High language

> "*I'm not a linguist, but do you ever think there's something wrong with the things we do and don't have words for?*"
> ― Shuos Jedao
>
>

The **high language** was the official language of the heptarchate and hexarchate.

## Overview

Though low languages are not illegal once adjusted to conform to the high calendar, the high language is the only acceptable language in mainstream hexarchate culture and low languages or accents are regarded with suspicion.

Calligraphic scrolls with phrases in the high language are a frequently-seen art form in the hexarchate.

Modern communications keep the high language from changing quickly, but older forms and accents occasionally survive in isolated areas or ritual use, such as a litany for one of the chocolate festivals. Representatives of the Kel Command hivemind, including the Kel hexarch, traditionally used an archaic plural version of the first-person pronoun. On one occasion, Hexarch Kel Tsoro used an equally archaic singular version to show that her own decision had preempted the hivemind's.

## Description

In the high language, honorifics, pronouns, and verbs inflect for level of politeness and awareness of social status. Various honorifics may follow certain names or titles, such as -zho (for hexarchs, archaic); -ye (for instructors), and -shei (sometimes, though not always, for lovers). Honorifics and proper names may be omitted between persons of equal social status.

While characters are referred to in the text as he/she/they/it, the high language has only one gender pronoun for living beings. Its two forms of the second person pronoun distinguish between animate life and inanimate objects; it is considered insulting to refer to a person with the inanimate form. Animals and archaic cultural or religious objects (such as fire) may be referred to with the animate form; servitors and objects are referred to as inanimate.

The term for "children" or "offspring" in the high-language sense refers solely to custodial children, no matter whose genetic material the children carried. There is no term for noncustodial offspring of a genetic contributor in the high language; the word for "spawn," used exclusively for animals, comes closest, but is offensive to use in regard to humans.

"To be" has a present/future form.

Modern high language rarely inflects for singular or plural. The term for "pile" doesn't inflect for a specific number, but indicates that the number is a large one.

The terms for "silence" and "community" are associated in the high language. Its word for "hurt" does not differentiate between physical and mental harm.

## Calligraphy

The high language has a vertical script with a specific stroke order for each letter. Finely done brushstrokes are neither too precise nor too wild, which is not easy.

## Trivia

* Kujen occasionally lapsed into an archaic form of the high language during stays at Tefos Base. Avros Base spoke in the high language whose slight accent was several centuries old.
* The Tlen Gwa term for the high language is "the mongrel language."
* The high language came from the same language family as two of the low languages spoken by General Kel Khiruev.
* A form of physical therapy prescribed for General Kel Inesser's injured ankle included writing letters of the alphabet with her foot while meditating on brushstroke order.
* Originally, the high language was supposed to have been derived from a language called Tieneved. In later drafts, references to Tieneved were removed, except from one offhand remark by Shuos Jedao.
* The alphabet of the high language is very loosely inspired by Korean.

## References

1. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
3. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
4. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 4
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 9
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
12. ↑ Author's remarks
13. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6; Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
14. ↑ Author's remarks
15. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
16. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
17. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 25
18. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 8
19. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11
20. ↑ Honesty
21. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 18
22. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 24
23. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
24. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 3
25. ↑ Hexarchate Stories: Glass Cannon
26. ↑ Extracurricular Activities
27. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
28. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 24
29. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 10
30. ↑ Author's alphabet chart