Inherited Language (A to Z Challenge)

Humans are born with some kind of instinct for language and communication. Exactly what is inherited is a matter of some contention among linguists, but our species learns language in childhood. A baby is born listening to sounds, but initially does not understand them or have the physical coordination to produce language. Learning, however, is very fast, and a normal child rapidly learns to understand and speak the language(s) by which that child is surrounded.

In my science fiction the R’il’nai actually inherited their language. A newborn R’il’nian did not have the capacity to understand all of the concepts, nor the coordination to produce all of the sounds, but the language, not merely the ability to use it, was there and the first babbling generally made sense. Humans never succeeded in leaning R’il’nian, and even R’il’noids, those human-R’il’nian hybrids with the most R’il’nian genes, could at best learn R’Gal, a very simplified version of R’il’nian. To Marna, who heard it first as an adult, R’Gal sounded like a pidgin version of R’il’nian.

Most Humans could not even learn R’Gal. Part of the difficulty for Humans was that the R’il’nai were capable of distinguishing a larger number of phonemes than are Humans, which prevented some otherwise excellent linguists from learning R’Gal. But even R’Gal speakers could not generally learn R’il’nian, which involved not only sound, but also esper and empathic components.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Galactica (A to Z Challenge)

Tourist Trap: 2012 fiction book of the year, Reader Views.

Galactica is the lingua franca of the Jarnian Confederation. It is a language based on sound and hearing, and one almost all humans can learn to produce and understand.

Certainly there are variations. On some planets the language has drifted so far that they have developed their own languages, and Galactica has to be taught as a second language. But all children who are taught to read are taught to read Galactica, though planetary dialects may make Galactica spoken on one planet very difficult for the native of another planet to understand. (Think of the varieties of English before radio or television.)

Natural linguistic drift has been balanced by the very long life spans of the R’il’nai and many R’il’noids. When there is a living speaker of a language who learned it several millennia before, pronunciation shifts are very slow. New words, however, are readily incorporated. Probably not as fast as in English, since the pace of technological change is much slower. This relative technological stagnation is also due to a R’il’nian talent: conditional precognition is invaluable in recognizing unforeseen consequences.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Xenotelepathy (Homecoming Glossary)

XENOTELEPATHY: Telepathic communication with a member of a non-human intelligent species.

Galactica (Language, Homecoming Glossary)

GALACTICA (LANGUAGE): The common language of the Confederation. Although people from different planets have substantially different accents, the written forms of the language are reasonably consistent, and two speakers of Galactica can generally understand each other with a little practice.

R’Gal (language) (Homecoming Glossary)

R’GAL (LANGUAGE): A simplified form of R’il’nian used by those crossbreds capable of learning it. Virtually all R’il’noids speak R’Gal, as do some Humans with a high fraction of R’il’nian genes. Some concepts virtually inexpressible in Galatica can be expressed in R’Gal.

R’il’nian Language (Homecoming Glossary)

R’IL’NIAN (LANGUAGE): The inherited language of the R’il’nai. The R’il’nai could understand it and speak it as soon as neurological development had progressed to the point that they were capable of the concepts, usually shortly after birth for understanding. Non-R’il’nai are incapable of some of the sound discriminations needed.