>Which is all very well when there *is* a standard
>diplomatic language, but in Glorantha, the nearest
>we've got to that is Tradetalk.
Question: is Tradetalk limited to Orlanthi cultures (who worship Issaries)? Or is a mutually intelligible magic language also found elsewhere? (Even if it's not called 'Tradetalk', and is attributed to the local divine being of Communication rather than to Issaries).
Assuming Tradetalk was either invented by or spread by the God Learners, then it was either their version of a diplomatic language (in the second case), or their version of a pidgin dialect used to talk to Orlanthi savages (in the first).
If Tradetalk is just a pidgin, then I assume that the Seshnegi dialect spoken in Jrustela would be the standard diplomatic language everywhere except Maniria, Prax and the Pelorian basin, although in the Third Age it may have fallen out of use in the East and South...
>> What diplomat would take a posting to Hungary
>> if
>> they had to learn Hungarian? Especially as within a
>> few years they'll be transfered somewhere else.
>
>Don't post 'em elsewhere, then.
Bad idea... a diplomat staying in one country too long might easily go native and tend to identify with their host country instead of representing the interests of their employer.
It also means that, to use the real-world comparison, lots of aspiring diplomats will study French or Italian at university, and none at all will be interested in learning Mongolian - because they know it would mean a life sentence stuck in Ulan Bator for their entire career...
Bear in mind that if there's an international diplomatic language, then the senior Foreign Office staff of the host country will speak it just as well as the ambassadors, so communication will be simple.
Then the embassy can also employ low-ranking attachés who do speak the local language, to go out and gather information and talk to business and military leaders in the host nation. But that's a different career path.
Stephen
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