There was limited contact with Ralios when Dragon Pass was off limits - getting over Dorastor has always been a pain. Ralian Orlanthi might encounter more Dragon Pass Orlanthi heroes than ordinary folk! Thanks to Harmast (who resided in Ralios for several years and taught the Ralian Orlanthi the secrets of his Lightbringers Quest), the Ralian Orlanthi have long been a vibrant center of Orlanthi culture (like Kerofinela) and not a peripheral region (like Maniria). Kind of like Anglo-Saxon becoming a core center of early medieval Christianity in part thanks to St. Augustine.
> In any case, the separation in question lasted only a couple of
centuries,
> correct? That's enough time for linguistic drift to cause north
and south to
> separate somewhat linguistically, but not enough likely to make
them very
> far from each other. Consider that despite four centuries (OK, two
> centruries since we were colonies, and only one without modern
> communications), the Atlantic ocean, and pentambic iambeter that I
can make
> out Shakespeare. To say nothing of the ease with which I can
understand the
> English of modern British people.
My current theory is that the folk of the north (which Gloranthan scholars have given the misleading name of "Alakoringites" to), who belonged to the EWF and are the ancestors of the original Heortling tribes spoke the baseline "Heortling" language - admittedly with some Syllilan and Dara Happan loans words. The southern Orlanthi of the Heortland plateau spoke a dialect with some uz loan words and maybe some Praxian loan words. With the Dragonkill, these groups were separated and the vibrant northern Orlanthi language got a lot more Sylillan, Carmanian and Dara Happan loan words and the southern language - with few outside contacts other than maybe Esrolian - became a living fossil.
Jeff
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