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Languages |
Languages tend to go extinct when great powers expand their hegemony or communications become better, while diverging when smaller groups of people are separated from each other and devise their own ways of speaking. Over the last millennia this process has occurred many times, resulting in a tremendous linguistic diversity.
During the Information Age and First Interplanetary Era language extinction reached the highest level ever. From 6000 languages used in the 1st century a.t. to 600 in the 2nd and just 60 in the 3rd, people slowly converged on a global culture with Anglish as the lingua franca. Various minorities and cultures held on to their own tongues, but they were few and had a hard time resisting the sheer volume of international communications. In 400 a.t. 90% of all humans had Anglish as their first language.
There was some divergence in style: many virtual tribes, subcultures and especially the orbital habitats developed their own highly recognisable and often incomprehensible jargons and dialects. Especially the culturally and geographically isolated Genetekkers developed their own Genetekkerese, a highly ornate but clear Anglish dialect.
The Nano disaster separated the survivors in small self-sufficient habitats. Even though they might be separated by time lags of seconds, or at most hours, communications were highly restricted for a variety of reasons. The few surviving interstellar colonies had the additional problem of relativistic separation measured in years. Over the following centuries languages diverged wildly. Many colonies had been dominated by different mixtures of cultures, and now their initial mixtures of language grew into unique languages. Even purely Anglish colonies diverged to the extent that their tongues could no longer be regarded as the same language.
When the First Federation emerged it was clear that understanding each other was going to be a major problem, and this was the reason that free access to translation devices was regarded by its leadership as one of the cornerstones of the Federation and later a basic human right. A form of Anglish pidgin was used in emergencies. While there was a noticeable wave of language extinction at first, the spread of translation software meant that many languages could persist that would otherwise have vanished. In fact, the language divergence continued and accelerated tremendously when interstellar colonisation began again.
In the colonies languages could develop independently, separated by
decades of travel. At the same time, relativistic crews retained the
language of their own era, not keeping up with the changes that
occurred among the restframers. As the colonies developed, new forms
of the old Solsys languages developed to the extent that they
became entirely new language families such as the Eridanus Mandarin
family, the Martian family or the myriad Anglish-derived languages.
The age of empires led to the formation of larger empires, and in some language standardisation was enforced. Especially active were the Solar Dominion, exploiting the Divine Order education system to spread Solarian (an Anglish language derived from Edenese), and Cygexpa, giving economic incentives for learning their corporate language (since the 8th millennium this program has ended, but classic Cygnese is still widely understood). The cyborgs and droids on the other hand developed entirely different language families, of which the Metasoft Linguistic Standard (currently in version 43.7) and the Corona AI Council Code (CACC). Direct neural communication standards became popular among cyborgs, but required a standardised brain.
Meanwhile the relativist crews found themselves linguistically stranded. Over the centuries they instead developed their own jargon and language, derived from the Anglish forms of the first federation. Due to their relativistic trips the language changes very slowly, but despite some attempts it has never become a truly useful international language - the original Anglish base is not expressive enough for the needs of modern societies.
The Second Federation Ontology and to a lesser extent the ComEmp included an attempt at creating a truly universal language, but the attempts never became popular except among beings who could easily download new languages or upgrade their language centres. Instead various trade languages such as Douh, Niu Cygnese and Whitneey have emerged. Due to the sheer number and obscurity of many tongues translation standards have emerged so that several pieces of translation software can be stringed together to bridge language gaps. The results are often less than enlightening, but better than nothing.
Many languages have developed into layered languages, due to the
presence of different levels of intelligence or mental architecture in
the population. While the splices, baselines, tweaks, cyborgs and AIs
may all speak the same language they use different vocabularies and
ways of expressing themselves. These different layers have different
complexity; messages in a high layer might be extremely terse and
confusing for a being used to speak in a low layer.
Language family based on the Mandarin-derived Eridanese. Spoken on various widely dispersed planets in the Inner Sphere, former Yoson Confederacy and among many Etodists.
Languages derived from the Slavonic language spoken at Bourgatov. After its destruction many minorities fled and developed their own dialects. Spoken as majority languages in many minor outer volume colonies.
A form of semi-classic Arabic is still spoken in the Core Stellar Umma. In the Shell various mixtures are used, especially the Arabic-Anglish hybrid Anrabic.
Anglish itself went through a number of stages in its development and evolution, especially in the the Inner Sphere and main civilised regions. Some early developments are found in most or all descendant languages. For instance, see the table of Early and Middle Anglish third-person and gender pronouns.
proto-Anglish = New English = Space English - Interplanetary Age language resulting from fusion of Late Industrial and Early Information age Modern English with elements of other languages like Russian, Chinese, Japanese, ircspeak, ebonics, and so on - simpler grammar and syntax than Modern English, but with a lot of technical terms and very rich in neologisms. No longer in use anywhere.
Old Anglish - a development of Proto-Anglish that was used in First Federation times (at the time it was still called "English"). Derived languages are still common throughout much of the Outer Volumes, though many are changed beyond recognition and incomprehensible to an Anglish speaker. No longer used in the Inner Sphere.
Middle Anglish = "Federation Anglish" = Fedspek - popular upper class and diplomatic language that then acquired wider use among the other classes as well, in wide use during the Second Federation, and experienced a revival during the nostalgic period of the ComEmp. Rather similar to Edenese (both languages share a number of words and phrases). Since the Second Federation Ontology was Fedspek friendly the Solar Dominion wanted nothing to do with it. The Mutual Progress Alliance and the NoCoZo however supported it. Today pure Fedspek is only found in a few worlds and habitats of the Outer Volumes and the periphery. However, derivative language like High Anglish, Low Anglish, New Anglish, and Newfed, and their further derivatives, are common.
High Anglish - a development of Fedspek in ComEmp period, still used today. A formal, scholarly, aristocratic, ceremonial, and diplomatic language, supported by the Mutual Progress Alliance. The Solar Dominion naturally point out the virtues and superiority of High Solarian as a ceremonial language, but High Solarian is a more difficult tongue to master, and not spoken outside Dominion and Dominion-client worlds.
Low Anglish - a somewhat simplified version of High Anglish popular on many words during the ComEmp period and still used in a few places today. Originally use of Low Anglish was considered a sign of ill-breading, baselinehood, or animanty, but this prejudice is much less common now. Gave rise to a large number of derived languages, including a number of important local trade languages, on various biospheres and habitats during the Age of Fragmentation (after the ComEmp).
New Anglish - a popular and rather recent development of Low Anglish, a number of dialects differing only in minor details are to be found in the vigorously expanding areas of the Carina Rush.
Newfed - a development of Fedspek during the later ComEmp, still found on some worlds today.
Cyborg academic language used at the University of Corona and in many affiliated habitats and biospheres. Various forms of pidgin Coronese, employing less rigid syntax, are popular among the baseline humans, with different dialects developing on different habitats and worlds - e.g. Quarkish Coronese, Toirrese (spoken in the Toirres Deme and throughout the Leoti system in general), and the multifarious dialects of the Roaming Reach, to name just a few.
Form of martian spoken on New Mars. One of the largest languages among martian-adapted tweaks.
NoCoZo trade language in the Anglish family, derived from the First Federation Old Anglish Pidgin and Merrionese.
The official Cygexpa language. Part of the Anglish family (derived from Old Anglish), although parts are completely artificial.
Simplified trade language descended from Cygnese.
Anglish-derived trade language used in the Sagittarius region. Whitneey branched off from Fedspeak (Middle Anglish) during the Second Federation and especially with the isolation of these communities that followed the destruction of the local stargate nexus during the Version War.
Anglish language from Eden. A development of Old Anglish, with many additional nuances. Commonly understood among Inner Sphere worlds and often used in diplomacy.
Academic speciality language used for archive and library science. Libspek was developed during the period of empires, slowly being updated by the Institute of Information Retrieval on Hollo-Vau and the Encyclopedia Institute on Ken Ferjik.
Edenese-descended Anglish language. Used across the Solar Dominion, understood on many worlds. Solarian branched off from Edenese after the formation of the Solar Dominion during the period of major expansion.
Genen genetekkerese-based dialect, developed as part of the family historicism of the 2000's. Commonly spoken by Genen, official language on Frog's Head.
Post-singularity language that evolved among the early posthumans as a result of an amalgamation of all known pre-singularity Terragen languages. It would become the basis for an entire family of transapient languages that are still the most widely used in transapient to transapient communications throughout Terragen Space.
Emotion oriented artificial language developed at Phobos Olrondi Lang Labs. Makes extensive use of carefully rehearsed gestures and facial expressions. Popular among empaths, especially in the Communion.
An ultra-precise language developed in Tycho City that was primarily used in written communication during the late First Federation. Today mainly used for formal declarations and to some extent Negentropic poetry.
Artificial language created for political control purposes on Hene (Alpha Scintilla III) during the 8400's. Has become a common language in the Eta Carina Rush.
Second Federation Ontology Language (various versions). Still spoken in remote regions, although the isolation has led to many mutually incompatible versions.
Contact language developed by the Institute of Interstellar Xenodiplomacy to initiate contact with alien or far-claded terragens.
Dolphin language spoken on Hwii and many other mainstream sophont enhanced dolphin worlds. Derived from the dolphin language spoken on Okeanos (known as SeaSpeak).
Alien language, used mainly by xenologists of the HIE to transliterate alien names.
Spacer To'ul'h language, used as a pidgin among their various clades and with humans.
Anglish term for Daharran language - see Booklet on Daharran Grammar for details regarding Daharran speech and vocal apparati. See Ma-Tesh for one of three writing styles used.
Digital language used by many Inner Sphere AIs, vecs, cyborgs and virtuals. Notable for its hypertext structure, enabling parallel or branching discourse.
Neural code standard, used among many nearbaseline cyborgs and advanced cyborgs with pidgin lobes.
The current Metasoft language, a digital language derived from the early digital languages of the First Federation Era and the Second Federation Ontology Language.
Emple-Dokcetic language of artificial origin, employing special language modules and possibly wetware language centers. Spreading at a phenomenal rate in the region dominated by the Emple-Dokcetics, causing a major language extinction event.
AI protocol developed during the earliest part of the First Federation or possibly even the Interplanetary Era. Long obsolete, but used as a pidgin among AI when no other languages are available or when trying to find a common language.
Backgrounder hailing protocol, part of the Backgrounder family of cryptolanguages.
