A KICKS Academy Course:
Transgalactic Lingo
Excerpted from a post at the class message board, announcing the results of the voting for the name of our invented language...
TGL (Transgalactic Lingo)!
And here again is the description of TGL:
This is a trade
tongue, used as a kind of universal language. It is the main language of
trade, diplomacy, and science. As humans spread from their homeworld,
isolation occurred for a time because of the great distances that needed to be
traveled at sublight speed. Even settlements whose ancestors spoke the
same Earth language, over the centuries developed their own dialets to reflect
their physical and cultural world.
Then on the planet Einstein's
Legacy, which was settled by scientists and mathematicians, warp speed
capabilities was developed. That planet rediscovered many of the lost
colonies and had formed an alliance with many of the lost worlds.
Einstein's Legacy exploited the worlds to some extent, but also brought
new technologies. TGL is based on the language of Einstein's Legacy.
However, the language has borrowed words and expressions from many of the others
worlds that it has developed trade relations with. (sort of like old-world
English).
Speakers of TGL typically come from the upper classes
and the educated of most worlds. Speaking TGL is a must for those who
trade offworld. It's also the unofficial, official language of diplomacy
between worlds. And most scientists at least read and write it so that
they can keep abreast of the lastest developments in their fields which are
generally published in journals on Einstein's Legacy. Also many of the
beggars, protitutes, con artists, and trades men and women who operate near the
space ports speak TGL. As well, the space ship crews all speak TGL.
The Alliance is very loose. Individual cultures on the various
planets vary enormously. So far, peace has prevailed. But many fear
that with contact between worlds, sooner or later an aggressor will start
intergalactic conflict. Therefore some worlds have begun positioning and
negotiating mutual defense treaties. Many feel that only a galaxy-wide
formal government will forstall conflict.
Congrats to Dena, who proposed TGL. Now before we get started
developing this language, we need to consider how the backstory will affect the
character of the language. For example, TGL developed from the language of
Einstein's Legacy, a world settled by scientists and mathematicians, so we might
expect a great deal of "technical terms". Yet it is currently spoken by people
ranging from scientists to diplomats to space ship crews to beggars - so it must
cover a great range of uses and have vocabulary to suit all these types. Perhaps
from the "technical terms" of Einstein's Legacy, simpler vocabulary has emerged?
Or, consider how TGL has borrowed words (as all languages do, and English is
particularly fond of doing) - perhaps it gets its "advanced" vocabulary (the
technical terms) from Einstein's Legacy but commoner terms from another
language, the way English takes most of its "upper class" words from Norman
French, "lower class" words from Anglo-Saxon, and "scientific" words from Latin
and Greek roots.
Another thing to consider when we get to creating
vocabulary is what languages TGL has borrowed from. If the languages of the
various planets, including Einstein's Legacy, developed from Earth languages,
then TGL words will have roots in existing languages - English, French, German,
etc. We should decide what languages the language of Einstein's Legacy is
descended from, as well as the other languages from which TGL will be borrowing.
This'll help us when we get to creating words. (It would probably be best if the
"ancestor" languages of TGL are languages that we in this class speak. :-) For
example, we all speak English - after that, French and Spanish have the highest
representation in the class.)
Think about these things, but for now
we'll move on to the first lesson and start developing the sounds of TGL!
