Singer Sailor Merchant Mage

Chapter 106: A different language or two

"The structure of language determines not only thought, but reality itself."

Noam Chomsky

Languages! Lady Acacia was finally teaching me some. A different language is a different vision of reality. Each one holds not just words, but thoughts, culture, and traditions. I was excited to learn the magic of the world hidden in their languages. What new ways in which to view the world would I find?

. . .

“Kai! Are you paying attention?” Lady Acacia drew me back to her.

“Yes, ready to learn.” I was going to knock her socks off with my language acquisition skills this time around.

. . .

Despite the system rewarding me with multiple languages and skills for it. To be honest, in my former life I had never been an exceptionally gifted linguist. I just liked to talk and was not afraid to do so. It had never mattered to me too much about the grammar or even the order of the words as long as I had been able to communicate with the new people I met. It was not until I had made it to university and studied there that I met some truly gifted linguists able to pick up languages as easy as picking up a book to read. It had been a little depressing but I had persevered. I probably had not ever impressed my tutors with the accuracy of my translations but I had possibly impressed them with my refusal to quit the courses despite so many of my fellow students stopping after a year or two. This time it was going to be different I had skills to rely on and I was going to lean into them heavily.

. . .

“Let’s start with my home tree tongue of Elvish. There are of course a couple of different dialects within it but we will concentrate on the most widely spoken of them.”

“Man erin.” She started

“Man erin.” I repeated but I wasn’t alone Aleera was joining in with these lessons.

“That means Good morning.” She explained.

“Hana I lumb, o cin nimloth?” She raised at the end implying a question.

“Hana I lumb, o cin nimloth?” We repeated like parrots.

“That implies, Fare thee well?” she continued to translate our lesson. “But its more literal translation is along the lines of how is the shade of your tree? If you are looking for the deeper meaning is asking about the health of your home due to the amount of foliage it has. However, we do not and will not go into much detail until we have the basics down.”

“I’mm triw, sanc sin.” Came next.

“I’mm triw, sanc sin.” We echoed.

“Which translates as I’m fine thank you.”

“A cin?” she stated questioningly.

“A cin?” we reiterated.

“Is the question, and you?”

I burst out laughing my internal glee bursting forth without control. Anyone who has taught English as a foreign language or had to learn it as a kid would recognise that conversation. ‘Good morning, how are you? Answered with, I’m fine, thank you. And you? It appeared that even though we were worlds apart from where I remembered my first life. Some things like language lessons didn’t change.

“Is everything okay Kai?” Lady Acacia asked a little concerned by my outburst. I was beginning to be a little more open in my character in front of her. Guarding my thoughts and words a little less carefully each day as we got to know her.

“Ignore him he gets like this sometimes. Laughs for no reason and then tells you to ignore him.” Aleera answered before I could get a word in edgewise. It was not completely inaccurate. I had always laughed at my own internal jokes even if everyone would not have had I uttered them out loud. But once she had finished I had my own thing to say.

“Man erin. Hana i lumb, o cin nimloth? I’mm triw sanc sin.” I sang to her before I laughed again. My skills helped me pronounce the phrases quickly and fluently without error.

“I’mm triw, sanc sin.” She replied, “Wonderful pronunciation but you should really wait for me to respond before you answer the question I have yet to ask.”

. . .

Our first lessons started with Elvish but she didn’t stop there. My Polyglot skill allowed me to pick them up with ease. Each language rewarded me with another level in the skill Polyglot as well as . . .

Ding! Elvish (Lv1)

Every language is a different lens with which to see the world and one of the obvious differences between Bussola and Elvish was the sheer number of words to describe the colour green. Similar to how English had, green, chartreuse, juniper, jade, vert, sage, lime, fern, olive, emerald, pear, moss, shamrock, seafoam, pine parakeet, mint, seaweed, pickle pistachio, basil and crocodile green. So too did Elvish. The difference was the colour names did not appear to be based upon different nouns simply the colour itself. In the Elvish dictionary, I had been given they had helpfully given coloured examples for each one to ensure a complete understanding of the word and its meaning. The colours were all drawn in the shapes of leaves and looking at the page was much like looking at a forest from a distance each tree holding a different shade of green to its leaves. Differentiating the colours along with remembering the specific word for the specific colour was harder than picking up the language the memorization of colours is not supported by the Polyglot skill.

Lady Acacia was very impressed with my ability to pick up languages and as soon as I had a basic grasp on them she would quickly move on to the next. Along with each language came a little description of the culture it came from and its location in the Compass Kingdoms. It seemed that while humans were everywhere each race could be found along a different compass point. Often on the border of the human kingdoms or within them.

While the focus of her lessons was the languages and their acquisition I was also able to absorb a lot more than just that. Aleera was learning with me and she took a little longer to gain the skills without the benefit of a Polyglot skill. This meant that I would be given a book to read on each culture in a corner while waiting for her to catch up.

Thankfully the books that she had provided me were written in Bussola as I had yet to learn how to read Elvish another new script. Hopefully Polyglot would help with that as well when it was time to tackle that. My reading resulted in another level or two in cartography as I studied the maps. I looked forward to attempting to create my own in time. But first I hoped to map my island and the surrounding isles before attempting such a large-scale project which would have to rely on second-hand knowledge of the locations rather than what I had seen myself.

The Long-lived Elves were to the north of Ponente. Their forest was within the Northwest section of the Compass Continent. Their culture if I was describing it in old-world terms was some sort of amalgam of European, Druidic, and Hippy cultures that were bound to their forest. The Great Elvenwood formed the northern border of Ponente and provided a buffer between the two Kingdoms of Ponente and Maestro. Not only were the cultures, traditions and languages different but they also favoured one form of magic over another. They specialised in Spellsong above the rest. Emeralds known as life stones could be found in their Kingdom and were highly prized by all other countries of the continent who had to import them from their Elvenwood Empire. The Gemstone that had been added to my Runic amulet was a Life Stone and was able to help power the growth the alchemical elixir caused. Using the stored energy within it left me feeling significantly less exhausted after a growth session. Interestingly enough, despite the relatively small area in comparison to some of the other human Compass Kingdoms. The Elves called their state an Empire and were supported by many kings. It appeared that every elf with magic and strength was equivalent to a human noble if not called one. This raised some interesting ideas about what we might be able to achieve here at the edges of Ponente. How flexible were social constructs and how were they judged by the system?

“Kai stop daydreaming and come and learn how to write it down. Aleera has caught up and is waiting for you.” Lady Acacia interrupted my thoughts and directed me to sit at one of the two desks we were now using to work at in our lessons. She had already written out the phrase for us to copy.

‘This would do wonders for my calligraphy skill.’ I thought as I picked up my quill. Aleera’s quill scratched alongside mine as we attempted to form our letters correctly.

“Kai your letters need to curve a little more, branches do not grow straight and neither should your letters. There should be a flow to them.” She corrected the flow of my handwriting.

“Wonderful work, Aleera.” I was sure that she was just looking to praise in equal turns. But it appeared that my more angular printing was a detriment to my Elvish script workAcacia. I bit my tongue and concentrated a little harder. It was time to stop daydreaming and concentrate a little harder.

. . .

The second language she decided to teach us was Giant.

“ᚷᛟᛟᛞ ᛗᛟᚱᚾᛁᚾᚷ” Lady Acacia’s voice sounded almost guttural as she delivered the lines.

“ᚷᛟᛟᛞ ᛗᛟᚱᚾᛁᚾᚷ,” I repeated leaning heavily on my skills to get it right.

“ᚺᛟᚹ ᚨᚱᛖ ᚤᛟᚢ?” We were repeating the same conversation that we had started with in our first Elvish lesson. The difference was seeing as I had picked up the language both spoken and written so quickly she had decided that there was no reason we couldn’t attempt to do both at the same time this time around.

“ᛁ'ᛗ ᚠᛁᚾᛖ ᛏᚺᚨᚾᚴ ᚤᛟᚢ.” I knew what I was saying even if I found the script it was written in was new. At least this time when I wrote the script she would not critique my writing for being too straight.

“ᚨᚾᛞ ᚤᛟᚢ?” We completed the question and answers before being handed the script to copy.

ᚷᛟᛟᛞ ᛗᛟᚱᚾᛁᚾᚷ

ᚺᛟᚹ ᚨᚱᛖ ᚤᛟᚢ?

ᛁ'ᛗ ᚠᛁᚾᛖ ᛏᚺᚨᚾᚴ ᚤᛟᚢ.

ᚨᚾᛞ ᚤᛟᚢ?

. . .

Ding! Giant (Lv1)

I quickly picked up the skill and while Aleera practised, the language a little more I was once more given a book to read about the language and culture of the Giants.

The Giants lived to the North language strikingly Nordic in its similarities reminding me of Vikings as she described their culture alongside teaching me their language. They favoured Glyphs over Runes despite or perhaps because of the similarity between them and their language as their main form of magic. If they were to be represented as a class in some sort of old-world game I would describe them as Barbarians. Strength was the main aspect of their race and country. It was wide open country often encroached upon by the snow and ice that worked its way across it every winter. Topaz stones could be mined from below their tundra and were used if you ever wanted to strengthen an item.

. . .

Lady Acacia appeared to be working her way around the compass continent in terms of the languages and their locations. We had started with the Elves in the North West, followed by the Giants to the North. Next came the Dwarves to the North East.

Like most fiction I had ever read they lived in the mountains. Unlike any fiction I had read they appeared to speak something close to Russian. Their language sounded a little Russian to my ear although I had never been able to say more than cheers so I had no idea how accurate my impression was. But judging by their script and the sound of the language which seemed somewhat Slavic in comparison.

Доброе утро,

как дела?

Я в порядке, спасибо

и вы?

Either way Polyglot made this notoriously difficult language a lot easier to learn.

Ding! Dwarf (Lv1)

Once I had the skill though I was once more given a book to absorb. Luckily it wasn’t in Dwarf.

A large Mountain range that ran between the Northern Realm of the Giants and the rest of the Compass Kingdoms this was the Domain of the Dwarves. They were the creators of the Rune system of magic and the majority of their Domain was in the North Eastern Kingdom of Greco. They mined many gems and metals from below the mountains but the most predominant gem found was the fire opal, the gem of endurance. They were strong believers in the Lodestar Church with many a Dwarf being a Paladin of the faith.

This faith in the Lodestar sounded like it was strengthened by the fact they often fought with the base races hidden in the depths of the Lodestone. Their entire domain was far closer, adjoining or breaking into the Lodestone Labyrinth their main foe the Orcs that would drive upwards ever looking for the light of the Lodestar.

Reading all of this was a little alarming and it was difficult to know how much was true and how much was part of the reasoning or supporting myths of their faith. Either way, it was frightening to think that Orcs lived somewhere below our feet. Hopefully, as we were an island in the middle of the ocean if there were any it would be deep beneath our feet and any tunnelling they did would lead to the swift demise with the ocean pouring in on top of them.

“Lady Acacia,” I politely enquired interrupting her tutoring of Aleera in the Dwarfish language. “Are there Orcs underground?” I voiced genuinely concerned about the idea.

“Ah, I had forgotten that that book delves into the reasoning for the Dwarves' devotion to the Lodestar despite living most of their lives out of its sight. Possibly not a book for small children or at least children who can comprehend and extrapolate what that might mean for them.” She mused to herself more than to me. AND completely avoided answering the question.

“So about the Orcs?” I repeated drawing her back to my fear. Did we need to worry about the tunnels and caves we were building within the island? I felt like if it was an issue Grandfather or her would have mentioned it by now. That being said, Orcs?

“The short answer is that no it is incredibly unlikely that Orcs are beneath our feet digging their way upwards. That problem while not limited to the Kingdom of Greco is predominately found there. The long answer is that while it is incredibly unlikely here if you dig too deep into the Lodestone of the Compass Continent it is not only gems and ore that you might find and there are more than one different base race, not just the orcs and goblins.”

Phew, nothing to worry about as long as we don’t dig too deep. No, I was not feeling particularly reassured.

“Why hasn’t anyone ever told us about them?” I asked still alarmed by the idea. It was like going out on the open ocean before I had been able to sense my way to the bottom. Suddenly I was no longer secure in what lay beneath my feet.

“The base races are not appropriate conversation topics for children, even exceptionally smart and gifted ones. We can talk about them when you are a little older. Enjoy your childhood while you can.” She firmly finished this topic of conversation.

I was left wondering what else had been hidden from me due to my perceived age. Maybe it was time to take her weapon lessons a little more seriously. Not that I believed I would do amazingly well at a straight-up fight but with a little bit of stealth and my unusual abilities I could certainly give any Orcs who popped up a bit of a surprise.

. . .

“Good morning children.” Lady Acacia commented as we arrived once more for our morning tuition. We still had many other jobs and experiments to do but we were not allowed to be late for our lessons. We may have had other projects but Lady Acacia was keen to make sure that education came first.

“Today we will be tackling Pixish. Now the majority of people believe that they cannot talk at all but that is, unfortunately, the result of ignorance. The Pixies' primary Stat and trait is in Dexterity and as such, they speak incredibly quickly. So quickly that to most it is an intelligible blur exacerbated by the fact that they are significantly smaller than most noble races makes them impossible to understand without stats of at least 100 in both Dexterity, Mind and Clarity.” She started today’s lesson with an explanation rather than just jumping into the language itself.

“You are not quite there Aleera in terms of the minimum requirements. Nevertheless, there is no reason not to start learning now. Just be aware that we will be speaking a lot slower and lower than most Pixies who are not using an enchantment, rune, glyph or sigil to slow their speech down.” She continued.

“Are there enchantments, runes, glyphs or sigils to speed you up?” I asked excited as always to delve a little deeper into the magic possibilities of this world.

“We can discuss those in your other lessons. This currently is Pixish and that is what we will be concentrating on.” She refused to answer the question although I suspected the answer was yes. I meant they had Elixirs and Gemstones for the traits surely had to have something for Dexterity.

“Focus Kai. While we will not go at the actual pace of language spoken by a Pixie we will be trying to speak as quickly as possible while we practice.” She outlined why she would be speaking a little quicker than usual.

What then followed was a blur of sound that sounded more like the buzz of a bee or the hum of a motor. It didn’t sound like actual words at all. We were left tilting our heads trying to decipher what we had just heard. Technically with significantly stronger stats, I should have a better chance of understanding it compared to Aleera. But for once we were equally lost. I wondered just how high her dexterity was.

“I have a quite high level of dexterity so that is the quickest I can speak.” She smiled at our lack of understanding. “We will start a little slower for you guys.”

“Ohaiyougozaimasu.” She said a little slower.

“Ohaiyougozaimasu.” We hastily repeated. Now that it was slow enough to differentiate the polyglot skill was kicking in and helping me to

“Genkidesuka?” She hummed.

“Genki desu ka?” We blurred back.

“Genkidesu.” She repeated.

“Genki desu.” We repeated beginning to get the hang of this.

I was hopeful that with another eight languages I would be able to recreate another Tier 4 skill consolidation and the two combined would be worth a Tier 5 skill in communication. Perhaps I would be able to talk to animals. Just how smart did the dangerous beasts get? I could see from my telepathic search of the sea floor that some of them seemed dangerously smart.

Not happy with us only learning the spoken language she also gave us the phonetic script to write out.

おはようございます

お元気ですか?

Great work out for my calligraphy skill and it still fed into my Polyglot skill so I was not complaining.

Ding! Pixish (Lv1)

The Pixies lived in the Eastern Kingdom of Levante. Or rather beyond the Eastern Kingdom of Levante in the Eastern Isles. Reading the book Lady Acacia had provided and discussing them made me think that someone had been a little lazy when labelling the local islands with one named Wester Levante. Their language was different again. Almost Japanese in intonation and how the sounds blurred into one another. It made you wonder who was here first, the other noble races or the humans? Humanity was everywhere while the other noble races were found in one location each one with a different culture, language and magic. But Humanity had this melting pot of a language Bussola which seemed to draw influences from all of the other races as well as the ability to adapt to each magic system or so Lady Acacia would have us believe.

The Pixies were prevalent throughout the kingdom of Levante but their princedoms were the tropical isles to the east which they guarded fiercely from raiders who would land to try and claim the ruby tears which could hold the dexterity stat. Isolated by the difficulties in communication they were insular by both nature and policy. Rarely seen, heard or noticed even if they were present helped again by their small stature which helped to keep them hidden.

. . .

Each new skill and language was celebrated but that didn’t stop the lessons though. Our successes seemed to just drive her to teach us even faster.

Ding! Koboldogo (Lv 1)

You couldn’t argue with the effectiveness of our tutor. She taught and taught and taught. There was not a moment in or out of lessons that another lesson wasn’t being learnt. The Kobolds lived to the South East in a separate range of fire mountains.

Ding! Gnomish (Lv1)

The Gnomes are known for their intelligence and lived in south-east east . . .

. . .

Ding! Beastkin (Lv1)

They lived to the south in Tribal communities that roamed their lands . . .

. . .

Ding! Halfling (Lv1)

They lived in the Southwest . . .

. . .

It continued until finally, we had learned all of the Compass Kingdoms' Noble Races' languages.

“That is all I have to teach you about languages. Not that there is not more to learn. But you can practice it on your own with the books I can provide. You are of course welcome to ask any questions you might wish to but I also like my students to develop their independence rather than relying on me for everything.