RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Good morning!
Ok, topic just occured to me, thanks to a bit of message board exchanges with Mothman.
In Northern Appalachia (SE Ohio) growing up, we used "rootin' around" to mean digging through stuff looking for something, "Yeah, I'm rootin' around looking for a red crayon." In AU and NZ apparently, "rootin' around" has a drastically different meaning.
So given that Cheliax broke from Taldor in 4081, Moulthune broke away from Cheliax in 4632, Galt broke away in 4667, and Andoran broke away in 4669 (629 years, 78 years, 73 years, and 41 years ago, based on 4710 as current year) how much linguistic drift do you think would have occured, especially in slang and colloquialisms?
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Probably less so in geographically contiguous & heavily trade-invested former colonies like Andoran and Galt; there's an ocean's difference between SE Ohio and Australia, so to speak. Still, given the retrospective nature of Taldan society, their breakaway nations are probably quicker to adopt new slang and borrowed terms than the old fatherland.
Oddly enough Rootin Around has the same meaning in western Canada as the appalachians, and we are on the opposite side of the Country, like LA vs NY :) but... New Zieland and Auztraillia is verry different as there was much more Irish and Scottish colonization and had a different language base than the US wich was French and English. The Keltic Gaels brought their own language and slang with them. EG in the US they say Zee witch is French and We say Zed wich is Englsh witch is more based on the pronounciation of the Greek Zebulon- Zeb, Zed... As the English Alpha Bet comes from the Greek Alpha Beta Zebulon etc.
Slang would be different in those countries by quite a bit, like Queens NY vs Detroit, vs Rhode Island, etc. or even LA
Even heavy trading activity won't serve enough to homogenize language so the Cheliax might be on a verge of having separate language from the Taladan. It took about 400-600 years plus invasion of barbarians to evolve classical Latin into two separate languages of bastardized Latin and early Italian with common people of Italia being mostly incapable of understanding bastardized Latin (which later got better with increased education and learning and recovery of some Latin works).
Colonists are often made up of people from lower classes or ethnic minorities who's language is already different from the "official" language of their mother country, add in loan word from whatever native peoples surround your colony and linguistic drift could be quite dramatic.
This doesn't even factor any deliberate actions on the part of the colonists. I've been told that one of the reasons American English is different from the Queens English is that early American dictionary writers would deliberately alter words in order to "Americanize" the language.
Another real world scenario that could be considered a corollary is the evolution of french in Quebec versus France. While comprehension tends to be maintained between the two, there has been enough drift that I've seen French (France) speakers ridicule Quebecois for its backwardness; ie. no communication problem, but socially looked down on in the Motherland.
Also, modern high Chelish dialect could be strongly influenced by Infernal which would make it stand out in comparison to other post-Taladan dialects. Maybe tendency for very structured and formal grammar and official language reform to remove irregularities and precise redefinition of words. Both to make Chelish precise and safae to deal with devil AND at the same simplification of low Chelish (a la Newspeak, as a tool of controling masses).
There is quite a bit of difference between Quebecois French and Pariesen French. To the point where in some cases the French cant understand the Quebecers... I have seen frenchmen ask Quebecers if they speak English because they can't understand what they are saying, and ernestly so. Though there is still a lot of comprehention if they work at it.
There is quite a bit of difference between Quebecois French and Pariesen French. To the point where in some cases the French cant understand the Quebecers... I have seen frenchmen ask Quebecers if they speak English because they can't understand what they are saying, and ernestly so. Though there is still a lot of comprehention if they work at it.
I have both in my classes and they talk comfortably but you may have some strong accents in different parts of Quebec. The French of an educated Quebecois is easily understood by educated French nationals.
I think Drejk is right: Cheliax will aim for a high standard dialect learnt by the aristocracy with infernal influences, and a slightly off-standard dialect spoken by educated Chels. Speaking anything other than these two raises the eyebrows of the Hellknights who are now obliged to ask to see your papers.
Andoran, on the other hand, will have made a virtue of one or more of the non-standard dialects and these will have intermingled and produced a new standard used in public debate. To a Taldoran they would sound ridiculously rural.
Taldor will try to maintain an older form of the language but will find it increasingly difficult to do so. Loan words will be entering the language at a constant rate. Commoners may play with nonstandard dialects, including the rural dialects spoken in Andoran.
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Good morning!
Ok, topic just occured to me, thanks to a bit of message board exchanges with Mothman.
In Northern Appalachia (SE Ohio) growing up, we used "rootin' around" to mean digging through stuff looking for something, "Yeah, I'm rootin' around looking for a red crayon." In AU and NZ apparently, "rootin' around" has a drastically different meaning.
So given that Cheliax broke from Taldor in 4081, Moulthune broke away from Cheliax in 4632, Galt broke away in 4667, and Andoran broke away in 4669 (629 years, 78 years, 73 years, and 41 years ago, based on 4710 as current year) how much linguistic drift do you think would have occured, especially in slang and colloquialisms?
In all parts of the UK "rooting around" means digging through stuff while looking for something.
I should point out that the UK has drastically diverse dialects between peoples living 50-100 miles apart. This has lessened to some degree with the advent of mass communications but if you put a Mackem and a Brizzle together you'll probably get some genuine linguistic confusion pretty quickly.
So, considering the communications most Taldans/Andorans/Chelaxians have access to you're going to have really diverse dialects within each nation.
However, koine was a genuinely successful linguistic tool around the Mediterranean for a long time. So consider that a counter-example.
If you're interested in dialects and community identity then this might amuse you:JZ spoof about the small Welsh town of Newport. Followed by a counter-spoof made because the original lot were not from Newport (but were Welsh).
Counter-spoof made by Newport's most famous sons: GLC.
If this makes no sense, just blame the British sense of humour.