The Sorrows speak a devolved pidgin language derived from Spanish and English. It developed over time in isolation from other tribal cultures in Zion Canyon when the progenitors of the tribe arrived as child refugees from a place called "The School" around 2123; though they had received some linguistics education there, by the time of their arrival, it had already begun to deviate from the original language.[1][2][3][Non-game 1][Non-game 2][Non-game 3] This article lists phrases spoken by members and their translations.
The pidgin languages used by the tribal groups in Zion was actually done in an effort to cut costs, so that many of their voice lines wouldn't need to be localized.[Non-game 4]
↑ 1.01.1Question: "How did the Sorrows manage to forget how to speak and read English and all the knowledge and stories gleaned from the Survivalist's gifts in less than two hundred years?" Joshua Graham: "The Survivalist's notes may give an incorrect picture of how much English the Sorrows knew when he initially made contact. Even by that point, they were speaking a devolved pidgin language and many of them could not read." Joshua Saywer Formspring post May 19, 2011(Archive)
↑ 3.03.1Question: "Is It correct that the tribals are descended from vacationers at the time of the Great War? I swear I hear a little German in the Dead Horses and Spanish in the Sorrows, but I also hear another language(s) mixed in and spoken by either tribe as well." Joshua Sawyer: "Yes. Joshua Graham explains that they speak languages from a place he calls "Res" mixed with languages from people who were vacationing in Utah." (Joshua Sawyer Formspring post 19 May 11)
↑Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful forums: "Even the pidgin languages the tribes speak in Honest Hearts were just an attempt to keep costs down. All of the DLCs feature very few speaking characters because Fallout games have localized text and VO. That includes background characters and their reactive barks, so we made pidgin languages for the tribes so they wouldn't need to be re-recorded. Of course, the tribes were also supposed to be multi-ethnic, so you'd see white Dead Horses, black Dead Horses, etc. And again, Daniel was supposed to be Asian. It was incredibly frustrating to get halfway through production only to discover that making ethnic variants for every tribe would completely blow the already limited in-game memory limit. It wasn't a problem of 'Ah, this will take more work,' but, 'The game will crash as soon as this area loads.' "
