Low Gothic is the common language of most of the myriad trillions of human beings in the Imperium of Man. Low Gothic was derived over many millennia from the prior common language used by the human interstellar federation that existed during the Dark Age of Technology and on Terra at the time of the Great Crusade that is now known as High Gothic. Low Gothic is the common man's everyday spoken and written language and it is represented for our purposes as twenty-first century English in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, though in fact it would be utterly unintelligible to English-speakers after tens of thousands of Terran years of linguistic drift and hybridisation with other languages. Low Gothic is composed of not only one, but millions of other dialects of the language derived from High Gothic. These dialects developed over the long years of the Age of Strife when all the interstellar colony worlds of humanity were cut off from trade or communication with one another or with the homeworld of Terra by the powerful Warp Storms that preceded the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh.
Sources
- Dark Heresy Core Rulebook (RPG)
- Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook (5th Edition)