No, but Dave was, hence the squabble... (Or he cited it as _a_ reason, at least.)
> If we want to describe their culture we should argue from Gloranthan reality.
> Just like Greg does with mythology.
Greg argues from whatever he likes, when he likes, and only if he likes. In short, he's a an ideal role model. ;-)
> It is, after all, the oldest written language in Glorantha, is it not? It
> makes sense to me that older written languages are more logographic than
> yonger. It has also been unchanged for millenia, a fate few alphabetical
scripts
> survive, as people tend to spell as they speak.
Brithini make claims that their _language_ has been unchanged for implausibly long periods of time. If you believe that, they have an Awesome Bridge they'll sell you, too... But that's the language, rather than the script, anyway. Kralori is probably much older, though it did did get 'reformed' relatively 'recently'. (Emperor #9 or thereabouts...) (If you want my guess, I'd say that Kralori was logographic, or perhaps syllabic in character. Groans of 'predictable', I know...)
> I think one of the oppositions to Western script to be ideographic is that
> people think in terms of Chinese. I think of it in terms of ancient middle
east
> languages, precursors to our alphabetical scripts (including Hebrew).
You have to dig pretty deep into Ancient to find a logographic script west of the Tigris, if memory serves. (This is a big if, admittedly.) Given that the Gloranthan West is flagrantly mediaeval, and pretty late mediaeval in many respects at that, it's hard to find an 'analogue' that seems at all compelling, if one wants to argue along those lines.
> We do know that the written form of Western language is the same, but that the
> spoken differs. Now, this difference can arise with alphabetical scripts, but
> it is easier to think of in cultures using ideographs. The differences can be
> greater, as well, as it is easier to pronounce an ideograph in wildly
differing
> ways.
This is true. Chinese 'dialects' make Spanish and Italian sound more like slightly odd accents. But the language rules in ye olde RQ Genertela box implies that really, the Western languages are fairly similar, so an alphabetic script seems to me to present little difficulty. If they were _totally mutually incomprehensible_ languages, I'd be at least a tad concerned...
> There is that interesting connection to the Runes.
Which proponents of logographic Western like to hint at coyly, but rarely commit themselves to anything compelling or indeed clear on. What _is_ this alleged connection?
> And, last, and most personal, it messes with our heads and forces us to think
> in different ways.
Speaking for my own personal head, it forces me to think "what a egregious and cheesy insertion". ;-)
> It also gives the Westerners yet another point to argue
> about, i.e how to pronounce, and in some cases, interprete, an ideograph.
Like that never happens with alphabetical scripts?
> I would think that the only alphabetical script in Glorantha is the youngest
> written language, New Pelorian.
That would be very odd indeed. In the RW, they're by no means historically recent. Why are Gloranthan linguistic processes so different, that they'd all sit around indefinitely, putting up with the problems of a logographic script? Peloria has for some time had an alphabetic script: so much so that Pelandan glyphs had to be self-consciously _revived_ at one point. (I can't help but think of the process with many Irish place names, long since mangled badly into Anglicised versions, being mangled back into some sort of Irish (whether or not it resembles the original being another matter).) So that's a small truckload of languages for starters. Other regions I'll grant you are much less clear. At the other extreme, the Praxians seem not to have a written form of their language at all. (I don't think you can 'say' an arbitrary sentence of Praxian in knot-writing. It's more like a simple non-verbal language in its own right.) In between, I don't doubt there are all sorts of wonders and atrocities.
Cheers,
Alex.
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