Language of the Sword Worlds?

[BruceEdwinMorrow]

What is the language of the Sword Worlds called? Is it Swordworldian?

 

[aramis]

IMTU, it's always referred to as Swordworlder, but they call it Nordic...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Sagamaal, originally based on ancient Icelandic but including bits of other languages (see GT:SW).

 

[rancke]

What is the language of the Sword Worlds called? Is it Swordworldian?

It's Sagamaal ('Saga-tongue'). Swordic is an acceptable alternative.


Hans

 

[Vargas]

The original print JTAS article has it related to Icelandic.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

In the PbP we were running, I (playing a Sworder) called it Svard (for Sword) and used an internet translator to place bits into play. I used Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish (and Icelandic, IIRC) and mixed them up a bit.

 

[rancke]

The original print JTAS article has it related to Icelandic.

Plus several other languages, all of which (even the Vilani) I managed to explain when I worked on GT:Sword Worlds.

Here's a Library Data entry with the info from SW:

Sagamaal:The common tongue of the Sword Worlds and surrounds.

Technically there are two languages called Sagamaal, Old Sagamaal - the original common tongue spoken by many of the Sword Worlds colonists as a common second tongue - and Modern Sagamaal.

Modern Sagamaal has become the lingua franca of the region, and over time it has picked up words from other Terran and even the Vilani tongues.

Modern Sagamaal now has less than 40% of it's vocabulary in common with Old Sagamaal.

One bit of information that I didn't include was that the reason all the Scandinavians on the Gram spoke Old Sagamaal was that it had been "revived" during the Cultural Roots Revival:

Cultural Roots Revival: Cultural movement that swept Terra in the 11th and 10th Century PI encouraging people to rediscover their pre-spaceflight roots. Old arts and crafts were revived; likewise old architecture, books, plays, dances, dresses, languages, and songs.

The CRR was a reaction to the transformation of the Terran Mercantile Community into the Old Earth Union and the loss of the stars that many felt this represented, a deliberate further abandonment of the universe around, a desire to forget what had been lost and turn to values that could not be lost. In this it has been likened to the neo-nationalist phenomenon observed on many of the worlds abandoned to themselves during the Long Night, but the resemblance is only skin deep. Where the neo-nationalist messages were always "strength through unity" the CRR message was "strength through diversity".

NB! Since I didn't want to spend the word count to include it in SW, the CRR is not canonical.


Hans