village speech
The language spoken in women's villages originated more than fifty generations earlier from a pidgin developed during the merger of three nomadic bands. All three pre-merger languages had tones, but did not agree on how to use them. Within a generation the new language's speakers settled into a three-tone system that applied the tones based on the speaker's reaction to the subject:
- Respect. Elders, craftmasters, parents, the moon.
- Cherish. Babies and small children, pets, favorite toys.
- Ignore or use. Most inanimate objects, plants, small nonthreatening animals.
- Avoid. Obnoxious people, poisonous plants.
- Flee. Predators, strangers, swarms of angry bees.
- Women. Middle and high tones.
- Children and pets. Mostly middle-to-high, middle-to-low.
- Objects and small animals. Low and middle tones.
- Boys. Many high-to-low and low-to-high tones.
- Threats to life. Predominantly high-to low.
View from the Future
When the exiled women settled along the lower river, they granted boys who had become fathers the same rights as women. This included being spoken to in respected tones. Once again the use of classification tones became situational:- People who command.
- People who need care.
- Not people.
- People who serve.
- Threats to life.
Dictionary
Common Phrases
Many expressions used in The Ocean originate from village speech. A few examples:
Hope eases all hurts. Optimism helps recovery.
Who catches fish cannot climb trees. No one is a master in all skills.
The two ends of a rope are the same. Identical twins are one person. (Modern-day versions instead refer to inseparable friends.)
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