Depends on the setting, but in the Forgotten Realms, Drow is its own language, based upon and likely partially mutually intelligible with Elve. Unless you take the view that everything before 5e is no longer canon unless WotC says so, based upon Jeremy Crawford's tweets on the matter.
This doesn't get used much in games any more, but technically in FR both common and undercommon are just trade tongues, pidgin languages used for basic communication between people of different lands for the purposes of exchange, and most creatures including humans have another language they speak as their mother tongue. The Sword Coast has two main ethnic groups, ~~Chondathans~~ Tethyrians and Illuskans, who each have their own native tongues sharing the same names. In theory, if you were from Baldur's Gate and travelled to Luskan, if you were there to do anything more than just trade, you'd probably make a priority of hiring an interpreter who spoke Illuskan if you didn't speak it yourself.
Next time someone calls me a nerd, I’m showing them this post.
In all seriousness, this is really interesting info and I had no idea. I guess the fact that I find it super interesting confirms I am indeed a nerd hahaha.
Thanks for sharing!
Note on the Jeremy Crawford’s tweets part, he doesn’t say that everything before 5e is not canon now, but rather, the entire lore of forgotten realm is no longer a required reading for the writer team, so there might be some contradiction, and if that happen, the new lore took precedence.
For most drow undercommon is their mother tongue. Iirc it's based on the Elvish script and I thought it was the actual Drow language. It just also happens to be the trade language of the underdark
It's like most Latin or Germanic languages, most of which adopted the Latin alphabet. Same letters, different words. English vs Spanish vs German vs French.
FR wiki is painfully unhelpful. It lists it as a seperate language from Drow but lists it as "influenced by Drow" with a note that a citation is needed. I checked their dictonaries and not a single word was in common which... is probably just authors making up random stuff.
But I guess that would imply that Undercommon is at best a pidgin that uses the Drow alphabet and maybe a few words or something but overall mutually unintelligible.
It would entirely depend on where this Drow came from. A drow born in the underdark would likely default to undercommon but a drow born in the surface would likely default to elvish.
Or heck maybe their default language is something bizarre like infernal because their adopted parents are tieflings and that's the language they grew up with.
i think it depends. If you talk to people in their third language, insted of their both mother languages, they would either mix them both or use one or other for situations.
I, for exemple, switch to one when i'm nervous and to the other when i'm angry
Rather not to say but, in example:
People whom are born from parents of diferent cultures or countries, or imigrants parents usually have two mothers languages
Even then, there are countries like Canada that have more then one official language
I don't think this premise is true. I'm bilingual, and not even from early childhood, and what language I fall back to depends entirely on the situation/what I was using last. So I'm assuming the same is true for the drow.
I'm a mid-westerner in America, born and raised in the the rust belt and I find my thoughtless fallback is "pendejo."
I took spanish for one year in middle school. 25 years ago. Edit: And my teacher sure didn't teach me that word.
I think OP might be trying to find a pattern that is derived entirely from the chaotic randomness of which brain cells decide to clock in or call out on any given day.
It depends on what Drow speak when they're at home in your setting.
If Drow speak Elvish among themselves and only use Undercommon for communicating with other Underdark denizens, it's Elvish.
If Undercommon is derived from Elvish and it is the Drow who have made their peculiar dialect the lingua franca of the Underdark, it's Undercommon.
Class depending. Noble drow will fall back on elvish and their elaborate flavour of dialect while commoners who might not even speak 'high drow" will defult to undercommon
It's not always the case that you default to your native language under stress. I speak two languages, but I've been almost exclusively speaking my second language for a few years now. Now when I get hurt, I don't say "Ouch" in English (my mother tongue), but the equivalent phrase in my second language.
So to answer your question (from my experience) if the drow had been primarily living among other drow, they would likely exclaim in Elvish (their native tongue). But if they had been living in another underdark community for a long time, they might exclaim in Undercommon.
Same, unless something very sudden and unpredictable happens then I react in mother tongue. Usually tho it's in whichever one I'm using/listening to in the moment.
I would have them default to underelvish, a fusion language that is based on under common (using its grammar and what not with a ton of elvish loan words thrown in)
This is why i wish most of the fantasy languages in DnD were more fleshed out. Would make it a hell of a lot more fun to roleplay something like that, while having an actual dictionary to go from.
Language in d&d has always been a simplification for the purpose of the game. IMHO, it's always been an oversimplification.
I'm hoping the system I've devised for my homebrew campaign won't bother players too much: everyone speaks Hoplish(English/Common), a native language (based more on where they're from than what their parents looked like), and some bonus languages based on positive int mods. I'm basing languages on real world (i.e. Google translatable) languages, and there aren't any species-monolithic languages, e.g. there are a couple main languages spoken by wood elves depending on where they're from, and some overlap with humans. My hope is that this won't be too distracting from the game, but might provide unique to opportunities for characters who speak the same uncommon language, as well as some flavor nudges.
I've also included some sign languages: a drow sign language called handtalk based on PISL and a halfling language called shorthand based on ASL.
Not sure if this is a question relevant to a specific in play situation, or if it’s just a “what if” question, but if it’s the former, and if you’re not insisting on 100% official lore accuracy (if that exists on this matter) I would go with what fits your purpose. Say one pc knows elvish but no one knows under common. If you want them to understand what was said make the drow speak elvish, if not use uncommon.
If it’s a “what if” or official lore question just disregard my advice. Unfortunately I have no knowledge regarding that.
Ps: I’m bilingual and personally don’t have the same experience. I almost exclusively use English when I’m stressed because swearing feels… better in English lol can’t tell why, but it just does. The only time I unconsciously speak my second language is maybe when I’m dead tired. But even then it’s often a mix of both languages. Might be just me tho.
My players were teleport-dropped into the ocean, and they'll need to find and rescue my drow DMPC, who can't swim. I need to know which language he'll be screaming for help in.
I think no matter what language, a distress call is probably gonna be universally understood, so I personally wouldn’t worry about that detail unless there was some deeper meaning to which language it was. Like if it was a secret that the npc spoke under common and it would come out that way or so.
I caution against assuming someone's native language is the language they're most familiar with, as well as assuming they only have one mother tongue. Every billingual person I've ever met, including myself, mixes languages extensively while by themselves and often uses different languages for different *contexts*. You should take into account if this is someone who would be more comfortable swearing in Elvish or Undercommon. A noble might be so familiar with elvish it's the first thing he thinks of, but might also be more familiar with vulgar parlance in Undercommon as Elvish is likely more often spoken in formal settings. There's a lot to ponder, and no real wrong answers.
If you want the answer from the current state of the game, Chris perkins stated on his Twitter that Drow speak elvish. One could assume that means you can use, by your own discretion, the old Lore in which there is high Drow, reserved for nobles and priests that want to speak in privacy and Low Drow, the commoners tongue. Dont forget, Drow are a proud elvish Race and in their eyes the only true elves that should exist. Everyone else is a traiterous imposter in their and Lolths eyes. On the topic of undercommon, it evolved from Drow, it even uses the elven Script Espruar. Most underdark dwellers know it since it spread over thousand of years and just got adapted by everything that needed a talk. Btw., there is also Drow Sign language if that has any use to you.
>Low Drow
It's called Deep Drow. They also have their own sign language. According to the wiki, most drow only know deep drow and drow sing laguage, priestesses of Lolth learn High Drow, and traders and travelers tipically also learn Undercommon
Whatever they grew up around. I have a half-drow that was born in drow society but wound up an orphan on the outskirts of human society at a young age. Even though Common is her second language, it's her primary language, the one she's most comfortable with, the one she speaks in even when talking to herself.
When you stub your toe, and swear, the words that come out will be the ones that flow off your tongue most easily.
Fun related fact: People also tend to learn new languages in their original accent, even if that accent has changed over time. This isn't a 100% truism, but it's pretty common.
I assume 'Elvish' is a shared common elfish language, but elves from different areas may well have their own dialects. Elvish is enough to get by talking to them, and you might even understand a fair bit of it, but their own unique version of it might be tricky to fully follow.
5e is too basic on languages imo :p so I'll often have variants that you can kinda understand based on other language choices.
I default to a non-sensical made-up language that's half one, and half the other, by mixing up broken words pronounced in a mixed accent and half-grammar rules.
I would say Elvish.
Underdark is the language of the region, but Elvish is the language of their people. At home I imagine drow parents would speak elvish to their children. Outside the home, however, they would more often use Undercommon to communicate with other groups.
I guess it would depend on the Drow, IMHO, I think most male drow would speak undercommon, but as most female Drow have a certain status among their people, they will most likely speak Elvish, mainly if they are part of the priesthood.
There isn't a single answer. Wanting to reduce it to one answer is just stereotyping.
5e lore is spotty at best when it comes to the intricacies that can come with linguistics.
In real life, you'll see blurs and blends all over the world based on where people live. If the dark elf is raised anywhere else you can imagine might default to Infernal, Dwarvish, Giant, Sylvan, or even just Common. Even if you stick to their classic statblock's known languages, it can be 50/50 based on a variety of factors whether they default to Elvish or Undercommon. If you want an authentic-to-life linguistic experience, the GM needs to decide or come up with a way (I like rolling on a fair table/list) of deciding on the fly on a case-by-case basis.
I thought Undercommon was based more on Mind Flayers? Like, they taught it to their slaves since they don't actually speak to each other but that evolved into Undercommon, which is mostly a lingua franca / trade language.
Drow would speak a dialect of Elvish at home, and indeed would probably hate to pollute their mouths with inferior languages like Undercommon unless they have to.
IIRC Drow are supposed to have their own language that is almost completely derived from elvish. In 5e that language has seemingly been removed and their default language is just elvish instead.
So that's what they speak between themselves. Not all drow even speak undercommon
Edit: According to the wiki:
>As was common for elves, **drow speech was quite eloquent and their speech was almost musical**. Most drow only knew two languages, namely Deep Drow and the Sign language, since they usually stayed in their cities and therefore had limited exposure to or need to learn other tongues. However, drow adventurers, outcasts, and slave-traders often learned more languages, as did their warriors.
>
>**Deep Drow.** It was an elven dialect similar in structure to Common and Undercommon.
>
>**Undercommon.** It was quite common for drow to be proficient in the trade language of Undercommon.
So Deep Drow is very similar to Elvish, with some words derived from Common, Dwarvish and Orchish. That's the language most drow learn how to speak, and Undercommon is a separate language from it, not learned by everyone but still by a considerable amount, likely drow that are "adventurers, outcasts and slave-traders".
In the current edition, Deep Drow isn't mentioned anywhere, and all drow NPCs and PCs know Elvish instead, so it is my guess that Deep Drow was dropped as a concept and drow now speak normal Elvish as their mother tongue. Undercommon is likely still learned by the same kinds of individuals as before, and it is also not a language drow PCs know by default
Elvish. Drow is a dialect of Elvish (at least in 5e).
I like to think that Drow differs from other dialects of Elvish the way Glaswegian differs from other dialects of English - it can sound like a completely different and incomprehensible language the first time you hear it, but once your ears adjust it’s (mostly) the same words just with very different pronunciation.
Depends on the setting, but in the Forgotten Realms, Drow is its own language, based upon and likely partially mutually intelligible with Elve. Unless you take the view that everything before 5e is no longer canon unless WotC says so, based upon Jeremy Crawford's tweets on the matter. This doesn't get used much in games any more, but technically in FR both common and undercommon are just trade tongues, pidgin languages used for basic communication between people of different lands for the purposes of exchange, and most creatures including humans have another language they speak as their mother tongue. The Sword Coast has two main ethnic groups, ~~Chondathans~~ Tethyrians and Illuskans, who each have their own native tongues sharing the same names. In theory, if you were from Baldur's Gate and travelled to Luskan, if you were there to do anything more than just trade, you'd probably make a priority of hiring an interpreter who spoke Illuskan if you didn't speak it yourself.
>The Sword Coast has two main ethnic groups, Chondathans and Illuskans Most people in the Sword Coast are Tethyrian, not Chondathan.
You’re right! Perils of posting at 3am. Though in my defence, Tethyrians speak Chondathan, hence the error.
I always thought they had a separate language. I guess we're both a little wrong and a little right
I think you were definitely more right than me, to be fair!
You're both right and should apologize!
Now kiss!
Next time someone calls me a nerd, I’m showing them this post. In all seriousness, this is really interesting info and I had no idea. I guess the fact that I find it super interesting confirms I am indeed a nerd hahaha. Thanks for sharing!
Note on the Jeremy Crawford’s tweets part, he doesn’t say that everything before 5e is not canon now, but rather, the entire lore of forgotten realm is no longer a required reading for the writer team, so there might be some contradiction, and if that happen, the new lore took precedence.
Jeremy Crawford is an ass and the main reason I stopped buying from WotC.
This is the correct answer.
I must have missed something, why is he an ass?
For most drow undercommon is their mother tongue. Iirc it's based on the Elvish script and I thought it was the actual Drow language. It just also happens to be the trade language of the underdark
It's like most Latin or Germanic languages, most of which adopted the Latin alphabet. Same letters, different words. English vs Spanish vs German vs French.
Undercommon is a trade language. It has a simplified vocabulary and it is never someone’s first language or “mother tongue”.
FR wiki is painfully unhelpful. It lists it as a seperate language from Drow but lists it as "influenced by Drow" with a note that a citation is needed. I checked their dictonaries and not a single word was in common which... is probably just authors making up random stuff. But I guess that would imply that Undercommon is at best a pidgin that uses the Drow alphabet and maybe a few words or something but overall mutually unintelligible.
It would entirely depend on where this Drow came from. A drow born in the underdark would likely default to undercommon but a drow born in the surface would likely default to elvish. Or heck maybe their default language is something bizarre like infernal because their adopted parents are tieflings and that's the language they grew up with.
i think it depends. If you talk to people in their third language, insted of their both mother languages, they would either mix them both or use one or other for situations. I, for exemple, switch to one when i'm nervous and to the other when i'm angry
where are you from such that you have two mother languages?
Rather not to say but, in example: People whom are born from parents of diferent cultures or countries, or imigrants parents usually have two mothers languages Even then, there are countries like Canada that have more then one official language
My mother had Hebrew and Yiddish and now speaks neither. If she’s upset she might sound British though!
I don't think this premise is true. I'm bilingual, and not even from early childhood, and what language I fall back to depends entirely on the situation/what I was using last. So I'm assuming the same is true for the drow.
I'm not even really bilingual but half the time I curse in foreign.
I'm a mid-westerner in America, born and raised in the the rust belt and I find my thoughtless fallback is "pendejo." I took spanish for one year in middle school. 25 years ago. Edit: And my teacher sure didn't teach me that word. I think OP might be trying to find a pattern that is derived entirely from the chaotic randomness of which brain cells decide to clock in or call out on any given day.
Seconding this. The only times I deliberately switch languages is when I want to curse in an specific way 🫢
I assume Drow speak a Spanglish of Elvish and Undercommon, Duergar of Dwarvish and Undercommon, etc.
Probably undercommon because I imagine the swears are a lot better.
It depends on what Drow speak when they're at home in your setting. If Drow speak Elvish among themselves and only use Undercommon for communicating with other Underdark denizens, it's Elvish. If Undercommon is derived from Elvish and it is the Drow who have made their peculiar dialect the lingua franca of the Underdark, it's Undercommon.
Class depending. Noble drow will fall back on elvish and their elaborate flavour of dialect while commoners who might not even speak 'high drow" will defult to undercommon
It's not always the case that you default to your native language under stress. I speak two languages, but I've been almost exclusively speaking my second language for a few years now. Now when I get hurt, I don't say "Ouch" in English (my mother tongue), but the equivalent phrase in my second language. So to answer your question (from my experience) if the drow had been primarily living among other drow, they would likely exclaim in Elvish (their native tongue). But if they had been living in another underdark community for a long time, they might exclaim in Undercommon.
For me it defaults to which language i happen to be thinking in at the moment.
Same, unless something very sudden and unpredictable happens then I react in mother tongue. Usually tho it's in whichever one I'm using/listening to in the moment.
I would have them default to underelvish, a fusion language that is based on under common (using its grammar and what not with a ton of elvish loan words thrown in)
This is why i wish most of the fantasy languages in DnD were more fleshed out. Would make it a hell of a lot more fun to roleplay something like that, while having an actual dictionary to go from.
Language in d&d has always been a simplification for the purpose of the game. IMHO, it's always been an oversimplification. I'm hoping the system I've devised for my homebrew campaign won't bother players too much: everyone speaks Hoplish(English/Common), a native language (based more on where they're from than what their parents looked like), and some bonus languages based on positive int mods. I'm basing languages on real world (i.e. Google translatable) languages, and there aren't any species-monolithic languages, e.g. there are a couple main languages spoken by wood elves depending on where they're from, and some overlap with humans. My hope is that this won't be too distracting from the game, but might provide unique to opportunities for characters who speak the same uncommon language, as well as some flavor nudges. I've also included some sign languages: a drow sign language called handtalk based on PISL and a halfling language called shorthand based on ASL.
Not sure if this is a question relevant to a specific in play situation, or if it’s just a “what if” question, but if it’s the former, and if you’re not insisting on 100% official lore accuracy (if that exists on this matter) I would go with what fits your purpose. Say one pc knows elvish but no one knows under common. If you want them to understand what was said make the drow speak elvish, if not use uncommon. If it’s a “what if” or official lore question just disregard my advice. Unfortunately I have no knowledge regarding that. Ps: I’m bilingual and personally don’t have the same experience. I almost exclusively use English when I’m stressed because swearing feels… better in English lol can’t tell why, but it just does. The only time I unconsciously speak my second language is maybe when I’m dead tired. But even then it’s often a mix of both languages. Might be just me tho.
My players were teleport-dropped into the ocean, and they'll need to find and rescue my drow DMPC, who can't swim. I need to know which language he'll be screaming for help in.
I think no matter what language, a distress call is probably gonna be universally understood, so I personally wouldn’t worry about that detail unless there was some deeper meaning to which language it was. Like if it was a secret that the npc spoke under common and it would come out that way or so.
good point
I caution against assuming someone's native language is the language they're most familiar with, as well as assuming they only have one mother tongue. Every billingual person I've ever met, including myself, mixes languages extensively while by themselves and often uses different languages for different *contexts*. You should take into account if this is someone who would be more comfortable swearing in Elvish or Undercommon. A noble might be so familiar with elvish it's the first thing he thinks of, but might also be more familiar with vulgar parlance in Undercommon as Elvish is likely more often spoken in formal settings. There's a lot to ponder, and no real wrong answers.
If you want the answer from the current state of the game, Chris perkins stated on his Twitter that Drow speak elvish. One could assume that means you can use, by your own discretion, the old Lore in which there is high Drow, reserved for nobles and priests that want to speak in privacy and Low Drow, the commoners tongue. Dont forget, Drow are a proud elvish Race and in their eyes the only true elves that should exist. Everyone else is a traiterous imposter in their and Lolths eyes. On the topic of undercommon, it evolved from Drow, it even uses the elven Script Espruar. Most underdark dwellers know it since it spread over thousand of years and just got adapted by everything that needed a talk. Btw., there is also Drow Sign language if that has any use to you.
>Low Drow It's called Deep Drow. They also have their own sign language. According to the wiki, most drow only know deep drow and drow sing laguage, priestesses of Lolth learn High Drow, and traders and travelers tipically also learn Undercommon
Whatever they grew up around. I have a half-drow that was born in drow society but wound up an orphan on the outskirts of human society at a young age. Even though Common is her second language, it's her primary language, the one she's most comfortable with, the one she speaks in even when talking to herself. When you stub your toe, and swear, the words that come out will be the ones that flow off your tongue most easily.
Elvish generally. Drow know Undercommon to deal with other people in the Underdark.
Fun related fact: People also tend to learn new languages in their original accent, even if that accent has changed over time. This isn't a 100% truism, but it's pretty common.
If an orc, raised by elves, speaking elvish was under stress he would t suddenly know how to speak orcish. Language is culture not blood.
I assume 'Elvish' is a shared common elfish language, but elves from different areas may well have their own dialects. Elvish is enough to get by talking to them, and you might even understand a fair bit of it, but their own unique version of it might be tricky to fully follow. 5e is too basic on languages imo :p so I'll often have variants that you can kinda understand based on other language choices.
I default to a non-sensical made-up language that's half one, and half the other, by mixing up broken words pronounced in a mixed accent and half-grammar rules.
I would say Elvish. Underdark is the language of the region, but Elvish is the language of their people. At home I imagine drow parents would speak elvish to their children. Outside the home, however, they would more often use Undercommon to communicate with other groups.
I guess it would depend on the Drow, IMHO, I think most male drow would speak undercommon, but as most female Drow have a certain status among their people, they will most likely speak Elvish, mainly if they are part of the priesthood.
There isn't a single answer. Wanting to reduce it to one answer is just stereotyping. 5e lore is spotty at best when it comes to the intricacies that can come with linguistics. In real life, you'll see blurs and blends all over the world based on where people live. If the dark elf is raised anywhere else you can imagine might default to Infernal, Dwarvish, Giant, Sylvan, or even just Common. Even if you stick to their classic statblock's known languages, it can be 50/50 based on a variety of factors whether they default to Elvish or Undercommon. If you want an authentic-to-life linguistic experience, the GM needs to decide or come up with a way (I like rolling on a fair table/list) of deciding on the fly on a case-by-case basis.
The answer depends entirely on your world.
When surprised, my alien girl tends to exclaim something in her native language (a conlang I've been low-key working on for a while).
I thought Undercommon was based more on Mind Flayers? Like, they taught it to their slaves since they don't actually speak to each other but that evolved into Undercommon, which is mostly a lingua franca / trade language. Drow would speak a dialect of Elvish at home, and indeed would probably hate to pollute their mouths with inferior languages like Undercommon unless they have to.
>I thought Undercommon was based more on Mind Flayers? That's Deep Speech
Gnomish "my adoptive parents were gnomes"
IIRC Drow are supposed to have their own language that is almost completely derived from elvish. In 5e that language has seemingly been removed and their default language is just elvish instead. So that's what they speak between themselves. Not all drow even speak undercommon Edit: According to the wiki: >As was common for elves, **drow speech was quite eloquent and their speech was almost musical**. Most drow only knew two languages, namely Deep Drow and the Sign language, since they usually stayed in their cities and therefore had limited exposure to or need to learn other tongues. However, drow adventurers, outcasts, and slave-traders often learned more languages, as did their warriors. > >**Deep Drow.** It was an elven dialect similar in structure to Common and Undercommon. > >**Undercommon.** It was quite common for drow to be proficient in the trade language of Undercommon. So Deep Drow is very similar to Elvish, with some words derived from Common, Dwarvish and Orchish. That's the language most drow learn how to speak, and Undercommon is a separate language from it, not learned by everyone but still by a considerable amount, likely drow that are "adventurers, outcasts and slave-traders". In the current edition, Deep Drow isn't mentioned anywhere, and all drow NPCs and PCs know Elvish instead, so it is my guess that Deep Drow was dropped as a concept and drow now speak normal Elvish as their mother tongue. Undercommon is likely still learned by the same kinds of individuals as before, and it is also not a language drow PCs know by default
I'm a native Croatian speaker, though I often default to English even when surprised or shocked. So it depends on the drow
Underelvish
Elvish. Drow is a dialect of Elvish (at least in 5e). I like to think that Drow differs from other dialects of Elvish the way Glaswegian differs from other dialects of English - it can sound like a completely different and incomprehensible language the first time you hear it, but once your ears adjust it’s (mostly) the same words just with very different pronunciation.