>> Actually I doubt that New Pelorian is widely used outside of the
>> foreign population in Sartar. Most Lunar soldiers are illiterate as
>> well!
>
>There's a rather neat little Seven Mothers talent/feat (common magic) called
>"Read anything". Which implies to me that most Lunar solidiers can read
>(just). But they can't write. The Lunar army can issue written orders, to
>its officers at least, in the expectation of them being understood.
I don't think most Lunar soldiers are initiates of 7M. Probably most officers can read and write, in the Lunar provinces like Tarsh that will be the commonest source.
>> Moreover, most Heortlings will likely not risk Lhankhor Mhy's
>> anger by learning a script.
>
>This is a different script, remember? The assorted scratching types, yes,
>that's sacred to LM, and you wouldn't want to annoy him. But being able to
>read what the Lunars are writing? Especially when some helpful Lunar
>decides to communicate with their "subjects" in writintg, because that would
>have worked at home? I don't see it being common, I don't see Sartar ever
>becoming a literate society, but more people able to read New Pelorian than
>their own language - yes. As Donald says, Lunar missionaries will teach it,
>too. So both the very pro-Lunar and the very anti-Lunar will be learning it.
I'm thinking that clan chiefs will want to know whether the impressive parchment shown by this foreigner is actually an imperial decree demanding taxes or a report to some official in Glamour used by an unscruplous individual. So there's a big incentive for someone in the clan to learn to read - an incentive which didn't exist before.
>> Between 1603 and 1625 there is a dramatic
>> surge in the amount of documents written in New Pelorian, but
>> when the Lunars leave Sartar, I suspect New Pelorian goes with them.
>
>Yes. The remaining natives would no longer have any need for it.
But the individuals who've learnt it will still be there, and if the rebellion have been using it for convenience that may well continue. Just like Dark Age Europe - Latin was the written language because most literate people learnt it rather than their native tongue. Whether this happens in a single generation in Sartar is questionable but certainly possible - most Africans adopted a colonial language in the two or three generations between conquest at the end of the 19th Century and independance in the mid 20th. Another possibility is that New Pelorian script is used to write Sartarite. Of course there may be a religious inspired backlash in Sartar against anything Lunar.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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