Necromunda is a game of gang warfare with each gang very drastically different not only in appearance and gameplay, but in the way they speak. Lets jump into what the vernacular of the gangs is like in the world of Warhammer.
Apocrypha Necromundus: Lingua Primus, Part 1
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/05/21/apocrypha-necromundus-lingua-primus-part-1gw-homepage-post-3/
Goliath Gutter Tongue
House Goliath has a broad vernacular when it comes to clan speak. Common words such as “skinnies” and “starvins” are both terms Goliaths use for non-clanners, though they have their own terms for specific rival clans. “Wastes” is a common Goliath term for Van Saar, while they like to refer to Eschers as “vyps”, “seks” or “vens” because of the all-female clan’s heavy use of poison. Guilders are called “scrugs”, possibly a reference to Hive Lugs, an old term referencing the Merchants Guild’s role in Necromundan society.
Alphas, the Over-tyrant and Lord Helmawr are all “boss-meyn”, or “korf-boss”, representing a boss or forge boss respectively. Goliaths are also rightly proud of their forge fanes and have their own terms for these sacred places. To a Goliath, his forge is his “korf”, or “meyn-korf” if he wants to accentuate the fact it is his home. His gang is his “korf-broheym”, or forge-brothers. Vatborn, natborn and unborn also have their own terms within the clan, known as “bron-embo”, “bron-tru” and “bron-ost” respectively.
Despite this wealth of distinctive clan words and phrases, Goliaths don’t communicate by spoken language alone. In the deafening roar of the factorum, the Goliath use their own kind of sign language known as Half-hand. Using one hand, the Goliath signs common phrases like “stand back”, “help me” or “fight me”. Gangs have further adapted Half-hand to include their tattoos, the fighters gesturing to body markings with different signs to communicate “enemy ahead”, “bad air” or “scrag ’em!”. This level of sophistication is often lost on their enemies, who think the Goliath are merely slapping their muscles, or making obscene gestures, not communicating battle tactics.
Escher Clan Argot
Of all the Clan Houses on Necromunda, House Escher is perhaps the most multilingual. High Gothic is spoken within the vaulted chambers of the Council of Crones, and is the favoured language when dealing with the Great Houses or representatives of the Imperium. Meanwhile, Low Gothic is also spoken by the Escher of Hive City, especially those who must deal with off-world merchants or Cold Traders, it being the ‘common tongue’ of the hive world.
House Escher, because of its long history and dealings with all of the Great Houses, has many groups who speak the noble languages of Necromunda, such as the picture dialects of House Ran Lo or the sprac-speak of House Greim. The largest of these groups, however, know how to speak Ulanti Reg’le Argot, the language of the Regent House of Necromunda. House Escher’s own clan dialect borrows many words from Ulanti Argot, like “dreckos”, the Ulanti word for rubbish or waste, or “carvos”, a specific strike with a narrow bladed weapon. In gang culture, these words are often shortened and mixed in with regular underhive dialects or gutter speak. So for example a “drek” is a “dodgy situation”, as in “she’n stepped proper-right into drek”.
Individual Escher gangs have their own dialects as well, created to allow a gang’s members to talk to one other without letting their enemies know exactly what they are saying. Metals and gems form a basis for a lot of these dialects, and often each gang might attribute different meanings to them. When one gang says something is all “nickel and gelt” it might mean it is good, while another gang might decide these words are bad. Likewise, a “jade” or “jet” might be a hardened fighter, a useless hiver, or anything in between.
Orlock Road Slang
House Orlock is a melting pot of dialects and languages from across Necromunda. The far ranging settlements controlled by the Clan House incorporate people from all corners of the world, and its gangers usually talk in a mix of Low Gothic, Waster, Duster or Drudge.
Duster clan cant is common to those who must traverse the wastes, phrases like “voltrum dai” or “kaeyan dai” used as greetings depending on the season, while Duster hand signs, like the rotated fist that means one cycle, or the splayed fingers swept over the sky indicating a storm front coming in, are used without thought. By contrast, Drudge words are based on a form of pidgin Gothic, the words themselves seldom having more than one syllable. A “tor”, for instance, is a factorum, while “gids” are Guilders and “seers” are bosses.
Orlock gangs who spend any amount of time outside the hive cities are also likely to pick up Waster, the language of the outlands. Wasters have lots of words for things hivers seldom use, like the sky, as well as almost a hundred different words for ash – ranging from “fuma”, the fine ash that falls like mist and finds its way through the smallest cracks, to “atar”, the burning ash that clings to everything it touches and eats through respirator seals.
