Any thoughts? >>
I have some thoughts on the two "new" languages of the Imperial Age, I think Tradetalk is definitely an invented language - it fits in with Issaries making something new out of stuff he has traded from other people - he is not an antique restorer: I have not considered if there was a primal language which, for whatever reason, went wrong. I think Zzabur would say that there was but that the world changed and the old language was no longer useful becuase it didn;t have words for the new things. I suspect Umath had some effect with his howling noise.
Anyway, my thoughts on Tradetalk and Wymish:
There are two magical methods of communication that feature in the Imperial
Age that facilitates understanding between disparate peoples. One is
Tradetalk, the language of the Middle Sea Empire, which is magically easy to
learn and understand. The other is Wyrmish, more a way of thinking than a
language but it makes communication easier, if a bit sibilant. Unfortunately,
these two methods of communication are not very compatible, and have side
effects. Wyrmish is good for peculiar emotions, new thoughts, speaking the
unspeakable and the hard to define. Tradetalk is good for simple emotions
(Sale now on! Buy one get one free! All you can eat for under a 5 clacks!)
for old ideas, for stating the obvious and for defining and classifying the
world.
The key idea for Wyrmish is a "thesaurus", for Tradetalk it is "dictionary"
(or "trademark" or "copyright").
Keith
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