Quote Originally Posted by 1337 b4k4 View Post
Language is a hold over from (and was more important in) the older editions of D&D, where one of the expectations was that players would try to talk their way out of fights and combat.
I think you're myth-building here. It has never been the expectation, as far as D&D has been concerned, that player would "talk their way out of fights". Not even in 3e, which arguably had the most PCs with "languages" running around (thanks to being granted bonus languages for a high intelligence). Certainly, certainly modules/DMs included diplomacy as option, but those were the exception, not the rule.