Okay, we know that Dog-Latin is used extensively in the system to represent High Gothic for the archaic resonance it has while what ever native tongue we speak is used for Low Gothic for it's familiarity, but what about some of the other more obscure tongues?

I always figured binary-speak when "spoken" was the equivalent of an incredibly annoying dial-up modem while, when written was good old classic, well, binary. War-Cant is probably a heavily abbreviated tongue composed of more acronyms then actual words.

But what about Secret Tongues Gutter? What would the analog of that one be... without just getting silly?

How about Secret Tongue Administratum?

Or any of the many many others? What have you guys decided for your games?

I would take much of the flavour text for the ranks of Scum in the Dark Heresy core book as samples of "Secret Tongue: Gutter" or the rougher versions of "Speak Language: Hive Dialect". Informal sounding but perfectly to the point if you are in the know.

I see Secret Tongue: Administratum as terms in arts department jargon taken to ridiculous levels.

For any of the secret tongues, think of any current jargon and how much it varies from "normal" english. Then give it another few thousand years of developing away from the parent language, in a guild system which is prone to jealous protection of knowledge. The very syntax would be misleading to outsiders, let alone the arcane terms.

For Secret Tongues of things like Hive or an organization remember that body language can be as much a part of the "code" as the words being said. Tattoo work also is a language unto itself in certain elements already. Like was previously stated, just take jargon and local slang and then give it a few thousand years to drift.

Spot on in both cases for how it factually could be. But what I was looking for was more of an analogy for those tongues, not what they'd actually be, or at least in an easily conveyed way... once you add in the 2000 year drift, it's all up in the air. Any quick and dirty tricks you guys use to represent gutter or administratum around the table so it feels like your character might be speaking that tongue or do you just opt for the simple "Joe-Bobbious, in Gutter-speak, says 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.' to which Jackassious Maximus responded, also in gutter, "what the hell are you talking about, man? Have you got the brain-worms?!'"

Not a linguistics expert... I manage to get by with english, foul language and bad english most days. A contemporary analogue to gutter-speak I guess might be something along the lines of something like Tsotsitaal . That stuff is a mix of Afrikaans, Zulu, handful of other southern African languages... then just to really butcher it that step further, add slang terms on top of it along with a lot of other made up words and it becomes Iscamtho

Most Hive dialects in our game are Chavonese.

Low gothic has become Mockney essentially in our games

You can tell we're a group of metallers & rockers living in london mocking the afflicted...

Hi Graver,

for " secret tongue: Arbites" I would suggest the code phrases used by (some?) of us police departments". Their used to be a supplement for GURPS centering on cops, the (old) codes of the L.A.P.D. where covered in one page. Perhaps other sources are available on the net. At some unofficial slang of the Arb to it (similiar thing like "cold iron" for an unmarked gun one keeps to put it near a corps if need arises) and you could be fine.

Talking "Gutter":
Since crime got organized, it started to use it own terms to keep conversation uninformative even to those outside who would evesdrop. Nowadays, we do not wonder since we know a lot of words from the media (of only those used the last three years and not the knew one). The Imperiums doe snot have a media like our.
It might be inspiring to you to check the net for sources of old gangster speak. Even before the times of capone. A long while ago, I listend to one old song of austrias singer "Falco" ("Wien") which used a lot of rather out-dated austrian slang (and the song was from back in the days where we used to listen to records). I was very happy to have a small "dictionary" that was enclosed to the song (on the back of the record hull). I was clearly able to understand every word, but they weren´t making any sense to me.
I think victorian London could had have a similiar criminal tounge.

Talking "Administratum"
What is the language of your actual administrative bureous like? In germany, we have a very real example of what this tongue might be like, since our administrative offices and the rules they are working on a written in a way that seems to be intentionally obscured to make non-administrative staff to be unable to understand a single phrase.

Having spent time on the street directly under the pervue of a gang unit and working several years in both adult and juvenile corrections facilities i can tell you that the "secret tongue for gutter speak" would be most akin to the different gang "signs" and methods of speech which will vary greatly from one hive to the next and world to the next as they use not only partcular words but also symbols ( graffitti ) and other actual items placed in certain open locations to designate what is in that area ( for instance a pair of shoes tied together and thrown to wrap up and hang on a power line is a sign of a drug house in close proximity )..seemingly inoccuous things like that can convey a message>They are also big on hand gestures "signing" with their own particular gestures unique usually to each individual gang.

The quick and dirty of it in gameplay is this....you need good awareness and search skills to locate the "out of place" items and not so obvious signs the gangs leave to mark their territories lest your PCs can accidentally wander into the middle of someplace they dont want to be....Mainly awareness....as for the conveyance of what the gutterfolk are saying/doing......common low gothic derrogatory slang would be used towards ALL law enforcement and rival gangs mentioned along with some level of venomous tone with it ( depending on their level of hatred ) and any nice tones/words spoken to an outsider would most likely be sarcastic in nature/intent and always the speech would be of a low educational level...most of these reffered to didnt/cant graduate basic schooling....so speech would be rather.....you get the idea...Feel free to add a hint of or open sarcasm whenever any ganger or low-hiver talks to your PCs (especially if they are nicely dressed by comparison or obviously new to the area )

Great ideas all, especialy thelooking back on old gangster speak 9as opposed to gangsa speek I reckon). I hadn't thought of that and it's fairly brilliant... scummy enough to be, well, scummy, while still having an air of antiquity to fin in with the setting and, as it's not used anymore, a hit of alien. Niiice! Thank you!

Graver said:

If you really really want to show gratitude... I would !HAIL! you if you find some links or simply copy/past anything you already wrote up for yourself. Actually, the majority of my own free time goes into preparing "things on Dusk" and "messing with the Haarlock Legacy". So any shared be results of your own project would be gratefully appreciated

I found the following link for examples of Victorian London Criminal Language, but where not able to "dissect" it by now (not to much time)

http://www.tlucretius.net/Sophie/Castle/victorian_slang.html
http://www.victorianlondon.org/words/criminal.htm

The old version of AD&D Planescape with the Sigil Cant would be an excellent place as well to start for gangers and scum types

The books mention much of it was based off of victorian era language