Language

A language is a lexicon of words that various characters use to speak to each other and communicate. In World of Warcraft, most races have a unique language they speak that only they can understand. Each faction shares a common language of the dominant race (Orcish for Horde and Common for Alliance).

A language may or may not have an associated alphabet for writing. Several languages may share the same alphabet, or may have a specific alphabet used only for that language.

Lorewise, there are at least 39 languages on Azeroth and hundreds more throughout the cosmos.

It should be noted that traditionally (in the RTS games and the pen & paper RPG) almost all intelligent races speak Common. The ability for player characters to learn additional languages was planned early in World of Warcraft but was not developed, likely due to the tendency of cross-faction communication to be insulting and profane. The Forsaken were originally able to speak Common and thus communicate with Alliance players, but this was removed with the introduction of Gutterspeak due to, once again, the tendency of cross-faction communication to be insulting and profane. For a long time, it seemed unlikely that this functionality would ever be added. When the pandaren joined the Horde and the Alliance, players could speak the same language, but not understand those of the opposite faction. With the introduction on the demon hunters, however, who all speak Demonic, Alliance and Horde cross-faction communication was reintroduced to the game. At the same time, the language barrier that had come between Horde and Alliance pandaren was lifted. With the Thalassian speaking void elves joining the Alliance, yet another channel for cross-faction communication was opened. Cross-faction communication is restricted to say and yell, and players will not be able to understand custom emotes from players of the opposite faction.

Alliance languages

The Alliance's primary language is Common.

Language	Spoken by
Common	Stormwind humans, Gilnean worgen, Kul Tiran humans
Dwarven	Ironforge dwarves, Dark Iron dwarves
Gnomish	Gnomeregan gnomes, Mechagon mechagnomes
Darnassian	Darnassian night elves
Draenei	Exodar draenei, Lightforged draenei
Thalassian	Void elves

Horde languages

The Horde's primary language is Orcish.

Language	Spoken by
Orcish	Orgrimmar orcs, Mag'har orcs
Zandali	Darkspear jungle trolls, Zandalari trolls
Taur-ahe	Thunder Bluff tauren, Highmountain tauren
Gutterspeak	Forsaken undead
Thalassian	Quel'Thalas blood elves
Goblin	Bilgewater goblins
Shalassian	Nightborne
Vulpera	Voldunai vulpera

Other known languages

Language	Spoken by
Ancient earthen	Earthen
Ancient unknown language	Tortolla
Apexis	Apexis
Draconic	Dragons
Drogbar	Drogbar
Drust	Drust
Elunite liturgical language	Sisterhood of Elune
Eredun (or Demonic)	Demons
Furbolg	Furbolgs
Hozen	Hozen
Jinyu written language (extinct)	Jinyu before the first mogu dynasty
Kalimag	Elementals
Language of death	Scourge
Language of the First Ones	First Ones
Mantid	Mantid
Mogu	Mogu, other races from Pandaria
Nathrezim	Nathrezim
Non-Eredun demonic language	Demons
Nazja	Naga
Nerglish (or Murloc)	Murlocs, Makruras and a few other aquatic races
Nerubian	Nerubians
Ogre	Ogres
Pandaren	Pandaren
Pygmy	Pygmies
Qiraji	Qiraji
Ravenspeech	Arakkoa
Shath'Yar	Old Gods and their minions
Skardyn	Skardyn
Sprite	Sprite
Titan	Titans and Titan-forged
Tol'vir	Tol'vir
Tuskarr	Tuskarrs
Vrykul	Vrykuls
Zombie	Zombies and some ghouls

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Language	Spoken by
Abyssal	Unknown
Aquan	Water elementals
Auran	Air elementals
Elven	Various
Giant	Giants
Gnoll	Gnolls
Ignan	Fire elementals
Kalimdoran	Races from Kalimdor
Krenkese	Krenka Clan Centaur
Low Common	Lesser races
Terran	Earth elementals
Undercommon	Unknown
Worgen	Worgen

Beta languages

The subject of this section did not make it out of the beta stages.

Language	Spoken by
Gilnean	Gilneans
Old Tongue	Unknown
Sindassi	Blood elves

Changing chat language

The language a player's character speaks, for those with more than one, can be changed by going into the chat menu. Clicking on the "Chat Bubble" on the chat box tool bar, then highlighting "Language" with the cursor, will make a list of known languages to appear. From there, the player can click one to choose which language they prefer to speak.

It may be worth mentioning that when the language is changed, it only affects say, yell, guild, and party chat. General and whispers will be unaffected. Also, it tends to irritate a player's guild when they speak their "native" language.

As of patch 2.0, it seems the scripting ability to speak other languages has been modified to check whether the character can normally speak that language.

Origins

As with many other features of the Warcraft setting, many of the languages are derived from early fantasy or the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game — not in the sense of the actual languages, but in what kinds of languages are present in a given world. This connection is mostly obvious from the shared culture and parallels or outright duplication of language names, primarily on the outer reaches of Warcraft lore that appear in the Warcraft RPG — which started out as an offshoot of Dungeons and Dragons.

Language names that are the same or re-used from D&D in Warcraft

• Abyssal
• Aquan
• Auran
• Common
• Dwarven
• Draconic
• Ignan
• Orc
• Gnoll
• Gnome
• Goblin
• Elven
• Giant
• Terran
• Undercommon

European realms and real-world languages

European realms are each associated with a real-world language such as English or French. In battlegrounds and the Dungeon Finder, players are grouped only with players of the same language. However, Alliance players in a battleground may speak a different language than Horde players. In that case, even being able to translate between Common and Orcish would leave another barrier for many players.