Welcome to The Hall of Blue Illumination, a podcast dedicated to the world of M.A.R. Barker’s Tékumel. Chné màsunbrupílukh…er…in this episode, our hosts stoke their inner pedants with an exploration of language in the world of Tékumel.
Show Notes:
[00:01:15] Language shows up in everything Tékumel. A frequent complaint is the difficulty of pronunciation, but it’s not as hard as it’s made out to be.
[00:03:47] Tsolyáni as a language is very consistent. While some of the sounds might be new to English speakers, the rules have few or no exceptions.
[00:04:13] Stress is the most difficult aspect for James. It’s not always in the place where a native English speaker would expect it.
[00:06:15] “You don’t need to use the words if you don’t want to.” It’s your game.
[00:09:52] Gaming tip: Use the languages to bring Tékumel alive. For instance, use terms like “dná grain”, or “thésun gauze” to distinguish the setting’s culture.
[00:12:00] Speaking Tsolyáni aloud, especially the longer words, channels the easy sensuality of the cultures of the Five Empires.
[00:13:59] Digressions on dialect. A handy example of dialectical distinctions between eastern and western Tsolyáni is the ü in Béy Sü. In Western Tsolyáni, it is pronounced identical to the sound represented orthographically in German as ü (IPA y), while in the east it’s pronounced as the IPA vowel ɨ. (See The Tsolyáni Language §2.200, p. 3)
[00:15:22] Over time, Professor Barker changed the notation of this sound in English spellings. This is reflected in spellings of the name of the principal deity of the Tlokiriqáluyal; initially written “Hry’y,” later “Hrü’ü.”
[00:16:08] The rules for pronouncing Tsolyáni are relatively simple. Every letter is pronounced. The acute accent indicates the stressed syllable.
[00:18:22] Correct pronunciation of the name of the Lord of Fire, Vimúhla and the sound written hl (IPA ɬ).
[00:22:50] Victor was a guest on the podcast Conlangery (Episode #115, released December 1st, 2015), where he discussed Tsolyáni.
[00:24:02] Pick up a copy of The Tsolyáni Language on RPGNow. It includes a Tsolyáni phrasebook, which is both informative and humorous. (The Tsolyáni Language § 4.000, p. 45)
[00:27:56] Which “you” do you use? It depends on the context and the relative social status of the speaker and spoken-to. (The Tsolyáni Language §3.313, p. 16; See also The Man of Gold, p. 18 in the 1984 DAW Books paperback)
[00:29:42] Social peculiarities of the Five Empires, e.g., dining etiquette.
[00:35:40] The names of the epics mentioned in the source material are fantastic.
[00:36:53] “The Infinite Moment of Resplendent Edification.”
[00:38:58] Players can experience culture shock coming from generic fantasy RPGs.
[00:39:56] Attention to Tsolyáni language and culture can have practical benefits on one’s interactions in the real world.
[00:41:51] Language shapes world-view. An example is the effect of gendered pronouns on speakers’ associations with those nouns.
[00:44:53] Gendering in Tsolyáni.
Hosts: Scott Kellogg, James Maliszewski, and Victor J. Raymond
Products Referenced:
The Tsolyáni Language is available for purchase as a PDF at RPGNow.
Man of Gold is back in print. You can purchase it through Amazon or CreateSpace. It’s also available as an ebook for Kindle, Nook, or Kobo.
Not mentioned, but also relevant, The Tsolyáni Primer is available for purchase as a PDF at RPGNow.
Other Things:
Conlangery, Episode #115 – Conlangery is a weekly podcast discussing constructed languages.
The complete academic citation for the principal article on the gendered language study Victor referenced is: Boroditsky, L., Schmidt, L., & Phillips, W. (2003). “Sex, Syntax, and Semantics.” In Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and cognition, ed. D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow, pp. 61- 80. Cambridge University Press. The full article is available free-of-charge here.
You can email us at citizen@tekumelpodcast.com. You can also find us at our website, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
You know, when you find yourself saying ‘but it’s so simple’ you should always recall that there are people for whom the task isn’t.
Take me. I have never been able to use the sort of pronunciation guide that says “This is a ‘y’ as in ‘dynasty'”, “this is an ‘a’ as in ‘father'”. I just don’t have the right wiring in my brain to be able to abstract letters from pronounced words. I can learn to pronounce a word if I hear someone say it but that sort of written description is useless to me. (I do pronounce ‘Vimuhla’ the way you feel is right: I must have heard someone do it that way.) Instructions about what to do with umlauts and glottal stops are pretty useless to me.
So for me the most useful thing you could do is put up a web page with the words that are in common use and have it pronounce the words when you click on it.
I’d suggest you start with the names of the (ever-glorious, powerful, sacred and mighty) gods and cohorts and include a list of the common words that have no English equivalent: such as ‘shamtla’, ‘Aridani’, ‘meshq’ (?sp?), ‘sakbe’. Perhaps names of common foods as such as well.
Now as to using Tsolyani words in game: there is a level at which this gives a level of immersion and a feel for the detail of the setting. All four of the words above are examples.
But there comes a point where it gets twee. Take ‘dri’. It functionally means ‘ant’ just as ‘hma’ means ‘sheep’. And there’s no necessity to push into the players face that the ‘ant’ is a species you will never see on Earth. The fact that the sheep are blue and have more than the number of legs the players are expecting is something you can drop into conversation at a later point just to disorient them and remind them this is not the world they are used to.
But it gets beyond the point of twee if we insist that every player gets every pronunciation right. It would be like me insisting that in a game about the Three Musketeers anglophone players should call the capital of France ‘Paree’.
Use the language to make the world real, is my advice and not to strain the players’ brains, if any.
Michael,
Thank you for your well-reasoned comment. You are absolutely right to suggest that the in-game use of language becomes “twee” at a certain point, and this point will differ for each group. We do our best as hosts to support the notion that each group should play them game that’s the most fun for them. I, for one, enjoy the experience of speaking the words, but I’m at ease with glossing over that part of the game as well.
Our list of future topics includes a section of pronunciation of common words, likely starting with the Tsolyáni gods, and moving on to other frequently encountered words.