Pelorian Languages

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 13:57:43 +1300


Alex Ferguson:

Me>> I view all the Pelorian farmers as having the same
>> basic language whereas Dara Happan and New Pelorian are merely
>> the dialects spoken by the wealthy and educated.

>The G:G language rules partially support this, but also indicate that
>DH and NP are more dissimilar, both to each other and to the Pelorian
>Farmer Languages, than any of the PFLs are to each other.

Checking, I see that you are right. I mixed up the little fractions they used in communicating with each other.

>The PFLs, I suggest, each have a Pelandan basis, but are heavily overlaid
>with varying amounts of Theyalan, Dara Happan, Pentan, and Carmanian
>influences, loan-words, etc.

I wouldn't say Pelandan but Pelorian. The Balazarings and the Jarstics have just as much a Pelorian basis as the PFLs but the mutual comprehensibility is decreased (1/10th). IMO the PFL are the vulgar versions of the Dara Happan Speech heavily enriched by whatever local speech used to exist and various influences. But Dara Happan became a fixed courtly speech whereas the PFLs kept on changing.

This would entail the existance of a 'Low' Dara Happan Speech (now extinct) which changed with the times and was what the Dara Happans spoke when not at Court (ie like medieval Italian to Church Latin, or Koine to Attic Greek). This does raise the riddle of how to treat the Pelorian Farmers that were under the rule of the Carmanians. Should they speak a Pelandan Farmers Tongue (for which they should get 1/3 with other Pelandan Farmers, 1/10 with other Pelorian languages save New Pelorian of which they get 1/5)?

>Pelandan and Dara Happan were at some point
>quite distinct, though already by the time of GRAY are becoming somewhat
>smooshed together. (Originally I'd thought names like "Antirius" were
>Pelandanisms, but it would appear not. Darsen or thereabouts, anyone?)

Dara Happan when borrowing other words tends to murder them quite brutally. Hence I doubt that Dara Happan and 'Modern' Pelandan ever became more mutally comprehensible than say 1/5. As for the origins of the Pelandanisms, Naveria and Darjiin are also places that should be looked at.

FWIW, Antirius IMO originally comes from Pelanda and is related to Turos (cf the description of him in the GRAY where he is the patron of the assemblies). The Ant in the front of his name merely means something like 'Rightful' Turos. All I have to figure out know is how (and where) the ending changes from -ros to become -ri before being picked up by the Dara Happans to become -rius.

>Instead, I think [New Pelorian is] a deliberate and self-conscious
>attempt to recreate the "original" Pelandan language, [...] This
>process is alluded to in the Entekosiad, as JeSevenisation, though
>New Pelorian isn't identitified as the end result, that I recall.

This makes me wonder. Would New Pelorian then be a Restoration Era language? Prior to this, the official philosophy was heavily bent on uprooting Carmanian influences with extreme prejudice and pro Dara Happan (cf TakenEgi being the Lord of the Four Quarters).

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