Wyrmstongue

From: Ian Thomson <ithomson_at_swin.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 09:30:43 +1000

>Nobody today speaks EWF-era Old Pavic nor are >there any circumstances
>in which one concievably encounters a living >speaker of EWF Old Pavic.
>The only circumstance in which EWF Old Pavic >would play an influence
>is if one encountered scrolls written in it.

I am presuming this is noting a difference between 'EWF Old Pavic' which was the language spoken commonly by Pavis and his followers that came from the EWF, and was presumably identical to the common language spoken in the EWF

and 'Old Pavic' which is the watered-down, foreign-influenced version which exists in the Rubble today (1610s). There are long term survivors in Zebraside, Real City, and Mani's Fort, and possibly other places (and their principal language would be Old Pavic, and have been for centuries, only adding others when Dorasar came, and possibly influenced a bit by praxian)

My take is that Old Pavic is now very much altered, perhaps in a comparable way from modern English to Old English of Shakespeare's time

So, that speakers of current 'Old Pavic' are actually speaking quite a variant on 'EWF Old Pavic', although it is still recognisably the same language

and presumably still has a great many influences from the human version of Auld Wyrmish

As regards Auld Wyrmish, I am putting forward the possibility that a mass-marketable derivative of this was used as the common tongue in the EWF, and it was not the same as the language dragonewts spoke/speak. (Otherwise many people without good linguistic/mystic capability would be unable to speak it.)

Only the higher echelons (true dragon mystics, scholars and philosophers) would actually learn the many-fold variants of true Auld Wyrmish, although this might be a significant part of the population

All IMHO

cheers

Ian
arkat_at_primus.com.au
(at work)

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