I was wondering what kind of words would emerge after the cataclysm. You want know what would people call all of the new things around them, what kind of slang or abbreviations would people call things like the giant bugs, the fungoid or mi-go or stranger things still. What would people call different type of zombies, calling zombie necromancer “necromancers” all the time seems kind of tedious so what would be a shorthand for that. I would love to see such terms used in NPC dialogue to give a sense that people actually see these monsters tell about them to others and so new words and slang would develop. what effect the cataclysm itself has on language such as certain words losing there original meaning and gaining a different meaning or new words and new proverbs.
Was waiting for this since 2014.
My suggestion is to re-rename the z-monsters back to the originals.
Zhark, zoose, zog and the like would be the colloquial words in that society! 
At least zombear endured.
/jk
It is not meant to be about what the monsters are called in-game but what people that actually live in the world of cataclysm dda would be calling them. But I do see you have a point that zombie animals might be called things like zog, zoose and so on since although it might sound kind of cheesy it would make it immediately clear what you meant by the word itself (as it is based on a preexisting word) so it would work great for actual communication.
“Antlered horror? What’s that, some type of new mutant? No, just a zombie moose? Than say so you idiot!”
The story goes that those where the original names, but there was a discussion at some point (around 2014 i think) and they got changed.
But the monster ids still use the old names (e.g. from zed-animal.json: “id”: “mon_zhark”)
Time to make things right yet? We can let the game call them with their stupid “new” names, but NPCs could use the (cheesy/cringy/kitsch/sensible) slang ones.
Doing exactly this to NPC-talk for more than the z-monsters could improve immersion, but having the game calling them one thing and the NPCs another is probably confusing and undesirable from a game-design viewpoint (unless done only for specific exceptional cases).
I wouldn’t say that since the cheese names seem to be more realistic in some cases than the new current names and realism is king.
Even though there might be some initial confusion for the player the improvement in immersion would at least form my point of view be worth much more than the confusion a player might face when familiarizing themselves with post-cataclysm slang for the first time. Especially since the confusion would disappear after the player get familiar with them but the improvement in immersion would stay for the rest of the game.
While on the subject of what people in the game would refer to monsters as, calling a zombie rottweiler a rot-weiler (whilst I can appreciate the pun) makes no sense at all if not done in writing.
The point is, I did not think about a Zombie Moose when I’ve read “zoose”. I actually thought about a Zombie Goose, and that’s the problem with that way of naming things (not that “Antlered Horror” is any better, but “Horror” is all you need to know anyway - I would probably fight a goose, but not a moose).
Back on topic:
Since these creatures are humans taken over by alien parasites and not actually “Zombies”, I would state that there’s already some type of descriptive language in use. Since most of humanity is (“un”-)dead anyway, there’s probably not enough left to establish an uniform language or terms for these things.
These is already a uniform language: English so a new language doesn’t need to be established only a few new words added and a few definitions changed. Also, your argument that there isn’t enough population to establish terms doesn’t holt up. We know that there is supposed to be contact and trading going on between different factions so at least at a local level new terms would have to be devised to describe all of the new creatures. You also contradict yourself by essentially admitting that the term zombies are used to describe the undead so at least one uniform change in language and term have been established
Not sure why you called this “Cataclysm language” and asking “what effect the cataclysm itself has on language” then.
Slang and new terms only catch on if there are enough to accept the new terms. Of course, you can make up a lot of new ladfoorks replacing existing congulfarnts, but unless leleptok agree on that and start to poquit it themself they will just stare at you like you did while reading this text…
Not sure that they would use them whilst talking to an outsider, though. And again, as you’ve said yourself about the Antlered horror, introducing too much new words for all these creatures are unnecessary confusing, as you can use descriptive language. It will take a while to establish new words as the cataclysm just happened.
No.
Yes, undead are Zombies and Zombies are undead, but as I’ve said, these creatures are humans taken over by an alien parasite. It’s killed its host and taken over the body (or the parts it deemed useful). That’s not the usual depiction of a Zombie.
Those people are not undead, they are dead for good. The creature that moves them is still alive though.
I never admitted or hinted that they are undead, hence the quotes around the “un”.
Again, I claim that they are falsely called undead by the survivors and that this is descriptive language based on what is seen (dead stand up again), not a new term created out of thin air.
good idea, wiil do that
Geese used to be known as poor men’s guard dogs, though I am unsure whether that is based on their willingness to fight or their ability to make noise when strangers are on their territory.
It was (and is, at places where they’re still used) mostly the noise, the same as it was in the Roman/Gallic war which they probably best known for, but they could (and can) inflict painful wounds too - I’d guess even more so if zombified.
But I still rather prefer to fight something one third or one fourth of my own height than a fully grown moose, if I had to choose…
Clearly both. They’re kinda amazing as guard animals. 
their WILLINGness to fight and the noise but not their fighting ability. Geese are naturally intimidating (I saw a video a geese scaring bulls away and stopping bulls from charging just by intimidating them) but would not do very well if something actually fought them rather than running.