Language

Cost: Varies

Language is a social background advantage trait

The default is being able to read and write one language. Being able to read or write a language is worth half the points as is any Sign Language.

Comprehension Levels

• None: Completely incapable of functioning in the language.
• Broken (2 points/language): Can recognize important words and understand simple sentences if they are spoken slowly.
• Accented (4 points/language): can communicate clearly, even under stress though it is clear via writing and speaking idiosyncrasies that it is not your native language.
• Native (6 points/language): Have full mastery of the language, including idioms and can think in the language.

If languages are close they can understand each other at Accented or Broken level.

Literacy Advantage and Language Skill (Classic)

In Classic GURPS the Literacy advantage dealt only with the written portion of the Language. Characters in Classic at TL4 and below without this advantage can only speak their language not read or write it.

More over Languages were skills in GURPS Classic though GURPS Update provided a conversion. Combining this with the descriptions given regarding the various skill levels produces this:

Classic Skill level	Classic description	4e equivalent (Literate)	4e equivalent (Semi-Literate)
4 or less	Recognizes some important words	Broken [2]	Broken [2]
5-6	Usually understands simple sentences, spoken slowly	Broken [2]	Broken [2]
7-8	Adequate reading and speaking vocabulary. Non-native speakers will have a thick accent, very amusing to natives	Accented [4]	Accented/Broken [3]
9-10	Command of the language equivalent to that of an average native speaker. Non natives will retain a distinct foreign accent	Accented [4]	Accented/Broken [3]
11-12	Command of the language equivalent to that of an educated native. Non natives will retain a slight foreign accent	Accented [4]	Accented/Broken [3]
13-14	Full mastery of the language, including idioms. No foreign accent. Can adopt regional accents if desired	Native [6]	Native/Broken [4]
15 or better	Absolute fluency. If non native, can think in the language	Native [6]	Native/Broken [4]

This was used in the conversions of Classic: Who's Who 1 and Classic: Who's Who 2

Language Fragmentation and Drift

Languages can and do fragment to the point that while technically the same language they are effectively accented to each other. For example, English has United States, British, Australian, and Indian variants (all Accented to each other). There is a legend that in the Middle Ages some English sailors were blown off course to another part of England and were promptly arrested as French spies by the locals because they couldn't understand the sailors English.

Languages also drift as time passes. Shakespeare's Early Modern English had a vastly different spelling, meter, and pronunciation then either 20th century American, British, or Australian English does.. More over. this shift can happen over a relatively short time - Late Victorian English has a different grammar, syntax, and rhythm than any of the English of the early 21st century; almost to the point that it is a "foreign" language. Even "dead" languages, like Latin, are not immune to this shift.

There seems to be no mechanic in GURPS to address to formally this fragmentation and drift.

Darmok: The Linguistic Failings of Star Trek the Next Generation gives an example of how a language could use stack reference.

Quotes

Kromm in 2006 http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=271099&postcount=5

Animals don't qualify for Low TL or reduced literacy unless they have IQ 6+ and can use technological skills and languages to begin with

Additional Information

• The evidence that medieval PEASANTS could READ! Medieval Misconceptions
• Extra Credits: The Alphabet, The History of Writing
• NativLang (channel) — author shares animated stories as he learns from & about people living on a planet full of languages and cultures
  • The Great Vowel Shift and the History of Britain

References

• Basic Set pg 23-24