>The use of written and spoken Latin as the language of intellectual and
>clerical discourse in the middle ages, perhaps? This is the parallel I ha=
>ve
>always used for the survival of the "Ancient Brithini Written Language"
>into the modern West.
I agree that that latin is the parallel that comes to mind for its social use, but thats not what the details of it are. Its not different cultures (with different spoken languages) using a different language for scholarly writing, its a shared written form between two people who couldn't communicate verbally. I guess the case can be made that this is equivalent to a shared language that no one pronounces the same, though.
But then again, kanji does fulfill a relatively similar social role to medieval Latin, so the parallel can hold up. I think a few little wild cards are good for Glorantha, so a language like Latin but ideographic like Kanji would be an interesting difference - I don't think the West should be too much like medieval Europe.
David
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