OUR VOICE

[Seraph522]

Snip

Yeah, I think I phrased that incorrectly in my initial post. The Echo certainly translates Doman, Hingashi, etc. for us. That being said, from some digging on the lorebooks, Eorzean is at least spoken in Kugane (which makes sense, as Kugane is a major international trade port), though it isn't their native language. Doma is more questionable; Oboro and Tsubame from the Ninja job questline are able to speak Eorzean, but express lack of familiarity with it in the initial quests, suggesting that most Domans do not speak Eorzean (although they also hail from a somewhat isolated ninja tribe/clan, so who knows). Lyse being able to speak well with the Domans could definitely be explained away by Alisaie teaching her, though the real problem arises on the Azim Steppe, where everyone seems to be able to talk easily with one another despite the lore stating that the tribes mostly speak Auri and, presumably, are not as familiar with Eorzean. We can cheat with the Echo, but I don't think Alisaie ever learned Auri (though I could just be forgetting it).

The Garleans are where things get interesting: presumably, Eorzean is spoken rather widely due to the absorption of various provinces into the Empire and the high level of conscript forces, similar to how Greek remained a common trade language in the Eastern Roman Empire, but it's not clear if the Garlean elites still speak or even have their own native language (our lore on Garlemald is still somewhat lacking, probably intentionally so). Most languages in the three great continents are descended from Ancient Allagan anyways, but multiple millennia of divergence has no doubt allowed for significant linguistic differences to arise.

In general, though, the game glosses over a lot of linguistic differences in a lot of instances, no doubt for the sake of expedience in terms of storytelling.

[Kalise]

Lyse being able to speak well with the Domans could definitely be explained away by Alisaie teaching her, though the real problem arises on the Azim Steppe, where everyone seems to be able to talk easily with one another despite the lore stating that the tribes mostly speak Auri and, presumably, are not as familiar with Eorzean. We can cheat with the Echo, but I don't think Alisaie ever learned Auri (though I could just be forgetting it).

It's quite possible that on the Steppe, they all have rudimentary understanding of Doman. What with literally the capital city being not far away, as well as the fact that there are Domans and people from Isari whom come to Reunion to trade. Indicating that while the Qestir themselves don't care for learning languages, other tribes likely would in order to trade. Since, even though they like to show off that they don't care much for other tribes, many people do note how important Reunion is for allowing them access to necessary supplies.

Thus, if they knew Doman or some common language used within Hingashi/Othard, that would explain how all the Archons could communicate with those on the Steppe.