Unilingo

Even before the invention of speedtraining, the different languages of Earth had been getting melted together in a big way for decades. The lessening importance of nationalities and increasing relevance of world-spanning subcultures encouraged people to use widely-understood languages. English prevailed for a long time as the number one language of international use, rivalled mainly by Chinese and later by Hindi. The languages also borrowed from each other at a very high rate, but nevertheless remained clearly separate, as well as a local languages still considered a mother tongue by most.

The emergence of speedtraining revolutionalized, among other things, the learning of languages. A universal language suddenly looked far more achievable, as mastering it no longer would take years of study. It could simply be included in everyone's basic package.

Before a universal language could be learned, it had to be created and accepted, however. Globe-spanning arguments occurred on matters such as vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. Some suggested a simplistic, unambiguous language, almost mathematical in nature. Others preferred a rich variety of nuances and expression power, with plenty of synonyms and poetic phrases. Many wanted to include elements from existing languages, either due to their inheritance or because they just happened to like those languages.

Hundreds of suggestions for the new language were put forward, and a myriad of votes were held, until the decicion was finally made. The poetically minded thriumphed greatly. The new global language, called "Unilingo", included a streamlined, yet flexible grammar, combined with a huge vocabulary of words and phrases, both created from scratch and borrowed and adapted from existing languages. Basically, the design goal of the language (still, actually, under development) is that any thought expressible in any other language should be expressible as easily in Unilingo.

According to a commonly-agreed-upon statement, the new language sounds "kind of like a blend between Chinese, French, and Swahili, but more beautiful". The spelling rules use an exact sound to letter association. Many complained that the language was unnecessarily complex and big, taking many times longer to learn than more simple suggestions. It was nevertheless included in the basic speedgrowth packages, and most colonists would, if not use, at least understand the language.

The further development of the language uses the approach of free contribution. It's naturally accepted that people will invent new phrases and impressions while using the language. However, it's also possible for anyone to file changes to the actual language database to be included in the next skill patch. The process will accept any new word or phrase, unless it's contested (and they usually are) on grounds of not fitting the grammar, style or existing vocabulary of the language. If contested, the suggestion is put to a vote.

Unilingo is also the default language taught to all the colonists on the Seed missions. Data on older languages still exists in the database, but mostly, everyone's expected to speak Unilingo.

((English is used to simulate Unilingo in our RP.))

OK. I'll ask the usual question about Saturday then.

Well then, since Mehken's attendance would be really nice the next session, I guess we're skipping to next weekend.

Some lore on databases.

The Database of Scholarly Knowledge

Location: The Middle Cluster
Access: Public
Provided by: The Association of Scholars

This database was created by The Initiative but later moved into the supervision of the Scholars. It's a collection of scientific information freely accessible. Anyone can add their research into the database, which consists of research reports, technical specifications etc, all written in formats rigidly standardized by the Scholars.

The Mirror Database

Location: The Middle Cluster
Access: Public
Provided by: TAU
(Damaged)

The Mirror of the Speedgrowth Database houses the same information as the Speedgrowh Database, but is located in the Middle Cluster for redundancy. Unfortunately, this database was seriously fragmented due to a power spike caused by the collision with the big rock. Rumor is that TSR is defragmenting the database in order to recover some of the information, but other than that it's practically useless.

I guess we'll play again this week.

And yet another rumor.

Finally got around to update the death indicators and ring sizes in the Ring Information section.

Then play we will.