tLoE XIV: Conversing About Conversing

Greetings fellow users! I'v landed and unpacked some cases, so I'm getting right back to writing! Some of you may have noticed my story "Marked" is up, and I intend to constantly be working on it, hopefully with a new chapter every week, if all goes well.

But enough about that, it's time for this week's installment of "the Land of Equestria"! And this time around, shifting away from the government and into the social, we'll be looking at Language!

Now to start us off, I'd like to clarify what I mean by language. Yes, they use English in the show, we got that, but I'm more interested in their phrases, what kind of new words, or excluded words, they have that differs from ours, and why that might be. To start us off: their lack of vulgar language. Now it may be true that they DO poses vulgarities and due to demographics they just can't use them, but without any evidence of the existence of conventional swearing, we are in the clear to propose that they may not have any. Now, some of you may cite phrases such as "what the hay" and maybe "What in the hoof", but note that no one seemed particularly shocked or appalled by these phrases, and given the excitability of the typical Equestrian, if these were "taboo" terms them we'd have seen a reaction by now. This could indicate one of two major possibilities. Either #1: they simply have no vulgarities at all, simple expressions such as the above are just that: simple expressions. Or #2: Their "vulgarities" serve the same purpose and function as those in English, but are not considered Taboo to them. In either case, this shows a severe lenience and calm in their language, meaning it is potentially an inherently peaceful or docile language, as would be expected of an herbivorous sentient species. (Am example of a fictional Inherently hostile language would be Klingon, in which fluent Cursing is considered an art form, much like poetry. Yes, I looked that up ).

So, they possess an inherently peaceful language. What else is unique about their speech? Well, as many of you are no doubt aware, their language is Filled with what we have come to call "ponyisms", which turns words like "anybody" into "anypony". This is actually very intriguing, given that they have more reason to use "anybody" than Humans do, since more sentient species inhabit their world. In fact, having a language that strictly encompasses only pony folk is rather isolationist. Think about it: a phrase like "everybody" would hold Griffins, cows, and all other sentient creatures in the same measure as ponies. So...why exclude them? Isolationism ladies and gentlemen. Now I would be highly flawed to state this without further evidence, so I call to attention a previous installment. "TLoE X: Griffins? What are Griffins?" In which I pointed out that Equestria seems to ignore surrounding nations to a fault. And in "tLoE II: Military" I explained that their military is weak, indicating that they have absolutely no fear of invasion or foreign force. This common language facet is just one more piece of evidence, and I have no doubt that we'll find more evidence later on.

Thus we see a peaceful, Isolationist language spoken throughout the land. Not much of a surprise, given what we know about Equestrians thus far, but still very good to know. But we've been focusing entirely on Spoken word! What about written language?

Well...not much is known here. It can be inferred that they do not use English Characters, given the lack of them in Equestria proper, preferring emblems and images over words for things like signs, which makes sense in a society driven by Marked citizens. They DO write, given books and scrolls, that much has been apparent from the beginning. But along with their writings, they also prefer a great number of symbols and images, meaning they appear to be a very visual people, as even the most serious books are illustrated.

So what have we learned this week? Equestrians are a visual people, with a peaceable spoken language and isolationist attitudes. Just one more interesting Facet of the Land of Equestria!

Too long? Read this!
-Equestria's language has little to no taboo words
-their language in inherently peaceful
-their "ponyisms" exclude other races, reinforcing their Isolationism
- They are a visual people, partaking in symbols along with their written words

Well, that's all for this week! As always, keep doing what you all do best!

I'm Ironsmith, Invent on!