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[animedreamer]

I came to this conclusion after listening to Sera during one of our window/roof chats. I've heard her say this a number of times before but I never really put much thought into it. She recites her little poetry line that she does, and this is where I count on to this, she says, "It's poetry because of W's and some ****." so in Thedas the common trade language that all the races/cultures use is our normal written english? I thought I saw examples of Thedasian script and it looked nothing like ours. What gives?

[andy6915]

Where did you see written script? I don't recall that anywhere. And besides, just because they have the same letter names doesn't mean they have the same letters. The letter W could be some weird infinity symbol for all we know. They could have 26 letters of the same names as ours while still being a completely fictional script.

[animedreamer]

Where did you see written script? I don't recall that anywhere. And besides, just because they have the same letter names doesn't mean they have the same letters. The letter W could be some weird infinity symbol for all we know. They could have 26 letters of the same names as ours while still being a completely fictional script.

Maybe you're right, also as to where, in Dragon Age 2 right at the very beginning when Cassandra introduces herself to Varric after stabbing the book Varric opens it up, and we get a very close up look at the script and as I recall it looked like squiggly lines, this wasn't the only time. I think in Origins while in Orzammar we get a few examples of it when looking at various plaques, their script looks like lines and dots. I'm sure i've seen in more times than that as well but nothing that jumps out at me at present.

[Ieldra]

I came to this conclusion after listening to Sera during one of our window/roof chats. I've heard her say this a number of times before but I never really put much thought into it. She recites her little poetry line that she does, and this is where I count on to this, she says, "It's poetry because of W's and some ****." so in Thedas the common trade language that all the races/cultures use is our normal written english? I thought I saw examples of Thedasian script and it looked nothing like ours. What gives?

Thedas has its own script, it's consistently shown in cutscenes. The alphabet has not been defined though, so how could anyone speak about letters, spoken or written, in a way we understand, if not referring to things we are familiar with?

The scene has the fundamental problem that a poem in a Thedosian language would have different words and sounds, thus different alliterations. So basically the alternatives are to not speak about such things at all, or use some sort of "implied translation". At least as long the DA team doesn't get as detailed about Thedosian languages as Tolkien did about Middle-Earth's.

[berelinde]

Thedas seems to have more than one kind of script. In this video, you see a runic style in Justinia's book in the first few seconds, but the notice that Cullen nails to the chantry door later on has a more cursive form. That cursive form gets used a lot in DA2. I'm trying to find a video (and failing), but when the tutorial ends and Varric tells Cassandra how the Hawkes took ship for Kirkwall, there are several screens of Thedosian text. Based on how "loopy" the cursive form is, it's possible that the squiggly lines on Cullen's tunic and on the templar sashes represent quotes from the Chant of light. It's a bit of a reach, but there is a precedent in our world. Verses from the Koran were often painted on the sleeves of medieval Muslim men's robes.

[caradoc2000]

You can also see the letters during Guilty Pleasures quest when Varric hands Cassandra the Swords and Shields book.

[Face of Evil]

The fact that the Thedasian alphabet is completely different from the English alphabet should indicate that the language is actually different as well; it just gets presented in English for the benefit of the fans and the devs (fashioning an entirely new language is incredibly difficult).

 

On TV Tropes, they refer to this as Translation Convention. Most fantasy series operate by this rule.

 

Admittedly, this gets a little wonky when the characters make a joke rooted in the English language, like the bear buns in Jaws of Hakkon. When Sera refers to the letter 'W', she's probably calling it something else, but we hear 'W'.

[Neuro]

The fact that the Thedasian alphabet is completely different from the English alphabet should indicate that the language is actually different as well; it just gets presented in English for the benefit of the fans and the devs (fashioning an entirely new language is incredibly difficult).

 

On TV Tropes, they refer to this as Translation Convention. Most fantasy series operate by this rule.

 

Admittedly, this gets a little wonky when the characters make a joke rooted in the English language, like the bear buns in Jaws of Hakkon. When Sera refers to the letter 'W', she's probably calling it something else, but we hear 'W'.

 

Awesome & informative post-- cheers!

[Mozzeltoff]

The Wikia has some more info on this, but it's a bit confusing. 

One thing we know is that the trade/king's/common tongue was created by the dwarves, and a good deal of text seems to be in 'dwarven' runes, which seem partially based on norse/saxon/germanic runes. Difficulty with just saying 'runes', is that they change on region and era, so only the more consistent and popular ones are well known, so I'm not really sure if some of the runes used in DA are altered, made up, taken from different rune alphabets and so on. (Here's a good example of some of the variations of different runes)

 

We can see examples of this with the:

Swords and Shields book cover in DA:I

So we can see the 'Dagaz' rune (for d) which looks like the sides ways hour glass, and the 'Perth(ro)' rune ( Usually 'P'), but then other runes that look familair but turned upside down or reversed and so on. I haven't had any luck translating this book cover. I assume it has something to do with the title 'Swords and Shields' or maybe Varric's name/ pseudonym if he has one.

These runes are also seen in a book but I'm not sure where you can see or find this book, so I'd be a bit more cautious of using this as a source (It's on the wikia, but no source given):
'Mage Book'

 

And Justinia's Inquisition Book, as Berelinde, points out.

The idea of dwarven runes being used is also supported by Asunder pg 128.  Rhys and Evangeline see three men rotting in cages, and Evangeline comments that one is a rapist and two are thieves. When Rhys asks how she knows this, she points to "the runes above their cages" which Rhys recognises as being dwarven. Evangeline notes that Rhys, being a mage and raised among books and learning, mistakenly believes reading to be a common skill, and comments that the dwarven runes are used instead of signs, "because not everyone reads". This implies that dwarven runes somehow also convey meaning to people in certain contexts without requiring the person to be literate. Perhaps the 'thief' rune is more well known then the written version of 'thief'. Or maybe it was similar to how criminals used to be branded with a single letter signifying their crime- people just needed to be able to recognise the letter, not read an entire word. But it also implies that dwarven runes are not the script used in academia or among the literate (As Rhys, an educated mage, seems confused by their use- or maybe it's connected to the previous idea and he's confused why there is only a few runes, instead of a fully written sign).


But, we also see other scripts being used around the DA universe.
This Inquisition Flag has near unintelligible squiggles for writing. This script can again be seen on another inquisition flag. It's the same script, but I can't begin to make heads or tails out of it. There's repeated symbols, but I'm not sure if there actually is a translatable message on these flags, or if it's artistic license, where the designers made pretty squiggles that look like writing but actually have no meaning or message. Something there just to make it look like there's a message.

 

 

And then there's another one of Varric's books that appears to be written in English, along with the roman alphabet:

Champion of Kirkwall (Cover and inside excerpts- I'm not sure where you can find this image in IG sources)
You can see this book being read by Dorian in this cutscene. 

If you look at the full size image you can tell that the writing can just be made out to be english. For example the top lines read something like "In the (something), the city that is today Kirkwall sat on the very fringes of the Tiventer Imperium." 

 

The Wikia suggests that this is 'Orlesian' script, but I'm not sure where that was concluded from (I might be missing something). 

 

Of course, other languages like Tevene, Elvhen, Ancient Dwarven, Qunlat and so on likely have their own scripts. 

It's a fairly good bet that the 'Common' tongue is written in something like norse runes, but might also be written in an entirely originial script, or something like the roman alphabet.