Arctos Comics

All tir’a speak a minimum of two languages, but many speak three or more. For most tir’a their mother tongue is their clan language. Think of tir’a clans as originating as separate countries. Most clans homelands are in separate parts of Va’annu, the tir’a homeworld. As on earth, these geographic differences created separate unique tongues over time.

Common was developed by a sed (one of the 12 clans) sage a few hundred years prior to the current setting as a way of facilitating communications between clans. The emperor at that time (also a sed) mandated its use for the publication of government documents throughout the empire. Thus ensuring its adoption. We can see a similar pattern in India today. Hindi is the common language, but most Indians speak a state language and of course English which was the language of government during the colonial period.

There is also a “courtly tongue” used for ceremonial purposes and at the royal court, but this is more a formal dialectic variant of common than a completely separate language. Where common is a living language that has changed, adapted and grown over time, courtly is the root of common. Its as if, when in the presence of Queen Elizabeth of England, you had to speak and understand Shakespearian English. Though favored by some poets, the courtly tongue is not used much outside of the emperor’s presence or in religious ceremonies (where it has been adopted like Latin for various liturgies).

Spoken tir’a is a complex thing indeed and cannot be fully represented by a written lexicon. The tir’a have the ability to add subtle harmonic undertones to their words to represent mood and meaning in a way that humans cannot. Their vocal apparatus are capable of producing sounds difficult or impossible for human speech to match. This is one reason human/tir’a communications have always been problematic. Even Orion himself has issues producing the full range of sounds needed to speak both human and tir’a common. A kind of speech impediment, forced by his “composite plumbing” persists no matter which he uses. He has fewer problems with the rel clan tongue.

Language is also an indicator of relative positions  between the speakers. When speaking to the emperor, for example, you’d speak in the courtly tongue, unless he engages you in common or more intimately in your clan tongue. The higher ranking individual in a conversation always has the right to lower the level of formality and in doing so raises the perceived rank of the listener.

In all, tir’a common is both simpler and more flexible than, for example, English. The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. By contrast, common has only about 40,000 words, but common makes use of unique composite words that take on individual, though less official, meanings.

For example Va’an means god. The composite Va’annu literally means “god of all worlds”, or “universal god”. Annu is the plural of Atha. Atha meaning world or planet. Pen Atha the tir’a name for the colony world of M-1801, or “Rogue”, roughly translates to Dark (or dirty or obscured) World (or planet).

Tir’sannu, the name for an arboreal predator native to Va’Annu (Tir'a evolution), can be translated to mean “lesser child of god”. Tir (as in tir’a) means person, people or child and sannu is one form of possessive for Va’annu, the tir’a name of god and also their word for their homeworld. An alternative and less poetic translation might also be “lesser child of the world”. Tir’a literally translates to We (or us or ourselves) People (or race or person or child). As in most cases with tir’a common, context is important to understanding the underlying meaning.