The Taglian language is the mother tongue of Taglios and most of its surrounding dependencies. It is by far the most widely-spoken language between Taglios proper and the Dandha Presh, and a major tongue of the southern continent. The vast majority of its native speakers are illiterate, and the written form of the language is perceived by most speakers to be akin to sorcery. Croaker, Lady, Murgen, Sleepy, and others of the Black Company learned not only the spoken word, but the written form as well. In fact Taglian became the language of the Black Company's later Annals: by the time of Water Sleeps, Taglian had been the language of those chronicles for 25 years. The last book of the Annals to be composed in a language other than Taglian was Lady's chronicle for Dreams of Steel, which was later translated into Taglian by Murgen.
Written form[]
Written Taglian has 100 characters in the everyday vulgate. In addition to the written form of the common, everyday Taglian language, there is a variation called the High Mode used strictly by the Gunni priestly caste. The High Mode has an additional 40 written characters and exists to distinguish the upper priestly caste from the lower castes. Sleepy reported using both common written Taglian and the High Mode for her Annals in Water Sleeps.
Relationship to other languages[]
Taglian is closely related to the Jaicuri language in both its spoken and written forms. Jaicuri is the language of Dejagore, a smaller city located across the Main and 300 miles south of Taglios. Spoken Jaicuri "is close enough to Taglian for the two peoples to understand one another most of the time" according to Sleepy.[1] Murgen specified that the written form "is almost identical to written Taglian."[2]
Taglian seems to be unrelated to Sangel, the language of Kiaulune south of the Dandha Presh. Sleepy, a native of Dejagore who spoke Jaicuri from birth, had only "managed to learn a little of that language [Sangel] during our years in the far south but it had been a struggle." She also indicated that a person literate in Taglian would not recognize Sangel, so the alphabet must be quite different too.[3]
Taglian vocabulary[]
Examples of Taglian words and phrases are:
- Aiku Rukhadi: the Taglian phrase for "Khadi Junction", the location of Lady's notorious massacre of priests which took place in Dreams of Steel (chapter 35)
- Jamadar: the Taglian word for "captain" which, depending upon context, can be used to refer to a mainstream infantry captain or to the secret leader of a band of Stranglers[4]
- Kangali: the orphaned and homeless boys of the street, who run in fearless troops of six to eight[5]
- Madhuprlya: meaning "A Friend of the Wine", this insult was among the graffiti in Soldiers Live scrawled in public to mock Ghopal Singh, chief of the Greys[6]
- Rajadharma: translating to "The Duty of Kings", this word refers to a ruler's obligation to serve the ruled. When the word is thrown into a ruler's face, or is used as an epithet, it is a savage accusation of failure. It became common graffiti, especially in Chor Bagan, employed by the underground Black Company during the years of the Protectorate. They were leveling a chiding finger at Soulcatcher for her abuses as dictator. It was sometimes combined with the phrase: "Know you: Kingship is a trust. The King is the most exalted and conscientious servant of the people."[7]
- Syam: the most common and conventional word for the color "black". Less commonly, "Khadi" and "Kina" can mean black in some Taglian usages.[8]
- Toog (plual: tooga): the word for "Stranglers" in both Taglian and the Nyueng Bao language[9]
References[]
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 58
- ↑ Bleak Seasons, ch. 41
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 28
- ↑ Dreams of Steel, ch. 7
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 12
- ↑ Soldiers Live, ch. 99
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 6
- ↑ Soldiers Live, ch. 76
- ↑ Bleak Seasons, ch. 46