Values and Beliefs

[Miatato]

With the discussion on personal names, the religion-related vocabulary in the word association thread, and running up against a small hurdle in trying to decide what kind of greetings our people might have, it seems like a good time to figure out what's important to these hypothetical people. (Edit: And what they believe. And how they see the world and their place in it...)

(I just realized that "our people" might work for what the people call themselves, since their language is "this language".)

[Dedalvs]

So, something I haven't been clear on: Is this supposed to be a language we all (we real people) use, or an artlang? I tend to think of collaborative languages as languages intended to be used. As such, they don't need a backstory: We are the backstory. For some reason, it seems strange to me to invent a language this way and also invent a conhistory... That may just be me, though.

[Miatato]

It's just for fun, mainly, a stretch of the imagination and maybe a little bit of a roleplaying exercise. It's maybe for a little depth and "local flavor". And it's optional.

This is pretty much how all my languages work. Take Teliya Nevashi-- it has two varieties, Earth Nevashi and Ianea Nevashi, because it is a personal artlang I want to use to talk about my everyday life, and it also has a pre-industrial conculture on another world that goes with it. I am really bad at the conculture end, so that ends up being spotty and disjointed, and the language will eventually be filled with all sorts of things that don't fit that setting, but I like that it is there. Even when I try to NOT have a conculture associated with a language, it always ends up with one somewhere in the back of my mind anyway.

Anyway, since our contrivance is that these are people living among us and blending in, no matter what values and beliefs we assign them, the language should be otherwise completely compatible with normal life for most everyone.

[Matthew Turnbull]

Yep, they have to talk about all the same things that we do, no point in thinking that there isn't a word for yam, just because they live in a place where they aren't grown! I am kinda presuming that the culture has gone global, but where did it start?