Re: The Glorantha Digest V8 #94

From: Peter Larsen <plarsen_at_mail.utexas.edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 23:15:49 -0700


Jeff Richard says:

>My apologies - I should have been more precise. I believe that the
>Heortlings currently possess at least two scripts.

>That is what the post-First Age Orlanthi tend to believe, however it is
>wrong.

        I just got my hands on Enclosure I & II (very nice, too). Are there any other good sources for this period?

Alex Ferguson says many things about language,

>Note that some systems spread "better" than others.

        I suspect that Western has an advantage here; I'm guessing its very regular.

>Conversely, Serbo-Croat is in much this
>position, being written in one of two different scripts (both alphabetic
>and with a common ancestor, admittedly, but still impressively
>perverse, you must admit.))

        OK, it's all weirder than I imagined. I think I'll stick to writing technologies, where I'm on firmer footing....

>I don't think you
>can try and take the logic of adjacency too far. Look at China and
>Japan, just to confuse matters intensely; near neighbours, essentially
>the same script, _utterly_ different languages.

        But Japanese writing is very conciously derived from Chinese. And heavily modified to meet the needs of the language. They didn't create their own script, they borrowed a nearby script. (Of course, there are no doubt examples of adjacent countries with radically different writing systems; I just think its a tendency to use what's close, not an iron-clad law).

Peter Metcalfe says more things about language:

>A possible magical usage might be this: a Buseri wants to
>know how well he will do in the forthcoming exams.

        This is weirdly compelling....

>Western script is magical, not the least because God wrote
>in it (or Zzabur fashioned the best possible writing system
>depending on whom you believe). I suspect that writing a
>statement down can reveal that it is logical or not or whether
>one outcome is better than another.

        How about Western numerology? Perhaps the rigorous logic of the language allows a user to determine the truth of a statement by comparing number values. Of course, the abiding book could be full of texts that can only be deciphered by the holy....

>>Lastly, John Hughes reveals that the Orlanthi script is borrowed, but
>>there is no idea from where.
>
>The Emperor's Tribe seems a logical guess.

        A source I had not even considered. Thanks.

Peter Larsen


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