Language

“Yes, Ska,” Jellia said, grinning.

“What did you say?” Teacher asked.

“I said “Yes, Ska.” That’s language from Libertas, the planet my mother and I are moving to,” she said, “I am assigned to practice all day, every day. I have a huge number of new words that I need to learn.”

“I knew you were assigned to learn it, of course. But what does that word mean?” Teacher asked. Then, seeing that the other scholars were all listening, she said, “Very well, gather round, and Jellia will present. Jellia?”

Jellia turned to the scholars and grinned. She was very nervous about going to this planet, but she was finding learning about their language particularly fascinating.

“I am going to the planet ‘Libertas’,” she said, enjoying the chance to lecture about something none of the other daughters in her class knew about. “On that planet, they have words that they use to refer to people. We scholars might use the term ‘cit’ or ‘teacher’. But they don’t use those. Well, they might say ‘teacher’, I guess, but I’m not mandated to practice that. And they never use ‘cit’.”

“What words do they use?” Lydia asked.

“Oh, lots. The one I am practising now has to do with whether someone is in their en-drek contract yet. If a woman is, or has been for a while really, then you call her ska… like I did for Teacher. If…”

“I am not in any such contract,” Teacher said. “Why, I hardly even know what it means.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jellia said. “But if you were on Libertas, you would be, so I need to practice that. The program says that anyone your age should be assumed to be ‘ska’”

“All teachers are part of this contract?”

“Everyone is, as long as they are over a certain age… or development. You would definitely be, the program told me.”

“Very well. And if they aren’t yet part of such a contract?”

“A daughter who isn’t old enough yet, well, there are several names. I am a ‘kesh’… specifically a ‘kesh-i’, but they hardly ever say that, but when I get a little older, I will be an en-kesh and then en-e-kesh.”

“Sons go from being ‘kesh’ to being ‘li-kesh’, ‘lo-kesh’, then ‘ska’ like for daughters. Although if they get in a contract, they can go right from ‘li-kesh’ to ‘ska’. If they are en-drek to your ska-drek-a… your mother… you call them your ‘ska-drek’, and if they are en-drek  to you you call them, well, ‘en-drek ’. There are a couple of other words, but they are only really used when talking about en-drek  contracts.”

“That sounds hard!” Trisha said.

“And that’s only half of it!” Jellia said. “It isn’t like they wear name tags or anything, and if you call an ‘en-kesh’ ‘en-e-kesh’ they can get really mad, and you can even get in trouble… like calling a son ‘pretty’ or something. So you always have to pay a lot of attention during introductions and remember both the name and the level, and always remember to introduce yourself with your level.”

“I am Kesh Jellia Drendin,” she said, with a mock ‘greeting to the stranger’ bow.

“But why is it so important that you use the right word for everyone?” Lydia asked.

“Well, you see, the society is very… we would call it ‘sexist’.”

The daughters’ mouths all dropped open. Jellia had a moment’s thrill that she had managed to shock them. This was like something from a screeny. They would be talking about this for weeks!

“But… but why? Don’t they know that daughters are just as good as sons? Aren’t the daughters, like, really annoyed?”

The questions came in from all sides, and teacher stepped up. “Now, daughters, let Jellia explain. It is important to remember that the galaxy is wide, and people do things differently from planet to planet, and even in-planet.”

The daughters settled down and watched her. “What they do,” Jellia said, “ is they have… you might call it a long-term, live-in, heavy-date. A son comes to live in the house, full time, for a couple of years.”

“What?!”

“Daughters!” Teacher said again, and silence reigned.

“He is called an en-drek’, and… and he is in charge of making some of the house decisions, and the Mother… his en-drek-a, makes other ones. They each have their jobs, and they each dedicate eighty per cent of their income to the house-fund, which the en-drek a decides how to spend.”

“So what does the son decide?”

“He, umm, he decides what the house wears and makes decisions about food. But the really, really most important thing he does is called ‘code and custom’. His job is to issue commands which tell you how to get along in your society. To keep you pulling in consensus with everyone else. So, like, when I was talking to Netta I was telling her that everyone there, or most of the sons anyway, all wear guns. And I don’t want to. But he can tell me ‘code and custom’, and suddenly I’ll be packing a gun on my hip like in a screeny.”

The daughters all laughed.

“Scholars!” the teacher said, although she was grinning. 

“And he is in charge. I mean, like, really in charge of the house. And in lots of other ways, the sons get to decide things, and they have jobs that are only for sons or only for daughters. More of them than we do. Not just, like, line safeties or something.”

There was a long silence, and then Teacher said, “Well, Scholars, it sounds like Jellia has her work cut out for her. I suppose over the next few days, we will all have to get used to having her call us…. Yes?” she asked Creia, who was frantically raising her hand.

“Can we practice the new words with her?”

Teacher was silent for a minute. “I suppose so. We want to support Jellia in her new endeavour. Very well. Anyone may use the new language once they have done an hour of priv-study on it. And, before you ask, Creia, I will give a free-study period now. You may either free study, or priv-study the language of Libertas. Jellia, you should study Libertas, obviously.”

Jellia nodded, and everyone bent over their comps. Well, except for Lydia, who went to the mats at the back and began stretching. She loved dance and physio and would always use her free study for one of those subjects.

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Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!

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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von

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Links

Contract Marriage Chapters, Newest to Oldest

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I would like to give credit for the genesis of many of these ideas to the Liaden series by Mr. and Mrs. Steve Miller, which is available for free on the web. They do a great deal of cultural exploration, although they rather dramatically skip the moral exploration. (And their math doesn’t work.)

Other concepts were taken, in one form and another, from the book Freehold by Michael A Williamson