Rodent fiction
Jun. 24th, 2007 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabA digression regarding names
Keek'k was born in the year 8330 [1]; his mother's name is Chiqi, and his hometown/clan (those concepts overlap) is Springdale.
[1] 8330 years since the invention of writing, and, therefore, of recorded history. Since the year system wasn't invented until several hundred years after writing was (by the Squirrels, of course), the exact year may be different, but this is the system and start date People have agreed on, after a couple of millenia of squabbling.
Like the Squirrels, Guinea Pig names are entirely audible, and Keek'k has no trouble dealing with them. However, several Families have names that consist in part or in whole of gestures and/or pheromones. Chinchilla names, for example, consist entirely of tail and hand gestures. The Squirrels have adopted a notation system for these, so that names can be written down, but there is always some squabbling; a Chinchilla from one town will insist that his name be written as TC3TC5H3TF1, while a Chinchilla from another town will insist that the same name should be spelled TC2TC5H3TF1. Chinchilla passports contain heiroglyphs of the gestures, as well as Squirrel notation, to try and reduce confusion.
While the Mice-and-Rats, and indeed most of the Myo SuperFamily, are concentrated on Large Continent, and more toward the eastern and south-eastern sides of that, there are a few everywhere. Names for most of these Families, including Mice-and-Rats, Hamsters, Lemmings, and Voles, among others, tend to be "audible" in that they are spoken - but they are above the audible range for most Families in the other two SuperFamilies, the Sciurs and the Cavs. So they can be spelled, but when Squirrels are speaking to a Mouse-or-Rat, they usually spell out the names in Common Hand, as well as say them in a lower range. Most of the Myo languages are tonal, as well as largely supersonic to Squirrels, so in fact, although one can speak to the Mice-and-Rats, one usually uses Common Hand. The disadvantage of Common Hand is that it doesn't work that well for audible names. However, everybody knows it, along with their own Family language. For written matters, Squirrel is nearly universal; many other Families never did develop their own writing, and even among those who did, Squirrel Written is taught to all the children. Transportation all over the world - air, ground, and water - is always handled in Squirrel.
Keek'k was born in the year 8330 [1]; his mother's name is Chiqi, and his hometown/clan (those concepts overlap) is Springdale.
[1] 8330 years since the invention of writing, and, therefore, of recorded history. Since the year system wasn't invented until several hundred years after writing was (by the Squirrels, of course), the exact year may be different, but this is the system and start date People have agreed on, after a couple of millenia of squabbling.
Like the Squirrels, Guinea Pig names are entirely audible, and Keek'k has no trouble dealing with them. However, several Families have names that consist in part or in whole of gestures and/or pheromones. Chinchilla names, for example, consist entirely of tail and hand gestures. The Squirrels have adopted a notation system for these, so that names can be written down, but there is always some squabbling; a Chinchilla from one town will insist that his name be written as TC3TC5H3TF1, while a Chinchilla from another town will insist that the same name should be spelled TC2TC5H3TF1. Chinchilla passports contain heiroglyphs of the gestures, as well as Squirrel notation, to try and reduce confusion.
While the Mice-and-Rats, and indeed most of the Myo SuperFamily, are concentrated on Large Continent, and more toward the eastern and south-eastern sides of that, there are a few everywhere. Names for most of these Families, including Mice-and-Rats, Hamsters, Lemmings, and Voles, among others, tend to be "audible" in that they are spoken - but they are above the audible range for most Families in the other two SuperFamilies, the Sciurs and the Cavs. So they can be spelled, but when Squirrels are speaking to a Mouse-or-Rat, they usually spell out the names in Common Hand, as well as say them in a lower range. Most of the Myo languages are tonal, as well as largely supersonic to Squirrels, so in fact, although one can speak to the Mice-and-Rats, one usually uses Common Hand. The disadvantage of Common Hand is that it doesn't work that well for audible names. However, everybody knows it, along with their own Family language. For written matters, Squirrel is nearly universal; many other Families never did develop their own writing, and even among those who did, Squirrel Written is taught to all the children. Transportation all over the world - air, ground, and water - is always handled in Squirrel.
