PreviewMaterial/WritingInTheAgeOfSorrows
Appendix: Writing in the Age of Sorrows
While literacy is not universal among the denizens of the Realm, most citizens can at least sign their names and read simple signs due to the efforts of the Immaculate Order to educate all children in at least very basic skills. Among patricians and the Dragon-Blooded, literacy is universal and required, and most well-to-do children are literate before they enter primary school. All children who graduate public school must pass standardized examinations established by the Scarlet Throne. These examinations test knowledge of the alphabet, basic penmanship and the written form and proper pronunciation of an imperially dictated vocabulary of about 3,000 words. This vocabulary includes the names of common animals and plants, some religious concepts, a few hundred simple verbs and nouns and a large military vocabulary.
The goal is not to broaden the horizons of the student. Any student unable to master a 3,000-word vocabulary by the time she leaves primary school is going to need a full-time caretaker. The goal is to establish basic command vocabulary and understanding of military procedure on every patrician. Every student who attends primary school will leave qualified to read, write and properly pronounce simple orders and is, thus, a potential noncommissioned officer or minor official and able to work with others from elsewhere in the Realm.
When a student goes to secondary school, her education continues, and the number of words she’s expected to master increases as well. A patrician secondary school student must demonstrate mastery of about 30,000 words, while a student at one of the four Dragon-Blooded secondary schools must master about 100,000. Mastery includes correct pronunciation, proper penmanship and proper spelling. The vocabulary involved is different depending on the school involved, but all of the words are drawn from the half-million or so terms that form the official vocabulary of the court of the Scarlet Empress. Individuals who know this alphabet and this vocabulary speak High Realm.
Obviously, the High Realm vocabulary is larger than this. It includes a large number of abbreviations and informal additions, as well as institutional slang that develops. However, the half-million regulated words form a sparse but functional language of trade, governance and war. The great longevity of the speakers, and the institutional character of most Dragon-Blooded education minimize linguistic drift even in High Realm’s informal vocabulary, and the language of civil discourse is thus fixed.
The informal discourse of the populace is another matter, as are loan words and novel sounds. The Immaculate Order seeks to instill a basic knowledge of Realm, but without the pressure of standardized examinations or a meaningful diploma and with its limited resources, it acts with limited ambitions. Monks teach writing and spelling over pronunciation, with the goal of allowing students to read the Immaculate Texts and sign their names, rather than teaching them proper diction. As a result, the language of the lower orders, Low Realm, can become totally incomprehensible in linguistic backwaters such as slums or isolated rural communities.
Loan words and novel sounds are likewise totally unregulated. Individuals representing foreign words and sounds in the alphabet of the Realm sound it out and fit it into the phonetically rather limited standard alphabet as best they can. Two writers will write the same word two different ways, and as a result, even with a core vocabulary established by statute, High Realm is also often difficult reading. This is especially true when dealing with topics outside of its range of respect, orders and accountancy, and particularly when providing accounts of Threshold culture or customs, where there are a great many new words used.
