INDIVIDUALISTIC TENDENCIES IN THE PRIMAL TONGUE The Primal Tongue, spoken on our world from the beginning of the Age of Dawn until the end of the Age of Life, returning with the Age of Magic, and preserved in the Ages between as a Lorespeech, has one of the proudest histories of any language. It birthed all the tongues of this continent save the musical Elwen tongues, the draconic languages, and the speech of offworlders such as the korin and humans, and was parent by artificial construction to Universal, the common tongue in the Third Era. By the time it was abandoned because of its association with the silverini, who kept it in a perfect, unchanging state throughout the million years of Empire, it had acquired a further distinction as the common tongue of Maruss Freewind's army. It remained in use throughout the Third Era, if not commonly, for most personal names were taken or given in it, as they still are. Whether one took a new name as an adult or was given it at birth did not matter; it still took a working knowledge of the Primal Tongue to give a name descriptive of one's personality or basic characteristics at birth. And as a further crown heaped on a head already tottering with glories, essencenames- whether of Elwen, elf, dragon, or unicorn- come to their owner in Primal form. Yet some linguistic historians have found Primal difficult to understand, and have criticized it, especially, for its seeming tendencies to produce new words out of nowhere, spell things any way it wishes to, pronounce things likewise, and in general be difficult. The only reasonable explanation that can be offered is the profound influence of Elwens on the language. As the dominant race on the continent (the humans thought they were, but were rudely disabused of this notion, or should have been, following the War of Acceptance and the Sublimation) their individualist code of ethics was bound to make itself felt somehow. It spread with them as they crossed and recrossed the continent on Wanderfrees and quests, established settlements that have lasted more than thirty billion years, transacted business with dozens of different races, made new discoveries in magic, changed history in any of two thousand ways, lived thousands of years, and eclipsed the other two-legged races. The reclusive elves preferred to withdraw to their own private worlds, pretending nothing had ever changed or ever would. The humans, relatively new arrivals from another world, grew jealous of the Elwens and attacked, were beaten back, recovered their numbers and had another try at genocide, were this time utterly crushed, and were further scattered and mostly Changed after the Release. The alfari have always kept to themselves, obeying their own unpredictable dictates and holding other races at a distance with that and with their enormous powers of magic. The korin fled the world long ago, at the end of the Age of the Swan, in obedience to a prophecy. However, the influence of Elwens is not only in fairly obvious things such as spelling and nouns, which people note if not ever think about. They also originated the (in the words of the historian Aelaer) "insanely complicated" third-person singular pronoun system, much slang people use without knowing its original meaning, and, perhaps most deeply of all, the meanings of words. Their moral code accounts for the reason words spring from certain roots, why some things are valued while others are not, and so on. This essay deals with the individualistic tendencies of Primal and attempts to explain them in a satisfactory way. PRONOUNS The pronoun system of Primal divides itself into six classes: one first-person singular, one second-person singular, seven third-person singulars, one first-person plural, one second-person plural, and one third-person plural. The truth and strength of Elwen involvement with Primal can thus be seen from the beginning. To them, plurals were not important; plurals are merely compilations of individuals, and to the Elwen, the individual is the important one. Similarly, the second- person singular needs only one pronoun; the only possible distinction to be made there is one of gender, and Elwens treat women and men absolutely equally, without either chauvinism or chivalry. And the first-person singular was considered by Elwens to be self-evident. Thus the existence of one rigidly defined and understood first- person singular pronoun. But single people one is speaking of are individuals, and Elwens love precision in language where there is the slightest excuse for it. Thus the seven that follow, the three more common listed first and four less common second: Aten. It, neuter, without sex. Used when referring to things, concepts, actions, but not (if possible) when to animals. Could possibly be used when referring to a neuter individual, but the existence of this meaning is complicated by the meanings of two of the four less common pronouns. Eje. He, him, of the masculine gender. Because Primal has separate words for man and other concepts regarding males (that Elwen love of precision again) it can also mean male animals, but it is the source of the word for boy, ehe. Hej. She, her, of the feminine gender. As with eje above, it can be used when referring to female animals, but it has spawned the common word for girl, hij. The four pronouns listed below are given in order of commonality of use, unlike those above (all used more or less equally). Precision both dictates their existence and their less common usage. Ej. This ancestral word from which both eje and hej sprang, originally meaning simply 'person,' has also come to mean 'he or she.' Because of the possible confusion (especially in scholarly or ancient texts) and the Elwen use of precision, it has dropped from common vocabulary and everyday conversation. Its use now is mainly in the impersonal: "Meicalakasi sha'olsbeteesta toa esain toa tiemerdal, koa ej sha'jowosta shaun si estila." (All others should take note of the warning to the intruder, and he or she should depart as soon as possible). Ta. This word enfolds all three genders, meaning 'he, she, and/or it.' Usually used in broad, sweeping generalizations that Primal tends to avoid. Still, they do occur, especially when there is no way to be sure of gender: "Taa heerfi iestun ta tardoan." (Its/his/her arms hid it/him/her completely.) However, see the following pronouns. Xea. Used when the speaker does not know the gender of the person he or she is speaking of, but would like to know. An extremely polite and formal word, a delicate means of inquiry and finding out about a person, it once could charm even the most reluctant into giving up their secrets. Primal's growing trend toward informality probably encouraged the drop. Ina. This vulgar word is used when the speaker does not know the gender of the person he or she is speaking of, and does not care to know. Extremely rude, even considered shocking and obscene, it dismisses the object of speech entirely from the speaker's thoughts. Its continued existence is typically Elwen. One more interesting note on pronouns: Though other two-legged races tend to use the pronoun that exemplifies the dominant gender in their society, Elwens use it based on their own gender. Thus a male Elwen will speak of all other Elwens as he and him, and use the combination he or she. An Elwen woman will refer to others in general as she or her, and use the combination she or he. Of course, individual preferences are anything but discouraged. NOUNS As mentioned before, the biggest influence on nouns in Primal has been the Elwen moral code. Though a completely detailed look at every noun in Primal and how it evolved is, of course, beyond the scope of this essay, a general survey of meaning and a small sampling have been entered. Things that Elwens consider virtues- for example, pride and courage- have the ending -emma, the Primal root for virtue. The word for defiance, lindo, springs from the same root as light. Similarly, lu, meaning brilliant with extra connotations of good, has become the basis for alusta, truth. Elwens revere the stars, and consider names precious, so it is perhaps natural that aeren, the word for name, also incorporates the word for silver star. There are a myriad words for star, all with very exact meanings. Elwens, with so much pride, naturally consider service degrading, and vigon, the word for service, shares its first element with other words that mean bowing, kneeling, and so forth. Elwens also have a very exact means of detailing service, with twelve words for different kinds. Their name for the lowest kind, slavery, is the same as the name for anathema. Elwen legends, or at least stories that Elwens were the first to set down, have named many birds and animals. Thus the name of the shrike, the fimina, literally means vengeful songbird, and alludes to a story that the shrike lost its song long ago when it started to kill the others. Other nouns, mostly compounds, that most are familiar with are the names of the Elwen races. Some are named as simply as the rechoi, the thorn Elwens, whose name literally means thorns, and others are more complex, describing the races themselves. Such names are curalli, lovers of darkness, and alalori, dawn-raisers. It is believed Elwens first instituted the practice of triple names for occupations and animals. Archaic Primal possessed only one noun for priest, protector, lion, ocelot, and so on. Then Elwens invaded, keeping the old noun but also designating male priests hrussani and female priests amurrssae, male protectors esaini and female protectors kleianthei, male lions amani and lionesses ashinae, male ocelots orkandui and female ocelots molorae, and so on. This expanded the vocabulary enormously while multiplying problems for later scholars of Primal. This did not bother the Elwens in the least. SPELLING Spelling is one matter in which Elwen individuality is allowed to rule over precision. Though the spelling for amurrssa given above is the most widely accepted, it can also be spelled ammursa, ammurrssa, amurrsa, amurssa, and so on. Much greater freedom, however, is allowed in shifting consonants than vowels, because of Primal's specialized sounds of vowels (see Pronunciation, below). One may find molora spelt mollora or molorra, but never moolora or moloraa. That would change the pronunciation, and thus make it a different word. Primal's individualistic tendencies may be the bane of future scholars, but having regained its ancient prominence as the first tongue of many and the second tongue of all the rest, that is something they must simply cope with. -Report by Amanath Ayenda, Linguist-Historian to the Licalara of Lirar, on this sixteenth day of Luvkeson, in the hundred and ninety-second century since the Release.