The man lost his voice and so his bones began to fill with all the ink-black words he meant to say.— A Pamphlet lying in a Luze street, author unknown.
The Written word (
Onyaasa Iiysa Go according to the locals) is one of man's touchstone technologies up there with the wheel and fire, no matter your faith and creed. In
Chershe country, under the plain sky of those same
Ochozofazu Mountains, writing has been in vogue.
History
Writing, whether or not you're religious, has been in the world since the day of its very birth.
Mythology
There are several myths to how it goes. If you're an
Ugane man, or
Otleri you might think of
Kastav's father
Ivda casting the rivers and plains from the gaps in his wife
Mögira's hair. And, in that moment, so were birthed the other great technologies:
Gena of the forge, and
Vëpra, lady of the quill.
Or, if polytheism isn't your persuasion, you might think of
Isala. The sun god's 24 hands pointed and bellowed with hefty cry:
let there be a land for the young!. And like any good father, he sent them advice from time to time in the form of his great prophets, like Kap Kabfan, who gave them the gift of writing in the form of the
Izij Syllabary.
The Chershe, myth-loving people they are, have a story that the lady
Enizizi, 7th of the
13 Sisters, gave them writing. A complex system of pictograms, a logography. However, being the sister of
Géoshu it was too complex for the people. So, when she faded from the world, so did the homegrown Chershe script.
Missionaries
Although you'll hear complaining in a Chershe
Sheyema about the lack of missionaries in grandmother's days. Missionaries have existed for as long as the mountains they hold dear. In fact, the modern Chershe alphabet stems from those much detested Izij missionaries.
The first writings in this new Chershe script, were of course the holy
Isinag Yubihalanaj. They were missionaries, after all. However, once this initial party left, unlike before, writing didn't die with them. Of course it mainly caught on in the two big Chershe towns
Ógóóshwisa and
Tarkos.
Yet, the father of writing realised something. So much of
Coming of Age is related to the passing on of knowledge - the hymns, the epics, the mythology of the Sisters. It is bound to fade and change, which is not intended. So he began to write. And write. And write. History only knowns this man as
Father Éermyéechancha, sharing his name with the man who brought the flowers to the mountains, or the
Flower Man.
By the efforts of this man, the writing continued in these parts, until this day, where most people are at least a little literate. In the high places, where barely anyone goes and barely anyone leaves, this is less. But say in
Sóndoshor, home of
yours truly, the 400 or so people wax and wane and head to places where it is a good thing to read. Especially in these unprecedented days.
Example
A comparison of the phrase
méchaay go gesiiyé évóbshér, however, written as
méhddalann jol kehtilyilann óbalhulposhér due to the lag between spoken and written language.
Onyasam é Gémbasam: Stone Style
Unlike other scripts of Kalan, there's never been a good explanation as to why you'd have a "Stone Style" of any sort. For a script like its parental syllabary, it makes sense since that has been here with the Gods. But the Chershe love to carve charms. And for carving charms, something of the Sisters' domain, there must be a standard, set way to do it! Can't be cursing things in their name, can we now?
The stylistic standard for
Eynsesaayshéze Books to write anything "sacred" like the poems and hymns in the "stone style" and lesser knowledge in the "painted style". The Koprivosian government also prints anything in
Ofwosanéng in this script.
Onyasam é Ganshaab: Painted Style
The painted style, ink on paper with flowng curves is more common than the stone style, used in everyday correspondence. Most signs in the Chershe heartland will forgo the "Koprivosian standard" of the Onyasam é Gémbasam for important matters. It takes less time to write. And is a food stand in the market a matter of life or death? A government official will say it is harder to read but who in Tarkos and Rubyfoot need to worry about over-legibility? Only the missionaries have that problem! And the foodstand lady isn't going to cater to missionaries, she has pride goddamit.
Other Scripts
Minshee Logographic Script
They say that another form of Onyaasa Iiysa Go occurs behind closed door in
The Minshee's rituals. It is said that in the fumes of mushroom and unadulterated spirits; the sisters speak to them. And they speak how? Through carved stones spread all throughout the
Ochozofazu Mountains. There's a pattern, but us plebeians don't know what.
Koprivosian Alphabet
At the same time as Izij missionaries spread both their faith and an alphabet,
Blazarvi-Koprivos settlers in
Tarkos attempted to spread their own east to their mountain dwelling neighbours.
Due to a much smaller sound inventory,
Ofwosanéng can be written quite easily with the Blazarvi script but with a religious practice that prefers secrecy and tradition, past Tarkos there was very little Blazarvi-Chershe interaction. So why would it ever stick? Occasionally, in the modern day, Chershe is written with the
Blazarvi alphabet. However, even in
Koprivos' government dealings, a modified Izij script still wins out. It primarily remains an area of interest for bored outsiders such as
Venad Sistolfyi.
A Homegrown Script
Another idea from the
big cities that an old goatherd in the
Sheyema é Sóndoshor would loathe: a script for their own people made by
their people. While an isolated and distrustful people, the Chershe are happy to use others' inventions as people use theirs. Too, until recent years, there has never been much of a broader identity past your clan and village and a vague sense of ethnicity. Nationalism of this sort, if you can call it nationalism, is a modern man's "disease", a man of
Rubyfoot or Tarkos blood who's probably never herded, churned butter or slain a deer.
There are thoughts of another alphabet, based on
their cultural symbols like those in the Minshee logography, but this is a dream shared by pithy few. They have got little to show for it, that's for sure.
I just love this. Especially the part about painted script as that is near and dear to my own heart.
Thank you!