A Vilani language/history question...

[Quint]

Anyone aware of the Vilani term/Translation for the Vilani Hegemony that predated the Ziru Sirka?

D.

 

[Quint]

After poking through the various resources, I'm kinda thinking "Karun Bilanidin" as being a pretty close match the meanings (per word definitions given in the wiki/dictionary), also nice because it doesn't sound anything like Ziru Sika but also has a amusing potential for mistranslation by poor speakers of Vilani (since it could also mean, arguable, "Emperor of all things Vilani" or perhaps "Arbiter of all things Vilani" - which has the same more inward focus of "Vilani Hegemony" as opposed to the outward focus of the "Grand Empire of Stars".

D.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

Funny thing. I have been spending the last few days adding Vilani language 'color' to relevant sections of the wiki -- including several Vilani versions of the varieties of titles given to the Ziru Sirka over the years.

Here's what I got (as derived using Rob Eaglestone's established Vilani vocabulary list and grammar rules, as I interpret them):

• Galikarunek Sirka Da ("Grand Empire of Stars", lit. "The Grand Overlordship of the Cosmos")
• Siziruuru Dadag ("Grand Imperium", lit. "The Supreme Authority Imperial")
• Dadagadarsisa Bilanidin Da ("Vilani Imperium", lit. "The Imperial Protectorate of the Entire Vilani Race")
• Ziru Sirka ("Stellar Administration", lit. "That Which Controls the Stars")

Fun Fact: While obviously the most canonical term out of all those above, Ziru Sirka is also arguably the least grammatically correct of them. Technically, it should be either Zirusirka (one word), or Sirka Ziru, as Standard Vilani always places its descriptive terms (adjectives) after any nominals that they modify, whenever they present as separate words. In this case, as it obviously can not be 'corrected' at this point, I chalk up the irregularity to some archaism left over from the Old High Vilani days.

That said, the above terms are all references to that which ruled over the Pax Vilanica of -4045 to -2219. As we know, for about 4,000 years before that, and before they squished all other bardulekane resistance within their reach, Vilani space was called something different, and that has never been canonically established.

Of course, I could try to conjure up a direct translation of "Vilani Hegemony" ("Karunek Bilanidin Da"?), but I believe that would be ahistoric, in the same way that nobody in medieval Greece ever referred to themselves as citizens of the Byzantine Empire. "Vilani Hegemony", in this case, would be the modern (Third Imperium) term given for the entity, and as such it would likely be an Anglic term, which would need no translation.

And, conveniently, I already did come up with a contemporary Vilani term for it!

Several years ago, when I was making historical charts of ... well ... Charted Space, I made one of the political situation of the region around the year -5400, otherwise known as the time immediately prior to the outbreak of the Consolidation Wars. Since there were no established names for any of the major entities that existed at the time, I had to come up with them myself. And the term I came up for what the collective of Shangarim that ruled Vilani space at the time called itself was:

• Biilursikarake Unken ("The Integrated Economic Area")

There is, of course, no canonical backing for this term, but it is 'authentic' Vilani, whatever that means. It also seems a good fit for the Vilani mindset of the era, and I do like the sound of it. I hope you do, too!

 

[Quint]

That is great! I was also using the Eaglestone reference but I haven't dived as deep as I would have liked. I have to say that I like Biilursikarake Unken as the term for the Vilani Hegemony because I infer a significantly different socio-political underpinning to that time period and that terminology really captures it better. Thank you for the comment!

D.