Junora: Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 18:17:24 +0100


Peter Metcalfe kindly replies to me in great detail and I feel horrid that I'm going to have to firmly squash some of his points:

>The Civilized People of the Janube Valley speak Janubian, 'a tongue
>not closely related to any other' (Genertela Book p12).

That's as may be. But Junora is not on the river and on p 13 it says that in the Kingdom of the Jonatings they use three languages 'Junoran, Syanoran and Oranoran, three related Theyalan tongues'. If Junoran isn't what they speak in Junora then I'm a Dutchman.

>>2) 'Western' languages all use the same written language. Presumably
>>this means that it uses an ideographic script (if that's the right word?
>>Like Chinese, anyway). How tightly is this bound up with the system of
>>Logic that existed before Time?
>
>This has been dealt with before and the concensus is that it's in
>an alphabetic script but people only use it for writing down

Why? It makka no sense! For a script to be used to communicate by groups using differing spoken languages seems to require an ideographic script. If it is alphabetic the language will mutate as the written language mutates and will soon be mutually incomprehensible.

The analogy with Latin as a common sacred tongue fails because Latin has a spoken and written form of its own. I think it must be more like Japanese and Chinese using ideographs to communicate.

I think the idea of preserving the 'Holy Texts' in the ancient language makes sense though. (And allows me to have a whole new aspect to the heresy I'm inventing for my campaign!)

>>4) Where did all these ruddy Orlanthi come from anyway? Ygg's Isles? How
>>did the Orlanthi get *there*? Mythologically and historically, Heortland
>>seems to have been the core of Orlanth worship (although presumably
>>KeroFinela was the GodTime core).
>
>You raise an interesting point and one that I'm not completely certain
>about the answer to. The Yggi are not Orlanthi and have their own
>traditions.

p 34 of Player's Book Genertela says they are *so* Orlanthi. Unless this has been officially Gregged?

>The other Orlanthi come from the south over the High
>Llama's Pass into Jonatela and Oranor.

That makes sense. Yes, pressure from Malkioni and Arkati to the south. I can work with that.

Thanks for being so helpful Peter. Sorry I had to squash you like that.

End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #125


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