not a single word of Temporal, Exaltationist or Anglic;
very few words of Planha or Eriau;
some phrases in Wunderlander, derived from European languages;
some words in the Hero's Tongue -
Kzin, a planet;
kzin, a member of the dominant species of Kzin;
kzinti, adjective and plural of kzin;
kzintosh, a male kzin;
kzinrett, a female kzin;
t'kzintar, warrior;
kz'eerkt, monkey;
kshat, herbivore;
the phrase for "It does not follow," see here.
Do contributors to the MKW series add new words and is the language kept consistent?
Kzinti, like ERB's green Martians, acquire each other's property by fighting and killing each other. I still question whether such a society can be stable enough to last as long as the Patriarchy has.
7 comments:
It wouldn't be a stable system for humans -- though some have approached it.
In THE BROKEN SWORD, Orm the Strong kills an English landholder and takes his estate; then he pays land-bot and wereguild to the man's relatives, who by accepting it make the acquisition (and the killing) legal and aboveboard. That's a fair reflection of Viking-era Norse practice.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I should have remembered that, how Anglo/Saxon and Scandinavian allowed for this retroactive "legalization" of murder and theft. Given the weakness of states in those times, plus a more than half barbaric society (made even more so because of the chaos of the Viking wars and raids), something like this paying of weregild and land price to the surviving heirs of the English landowner was probably necessary. So there would be SOME social stability.
I would need to check, but I think ancient Israel, during the period of the Conquest and the Judges, had a roughly similar system.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot to add that as "early" as Old Nick's time English had changed that it was called Anglic. And Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems needed to be translated into Anglic. Last, one or two times I made a stab at trying to write into a futuristic language like that.
Ad astra! Sean
"Blood price" systems are an alternative to pure -lex talonis- and blood-feud; usually they coexist with them.
In Orm's case, the family are intimidated into accepting the blood-price; but once they've done so, they're honor-bound to stand by the deal. Conversely, Orm doesn't have to expect assassins with bows behind every tree when he's out hunting.
The Icelandic Republic went down in a maelstrom of blood-feuds because this system of compensation seasoned with intimidation stopped working at all, until the exhausted survivors called in the Kings of Norway.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Yes, a purely blood feud system of settling grudges and avenging crime WOULD lead only to anarchy and chaos. Which was precisely why an exhausted Iceland devastated by the Sturlung Age accepted Norwegian rule.
Not all of the surviving heirs of the English landowner Orm murdered accepted weregild and land price from him. The landowner's mother was a witch who vowed to avenge her sons thru's Orm's own children. But that, of course, made her an outcast to the rest of the family after they accepted Orm's offer.
Ad astra! Sean
Weregild was also a salve to honor -- it meant the other side had acknowledged fault and made restitution. If anyone in the kin-group rejected it, he was saying something unpleasant about his kin, which wasn't going to make him popular.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! And that would explain why that witch in THE BROKEN SWORD was living alone, despite advancing years. She had made herself too unpopular with the rest of the family. And all this would be an of the kind of reading between the lines fans love to do!
Ad astra! Sean
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