<<
Me>The city is pretty remote from the main Empire
PETER:
No, it wasn't. Prax is controlled by friendly horsemen and there was
the skill of Draconic Flying.
So it *was* remote apart from Auld Wyrmish speaking Dragonfriends and Pure Horse speaking nomads.
PETER:
<< That doesn't explain why Old Pavic was spoken _within_ the Empire,
which strongly implies that it was once spoken throughout a
larger region than Pavis. >>
I am suggesting that the single word "in" in the RQ2 reference should be replaced with "in the time of". Besides this I am also suggesting that Old Pavic was the urban/draconic version of the language of the Pure Horse/Zebra nomads who occupied Prax during the Pavic Golden Age.
PETER
But Old Pavic is a Theyalan Language and not a Pentan one (cf
the example of Rurik the Restless). Ergo most of the settlers
were Orlanthi from Dragon Pass. Pavis did have a band of Pure
Horse Followers but that did not make the majority of Pavisites
Pure Horse People. The Pure Horse Lineage refers to the
Arrowsmith dynasty who controlled the building in Pavis.
ME:
Again I disagree with your assumption that the majority of original settlers
were Theyalan, and that Pavis had more than just a band of Pure Horse
followers. The Pure Horse had been pretty much forced out of Prax by Waha and
Paragua and therefore there was a whole tribe of horsey folk looking to
reestablish themselves, with Pavis and the Faceless statues help, in Prax.
The next major influx of people was in 877, with the Theyalan Sun Domers who
introduced farming into the valley. Note that this is several decades after
the completion of the city. I am guessing here but I suspect that English was
not the native language of the majority of immigrants into the USA and yet it
is the dominant language because it was there first and subsequent immigrants
have always learnt the established language (so , in Pavis, a draconic
version of Pure Horse). Please advise me what language you think Joraz Kyrem
spoke? or the rest of the Arrowsmith Dynasty until 940?
The evidence that Pure Horse was still spoken by people is that the Pure Horse still spoke it, and their descendants (the Grazelanders) still speak it. The zebra people speak Old Pavic. I do not believe that a whole tribe, albeit non traditionalist types who give up horses for zebras, would change from one language (Pure Horse) to another (some Theyalan dialect) just because some immigrant farmers spoke it.
Keith N
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #149
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