Agreeing to disagree

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 18:31:08 GMT


Peter Metcalfe and I are just going to have to agree to difer on Western Scripts.  

> Michael Cule:
>
> >I'm not saying that 'common tongues' and 'lingua francas' don't exist. I am
> >say that the source indicates that this is not what is happening here.
>
> Oh? And which sources are these?

Oh all right then, source. The note in the Genertela book that says that the diverging Western tongues continue to have one script that all can understand.

Now as far as I'm concerned Brithini *IS* the original Western tongue and continues to be used by the Brithini because to do other would corrupt their Perfection. But the book don't say that the script is the written version of Brithini but that it's what the Brithini and everyone else uses. And to me that just screams out for an ideographic system of writing. The fact that we can tie this in to the ancient Laws of Logic is just cream on top.

> And we have pointed out the examples of Church Latin and Classical
> Arabic that fit the criteria imposed by the sources. Do you have
> any problem with these examples?

Well, really only that it is the least elegant solution. When did this abandoned language flourish and why do the Brithini (of all people) use it?

> >An alphabetic system must relate to the spoken system or it won't work.
>
> And what makes you think that it _doesn't_ in the case of Western?

The fact that if you use the Latin alphabet to write down French and Italian you don't get mutual comprehensibility.

> AF>> Just like English you mean, whose spelling has of course mutated
> >> to _exactly_ match pronunciation?
>
> >Compare English, Dutch and German for a more comparable spread of change in
> >languages. Languages tend to get partially frozen when 'the rules' get laid
> >down and spelling standardised (Dr Johnson has a lot to answer for) but have
> >a look at what common prejudice and ignorance are doing to the spelling of
> >'lite', 'nite' and 'thru'.
>
> FYI this happened as a result of the Printing Press. There are no
> printing presses in glorantha.

My point exactly. Glorantha is still at the stage where spelling is a matter of opinion and before the stage at which it is frozen by people who know exactly what things *ought* to be. And therefore all the more likely, given an alphabetic system, to reflect prononciation and common usage.

> >> I think there probably is a common(ish) spoken form, it's just what
> >> you hear on the streets. A sort of "Church Western", as it were.
>
> >This is directly contrary to the sources.
>
> Could you then give a source citation? The Church Western would be
> similar to if not the same as spoken Brithini which is mentioned in
> the sources.

All right, I confess again that I'm multiplying the one source I've got. But it just don't read that way to me. The simple way to read the statement in the Genertela book is (to me) that they have an ideographic writing system.

On the other hand we entirely agree about Ygg:

> Michael Cule
>
> >About the Yggites I don't have any prejudices but I don't want to invent a
> >whole new pantheon for people who may not even impinge on the campaign much.
>
> All one needs to do is take the Viking supplement and use Ygg instead
> of Odin and that'll be good for most purposes.

Great minds think alike. (Sometimes.)

Actor And Genius
AKA Theophilus Prince Archbishop Of The Far Isles Medieval Society Arms Purpure An Open Book Proper: On the Dexter Page an Alpha Or On the Sinister an Omega Or. Motto Nulla Spes Sit in Resistendo (Resistance is Useless). Ask me about the Far Isles: Better Living through Pan-Medieval Anachronisms.


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