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The Development of the Common Tongue |
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| Posted on Wed, September 21, 2005 by Dongul |
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smillan_31 writes "Ever wondered why the common language spoken in an Oeridian-dominated world is a combination of Ancient Baklunish and an Old Oeridian dialect? This explains it.
The Development of the Common Tongue
By: smillan_31
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.
The Common Tongue is the language most often used in the Flanaess between peoples of different nations and cultures. Unlike many lingua francas, Common is a complex language with a rich literary tradition. This is not to say that most current speakers utilize it on this level. Most who use Common today only know enough to convey basic ideas, though there are many among the educated classes who do use it in its full form.
Common's oldest roots are in the Ancient Baklunish tongue. In the early part of the period of the Migrations and the formation of the Oeridian tribal kingdoms in the Flanaess (c. –465 to c. -200 CY), the most stable nation left in the known world was that last remnant of the Baklunish Empire held together by Azor’alq the Knight (-419 CY). In the first half of the next century (c. -400 to -340 CY), the merchants of that land fanned out through the Flanaess to establish trade with the nascent Oeridian kingdoms. With the death of Azor’alq (-340 CY) the Baklunish Empire finally ended and that state split into the nations of Zief, Ekbir, Tusmit, and Ket. By this time many of the expatriate Baklunish merchants had permanently insinuated themselves into the fabric of the Oeridian-dominated kingdoms of the East, making themselves indispensable to any ruler wishing to establish commerce between his nation and others. Though this merchant class adopted many of the customs and values of the Oeridians they lived amongst, they remained essentially Baklunish. Contact between these widely spread groups necessitated a means of communication, which they facilitated by maintaining a form of the Ancient Baklunish language, seperate from the evolution of that tongue in the West into what is referred to in modern times simply as Low Baklunish.
The status and form of their language, referred to by scholars as Old Common, continued relatively uninterrupted until the dramatic rise of the Great Kingdom. Though much can be said of the battle prowess of the Aerdi and the other Oeridians they absorbed to form the core of their conquering armies, their skills at administration and the other everyday tasks needed to run an empire were decidedly lacking. So it was that when the Great Kingdom came to dominate much of the Flanaess, the need for administrators to govern its far-flung provinces was obvious, and who better to serve the needs of the viceroys and governors of that state as secretaries and bureaucrats but members of the established Baklunish merchant class. As time passed some of the bureaucratic Baklunish families rose to high influence in the Great Kingdom, and even, as in the case of the Yragernes of the Province of Selintan, to the post of Viceroy. Along with the establishment of the ethnic Baklunish bureacratic class came the official adoption of their tongue as a language of administration, used to cement the disparate provinces together. It was during this period that the numerous Aerdian influences in Common took root, transforming the primarily Ancient Baklunish Old Common into a form known as Middle Common. Outside of the Great Kingdom, in the western areas of the Flanaess, dominated by Keoland, the Baklunish merchant class continued to use their own language, adopting the changes being made in the East. Middle Common was even adopted by the hierarchy of the Great Kingdom's pantheon as a liturgical language for the ease with which it helped missionaries spread the proper and true faith throughout the empire and eventually, the entire Flanaess.
So it was that with the fragmentation of the Great Kingdom's empire, Common remained as a language of diplomacy, liturgy, scholarship and trade throughout the Flanaess. In the intervening centuries it has remained strong and has evolved further until we have the form spoken today, known simply as Common.
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Average Score: 2.66
Votes: 3
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Re: The Development of the Common Tongue (Score: 1)
by Woesinger on Thu, September 22, 2005
(User Info | Send a Message) | An interesting heresy*. :)
Common, as presented in the canon setting, really doesn't make a lot of
sense. If it was Sueloise and Old Oeridian or Flannae and Old Oeridian,
it'd be a little more plausible (since those were the peoples that
acutally mingled in the Flanaess during the Great Migrations). Adding
Ancient Balunish to the mix is way out of leftfield.
So how to explain it? A wandering Baklunish scholarly element as
suggested above is one explanation. Not one I agree with, but each to
their own (it does have a vague parallel to the real world, where
Islamic scholars - especially in Spain - helped preserve and pass on
the lore of the Greeks and Romans).
For me, Common has to be a Pre-Migrations tongue - reflecting contacts
between the Oerid tribes in the West and their neighbours at the time,
the Bakluni. If you posit an Oerid culture that was a) tribal and
fragmented to the point where different Oerid tribes spoke their own
dialects (there's evidence for this in references to Oerid tribal
languages like Ferral and Nyrondese) and b) open to Baklunish
influences, you could then suggest a hybrid Oeridian-Baklunish tongue
used to communicate not only with the Bakluni (with whom the ancient
Oerids surely traded with and served as mercenaries for) but between
different tribes.
So under this idea, when the Oerid Hetmen met to discuss the Great
March to the east, they'd have spoken in a form of Proto-Common.
Common became common because of the success of the Oerids in
overrunning two thirds or more of the Flanaess (and having an important
role in the one third they didn't totally dominate). The Aerdi carried
the seed and then propagated it with the empire. Though Old Oeridian
would have been the langauge of record and the Court, Common was what
the merchants and lesser administrators used to glue the empire
together.
That's my take, but like I say - each to their own. :)
P.
*: I say that as there's references in Canon to the Yragernes being
Sueloise IIRC. Also, there's no reference to there being a Baklunish
bureaucratic class in the Great Kingdom. Doesn't mean there wasn't, but
it doesn't strike me as being overly likely. You'd have thought the
courtiers in Rauxes would have preferred to trust their own people,
rather than Bakuni "outlanders", certianly to the extent where they are
there in such significant numbers that their language becomes the
Common tongue.
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Re: The Development of the Common Tongue (Score: 1)
by Wolfsire on Fri, September 23, 2005
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | Thanks for the article, smillan_31. |
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Re: The Development of the Common Tongue (Score: 1)
by smillan_31 on Wed, October 05, 2005
(User Info | Send a Message) | Thanks for all the comments. I like to use alot of real world
influences and references in my version of Greyhawk, so the primary
real world model for my take on Common is Aramaic. It went from being
the language of a small nomadic group in what's now Syria to the common
language of an empire in just about 200 years. It wasn't spread by
conquest until it was adopted by other peoples. The Arameans weren't
conquerors, they just found themselves useful as administrators in the
Assyrian Empire. From that establishment Aramaic went on to become the
official language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. As far as the
Baklunish merchant class, I based their existence on the various ethnic
groups who have done similar things throughout history - Jews in Europe
and North Africa, Armenians in West Asia, Chinese in South Asia, etc.
The adoption of Baklunish elements into Old Oeridan simply through
contact between the cultures doesn't seem likely to me based on real
world models, although nothing Canon I know of says how much of Common
is Old Oeridian and how much of it is Baklunish, so who knows. I'm sure
at some point Gaulish was somewhere in between Gaulish and Vulgar Latin
before it died out. Languages are funny critters. As Woesinger said, to
each his own.
Also, Woesinger, thanks for the ref to the Yragerne's being Suloise in
Canon. I'll probably just keep them Bakluno-Oerid for my version. It
works for me.
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