Languages in the EMP - Germany/Holy Roman Empire

In my previous preliminary write ups on race, I decided to cut down languages to common and racial languages. However, I feel that there is room to have languages play a role within a sandbox without becoming prohibitive or creating a market of magic users who only memorize comprehend languages and sell their services in every major city.

So we will break languages down into two arenas, national and regional. National languages will be a fantasy construct that prevents languages from getting in the way (What, no one in our party speaks the same language?!?). Regional languages will provide some granularity to make language an aspect of the sandbox that can have some impact on play.

For example, there will be a national language for all Germans, but there will be plenty of regional languages such as Czech, Upper German, Low Saxon, Rhenish, and Low Franconian.

Player characters will begin play with a national and regional language dictated by where their character was born. So anyone born in a Holy Roman Empire state will speak German and the corresponding regional language. NPCs will follow the same pattern for the most part. Rural, backwards, or otherwise isolated NPCs might only speak their regional language and not their corresponding national language.

This setup should make 90%+ of play go on without worrying about languages. However, it still leaves the door open for interesting linguistic play should the PCs start globetrotting and dealing with foreigners at home or abroad. Plus, regional languages can play a role in role-playing.

Since the EMP campaign will start in Germany, let's go ahead and (broadly and in a condensed form) define those languages.