Linguistic babblings about Maelstrom
Two bottles of Lucozade have enough caffeine to make my hands hurt, and keep me up way too late. Thus, instead of sleep, you get my notes for an essay about metaphysical reasons for a game system to have a single language (as opposed to the OOC reason of "it is far, far easier to physrep").
Right. Linguistics and Maelstrom, from me trying to figure out a consistent hypothesis about how a single language (will also be referred to as "the holy language" or the "language of the gods" for reasons that will become clear) can be maintained as the only language in the setting.
* First attempt: the Divine has some way to make its will known to its eidolons, as mentioned in the character generation booklet. Possible assumption: it does so in the holy language. Problem here is that this assumption isn't necessary, as it might do so in the same way that other PCs become aware of their true names (language can shape thought, but thought may not necessarily require language).
* Second attempt: eidolons were created by the Divine, with the ability to speak the holy language. Possible assumption: language was taught specifically by eidolons to mortals. Problems here include if an eidolon has to directly teach a mortal, what about the children born when eidolons are not active in that area? Do they just not learn to speak? This simple interpretation can't be true, it must be more complex.
* Third attempt: assume that people learn language generally as people in our own world, and that eidolons simply kick-started it when people were advanced enough to be able to learn language, and regulate it every so often. Backed up by MattP's comments on this thread about elephants kicking you when you do stupid things. This is getting close to workable.
There's a subtle problem here that can be demonstrated with a thought experiment: imagine a Fallen with a cult that they deliberately made speak a pidgin (not-quite-language with a simplified structure, ideally a structure different from the holy language such as SOV where the holy language is SVO) for long enough for children to be born with only that pidgin spoken around them. Would they then speak the holy language but with weird vocabulary, or creolise the pidgin into something different? If we assume that people learn language generally as people in our own world do, then we have to go with "creolise", which opens us to the possibility of new languages, so we must reject it.
* Fourth attempt: people learn language generally as people in our own world, but their "linguistic centres" in their brains are wired differently, so that when they learn language they'll pick up appropriate vocabulary but the structure of the language will always be that of the holy language.
The only problem I can see here is "that's not realistic", but the setting has gods who send angels to do their bidding, so slightly-differently-structured brains is hardly a big leap.
Also, some of the mortal races may not have brains because their physiology is radically different, but we can solve that problem by moving the seat of higher cognitive functions from the brain to the soul (and OOC we assume that people have souls because the body and soul cards are mentioned in the event rules booklet), thus solving the problem.
I think that the fourth conclusion here is closest to accurate, but there's still an experiment that can be done (requiring a newborn mortal and exclusive access to them, of course) to determine whether it's accurate or not.
Right. Linguistics and Maelstrom, from me trying to figure out a consistent hypothesis about how a single language (will also be referred to as "the holy language" or the "language of the gods" for reasons that will become clear) can be maintained as the only language in the setting.
* First attempt: the Divine has some way to make its will known to its eidolons, as mentioned in the character generation booklet. Possible assumption: it does so in the holy language. Problem here is that this assumption isn't necessary, as it might do so in the same way that other PCs become aware of their true names (language can shape thought, but thought may not necessarily require language).
* Second attempt: eidolons were created by the Divine, with the ability to speak the holy language. Possible assumption: language was taught specifically by eidolons to mortals. Problems here include if an eidolon has to directly teach a mortal, what about the children born when eidolons are not active in that area? Do they just not learn to speak? This simple interpretation can't be true, it must be more complex.
* Third attempt: assume that people learn language generally as people in our own world, and that eidolons simply kick-started it when people were advanced enough to be able to learn language, and regulate it every so often. Backed up by MattP's comments on this thread about elephants kicking you when you do stupid things. This is getting close to workable.
There's a subtle problem here that can be demonstrated with a thought experiment: imagine a Fallen with a cult that they deliberately made speak a pidgin (not-quite-language with a simplified structure, ideally a structure different from the holy language such as SOV where the holy language is SVO) for long enough for children to be born with only that pidgin spoken around them. Would they then speak the holy language but with weird vocabulary, or creolise the pidgin into something different? If we assume that people learn language generally as people in our own world do, then we have to go with "creolise", which opens us to the possibility of new languages, so we must reject it.
* Fourth attempt: people learn language generally as people in our own world, but their "linguistic centres" in their brains are wired differently, so that when they learn language they'll pick up appropriate vocabulary but the structure of the language will always be that of the holy language.
The only problem I can see here is "that's not realistic", but the setting has gods who send angels to do their bidding, so slightly-differently-structured brains is hardly a big leap.
Also, some of the mortal races may not have brains because their physiology is radically different, but we can solve that problem by moving the seat of higher cognitive functions from the brain to the soul (and OOC we assume that people have souls because the body and soul cards are mentioned in the event rules booklet), thus solving the problem.
I think that the fourth conclusion here is closest to accurate, but there's still an experiment that can be done (requiring a newborn mortal and exclusive access to them, of course) to determine whether it's accurate or not.