Ars Magica has published some slightly inconsistant rules regarding the languages spoken in various regions of Mythic Europe. While complete historical accuracy in medieval languages is neither possible nor particularly desirable, some consistency in how languages are defined will be helpful.

For the Bohemian Rhapsody Saga, languages will henceforth be classified according to the following schema, with the goal of also providing clear rules regarding similar languages in a consistent fashion, including the relative advantage when learning a related language, through instruction, practice, or exposure.

It should be noted that the following, while generally consistent with current knowledge of medieval languages, are Mythic Languages, and are not intended to be completely historically accurate. All language families have been simplified to some extent, in part to reflect a Mythic state of language development, which does not reflect modern language divergence or consolidation.

Language Families are groups of related languages. Some examples are Germanic languages, Slavic languages, and Celtic languages. Someone who already speaks a generally related language may be able to understand some of a related language; treat the relevant Ability Score as three less (-3 penalty) when trying to converse in a generally related language, or four less (-4 penalty) when trying to converse in a distantly related language (such as German and Gothic).

Within a language family, there may be groups of more closely related languages. An example would be the Germanic language family, where High German and Low German are more closely related than either is to English or Swedish, for example. "Closely related" languages are more readily comprehensible; treat a relevant Ability Score as two less (-2 penalty) when trying to converse in a closely related language.

It is not possible to have a Language Ability for a language family. Thus, in GotF (138), "West Slavonic" would not be a legitimate language under this Saga Rule, nor would "West Norse." Because "High German" and "Low German" could be mistaken as referring to closely related language groups (and in the case of Low German, more accurately identified as a group of closely related languages), in the future "High German" will simply be "German" while "Low German" will by default be "Saxon." This is consistent with period references.

Languages are specific Abilities. Sample languages would be German, Czech, or French. Within each language (Ability), there are possible dialects, which should be reflected as specialties within the language. Although there are debates over whether some particular region spoke a dialect or a separate language, the Mythic Languages listed below will provide clarity. Dialects may be understood with a -1 penalty; for game purposes, this is often accomplished simply by ignoring a dialect specialty, although in the case of a character with a specialty that does not correspond to a dialect, actual subtraction from the score may be necessary.

In the following listing, language families and subdivisions will be in bold type; dialects of a given language will be listed in parentheses, and closely related languages will be listed in brackets following. Sabir (Lingua Franca) is a special case; any language in the language families listed in brackets is roughly similar (-3 penalty).

When learning a similar language (either generally related or closely related), a character may apply the first experience points learned for the new language to a "base" equal to the minimum number of experience points necessary to speak that dialect or language with the appropriate penalty.

For example, German and Saxon are different languages, but are similar enough that a speaker of German can make out much of what a speaker of Saxon is saying (-2 penalty to Ability Score) and vice versa. If a speaker of German begins to learn Saxon, that character will be able to learn to speak it "faster" than someone unfamiliar with any similar language. If the character knows German with an Ability Score of 5, then when that character begins to apply experience points to Saxon, the character would apply those points to a "base" of 30 experience points, to represent their relative familiarity with Saxon based on their knowledge of German.

This also applies to the differences between dialects, although that would only affect a modification to an Ability speciality. For the Bohemian Rhapsody Saga, learning a new dialect requires a season of practice with a native speaker; applying the 8xp toward learning the dialect, rather than improving overall proficiency with the language; the additional dialect may be noted within the speciality (for example "Moravian, Slovak"), indicating that both dialects are potential specialties.