Chapter 16 Ethnicity and Language

The Hittites of the Archipelago lived on agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, commerce, and crafts and skills common in non-industrial societies.The population is very stable, the limited land suitable for habitation is never overcrowded; there is no known famine, and there are few poor people. Small islands and villages are generally governed by roughly democratic councils or councils, with leaders or negotiating representatives selected from islanders.In the Frontier, the political organization is usually only the island council or the village council.In the Inner Ring Kingdoms, the ruling class has long been established, most of the large islands and cities are (at least nominally) ruled by generations of noble men and women, and the entire archipelago kingdom has been ruled by kings for hundreds of years.However, most cities and towns are governed by parliaments, merchants, and trade guilds.A large network of guilds spreads across the Inner Ring Kingdom, not governed by lords or organizations other than the King of Havnor.

Manorship, manorship, and slavery have occasionally appeared in some areas, but they did not exist under the King of Havnor. Magic is a universally recognized physical power exercised by a few individuals, not all.Magic shapes and influences the system of the Hittites. Therefore, the life of the Archipelago Kingdom seems to be similar to other non-industrial societies on the surface, but it is actually very different.One indicator might be: the absence of organized religion.Superstitions are widespread everywhere, but there are no gods, sects, or formal worships of any kind.Rituals exist only in the traditional offerings of certain Taikoo holy places, or in large-scale festivals celebrated throughout the world every year, such as the Sun Return and Long Dance Festivals; there are also rituals when reciting and singing traditional songs and narrative poems, or performing magical spells.

The people of the Archipelago Kingdom and Territory belong to the same language and culture of the Hittites, but there are regional differences.The floating raft people in the southwestern frontier retain large annual celebrations, but rarely show other archipelago cultures. They have no commerce, no agriculture, and no other tribes. Most archipelagic peoples have brown or reddish-brown skin, straight black hair, dark eyes, and are mostly short, slender, small-boned, but rather muscular and plump.The ethnic groups in the eastern and southern frontiers are taller, heavier in frame, and darker in color.Many southerners have dark brown skin.Most archipelago men have little or no beards at all.

The Ossk, Rogmi, and Bots are lighter-skinned than the rest of the Archipelago, and often have brown or even blond hair, light-colored eyes, and most of the men have beards.Their language and some of their beliefs are closer to the Kargs than to the Hittites.These peoples of the far north may be of Karg descent.After the Kargs settled in the four eastern continents, they sailed back to the west about two thousand years ago. On the four islands in the northeast of the Archipelago Kingdom, the skin color of the residents ranges from light brown to white, and the hair color ranges from dark to light. In addition to dark pupils, there are also blue and gray.

Except for Osskor Island, the skin color types of Karg and the Archipelago Kingdom are rarely mixed. Because the northern border is very remote and sparsely populated, for two or three thousand years, the Karg ethnic group has generally been hostile to the people of the Archipelago Kingdom and deliberately avoided contact. The climate of the four major islands of Karg is mostly dry, but they are quite fertile after irrigation and cultivation.Kargian society seems to be closed and rarely affected, except for the negative influence of powerful neighbors to the south and west. Among the Karg people, magic seems to seldom appear in an innate form, perhaps because it is ignored or actively suppressed by society and rulers.In addition to being an evil force that should be feared and avoided, magic is not recognized in society.Therefore, compared with the archipelago kingdoms, the Kargs' inability and unwillingness to use magic put them at a disadvantage in all aspects. This may be because they forcibly plundered and invaded the adjacent southern border and Gont Island, and had no intention of participating in commerce or Reasons for other communication activities.

Ballads and stories suggest that dragons predate all living things.In the ancient He language, the metaphors or euphemisms for "dragon" include "firstborn", "longevity", and "eldest son". (The word representing the eldest son of the family is "Akkad" in Ossk and "Gada" in Karge, both of which are derived from "Has". "Has" is the " dragon".) Scattered texts and stories from Gont and the Territory, fragments of sacred history from Karg, and fragments of obscure and mysterious stories from the Isle of Parn, have long been neglected by Roke scholars.According to these texts, in the earliest ages, dragons and humans were of the same species, and then they split into two. They were incompatible with each other's living habits or desires. Perhaps it was the long-term geographical separation that caused the far-reaching differences and racial differences.Parn lore and Karg lore maintain that this was a deliberate separation, caused by a separatist agreement - or "Vernaden", "Vudunan".

These legends are best preserved in Hurhu, the easternmost part of the Karg continent. The dragons there have degenerated into animals without advanced intelligence, but the Hurhu people firmly believe in the blood relationship between humans and dragons; Stories circulated: dragons who took human form, people who took dragon form, and creatures that were both dragons and men. No matter how the division happened, according to historical records, humans lived in the center of the archipelago kingdom and the Karg continent to the east, while dragons stayed on the westernmost island and beyond.Humans often wonder why the dragons choose the empty sea as their territory—dragons are "creatures of wind and fire" and will drown if they fall into the sea, but they don't need to land on water or land.They live on wings and fly in the air, in the light of the sun, and in the light of the stars.The only ground a dragon needs is a rugged, rocky place to lay its eggs and raise its young.The small, barren islands of the farthest reaches of the West fit this need.

The Oia Creation Song makes no explicit mention of the dragons being of the same origin as humans, or how they would later separate, but this may be because the original version of the poem is said to have been written in the language of Creation, long before the split.The best evidence for the homology of humans and dragons in the poem is the Gukh word "arras", which is usually read as "people" or "human beings", but the etymology (from "The True Runes of At and Sa'") It is a "literal creature", "speaker", which may mean or contain dragons.Another word that is occasionally used in the ballad is "aleras", which means "Truth-word creature", "Truth-speaker", "Truth-speaker", and may refer to human wizards, dragons, or both .Obscure Parn lore holds that the word means both wizard and dragon.

Dragons are born to know the true language, or as Ged said, "the dragon and the dragon language are two sides of the same coin".Even humans originally possessed this innate intelligence or identity, but now they have lost it, just as they have lost their dragon nature. The ancient language, also known as the language of creation, is the language Xiguoyi used to create the islands of the Earth Sea at the beginning of time. It is believed that there is no limit, because it bestows real names on all things. As mentioned above, dragons are born to know the language, humans are not.But there are exceptions.A small number of humans with strong magical talents, or through the ancient blood relationship between humans and dragons, also naturally know some ancient words, but most of them must learn the ancient language.Hittites who practiced magic learned it through masters, warlocks and witches learned a little, wizards learned a lot, and some were almost dragon-like in their use.

The incantations all use at least one ancient word, but the village witch or warlock may not be sure what it means.The grand mantra is completely composed of the ancient language, and can only be understood when it is recited. The Hittish, Ossk, and Karg languages ​​of the archipelago kingdoms are all distant descendants of the ancient languages, and none of these languages ​​can formulate magic spells. The people of the archipelago speak Hittish, and there are as many dialects as there are islands, but they are not so different that they cannot understand each other at all. The Osike language spoken in Oske and the two northwest islands is closer to the Karg language than the Hittite language.Among the three languages, the vocabulary and sentence structure of Kargic are widely derived from Archaic.Most speakers of Kargic, like most Hittite speakers, do not realize that the two languages ​​have a common origin.Scholars in the Archipelago Kingdom are aware of this, but most Kargs deny it. They can't distinguish Hittite from the ancient language used in spells, and regard all languages ​​​​of the Archipelago Kingdom as evil magic, and feel fear and contempt.

It is said that writing was invented by rune masters, who were the first great wizards in the archipelago kingdom, perhaps in order to preserve the ancient language, they invented writing.Dragons have no words. Earthsea has two distinct scripts: true runes, and runic scripts. The true runes of the Archipelago contain Creation words.True runes are not just symbols, they are causes: they make things happen, cause a situation to happen, or bring about an event.To write this rune is to act, and the power of the action depends on the objective circumstances.Most of the true runes only appear in ancient books and wisdom books, and only wizards who have received special rune training will use them.However, several of them are in frequent use and are familiar to the untrained eye, such as the runes written on doorposts to protect a house from Zhu Rong. Long after the invention of the true runes, a related but non-enchanted runic script developed and was used to write the Hittite language.The ability of this kind of writing to affect reality is no different from that of any writing. In other words, although the influence is indirect, it is also considerable. It is said that Xi Guoyi first wrote the true runes with fire in the wind, so the true runes and the language of creation appeared at the same time. won't admit it. Each true rune has a meaning, overtones, or a specific range of meaning.Hittite is somewhat definable, but it's better to say that these runes are not quite words, but spells or actions.However, the true runes must exist in ancient sentences, spoken or written by wizards, and cannot be presented in declarative sentences, but must have action intentions; when casting spells, they must be supplemented by voice and gesture.Once these conditions are met, the full power of the word or rune is unleashed. When writing records are required, the incantations are written in real runes, occasionally mixed with Hittite runes.Writing authentic runes is like speaking an ancient language, guaranteeing that what is said must be true—one must abide by it.Men cannot lie in the Old Tongue, but dragons can—or so dragons say.If dragons lie, does that not prove what they say is true? The colloquial name of the true rune may be the word referred to in the Archaic language, or one of the implied meanings when it was translated into the Hittite language.Commonly used rune names are generally used by Hittite speakers, such as Beer (to ward off fire, wind, madness), Sif (for a smooth journey), Sim (for a good job), etc.; people who use magic Even if these well-known common names are mentioned, it is very cautious, because these names are actually ancient words, which may affect the event itself unexpectedly or unexpectedly. The so-called "six hundred He language runes" are actually not He language runes used to compose ordinary language, but real runes with "locks" attached, which cannot be activated in ordinary language.The real names of these runes in the ancient language must be memorized.Magic apprentices with a thirst for knowledge will further study "Advanced Runes", "Oia Runes" and various other runes.If the Primer is boundless, so are the runes. The daily Hittite language is neatly written in Hittite runes for government affairs, business, personal communication, recording history, stories, songs, etc.The people of most archipelagic kingdoms learn hundreds to thousands of words in a few years of schooling.Hittite is useless for spellcasting, whether spoken or written.