of slang in general.

Professor Worter Herrenschen of Nuln University has an alternative position. In his paper ‘On the Imperial Origins of Informal Language’, the professor claims the word slang comes from Strigany salanga, meaning secret language. He then uses this and other examples to show that the Emperor’s Reikspiel need never draw upon loanwords when there is sufficient Empire vernacular. He concludes: ‘Thus, the holy Language of Sigmar can remain undiluted!’ Unfortunately, the professor is wrong with his core assertion. The word sallanga does not mean secret language. It means laughing alone, which is a common Strigany idiom for tricking a fool. It seems the good professor was duped.

Because of this, I have taken it upon myself to resolve this linguistic issue, and can now confirm the origin of the word slang. Four centuries ago, it started as the word slangu, derived from a Varg word slaangu meaning shadow tongue. The word was used for a new secret language created by Altdorf’s criminal communities, and by the end of the 21st century, had evolved in pronunciation to slanga, as was noted by Mother Fibula Grasch, the local high priestess of Verena at the time.

‘How deliteful! The Criminals plaguen the Strassen have matured Their Slangu.  Now, It is Slanga, ho, ho – and, lo, I shall not miss-spake It lest They grow bitter! I must learn more of this Schattenzunge, though the Stadt do call It the “Cant of Secrets” for fear the Word Slangu brings Darkness.
’The Daybuch of Mutter Fibulia Grasch, 2193IC

The high priestess also noted that Slanga was used to obfuscate clandestine business and send coded missives. To aid this, the language contained many loanwords from Bretonnian, Tilean, and Strigany. She claimed those peoples were marginalised in the city at the time, explaining their linguistic contributions.

By the mid-2200s, Slanga words were so widespread that noted poets and playwrights of the period used them to indicate knavery or low-born pursuits. Thus, many Slanga words entered common use across the Empire. In the 2300s, the ICCLE then codified Slangu words as either ‘The Emperor’s Reikspiel’ or as ‘Slang’, according to their usage. Of course, this included the word slang itself, which was used to describe all informal speech.

Therefore, I can state with confidence that the Emperor’s Reikspiel not only has some loanwords sourced from outside the Empire, it has many, including the word slang. I shall leave it up to the reader to decide whether that is for good or ill.

Professor Heinz Giegerich
Altdorf University
2509 IC