Lecture 1: The History of Talossan

[Hooligan]

Azul, students. Let's get started. This first week is going to be a bit less detailed than the weeks that follow, in terms of the actual mechanics of Talossan. This first week, I will lecture in general terms about the story of the Talossan language itself, both its mythical heritage and its more recent history.

Although I will use a few Talossan words in this first lecture, I will keep them to a minimum. Don't be intimidated if you don't know how to pronounce a Talossan word (such as "Glhetg") that you see in the lecture, and if you don't know exactly what a word like "Pienamaintschen" means, don't worry about it.

After this lecture, I will post your assignments for this week, which will include some questions based on the subject matter of the lecture, provide you with your first opportunity to learn some basic vocabulary, and get you started on your course-long translation project.

LECTURE 1: THE HISTORY OF TALOSSAN

In some sense, the Talossan language has two histories. Although all actual evidence that has yet been unearthed indicates that the language was created in the year 1980 by the Founder of Talossa, R. Ben Madison (King Robert I, the first King of Talossa), that incontrovertible fact should not be given any more credence in the Talossan mind than the fanciful and mythical history of the language that King Robert I came up with, and that has been refined in the years since.

So, we usually consider the history of the Talossan language to begin two millennia or more before what we term its "rediscovery" by Madison in 1980. Let's discuss this ancient history first.

PART 1: THE MYTHICAL HISTORY OF TALOSSAN

In the time of Rome, the Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. Throughout the Empire, Latin was the language of government and commerce. However, the Latin spoken in one corner of the Roman Empire naturally was not exactly the same as the Latin spoken in another corner. Rome's central location and authority kept the forms of Latin similar, but it was inevitable that localised versions of Latin would take hold in the various lands in the Empire.

This, of course, is the well-known reason why there are "Romance" languages, which is the family of languages that grew from the "Roman" language (Latin). In fact, the Romance languages grew from what is known as "Vulgar Latin" (or, as it was known in some parts, "Ruman"), which is the term used for the different forms of Latin spoken in the remote parts of the Empire.

All Romance languages therefore share a large number of features, and indeed a familiarity with one Romance language means that you can almost certainly learn other Romance languages very quickly, and can often even read other Romance languages, since the words were derived from the same Latin source, and the order of words in a sentence is also common to all Romance languages.

For example, the English word "always" has the following forms in Latin and different Romance languages:

• semper - Latin, Milanese, and Sardinian
  
• siempre - Spanish, Aragonese, Asturian, and Mirandese
  
• sänper - Bolognese
  
• sèmper - Burmanasque and Piedmontese
  
• sènpre - Venetian
  
• sempre - Italian, Portuguese, Corsican, Galician, and Occitan
  
• sempri - Sicilian
  
• sempe - Neapolitan
  
• siempres - Leonese
  
• simpri - Friulian
  

In Talossan, which is a Romance language, the cognate word for "forever" is schemp. Before continuing our history, let's explore one more similarity along these same lines. In some Romance languages, the semper form of "always" has been displaced by using the Latin form "every day" or "all [the] days". This is seen in the following examples:

• toujours - French
  
• totjorn - Occitan
  
• totdeauna - Romanian
  
• todi - Walloon
  
• tojor - Franco-Provençal
  

The similar form in Talossan here, toctziua ("every day"), is used for "always".

All of this was simply to illustrate the fact that Talossan, as mentioned above, is a Romance language. In the mythical history of Talossan, the language developed from the Ruman spoken by the Berbers who lived in the furthest-west portions of the Roman Empire, in what is now Morocco and other areas of North Africa.

Here again, our story kind of splits in two, because there are two theories as to how this ancient Berber derivative of Latin made it across the Atlantic to take root in what is modern Talossa, on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Luckily, there is nothing that says that these two theories aren't both correct.

The first of these two theories is that sometime long before the Christian era, a community of Berbers from North Africa crossed the Atlantic and sparked the North American Moundbuilder culture. The Moundbuilder culture is something of an anthropological mystery -- ancient mounds of earth constructed by early Americans, for purposes lost to time, in the Great Plains and fertile river valleys of the midwestern United States of America -- near Talossa. King Robert I laid the credit for the Moundbuilder culture at the feet of Talossa's mythical Berber forebears, and posited that when they arrived to create the Moundbuilder culture, they brought with them the early form of the Talossan language. This Romance language, thus isolated from the other European languages, developed separately into what is modern Talossan.

The second story takes into consideration the fact that modern Talossan shows a great many obvious influences from the Romance and other European languages that developed after the theorized migration of the Berbers who founded the Moundbuilder culture. Talossan, as we will see, is not as "purely Romance" as other Romance languages. Although it is definitely a Romance language, with the bulk of its features and vocabulary derived from Latin, Talossan has taken on some undeniable features of Germanic and Celtic languages as well, and this indicates a different (or at least a second) migration path for the language.

The second story of the migration of Talossan from Africa to America begins in the 6th century A.D., when the Roman Empire was collapsing and being invaded from all sides. Arabic Moors invaded North Africa and subjugated the Ruman-speaking population. Those Berbers who resisted Arabisation would have taken their language with them wherever they went, as their community became itinerant and ghettoized. These Berbers would have fled the Moors by crossing the strait of Gibraltar and settling on the north coast of the Mediterannean. From such cities as Marseille and Tolouse (which is still called "Tolosa" in some languages), the speakers of the Talossan language would have found their language changing due to influences from French, Occitan, Corsican, Sardinian, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages of the region.

As the Talossan-speaking people began to enter into trade with other European communities, the language's geographical center began to move north and east, through areas where Germanic and Celtic languages are spoken. These languages influenced Talossan, with non-Romance features that we will see in this class. Through these years of the language's mythical migration, Talossan picked up vocabulary and features of Breton, Flemish, Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and then (crossing the North Sea) Welsh, English, and Irish and Scots Gaelic.

(The influence from non-Romance languages can in fact be seen in the example word that was used earlier in this lecture. The letter-combination "sch" -- pronounced like the English "sh", as in "ship" or "ash" -- is a very Germanic combination, not found in Romance languages, and so the Talossan word schemp, which is derived from the Latin semper, is but one illustration of Talossan's Germanic influence.)

After this journey through Europe, the Talossan-speaking community crosed the Atlantic, perhaps rejoining the Moundbuilding Berber pioneers that went before them, and well, that is the story of Talossan before 1980.

PART 2: THE MODERN HISTORY OF TALOSSAN

The story of Talossan since 1980 is the story of one very dedicated teenage boy who grew to become a very dedicated man. At the age of 15, Robert Ben Madison, King of Talossa (which was at that time a much smaller nation than it is today, both in geography and population) created -- er, rediscovered -- the Talossan language that is the subject of our study today. Madison's dedication to the language and to the Kingdom that he founded the year before, is the reason we are able to hold this class today. Madison refused to let what others would consider a childhood whim fade away when he reached adulthood, and for the next three decades he worked tirelessly to ensure that his creations would outlive him. We here are indebted to his tenaciousness, and his stubborn dedication to those creations of his adolescence.

Madison had a knowledge of a great many languages, which was in part inspired by the book "The Loom of Language", a book that describes the origin and evolution of language families. This book was so important to Madison and Talossa that it is still the book on which the Prime Minister of Talossa rests his hand when taking the oath of office.

Madison studied many languages during his education; he spent time in Russia (which was then part of the Soviet Union) where his familiarity with the Russian language grew. Talossan was influenced by Russian among many other languages. In fact, Madison often documented the intentional borrowings from other languages that went into the creation of Talossan.

Madison was initially alone in his pursuit of the language. In the small community that was Talossa back in the 1980's, Madison issued a mimeographed newspaper named Støtanneu (Talossan for "Tusk", which -- performed by the rock band Fleetwood Mac -- is one of our nation's patriotic anthems). This newspaper was written completely in Talossan, and there is every chance that no one who received a copy could read a word of it...except Madison himself. This is how Talossan grew its impressive vocabulary; through being used on a daily basis in the writing of this newspaper. The issues of this newspaper that survive give great insight into the early form of the language, some of which are barely recognizable in today's Talossan.

Madison labored over Talossan tirelessly, creating and maintaining a huge list of the translations of English words and phrases into Talossan (this list, which today has over 30,000 entries, is known as the "treisour", which means "treasure"). He also wrote a book entitled "La Scúrzniâ Gramáticâ Del Glhetg Talossán" (The Short Grammar of the Talossan Language, which is often referred to as La SG, or simply as SG). By 1996, this book had gone through two editions.

Madison viewed the language as a uniquely Talossan thing; something that would bind people sharing the Talossan culture together. This remains true today, and a familiarity with the language is something that every Talossan would have reason to be proud of. This feeling is expressed in the motto "Estetz Talossan, Parletz Talossan", which means "Be Talossan, Speak Talossan". That is the motto of the Comità per l'Utzil del Glheþ (Committee for the Use of the Lanaguage, often referred to by the acronym "CÚG"), the group that Madison created to oversee and study the language.

The Committee was formed when Madison was joined by others who became enthusiastic about Talossan and began to study it. Madison formed the CÚG to provide this growing community of enthusiasts with a forum to discuss and work on the language. Notable among its members over the years is Tomás Gariçeir, who was knighted (as, thus far, the only knight in the Order of the Purple Tongue) by King Robert I for his service and dedication to the language. Gariçeir is very knowledgeable in linguistics, and his assistance in understanding and documenting the language that Madison had built was invaluable.

Under the leadership of Madison and the Committee, the treisour continued to grow in size. Influences from various languages were intentionally encouraged, thus giving the language the flavor that its mythical heritage would imply. As examples, in the late 1980's, Talossan was imbued with a great many words derived from Gaelic, and lately, the CÚG has indicated a preference for deriving words from the languages believed to be closest to Talossa's mythical origins -- such as Occitan, Catalan, and Sardinian.

One of the missions of the CÚG is to periodically issue documents known as Arestadas and Pienamaintschen. An Arestada is a document that describes changes that the CÚG recommends be made in the usage of the language, and a Pienamaintsch is a list of newly-coined words that have been added to the treisour by the CÚG. Over the years, the CÚG has issued a great many Arestadas, some of them detailing minor changes in the language, and others detailing major reforms. As just one example, one of the changes recommended by the Arestada of 13 February 1994 was a change to the plural form of nouns ending in -m.

In 2004, a group of Talossan citizens renounced their citizenship and began to live the Talossan culture separate from the Kingdom, forming the Talossan Republic. This event caused some Talossans to feel torn in their allegiances and friendships, among them Tomás Gariçeir and other members of the CÚG. As a result, the CÚG membership was reduced to a handful of people, including King Robert I. The Talossan Republic formed a separate organization dedicated to the Talossan language. This organization is known as L'Icastolâ (which means "the school").

In 2005, during the election to the 32nd Cosa, the La Mha Nheagra (The Black Hand) political party was challenged on the issue of the availability of material to assist in the teaching and learning of the language. This challenge was one of the causes that led to the abdication of King Robert I, and to his renunciation of Talossan citizenship. The departure of the King further crippled the CÚG, to the point where only one member remained, Quedeir Castiglha (known simply as Q or, now that he is a baron, Lord Q).

This is very near the point where I, your professor, come in. As someone who had been spoken to (ad nauseam) about the language by John Woolley (who is now our King, may God save him and all that rot), I was one of four people (the others being the King himself, Sir Cresti Siervicül, and Xhorxh Asmour -- who is one of the persons attending this class) who joined the CÚG to help resurrect it and to ensure that the language would continue to be studied and updated in the Kingdom.

Beginning in 2006, the CÚG undertook an in-depth study of the phonology, stress, and other features of the language, and this led to the Arestada of 12 December 2007. Input on the recommendations that the CÚG was considering was sought from Tomás Gariçeir and persons involved in L'Icastolâ.

Ever since its "rediscovery", Talossan had been a difficult language to learn, and this was most often blamed on its confusing set of accent marks. One of the goals of the 2007 Arestada was to understand, regularize, and formalize the use of the various accent marks, and in the process simplify spelling, minimizing the number of marks used, as a great many of them were truly meaningless.

As an example, prior to the Arestada of 12 December 2007, an accent mark on a Talossan vowel could indicate stress, or it could indicate a change in the pronunciation of the vowel, or it could indicate both, and very often this same mark could indicate neither. We'll talk some more about this during the class. The point here is that the Arestada of 12 December 2007 gave Talossan a slightly (only slightly, really) different "look" by removing some of the accent marks.

Talossan that is written using the rules in place prior to the 2007 Arestada can be called "Talossan Classic" and is often referred to as "Old Spelling". Spelling that follows the recommendations of the 2007 Arestada is known as "New Spelling". In practice, someone who reads "Old Spelling" has absolutely no problem reading and understanding "New Spelling", and usually the reverse is also the case. As examples, the word "Arestada" was "Arestadâ" prior to the reforms, and the title of Madison's book, "La Scúrzniâ Gramáticâ Del Glhetg Talossán" would be "La Scurznia Gramatica Del Glhetg Talossan" in "New Spelling". The study of how Talossan words were pronounced and stressed enabled the discovery and creation of simple rules (which we will go over next week) that allowed many Talossan accent marks to become unneeded.

"Old Spelling" is still used by many who share our Talossan culture. It is still prevalent among members of the Talossan Republic, and it is a common choice to render one's own Talossan-language name using "Old Spelling".

(Notice that "Old Spelling" is not to be confused with "Old Talossan". "Old Talossan" is one term that Talossans use to refer to the Latin language.)

Whether in its mythical past or in its very real present, the Talossan language has been a continually evolving language. This very fact is what has made Talossan a living language like the other natural languages of the world. Because of this, Talossan has the same kind of odd corners, interesting peculiarities, and quirky irregularities that other languages have. This gives Talossan a unique feel, to where it does not "feel" like a constructed language.

The Kingdom of Talossa celebrates Llimbaziua ("Language Day") as a national holiday every year on December 12. It was on that day in 1980 that the Talossan language was first used in Talossa. And so, as we prepare to enter the thirtieth anniversary year of that first use, Talossan is experiencing a new burst of interest, study, and use; you, the students in this class, represent that burst, and you will be a part of the next chapter in the history of Talossan. How Talossan will grow and adapt, how it will be treasured and maintained, and how strong it will be when it is passed along to our Talossan posterity -- all of this is up to you.

This concludes the first lecture. Thanks for your attention. I will entertain questions about this lecture in this thread.

[Çelís del Þeracour]

I would like to petition for late acceptance into this course. I have been a very absent citizen and feel this course will help me to reaffirm my committment to Talossa. With your permission, Lord Hooligan.

[Hooligan]

D:na del Þeracour --

In you come! Welcome aboard!

Hool

[Ieremiac'h Ventrutx]

Hummm Yes, me too.

[Hooligan]

Excellent, Ieremiac'h! That puts us at an even TWENTY students in the class! Welcome!

Hool

[Gödafrïeu Válcadác’h]

Make that twenty-one.

You skim over the 2004 mass-exodus, of course. You could have said quite easily: "Owing to the King going stark-raving mad, a number of star systems rebelled at these outrages..." ;-)

What a friggin' awesome effort you've put into this, however. BRAVO! I look forward to reading more of these.

GV