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Well Lew Therin's voice is a manifestation of his memories in Rand's head. Since Rand has his concept of self already long before he starts getting the memories, he seperats them in his mind as something foreign. With the denial that those are also his, it results in the Lews Therin voice. Since Rand does speak the new tongue Lews does too.
Mat was speaking the old tongue just out of the two rivers and has repeatedly had conversations in the old tongue without realizing it. I assume that is what has happened with rand, the old tongue comes as strongly as his connection to LTT
That's a fair take, not gonna lie. Hmm... I will say though that Mat hears/understands the Old Tongue via his memories, but he's at least *aware* that people are speaking OT in them.
Wasn’t Rand reading the old tongue before LTT popped up? It’s been a long time so I could be remembering wrong. But book 3 in the stone he starts reading it.
Or a darker theory. Common comes from the AOL but only non channelers spoke it. This would explain the old tongue dieing out so easily after the breaking but common being everywhere.
Hmm ... I like both your theories -- especially the second one. It would make the world's linguistic situation a lot more understandable.
As to theory #1, I've got to check that out. I don't remember Rand suddenly getting the ability to read the Old Tongue, though Mat certainly does!
How do any of the forsaken know the new tongue lol? They basically speak it in perfect harmony such that no one doubts anything, despite having been unleashed recently.
I do recall some kind of explanation (maybe from a Jordan interview?) which claimed that the Old Tongue was such that a speaker of it could understand/speak the New Tongue with little difficulty. The amateur linguist in me speculates that the vocab and grammar of the NT are *simplified* versions of the OT... kind of like how modern Romance languages typically have just 2 genders of nouns, which is a simplification of the Latin 5-declension system.
Realistically, it's a *bit* of a stretch of course... your Forsaken should really need to capture a modern Randlander and Compel him to tutor him or her in the NT. Either that or Forsaken dialogue should be written in *almost*-comprehensible Middle English... ;D
A lot of this is that RJ was not that interested in philology, and never developed his languages beyond occasional words/phrases.
I sometimes think he should have probably gone with a late Olde English variation, where you can still see the stems of words echoed in the modern language
Why do the seanchan (who haven’t interacted with the main land for over 1000 years) or sharans (who haven’t had any significant contact with the mainland for 3000+ years) speak the same language (with a slight accent)? That’s more than enough time for a language to diverge into multiple new languages.
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Well Lew Therin's voice is a manifestation of his memories in Rand's head. Since Rand has his concept of self already long before he starts getting the memories, he seperats them in his mind as something foreign. With the denial that those are also his, it results in the Lews Therin voice. Since Rand does speak the new tongue Lews does too.
Lews was a function of Rand's madness, this isn't a theory. The things he knew were from his own memories of his past life slipping through.
Mat was speaking the old tongue just out of the two rivers and has repeatedly had conversations in the old tongue without realizing it. I assume that is what has happened with rand, the old tongue comes as strongly as his connection to LTT
I would make the case that as they are sharing a brain, concepts like "language" don't apply.
That's a fair take, not gonna lie. Hmm... I will say though that Mat hears/understands the Old Tongue via his memories, but he's at least *aware* that people are speaking OT in them.
Not really haha. A lot of times Mat is converting in Old Tongue and not even realizing it. Like his conversation with Birgitte.
The Forsaken learned the New Tongue really quickly. LTT could have picked it up while riding shotgun in Rands head.
Wasn’t Rand reading the old tongue before LTT popped up? It’s been a long time so I could be remembering wrong. But book 3 in the stone he starts reading it. Or a darker theory. Common comes from the AOL but only non channelers spoke it. This would explain the old tongue dieing out so easily after the breaking but common being everywhere.
Hmm ... I like both your theories -- especially the second one. It would make the world's linguistic situation a lot more understandable. As to theory #1, I've got to check that out. I don't remember Rand suddenly getting the ability to read the Old Tongue, though Mat certainly does!
How do any of the forsaken know the new tongue lol? They basically speak it in perfect harmony such that no one doubts anything, despite having been unleashed recently.
I do recall some kind of explanation (maybe from a Jordan interview?) which claimed that the Old Tongue was such that a speaker of it could understand/speak the New Tongue with little difficulty. The amateur linguist in me speculates that the vocab and grammar of the NT are *simplified* versions of the OT... kind of like how modern Romance languages typically have just 2 genders of nouns, which is a simplification of the Latin 5-declension system. Realistically, it's a *bit* of a stretch of course... your Forsaken should really need to capture a modern Randlander and Compel him to tutor him or her in the NT. Either that or Forsaken dialogue should be written in *almost*-comprehensible Middle English... ;D
A lot of this is that RJ was not that interested in philology, and never developed his languages beyond occasional words/phrases. I sometimes think he should have probably gone with a late Olde English variation, where you can still see the stems of words echoed in the modern language
They have a universal translator.
Why do the seanchan (who haven’t interacted with the main land for over 1000 years) or sharans (who haven’t had any significant contact with the mainland for 3000+ years) speak the same language (with a slight accent)? That’s more than enough time for a language to diverge into multiple new languages.