Dark Eldar language

I know the DE use some spikier runes, but do they speak the same language as their Craftworld cousins? I could see it going either way. Is there any backup for this anywhere?

I'm not aware of any background stating one way or the other.

It's not even necessarily a given that all the Craftworlds speak the same language.

I would assume they speak the same language but different dialects. Like Americans speaking a different dialect then the English, we even spell things slightly different (honor, honour).

I'm pretty sure that in both Path of-books (by Gav Thorpe and Andy Chambers) DE and CWE can talk along well with each other, but yeah. The Eldar Empire was big, I can't imagine that it would have a single language. It would be difficult to think that all Eldar would understand each other in every situations, but I guess that they have some things in common. They could also possibly be using the same runes with different meanings or slightly different runes for the same meaning (rune-dialect?)

If anything, I would say Exodites probably wouldn't understand other Eldar. They got separated a lot earlier than others and live a lot more secluded than others. Harlequins are probably educated enough to understand anything anyone says. Corsairs would vary based on where they are from.

But, in the end, it is anyone's guess.

So if you were making a Dark Heresy character who spent time in Commorragh, and you wanted to take a language as part of the justification for that, would Eldar be the correct one, you think?

it also probably wouldn't be hard for a Dark Eldar mind to learn a new language, even more easily if it was simply a different dialect of one he/she already knows

I'm not sure if I remember it correctly, but I think in the Path of the DE books it was mentioned that DE use translating devices to communicate with their slaves.

But what I remember clearly that they don't want to sully their tongue with "lower language".
However, I'm not sure it if are only Archons who have access to this technology or if it's a common Commorite device.

That Eldar from different Craftworlds speak different languages sounds reasonable, the same applies to Exodities.

In the books communication between all kinds of Eldar has never been stated an issue, but this could also just hint towards common use of translation devices.

Either way, Commorites probably claim that they use the only "true Eldar language" anyway. So, from a DE perspective, I'd just go with that.

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I'm not sure if I remember it correctly, but I think in the Path of the DE books it was mentioned that DE use translating devices to communicate with their slaves.

Thats just for the slave races (they do make use of all sorts of aliens for manual labour).

It is hinted that there is an "universal eldar language" with countless dialects (even between commoritesfrom different tiers) and body language. But the basics seem to be the same no matter if craftworlder, commorite, harlequin or exodite.

My GM says he's ruling it as a dialect. Any Eldar will understand my character, but the fact that I learned to speak it in Commorragh is obvious; I may also have difficulties translating written works from non-Commorragh Eldar.

Sorry for the threadomancy, but I've been away for a while, and find this interesting. Personally, I've always found the idea of one language for each race to be a bit of a laughable idea. Just take a look at humanity. We're only on one planet, and have many different languages, with English only somewhat approaching as a "global" language, but their are still countless people who can't speak it, yet we expect that all Craftworlders speak the same "Eldari"?

I still assume that there is, or at least once was, a "Pan-Eldari" language, given that it was once a unified empire, but this would have split over the millennia into ProtoPan-Eldari Exodites, with a Craftworld-Eldari, and Fall era Eldari used by the Craftworlds and Commorrites respectively. All these languages would have the loosest of similarities, maybe in the way sentences are structured, but by the year 40,000 would essentially be different languages, with each Craftworld having their own unique language, and a Commorrite language as well, as these have essentially been unique and independant societies for 10,000 years.

We know there has to be some degree of a "neutral language" in use for them all to communicate, but I imagine this to be more of an ad-hoc thing, as remember, there isn't exactly any sort of Eldar "United Nations", other than whatever mediation is done by the Harlequins, in order to unify them.

So, could a human taught "Commorrite Pan Eldari" have a conversation with a Seer from Ulthwé? Probably yes, but at best it would be ill-worded, and difficult to get complex concepts across.