Languages in cosmere

[Koloss17]

So what languages are spoken in the whole of cosmere? I assume it’s not English, right? But then again, there seems to be English expressions and mannerisms. Also, if this is a not earth solar system, where did they get metals like gold and such?

[RShara]

The cosmere is a star cluster, and each planet/culture/race has its own language, more or less. But they mostly have a common root in Yolish, the original populated planet. The books are "translated" to be in our language, and the "translator" picks appropriate idioms in the given language that match the idea of the saying in the region's language.

The cosmere also adheres to our laws of physics, with the addition of Investiture as a state of being, along with matter and energy. So given that, then the usual elements in our universe are going to be in the Cosmere universe.

[Weltall]

Another detail that's of interest is that while Yolen is the first inhabited world in the Cosmere and is Earth's equivalent in size and gravity, Scadrial is the planet that's the most similar to Earth. Yolen has a second competing ecology and some weird geology which Preservation and Ruin consciously omitted from 'their' world, which leaves Scadrial as the most Earthlike planet; same size, same gravity and unless explicitly noted we can assume that the flora and fauna would all be recognizable to us.

Also on the language side, most of the worlds we've seen so far have more than one language. Sel has a whole bunch of regional ones like Aonic, Fjordell and Duladen, Scadrial has at least the language spoken in the Final Empire/the Elendel Basin and the language of the Southerners (assuming you don't count High Imperial as its own language...) and Roshar has a whole bunch of language families. See here if you're interested.

Not only are all of these conveniently translated into English for us by Brandon but worldhoppers use various methods of Connection-hacking to speak the local languages. One of the reasons that people from other worlds can often be identified by odd speech patterns or expressions is that the magic doesn't know how to interpret what they're saying but they're trying to force it through anyways.

[Karger]

1 hour ago, Weltall said:

Not only are all of these conveniently translated into English for us by Brandon but worldhoppers use various methods of Connection-hacking to speak the local languages. One of the reasons that people from other worlds can often be identified by odd speech patterns or expressions is that the magic doesn't know how to interpret what they're saying but they're trying to force it through anyways.

I believe Brandon has implied that Hoid's methods are good enough that even most of his odd speech patterns and idioms are translated.  Other methods still leave accents or tend to work less well for other reasons.

[Weltall]

5 hours ago, Karger said:

I believe Brandon has implied that Hoid's methods are good enough that even most of his odd speech patterns and idioms are translated.  Other methods still leave accents or tend to work less well for other reasons.

Hoid does still slip up though; there are a couple WoBs where his use of the word 'coin' on Roshar comes up as an example of how Connection-hacking can lead to errors if the speaker hasn't learned at least some of the local language. Here and here, for example. That said, he does stand out a lot less than other character at least as far as his speech goes. Now if only he did something about that name that he openly uses on pretty much every world...

One of these days he's going to show up with a new look and a new name and we're going to have to actually work hard to spot him. Cameos where he doesn't actually get any lines like in Alloy of Law excepted.